9D Session Information Guide

Emphasis on the “Active” Breathing Sessions!

Welcome! Congratulations on taking this step for yourself! I’m truly excited for you. Before attending a 9D Breathwork session, please read here and/or download PDF and/or listen to the mp3 so that you can arrive with a solid understanding of the process, what you may experience, and how to participate safely and fully. It will be WELL WORTH YOUR TIME!  Coming in informed and prepared will help you feel more comfortable, relax more deeply into the journey, and support the power of your experience.

You might have some uncertainty or apprehension or fear around what you might experience, or you are not quite sure what to expect inside of a 9D Active breathwork journey.  Everything you are about to read is going to help to ease a little bit of that concern coming in and perhaps doing something you have never done before.  And definitely doing something you have never done before to this level of what we do with the 9D journeys. Preparing you for what you are about to get yourself into is of paramount importance.   Our whole nervous system is hardwired for safety.  And so, the more that you understand and get comfortable with what's to come and you understand the range of what can potentially come up, the safer you are going to feel in your nervous system, the more safe you feel, the more willing you are going to be to go into the experience and let your breath take over and understand that you are safe throughout.   Reviewing this a few times is going to help you feel like you are really ready and prepared to get into the journey.

A little bit of why I joined the 9D Breathwork Revolution! I became a 9D Breathwork Facilitator because I know firsthand what it feels like to carry emotional pain, chronic stress, and unresolved trauma for many years and how difficult it can be to find a way back to feeling safe, connected, and fully alive and 9D is helping me do that.  My own healing journey has led me through extensive personal growth work, trauma education, somatic practices, meditation, and breathwork, and I have experienced how profoundly the breath can reach places that talking and intellectual understanding alone sometimes cannot.  I have struggled with Complex PTSD for decades.  When I discovered 9D Breathwork, I was deeply moved by the way it combines guided breathing, sound, music, somatic coaching, and nervous-system support into an immersive experience that helped me move beyond my usual defenses and reconnect with myself.  9D breathing has helped me “unfreeze” more than any other modality I have ever tried! I chose to become a facilitator because I want to offer others the kind of safe, compassionate, and carefully guided space that I have needed throughout my own life—a place where people do not have to perform, explain everything, or have it all figured out, but can simply breathe, listen, feel, and allow their own inner process to unfold.  My role is not to force an outcome or “fix” anyone, but to create the conditions in which people can feel supported enough to release what they are ready to release, access their own inner wisdom, and remember what it feels like to have greater freedom, peace, and possibility within themselves.  I experience profound emotional releases, peace, and deep calm every time I breathe a 9D journey.  For me, these journeys are cathartic, healing, and beautifully crafted. 

After breathing a 9D journey I pivot, little by little, moving from continued struggle and suffering to turning and walking in a new direction with a new level of health and well-being and vitality and the wind behind my back.  The more I breathe 9D journeys, the better it gets!  I am committed to breathing 9D for the rest of my life!   I would love to see more people become free to be who they truly are—liberated from the chains that keep them stuck living a version of themselves shaped by past negative experiences—and to live in a world where medication is not automatically treated as the only or lifelong answer to emotional suffering. I believe people deserve access to approaches that explore the roots of their pain, support the wisdom of the body, and offer possibilities beyond simply suppressing symptoms. Medication may be an important part of care for some people, but it should not be the only doorway offered. I want to be part of a movement that expands those doorways and helps people discover their own capacity for healing, freedom, vitality, and meaningful change. If that is the world I want to live in and the world I want to help create then it is up to me to take part in making it happen. I am part of that movement for change. I am part of its impact, and I choose to be a catalyst. You might be struggling with something and I want you to see what may be possible when you truly commit to this process and allow yourself to enter it fully.  I know what 9D Breathwork has made possible for me, and I believe with all my heart that it will open powerful new possibilities for you, too.

What if it’s not just what’s showing up for you today?

I invite you to consider that it may not be only the present situations and circumstances of your life that you are struggling with. Old trauma, unresolved emotional baggage, deeply rooted beliefs, and core wounds may still be living within your body and nervous system, influencing how strongly you are triggered and contributing to feelings of instability, anxiety, sadness, or overwhelm. These deeper patterns can operate beneath the surface, intensifying what is happening in the present even when you are not consciously aware of them. Every 9D Breathwork journey has a specific theme, which I will identify on the sign-up page when the session is announced. Before you attend, I encourage you to reflect on how that theme may connect with your own life. Consider where the pattern may have begun, what story you formed around it during childhood or later experiences, and how it may still be affecting your choices, relationships, emotions, or sense of self today. Knowing the theme ahead of time helps lay the groundwork for the journey by giving you a clearer understanding of what you may be exploring. Rather than entering the experience with only a vague sense that something is wrong, you can begin connecting the dots and bring greater clarity, intention, and focus to the patterns from which you may be ready to break free.

