SOMATIC ARTS
BREATHWORK FACILITATOR TRAINING
online
A 2-WEEKEND INTENSIVE TRAUMA-INFORMED BREATHWORK FACILITATOR TRAINING
ACCREDITED BY
This certification offers CEUs for yoga teachers, yoga therapists, LMFT's, LCSW's, LPCC's and LEP's as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
Embrace your embodied aliveness, using your breath and a bridge to freedom.
In this two-part training, Somatic Arts Academy uses a trauma-informed, somatic, and embodied approach to experiencing, learning, and facilitating the healing power of breathwork.
Our Breathwork Facilitator Training is an opportunity for those who desire to be integral leaders and learn how to facilitate radical healing using their breath and medicine.
This unique and powerful, trauma-informed breathwork facilitator training program offers a spiritual and science-based framework. You will learn various breathwork practices, as well as other healing modalities, such as psychosomatic tools, shamanic techniques, and authentic embodiment as a way to support people on their own journey.
Whether you are a yoga teacher, therapist, health/life coach, spiritual mentor, or healer, this training will support you in developing connections to your intuition so you can support the people in your life to have bigger breakthroughs using the medicine of their breath. Become confident in yourself by strengthening your inner power and expanding your innate healing abilities.
WHAT IS BREATHWORK?
Breathwork is a holistic practice that focuses on the breath as a means to access and integrate different aspects of the self—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. It combines conscious breathing techniques with mindfulness, movement, and somatic awareness to promote healing, self-discovery, and personal growth. This approach is rooted in the belief that the breath is a powerful tool for unlocking suppressed emotions, releasing tension, and connecting with one’s inner wisdom.
What are the Benefits of Breathwork?
Breathwork is associated with several potential benefits for physical, mental, and emotional well-being. However, it’s important to note that individual experiences may vary, and scientific research on some forms of breathwork is still limited. Below are some of the most common benefits people have reported after regular practice:
Stress Reduction
Many breathwork techniques, such as deep breathing and mindfulness-based practices, can activate the body’s relaxation response, reducing the production of stress hormones like cortisol. This can lead to a sense of calm and relaxation.
Improved Mental Clarity
Focused and intentional breathing can help clear the mind, increase mental clarity, and enhance concentration and cognitive function.
Emotional Regulation
Breathwork can be a powerful tool for managing and regulating emotions. It can help individuals become more aware of their emotional states and provide a means to navigate and release pent-up emotions.
Anxiety and Panic Relief
Techniques like deep diaphragmatic breathing and box breathing are often used to alleviate symptoms of anxiety and panic disorders by promoting relaxation and reducing the body’s “fight or flight” response.
Enhanced Energy and Vitality
Certain breathwork practices can increase energy levels and endurance by improving oxygen utilization in the body and reducing perceived fatigue.
Improved Sleep
Restorative breathwork exercises can help individuals relax before bedtime, potentially improving sleep quality and reducing insomnia symptoms.
Pain Management
Breathwork can be used in conjunction with other pain management strategies to reduce the perception of pain and discomfort. It may also assist in managing chronic pain conditions.
Emotional Release
Activating breathwork practices aim to facilitate emotional release, helping individuals process and heal from past traumas or emotional blockages.
Enhanced Self-Awareness
Practicing breathwork can increase mindfulness and self-awareness, allowing individuals to gain insight into their thought patterns, emotions, and behaviors.
Spiritual Exploration
For many, breathwork serves as a spiritual or transcendent practice, facilitating altered states of consciousness and promoting a sense of connection with the divine or the universe.
Improved Respiratory Health
Regular breathwork can strengthen respiratory muscles, increase lung capacity, and improve overall lung function.
Enhanced Immune Function
Many breathwork practices can boost the immune system’s response to pathogens and environmental stressors.
My experience with the Somatic Arts Academy has been nothing short of blessed.
I recently completed a Breathwork Facilitator training. The curriculum was deeply rooted in the science of breath and somatic healing. The program was also palpably informed by sacred spiritual knowledge and practice.
Upon completion of the training, I feel thoroughly equipped to hold space and guide clients toward the inherent healing power of their own breath.
As a mental health professional, I feel this training began to fill a “missing link” in my formal education in psychology. I am trained in traditional treatment modalities such as talk-therapy and the like. However, I believe somatic therapies are often minimized or ignored in mainstream psychology education. When in reality, they have the potential to play a vital role in recovery and healing and can lead to significant breakthroughs for those struggling to make progress through other modalities.
Overall, this training has empowered me with a deeper understanding of the body’s intelligence and its crucial role in the healing process. I have been guided toward a new understanding of somatic healing, and am inspired to embark deeper into the body of knowledge and experience the Somatic Arts Academy has to offer. I know my clients will benefit from what I am learning, and the way I am being equipped to put it into practice.”
- Justine -
The Key Elements of Breathwork are:
Conscious Breathing
Participants are guided to breathe consciously, often using specific patterns or rhythms of breathing. This can involve deep, rhythmic, or circular breathing techniques. Conscious breathing helps increase oxygenation, improve energy flow, and activate the relaxation response.
Somatic Awareness and Unwinding
Somatic refers to the body and its sensations. Embodied breathwork encourages individuals to become more aware of bodily sensations, tensions, and emotions as they arise during the breathing process. This awareness can lead to a deeper understanding of one’s physical and emotional state.
