Le Breathwork - Conscious Connected Breathing
A powerful therapeutic tool for accessing the unconscious and releasing body memories | Clinical psychologist in Brussels specialized in Breathwork.
Breathing is our first act at birth and our last at death. Between these two moments, breathing accompanies every moment of our existence, often unbeknownst to us. Yet few of us have learned to consciously use it as a vehicle for psychological and somatic transformation.
In my practice as a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in Brussels, I work with people in psychological distress who have often already tried talk-only therapies, only to see their symptoms persist despite everything.
This article introduces you to Conscious Connected Breathing:
- How it works on a neurobiological and psychological level;
- What you can expect during a session;
- How does this approach fit in with psychodynamic therapy and IFS (Internal Family System), which I also practice in Brussels?.
Trauma load
Trauma leaves imprints on the body that words cannot always reach. The somatic approach to trauma is now widely recognized as a means of healing.
It's not the event that determines the trauma, it's the nervous system's response to it, and its capacity or otherwise to complete the discharge at the somatic level. The same event may traumatize one person but not another.
The work of eminent trauma specialists such as Bessel Van der Kolk («The body keeps the score» 2014)»; Gabor Maté («When the body says no», 2003) and Peter Levine (Waking the tiger, healing trauma, 1997) are among the most widely recognized in this field.
Connected Conscious Breathing is a structured breathing technique that enables us to access deep layers of the psyche, release emotional memories embedded in the body, and initiate healing processes that sometimes go beyond what words alone can achieve.
What is Conscious Connected Breathing?
Connected Conscious Breathing is a form of Breathwork therapy based on the pioneering work of Stanislav Grof (Holotropic Breathwork) and Leonard Orr (Rebirth Breathing).
This is a continuous breathing technique, with no pause between inhalation and exhalation, which plunges the individual into altered states of consciousness under the supervision of a trained therapist.
Unlike other breathing techniques (cardiac coherence, pranayama, hypnosis), Conscious Connected Breathing doesn't simply aim to relax or regulate the autonomic nervous system. It mobilizes deeper processes: accessing the unconscious, releasing emotional charges, reliving preverbal memories, intense somatic experiences.
This approach is both clinical and experiential, and is fully in line with the field of body-mediated psychotherapy.
Neurobiological and psychological foundations
What happens in the body
During a Conscious Connected Breathing session, changes in breathing rate and depth bring about significant neurochemical changes. These include a temporary increase in blood pH (respiratory alkalosis), which alters the permeability of the blood-brain barrier and facilitates access to expanded states of consciousness.
These states are characterized by activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, reduced activity of the prefrontal cortex - the seat of rational control and defense mechanisms - and increased activity of the limbic system, the center of emotional processing and implicit memory.
In concrete terms, this means that emotions, sensations, images or memories usually inaccessible to ordinary consciousness can emerge spontaneously and be experienced directly in the body.
What happens in the psyche
On a psychological level, Conscious Connected Breathing acts as a revealer of constellations of emotional memories.
These memories, often of preverbal or infantile origin, are not accessible through the usual analytical discourse. They are encoded in the body - in posture, musculature, breathing itself - and it is precisely through the body that breathwork enables us to reach, relive and integrate them.
The process is similar to what psychoanalysis calls «abreaction»: a deep emotional release, accompanied by a new psychic representation of the experience.
What Breathwork can treat
- Complex trauma and post-traumatic stress, including early or pre-verbal trauma resistant to verbal therapy
- Depression, feelings of emptiness or loss of meaning
- Anxiety disorders, panic attacks, chronic hypervigilance
- Unresolved grief, break-ups, major life transitions
- Somatization, chronic pain with a psychological component
- Blockages in psychotherapy: when words seem inadequate
- Desire to deepen self-knowledge beyond that offered by words alone
How does a Breathwork session work in Brussels?
Before the session
Before any Breathwork session, a preliminary interview is systematically carried out. This enables us to assess medical and psychological indications and contraindications, to gather your therapeutic history, and to define together the purpose of the session. This preparatory time is essential to establish a reassuring framework and to adapt our support to your individual needs.During the session
The session lasts about an hour and a half, with the person lying down in a comfortable, secure environment. Carefully chosen musical accompaniment often supports the process. The therapist is by your side throughout the session, to exchange ideas or provide bodily support if necessary. The breathing work itself lasts between 50 minutes. What emerges - emotions, images, sensations, involuntary movements - is welcomed without judgment, in a space of total benevolence.After the session
The integration phase is just as important as the breathing work. We take the time to discuss what has emerged, to give meaning to the experiences you've lived through, and to lay the foundations for integrating them into your daily life.Breathwork and psychotherapy - an integrative approach
Breathwork and the unconscious - the alliance with psychodynamic theory
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on a fundamental conviction: our suffering has a history, and this history is largely unconscious. Symptoms are not accidents - they are compromises, solutions that the psyche has found to survive what was unbearable. As long as this history remains buried, it continues to organize our lives, unbeknownst to us. Breathwork is a natural step in this direction. By inducing a modified state of consciousness, it bypasses the ego's usual defenses - those mechanisms that keep the unconscious out of reach - and allows deep psychic content to emerge directly, often in the form of intense sensations, images or emotions. What emerges is not yet meaning - but it is the raw material from which meaning can be constructed. This is where psychotherapeutic work comes in: giving a representation, a story, a place in the subject's life to what the breath has released. Breathwork and internal parts - the IFS alliance My psychotherapeutic work is also deeply inspired by IFS - Internal Family Systems, developed by American psychologist Richard Schwartz. This model proposes a vision of the psyche as a system made up of multiple internal «parts» - aspects of our personality that have developed protective strategies from past wounds. The protective parts organize our day-to-day functioning and try to prevent pain from surfacing. The exiled parts carry the deep wounds - shame, abandonment, terror, powerlessness - put aside so that the system can continue to function. At the center of it all is the Self - an instance of inner wisdom, naturally present in everyone, characterized by clarity, compassion and calm. The link between Breathwork and IFS is particularly powerful. In therapeutic work, certain protective parts can resist for a long time - they have been built precisely to prevent access to areas of vulnerability. Breathwork acts here as a catalyst: the altered state of consciousness it induces allows the protectors to relax naturally, opening up more direct access to the wounded parts. What has resisted can then emerge and be welcomed - first in the body, then in the integration work that follows in the session.Contraindications and safety framework
- History of psychotic episodes or unstabilized bipolar disorder
- Uncontrolled epilepsy
- Severe cardiovascular pathologies
- Pregnancy
- Taking certain medications (to be assessed on a case-by-case basis)
- Acute psychological crisis
Make an appointment for a Breathwork session in Brussels
If you would like to explore connected conscious breathing, I invite you to to contact me for an initial discussion or a preliminary interview. This time will enable us to answer your questions, assess together whether this approach is suited to your current situation, and lay the foundations for working together in confidence.