The Power of Somatic Healing and Trauma Release

What does “somatic” mean? Soma means the body, so when we engage in somatic work, we are working with the body. Somatic healing is often described as a bottom-up approach, whereas traditional psychotherapy is generally considered top-down: you talk about your issues and try to put words to your struggles. However, the words and explanations you bring to those struggles must pass through your own filters, your understanding, beliefs, interpretations, and the stories you have formed about what happened rather than necessarily reflecting the objective reality of those experiences.

This is one reason psychotherapy can sometimes be a long road. It can be very difficult to identify precisely what you are struggling with, communicate it clearly, or find the right words to describe it. Sometimes our words are fragmented or incomplete, making it difficult for a therapist to fully understand and connect with what is happening inside us. Healing through the filter of the mind clearly has an important place, but in my experience, it can be a long road for many people.

Somatic healing, as a bottom-up approach, invites us to turn down the volume of the analytical or “monkey” mind and tune into the body instead. The body holds an extraordinary depth of wisdom. It knows what it is holding: old emotional baggage, complexes, beliefs, stories, struggles, and traumas rooted in childhood, as well as patterns that may have been carried generationally, which I will cover a little later. When we hand the process over to the body, it knows how to begin bringing these things to the surface.

We do not have to think our way through it, understand or pinpoint the issues before the session, control it, or manipulate what is happening inside the body. We don't need to know anything. We hand over the keys and trust that the body knows what it needs to do to let go of or release what may be contributing to destruction, internal chaos, patterns of reactivity, toxicity within our relationships, or whatever else may be affecting our lives.

All conscious connected breathwork is trauma-release breathwork. It is somatic breathwork and a form of somatic healing. You may not yet understand what that means, and you may believe that, in order to heal, process, and release something, you must consciously think about what issue, trauma, or history you need to heal to understand exactly what is happening. The reality is that you do not. You do not need to understand it intellectually, nor do you need to have a conscious awareness or memory of everything the body may be holding.

The body is going to do the work. Your role is to follow the practice as it is designed and trust that your body knows where to go and what to do to begin releasing old patterns from the past. That is the foundation of somatic healing and the intention behind this somatic work.

Generational and Ancestral Trauma

Trauma does not always begin with us. We can inherit the effects of what previous generations endured through biology, family relationships, learned behaviors, deeply embedded beliefs, cultural conditioning, and the survival strategies passed from parent to child. Science is beginning to demonstrate just how profoundly the experiences of one generation can influence those that follow.

In a landmark Emory University study published in 2014, male mice were conditioned to associate a cherry-blossom-like scent with a mild electric shock. Their offspring and grand-offspring—who had never received the shocks—showed heightened sensitivity and fear-related responses to that same scent, along with corresponding changes in their olfactory systems. In a separate 2017 experiment involving C. Elegans worms, researchers found that a temperature-induced change in gene expression could persist for as many as 14 generations. These were two different studies, but together they offer compelling evidence that experiences can leave biological echoes that continue through generational lines. 

Consider what our own ancestors endured: wars, poverty, displacement, violence, oppression, discrimination, epidemics, hunger, loss, and countless experiences that they may never have had the opportunity or safety to process. Some of the fear, vigilance, emotional disconnection, shame, or survival patterns we carry may not have originated entirely within our own lifetime. We may find ourselves living out ancestral wounds alongside the effects of our personal experiences.

One of the beautiful possibilities within breathwork is the opportunity to meet and process patterns that feel deeper or older than our conscious memories. We do not necessarily have to know where every burden began. We can allow the body to reveal and release what it is ready to let go of, helping us interrupt patterns we no longer want to carry forward.

This means the work you do here may be much more than personal development. It can also be intergenerational and collective healing—work undertaken in honor of those who came before us and those who will come after. By tending to what lives within us now, we have the opportunity to loosen the hold of inherited pain, change how we relate to ourselves and others, and reduce the likelihood that the same unresolved patterns will be passed to future generations. We cannot change what our ancestors experienced, but I believe we can free their energy, and we can choose what continues through us. We can become the place in the family line where the pattern changes.

Childhood Imprinting

Most of the patterns you carry today have roots in childhood. Five common childhood imprints are premature separation from love, abandonment, rejection, shaming, and a lack of consistent presence or affection from the people responsible for caring for you. These are not the only experiences that can leave an imprint, but they are among the most common and deeply influential.