Emotional Release
The process of expressing and letting go of pent-up or intense emotions in a healthy and constructive manner. It is a natural and necessary aspect of emotional well-being and can be achieved in various breathing practices. Emotional release resets the nervous system and helps to release tension associated with anxiety, depression or stress.
Movement Tools
In Embodied Breathwork, certain movement patterns and tools are offered to support the body in processing. These movements gently help to release physical and emotional blockages, discomfort, and pain stored in the body.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness techniques are often incorporated to help individuals stay present and non-judgmentally observe their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as they arise during the practice.
Shamanic Elements
In an Embodied Breathwork session shamanic elements such as incorporating symbols and imagery, storytelling and mythology, spiritual teachings, ritual and ceremony, drumming, various healing practices, and connecting with nature.
Intuitive Support
Providing assistance or help in a way that is intuitively guided and requires little effort or cognitive strain. The facilitator supports the participants using their innate wisdom and intuition to create a safe and healing environment.
Facilitated Sessions
Embodied breathwork is often done in a group or individual setting led by a trained facilitator. The facilitator guides participants through the process, offering support and creating a safe space for exploration.
Integration
After the breathwork session, there is a period of integration where participants have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences, share insights, and discuss how to apply what they’ve learned to their daily lives
Finding Nichole Ferro felt like destiny!
After taking a few breathwork classes, I wanted to learn how I could use this amazing tool to help those who reach out to me for help. Today as I conclude my course I am grateful to say I am an Embodied Breathwork Facilitator! Nichole conducted the classes with power, kindness and knowledge. We were all in! She kept our attention the whole time! Together we have grown, shared our traumas, cried, laughed, and created a connection that only God can make happen! I will forever remember this training! I hope you give this a shot! You won’t regret it!
- Jana -
EDUCATIONAL GOALS
This training is a comprehensive two-part training that adopts a trauma-informed, somatic, and embodied approach to the practice and facilitation of breathwork. This specialized program is designed for professionals who seek to become proficient in guiding clients through transformative healing experiences using breath as a primary therapeutic tool. The training combines both psychological and science-based frameworks, offering an integrative approach that includes breathwork practices, psychosomatic interventions, and therapeutic support.
This course is particularly beneficial for licensed mental health clinicians, mental health professionals, health and life coaches, yoga teachers, coaches and body workers who wish to deepen their practice and enhance their therapeutic efficacy. Participants will develop the skills necessary to facilitate breathwork sessions that support clients in healing anxiety, depression and emotional trauma. While also strengthening participants' therapeutic skillset and own inner resilience and intuitive capabilities.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify and articulate at least three foundational principles of trauma-informed breathwork.
- Demonstrate proficiency in guiding clients through eight distinct breathwork modalities.
- Integrate four psychosomatic tools within a therapeutic context.
- Assess and select appropriate eight breathwork interventions based on individual client needs.
- Apply a blend of four psychosomatic and scientific approaches to breathwork facilitation in clinical practice.
- Develop a personal, at-home practice
- Comprehend the theory and philosophy of breathwork
- Understand the anatomy, psychophysiology, energetics and neuroscience of respiration
- Recognize the relationship between the nervous system and our breath
- Use trauma-informed techniques to support others in their transformational process
- Guide practices to heal wounds, blockages, and traumas
- Intentionally hold space for individuals and groups
- Practice self-ownership
- And... so much more!
If you’re looking to be a breathwork facilitator yourself…
START HERE!
In completing this training I feel confident to guide my own clients and classes in breath work. I have the tangible knowledge and also the experiences necessary to guide my future students into their own journeys.
Nichole is amazing at what she does and truly embodies what it means to be a facilitator by not only providing the knowledge but living what she speaks. It’s so easy to trust in her and in the practices that she teaches because of this.
- Kailey B -
This course meets the qualifications for 25 hours of continuing education credit for LMFT's, LCSW's, LPCC's and LEP's as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
Course Completion certificates will be awarded at the end of the course in exchange for a completed evaluation form.
Lorena Dowlatshahi, LMFT received her M.A. in Marriage in Family Therapy and is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over 15 years of experience. She specializes in helping her clients work through trauma and is trained/certified in multiple evidenced based trauma modalities. Lorena has expanded her treatment of trauma to include various somatic techniques such as Breathwork.
LORENA DOWLATSHAHI IS APPROVED BY THE CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS TO SPONSOR CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR LMFT'S, LCSW'S, LPCC'S AND LEP'S. LORENA ARGUELLO MAINTAINS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE PROGRAM AND ALL ITS CONTENT.
TRAINING DATES AND TIMES:
Held online over 2 weekends
January's Training:
- January 10-12
- January 17-19
Friday, January 10th 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, January 11th 10am -3pm
Sunday, January 12th 10am - 4pm
Friday, January 17th 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, January 18th 10am -4pm
Sunday, January 19th 10am -4pm
March's Training:
- March 21-23
- March 28-30
Friday, March 21st 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, March 22nd 10am -3pm
Sunday, March 23rd 10am - 4pm
Friday, March 28th 6:30-8:30pm
Saturday, March 29th 10am -4pm
Sunday, March 30th 10am -4pm
4 - 30 minute lunch breaks will not be counted toward CE time awarded.
EMPOWER THE HEALER AND LEADER WITHIN AND TAKE THE HEALING EXPERIENCE OF BREATHWORK OUT INTO THE WORLD!
Plus you will receive constructive feedback about your facilitation from renowned teacher, Nichole Anne Ferro.
January
Dates: January 10-12 and January 17-19
March
Dates: March 21-23 and March 28-30