When people hear the word trauma, they often think immediately of what is sometimes called “Big-T” trauma: a serious accident, the death of a loved one or parent, violence, kidnapping, war, a terrorist attack, or another overwhelming event. These experiences can clearly have a profound effect. However, trauma is not limited to major, easily identifiable events.

You may also carry the effects of smaller, repeated experiences sometimes described as “Little-t” trauma. These may include being frequently criticized, dismissed, shamed, rejected, emotionally neglected, left alone when you needed comfort, or made to feel that your needs, emotions, or authentic self were unacceptable. Even experiences that appeared insignificant to the adults around you may have had a lasting effect on your developing nervous system and sense of self.

These childhood imprints can influence how you respond as an adult emotionally, how safe you feel in relationships, what you believe about yourself, and how you interpret the actions of others. They may contribute to fear of abandonment, sensitivity to rejection, shame, emotional reactivity, people-pleasing, withdrawal, difficulty trusting, unhealthy relationship patterns, or stories such as “I am not enough,” “I do not belong,” or “I have to earn love”, or “I am not worthy”, and many others.

You are not alone in carrying these struggles. Even people who describe their childhoods as loving or generally positive may still have experienced moments when their emotional needs were misunderstood or unmet. This does not necessarily mean that their caregivers were bad people. Parents and caretakers often act through the limitations, survival patterns, and unresolved wounds they themselves inherited. Recognizing the impact of your childhood is not about assigning blame. It is about understanding what shaped you so that you can begin making conscious choices instead of being “run” by old patterns of belief.

As you prepare for your breathwork journey, you may begin to realize that this experience is about so much more than just lying on a mat and breathing an amazing session. It offers an opportunity to explore deeper layers of the beliefs, emotions, protective strategies, and survival patterns you have carried since childhood.

This does not mean that one breathwork session will uncover or resolve everything. Healing is rarely a one-time event, and you should not expect to complete a single journey and emerge permanently free from every struggle. Self-healing is an ongoing, lifelong process. Like peeling the layers of an onion, each experience may reveal something new, deepen your understanding, or help you release another part of what you have been carrying.

The repetition of this work matters. Life may become easier as you develop greater awareness, regulation, and freedom, but lasting change usually comes from continuing to show up for yourself. Staying on the path—with patience, honesty, and compassion—is what gives new patterns the opportunity to take root and become sustainable over time.

Releasing the Old to Make Way for the New

We all carry old patterns, stories, beliefs, and emotional responses that developed through our earliest experiences. Some influences may begin before birth, while many of our most powerful impressions are formed during childhood, particularly during the years when we are absorbing information from the people and environment around us without yet having the ability to question or fully understand it. Imprinting us with all of these ideas and vibrations that were being emitted by the people around us. As adults, we may continue reacting from these earlier imprints, becoming triggered by situations that touch unresolved fear, shame, rejection, abandonment, or unmet needs from childhood.

And then we're walking around those same wounded children, acting from those same wounded states as adults.   So what happens when we clear out some of this old baggage?   We're not going to call it wrong or negative.   We're just going to call it old baggage that needs to be cleared.   Because energy in the body works like a vacuum.   Old stuff goes out and it replaces it with an opportunity to reinforce new patterns to come in.   Maybe those patterns are being a little bit more responsive and a little bit less reactive.   Maybe those patterns are seeking out and creating healthy relationships as opposed to continuing patterns of toxic relationship issues that so many people seem to struggle with these days.   There's a myriad of things.   

The work of Dr. Bruce Lipton, Peter Mandel, Peter Levine, Bessel Van Der Kolk, Gabor Maté, and many others has helped to contribute to the understanding that our early environment can strongly shape the subconscious patterns we carry into adulthood. In this sense, many adults are moving through life while parts of the wounded child within them are still reacting, protecting, hiding, pleasing, fighting, or searching for safety.

9D breathwork offers an opportunity to begin clearing some of this old baggage. We do not need to label these patterns as bad, wrong, or negative. They may once have helped us survive, belong, receive approval, or protect ourselves and they may simply be old patterns that no longer serve the lives we want to create.

When we begin releasing what is no longer needed, we create space for something new. That space may allow us to become more responsive and less reactive, develop healthier relationships, set clearer boundaries, care for our bodies differently, communicate more honestly, or show up with greater presence for our partners, children, communities, and ourselves. Releasing an old pattern does not automatically determine what will replace it, but it creates an opportunity to consciously reinforce a healthier one.

Every 9D Breathwork journey includes intention-setting, which allows you to consider what you are ready to release and what you would like to welcome into your life. Perhaps you are seeking greater clarity, freedom from an old story, improved health, deeper self-respect, more loving relationships, or a different way of responding when life becomes difficult. Your intention does not need to be perfect, elaborate, or even completely clear. You may simply have felt an inner call that brought you here.

Before the journey begins, take some time to ask yourself: Why am I here? What pattern am I ready to change? What quality or experience would I like to create more of in my life? Your answers can provide an initial direction and focus. Once the journey is underway, however, you do not need to hold tightly to that intention or control what happens. You can surrender the process, follow the breath, and allow your body to guide the experience.

A single session may activate an insight, emotion, decision, or new possibility, but the work does not necessarily end when the journey is over. You may recognize that something in your daily life now needs to change. The breathwork can open the door, but you will still be invited to walk through it—bringing what you discovered into your choices, relationships, habits, and the way you show up for your life.

Health Screening and Contraindications

Your safety matters. Please read this section carefully and disclose any relevant medical or mental health conditions to me before participating in a 9D Breathwork journey. There is also the required questionnaire and waver document.

9D Breathwork uses periods of deep, continuous conscious connected breathing. This breathing pattern can temporarily change carbon dioxide levels, increase nervous-system activation, alter physical sensations, and affect heart rate and blood pressure. Most healthy adults can participate safely, but the intensity of the practice may not be appropriate for everyone.

Having a condition listed below means that the standard active 9D breathing technique may carry additional risk and that we must make a responsible decision before your session. I am a trained breathwork facilitator, not a physician, and I cannot diagnose your condition or determine whether an intensive breathing practice is medically safe for you.

Please contact me before registering or participating if you currently have—or recently had—any of the following:

• Heart disease or another cardiovascular condition

• A recent heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack, or serious blood clot

• Uncontrolled or significantly abnormal high or low blood pressure

• A very high, very low, irregular, or medically concerning heart rate

• An aneurysm

• Epilepsy, seizures, or another condition affecting seizure risk

• Asthma or another significant respiratory condition

• Glaucoma, a detached retina, or recent eye surgery

• Severe osteoporosis or another condition that increases the risk of injury

• A recent major physical injury, fracture, concussion, or surgery

• Schizophrenia, psychosis, paranoia, untreated mania, or another mental health condition that could be destabilized by an altered or highly activated state

• A recent psychiatric hospitalization or severe psychiatric episode

• Medication that affects your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, seizure threshold, consciousness, or psychiatric stability. Many people safely participate in breathwork while taking medication. The important question is whether a medication—or the condition for which it was prescribed—could affect cardiovascular function, breathing, seizure risk, consciousness, or psychological stability. Never stop, reduce, or change prescribed medication in order to participate in breathwork. Discuss the practice with your prescribing clinician instead.

• Any other medical condition about which you or your healthcare provider may have concerns

Pregnancy

Active conscious connected breathing is not allowed during pregnancy because we don't want a situation where the body goes into feeling like it's time to go into labor when it's not.  Pregnancy already produces important changes in breathing, circulation, and physiology, and an intensive practice that further alters breathing chemistry and strongly activates the nervous system is not considered appropriate. If you are pregnant, you can still come to a 9D Active session, but you must agree to breathe normally through your nose only.

Epilepsy and Seizure Disorders

Rapid or sustained deep breathing can affect brain excitability and may lower the seizure threshold in susceptible individuals. A history of epilepsy or seizures therefore requires a conversation with me before you participate. Simply changing to slow nasal breathing does not automatically remove this risk.

Cardiovascular Conditions, Blood Pressure, and Aneurysms

Deep active breathing can create changes in nervous-system activity, heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and emotional intensity. If you have heart disease, an aneurysm, an arrhythmia, high or low blood pressure, a recent heart attack or stroke, or another cardiovascular condition, please speak with me before participating in the active breathing. Depending on your situation, I might require you to do the session breathing slowly through your nose.

Asthma and Respiratory Conditions

If you have asthma or another respiratory condition, contact me before the session. Bring your prescribed rescue inhaler with you and keep it within reach. Do not participate during an asthma flare, respiratory infection, or period when your breathing is not well controlled. A gentler nasal technique may be appropriate for some people with well-controlled asthma, but this should be discussed before the journey rather than decided after symptoms begin.

Mental Health Considerations

Breathwork can produce intense emotions, memories, physical sensations, and non-ordinary states of awareness. Anxiety, depression, a severe trauma history, or PTSD do not prevent participation, but I need to know so additional support can be provided.

People with a history of psychosis, schizophrenia, severe paranoia, untreated mania, or recent psychiatric instability should not participate in an intensive session without guidance and would be good if you cleared it with a qualified mental health professional who understands the nature of the practice first. If you are actively suicidal, experiencing psychosis or mania, or unable to remain oriented and make decisions for your own safety, an active breathing 9D session is not appropriate for you. A REGULATING, calming 9D session would, however, be fine for you and most likely very helpful.

Recent Surgery, Injury, and Physical Vulnerability

Strong breathing, muscle contractions, emotional release, movement, and changes in internal pressure may place stress on healing tissue. If you have recently undergone surgery—particularly involving the heart, brain, head, eyes, chest, abdomen, spine, or joints—or have a recent fracture, concussion, or serious injury, wait until your treating clinician has cleared you for strenuous breathing and physical activation.  You may attend as long as you agree to strictly breathe normally through your nose.

Why We Screen

A frequently cited clinical report described more than 11,000 Holotropic Breathwork sessions with psychiatric inpatients over a 12-year period without recorded complaints of adverse reactions during or after the sessions. That history is encouraging, but it is important to understand that hospital staff screened participants and excluded people with severe cardiac disease, severe musculoskeletal disorders, pregnancy, and paranoid ideation. The sessions also took place in a staffed clinical environment. This report supports the value of careful screening and responsible facilitation; it does not mean that intensive breathwork carries no risk if contraindications are ignored.

Modified Breathing

When a health condition has been disclosed, I may recommend a modified technique. This may include breathing gently through the nose rather than the mouth, beginning at approximately half the guided pace, avoiding forceful breathing or breath retention, and remaining especially attentive to physical sensations.

The purpose of a modification is to reduce intensity—not to override a contraindication. Body awareness is important, but feeling safe at the beginning of a session cannot guarantee that a medical complication will not occur. Honest disclosure, appropriate modification, and ongoing communication all work together.

You Are the Captain of Your Own Ship

You are always in control of how deeply and rapidly you breathe. You do not have to match the pace of the recording, prove anything, push through alarming symptoms, or continue because other people are continuing. Productive emotional or physical discomfort is not the same as feeling medically unsafe.

At any point, you may slow down, return to quiet and gentle breathing through your nose, and then come back to the deeper mouth breathing when you feel ready.

If you are uncertain about your health, contact me before the session. It is always better to postpone a journey than to hide a condition, minimize a concern, or take an unnecessary risk. Breathwork is not a substitute for medical or mental health care and protecting your well-being will always take priority over completing a session.

Leaning Into Discomfort

Meaningful growth often asks us to step beyond what is familiar and comfortable. We grow when we enter a difficult conversation, challenge an old habit, try something that stretches us, or remain present with feelings we would normally avoid. Breathwork offers a controlled and supported opportunity to practice doing exactly that.

During the active portion of your 9D journey, the breathing may feel physically demanding, emotions may arise, and parts of you may want to slow down, distract yourself, hide, or stop. When that happens, you may find yourself at a choice point. You can automatically follow the old pattern that tells you to withdraw, or you can become curious about what is happening and lean in to the experience.

Leaning in does not mean forcing yourself, ignoring your body, or pushing through symptoms that feel medically unsafe. It means staying present with manageable discomfort for a little longer, continuing to breathe when you know you are safe, and allowing yourself to explore what may exist on the other side of resistance. There is an important difference between discomfort that comes from exertion, emotion, vulnerability, or unfamiliar sensations and a warning sign that something is physically wrong. You remain the captain of your own ship and may slow down or stop whenever necessary.

leaning into the discomfort.   This is why you are here.   You’re here to create discomfort.   We all know that we grow not by sitting on the couch and watching TV, but by putting ourselves into controlled discomfort, getting into that ice bath, having that long hard sweat, running that marathon.   When we lean into the difficult conversations, when we lean into those things that we might normally back away from.   My invitation to you is when things get challenging, lean in.   When scary things come up, your opportunity, your invitation, is to lean into those things.   Don't back out.   It's 45 minutes of a challenging situation, a challenging container, a controlled environment.   You have a 100% survival rate of all the most challenging things you've ever faced in your life.  And so if you can get through all of that, then you can get through 45 minutes of this challenging container that you’re going to be breathing into.   This should be easy compared to a lot of that other stuff that you face in your life.   So are you ready for a controlled hit of 45 minutes of discomfort in exchange for a big hit of well-being and activation and reset and release and all these other things that we get from breath work.   Are you ready for a bit of that?   

You have already survived every difficult day and challenging experience that brought you to this moment. That does not mean this journey will necessarily feel easy, nor does it minimize what you have endured. It is simply a reminder that you possess more strength and capacity than you may sometimes recognize. The most active breathing portion is temporary, while what you learn about yourself may continue far beyond the session.

As discomfort arises, remind yourself why you chose to be here. You may be doing this for your own healing, for the way you want to show up in your relationships, for your children and future generations, or because you are ready to stop repeating a pattern that no longer serves you. Your reason can help you remain grounded when the experience becomes challenging.

You do not need to approach the journey with fear or be surprised when discomfort appears. You can expect that there may be moments of intensity and meet them with curiosity: What happens if I stay present? What is this part of me trying to protect? Can I soften around this sensation rather than immediately escaping it?

You are not being asked to prove your strength or endure suffering. You are invited to practice courage within a supported container—to breathe, remain present, listen to your body, and lean toward the possibility of release, greater well-being, and meaningful change.

Overcoming Fears or Blocks

You may begin your journey fully intending to breathe, go all the way in, and truly commit to the experience. However, fears and blocks can arise in subtle and sometimes unexpected ways. Your mind may be saying, “I’m ready. I’m going for it,” while the patterns held in your body are telling a different story.

You may begin with active, full breathing and then suddenly notice that your breath has become shallow—almost like a baby kitten settling down to sleep—without consciously deciding to slow it down. You may become distracted, restless, sleepy, resistant, or convinced that you no longer want to continue. These responses indicate that you have likely encountered a protective pattern or what is sometimes called a bioenergetic block.

The first step is simply awareness. At any point during the journey, ask yourself: Have I unintentionally shifted from active breathing into shallow breathing? Am I choosing to slow down, or has it happened automatically? There is no need to criticize yourself when you notice this. Awareness gives you the opportunity to make a conscious choice about what to do next. 

The Gas Pedal and the Brake

When you encounter a block, fear, strong emotion, or difficult memory, you have access to both the gas pedal and the brake. Your task is to listen honestly to yourself and decide which response feels appropriate in that moment.

I am going to continue and push through this block and I'm not going to let this block get the best of me, I'm going to work with it.   Or, maybe today is not the day that you face that block.   Maybe it comes up not as a block, maybe it comes up as a fear.   Those of us with big T trauma, we might suffer from flashbacks with that trauma in life.   Some kind of memory comes up in the breath work session.   It doesn't feel safe, you feel afraid.   There's two options that have.   The two options are you can push the gas or you can push the brake.   And so the memory, the fear, whatever might be coming up is just a cloud of energy.  It's a just a vibrational thing that's happening in your field.   So if you feel like today is the day that I'm ready to overcome this thing, then you push the gas and you speed up and deepen your breathing and you go a little bit fuller and a little bit faster and you're leaning into it.   And you imagine that block as just an energetic thing that you need to move through because that's all it is.   And you imagine you're breathing yourself into it, breathing through it, and then popping out the other side of it.   And when you come out the other side of it, a lot of the time what happens in the aftermath comes a sense of liberation that you beat that thing.  You have the access to the gas pedal if you want.   If today doesn't feel like the day to fight this thing, to slay this dragon, don't feel bad about it.   You also have access to a break.   No one's judging.   Don't judge yourself.   I'm not going to be here judging you.   I'm going to hold space for whatever it is that comes up for you.   That's my job.   And so you can back out by slowing down your breath, slowing down your speed, slowing down the depth, making it a little bit more shallow, really gentle, and you can back away.   You can take a reset breath.   Put one on hand on your belly and start taking a few deep breaths into your nose, down into your belly.   Let your belly expand and contract and feel what that feels like. When you take a reset breath, you pull yourself out of controlled fight or flight, you bring yourself into rest and digest.   You realize, wow, I'm here.   I'm here in this room.   I'm good, I'm safe.   And then when you feel ready, you can come back into it.   So overcoming the blocks or the fears can happen or it can be shelved for another time.

A block does not have to be overcome during the first session in which it appears. You can acknowledge it, learn from it, and return to it during another journey when you feel more prepared. Sometimes overcoming a fear means moving through it. Sometimes it means recognizing your limits and choosing not to overwhelm yourself. Both are acts of courage.

The Importance of Feeling Safe

Your nervous system is continually assessing whether you are safe, even when you are not consciously aware of it. It is designed to move away from what appears threatening and toward what feels safer. During breathwork, unfamiliar sensations, emotions, memories, or changes in awareness may activate this protective system.

I want you to remember that this is a supported space in which you are safe to feel, safe to express, and safe to allow emotions to move—provided that you have disclosed all relevant contraindications and are medically fit to participate. Feeling safe does not mean that every moment will feel comfortable. It means that you remain in control of your breathing, you can slow down or stop, and support is available when you need it.

If I notice that you appear to have lost your connection with the present moment or with your felt sense of safety, I may gently lift one side of your headphones and quietly remind you: “You’re safe. I’m here with you. I’ve got you.” The sound of my voice and the brief change in your experience may help interrupt the fear response and bring you back into the room.

Before the journey begins, close your eyes and take a few gentle breaths. Silently repeat the words:

“I am safe. I am safe. I am safe.”

Notice what those words feel like in your body. You do not have to force yourself to believe them or manufacture a particular feeling. Simply allow the words to become an anchor you can return to throughout the journey.

You can press the gas when you feel ready to lean in, and you can press the brake when you need to regulate, reset, or step back. You are not trapped in the experience. You always have choices, and you remain the captain of your own ship.

Student Self-Modulation

The importance of self-modulation cannot be overstated. What is self-modulation? It is exactly what it sounds like: adjusting the intensity of your own experience in response to what you are feeling.

As you enter this session, remember that you are the captain of your own journey. You can slow your breathing when you want to slow down, increase the pace when you feel ready, breathe more deeply when it feels safe, or back yourself out of the active technique whenever you need to. Although I will guide the journey and hold a supportive space for you, only you can feel exactly what is happening inside your body. Only you can control the speed, depth, and intensity of your breath.

This responsibility becomes especially important during online sessions, when I cannot physically be beside every participant or continuously observe the quality and pattern of each person’s breathing. Even during an in-person session, I cannot enter your body or know precisely what you are experiencing. I can offer guidance, encouragement, reminders, and support, but you must remain aware of your own sensations and make choices that honor what your body needs.

If something arises that feels frightening or overwhelming, you can slow down and back yourself out. Return to gentle breathing through your nose and come back into the active technique only when and if you feel ready. If you feel want to go deeper, you may choose to increase the fullness or pace of your breath.

You have access to both the gas pedal and the brake throughout the entire journey. You are never required to match the guided pace, push beyond your limits, or remain at an intensity that no longer feels appropriate. Self-modulation does not mean that you can control every emotion, sensation, or response that may arise. It means that you retain control over how you breathe and how deeply you choose to engage with the experience.

Please take this responsibility seriously. Listen to your body, remain aware of your breathing, and remember that you always have choices. Go deeper when you feel safe to go deeper. Slow down when you need to regulate. Step out of the active technique when necessary and return only when you feel ready. You hold the keys to your own journey.

Bodywork Permission

During an in-person journey, I may offer gentle, supportive bodywork to help you feel safe, grounded, and not alone in your experience. This may include placing a hand on areas such as your shoulder, upper back, arm, hand, or foot, or using gentle pressure to support relaxation and the movement of tension or energy through the body.

Bodywork is always optional. Before the session begins, you will have an opportunity to let me know if you prefer not to be touched. Even if you initially give permission, you may change your mind at any time. Simply raise your hand, move my hand away, or say, “I’m good,” and I will immediately step back without question or judgment.

My role is to be an empathic witness and hold supportive space for your process, not to override your boundaries. You remain in control of your body and may accept or decline touch at any point during the journey.

Your Volume Control

9D Breathwork uses immersive audio, and the journey may begin at a relatively high volume. Before the session starts, I will make sure that you are connected to the correct channel and show you how to control the volume using the override control located near your left thumb.

You are in charge of your own listening experience. If the sound feels too loud, intense, or distracting at any time, simply reduce the volume to a level that feels comfortable. You do not need to tolerate uncomfortable sound or wait for me to adjust it for you.

Depth Over Speed

Do not overthink the breathing technique. Different 9D journeys may use slightly different breathing patterns, and I will explain and demonstrate the technique before we begin. The most important principle to remember is depth over speed.

A slower, deep, full breath through the mouth can create significant activation and support the emotional and somatic process. You do not need to breathe as quickly as possible. Breathing too rapidly will be difficult to sustain for the active portion of the journey and can cause you to lose awareness, drift away from the experience, or feel as though you have fallen asleep.

Again, at the beginning of the journey, place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. As you inhale, feel your chest and belly expand beneath your hands. This movement helps you recognize that you are taking a deep, full breath. If you can barely feel your body expanding, gently deepen the breath rather than immediately trying to make it faster.

Continue returning to this reminder throughout the journey: depth over speed. Your breathing should be full enough so that you can feel and see the expansion of your body, while remaining at a pace you can sustain and safely self-modulate.

Breathing Technique Instructions

Different 9D journeys use slightly different breathing techniques, but the fundamentals are very similar. I will explain and demonstrate the specific technique again before your session begins. The four primary breathing patterns are:

Euphoric breathing: A two-part inhale into the belly and then the chest, followed by a relaxed release.

Upper-chest breathing: One deep inhale into the upper chest, followed by a relaxed release.

Deep-belly breathing: A deep inhale directed into the lower belly, bypassing the upper chest as much as possible, followed by a relaxed release.

Diaphragmatic breathing: One full, expansive inhale, allowing the breath to move naturally wherever your body wants it to go, followed by a relaxed release.

Depending on the journey and your individual needs, these techniques may be performed through either the mouth or the nose.

The most important principle is that the inhale is active and the exhale is passive. The inhale is where you do the work. On the exhale, simply relax, release, and let the air fall away naturally. Do not push, blow, or force the breath out. Every exhale offers a small opportunity to let go and reset.

If a particular technique feels uncomfortable, confusing, or too complicated, return to one simple instruction: take a nice, big, full breath in and then relax and let it go. You do not have to perform the technique perfectly. If you begin overthinking whether you are doing it correctly, allow your body to take over and return to deep, expansive breathing.

Many journeys use the two-part euphoric breath. To practice it, place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. The first part of the inhale expands your belly, the second part fills and expands your chest, and then you relax and let the breath go:

Belly, chest, relax and let go.

As you become comfortable with the technique, allow the two-part inhale to flow more like a continuous wave than two sharply separated breaths:

Belly, chest, release.

Begin relatively slowly and focus on feeling your belly and chest expand. As the journey develops, you may choose to follow the tempo of the music and gradually increase your pace. Continue listening to the rhythm and intelligence of your body, allowing it to help guide the depth and tempo of your breath.

Do not allow yourself to become overly concerned with perfect technique. Nobody performs every breath perfectly. As long as you are breathing deeply enough to feel your body expand, allowing the exhale to release naturally, and adjusting the pace according to your own capacity, you are doing it correctly.

Mental, Physical, and Emotional Preparedness (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT)

Mental Preparedness

During the journey, your mind may wander. In fact, it probably will. You may begin thinking about something outside the room, evaluating whether you are breathing correctly, wondering how much time is left, or following a completely unrelated train of thought. When you notice that happening, you do not need to become frustrated with yourself. Simply bring your awareness back to your body and back to your breath.

You may notice that you have stopped actively breathing and entered a breath-suspended state. You may drift deeply into the music, lose track of time, feel as though you have fallen asleep, or enter an altered state of awareness and then suddenly realize that you are no longer following the technique. Whenever you become aware of this, gently return to the body and return to the breath. There is no need to judge yourself or believe that you have done something wrong. You simply begin again.

Because you will be wearing headphones, the 9D journey is a deeply immersive experience. The music, guidance, sound frequencies, and other audio elements provide your mind with a great deal to engage with. If you are in a group, after the first several minutes, you may largely forget that you are lying in a room with other people. The experience often becomes just you, your breath, your body, and the guided journey carrying you from beginning to end.

Your primary mental instruction is therefore very simple:

When your mind wanders, bring it back to your body and your breath.

Physical Preparedness

The active breathing technique can create a wide range of physical sensations and changes within the brain and body. High-ventilation breathwork changes the amount of carbon dioxide being exhaled, temporarily raises blood pH, activates the sympathetic nervous system, alters cerebral blood flow, and affects neurochemical activity within the brain. The body also naturally produces DMT, and researchers have proposed that endogenous DMT may contribute to altered or non-ordinary states of awareness during intense physiological experiences such as breathwork. Together, these physiological and neurochemical changes can contribute to unusual physical sensations, emotional activation, vivid imagery, shifts in perception, and altered states of consciousness.

At one end of the spectrum, the sensations may feel pleasant, subtle, warm, expansive, tingly, peaceful, blissful, or “warm and fuzzy.” You may feel waves of energy, temperature changes, vibrations, lightness, heaviness, floating sensations, or deep relaxation.

At the other end of the spectrum, some sensations may be uncomfortable. You could experience tingling or numbness around your mouth, face, hands, or feet; muscle tension; trembling; cramping; lightheadedness; pressure; temperature changes; an increased awareness of your heartbeat; or strong waves of physical activation. Some sensations may arise from the physiology of the breathing technique, while others may accompany emotional processing, muscular holding patterns, or your body’s response to the experience.

The appearance of discomfort does not automatically mean that something is wrong, but neither should every sensation be dismissed as “trauma leaving the body.” Remain aware, use your ability to self-modulate, and communicate with me if something feels concerning.

Tetany: “T-Rex” or “Lobster Claw” Hands

One of the physical responses that can be especially surprising is tetany, sometimes jokingly called “T-Rex hands” or “lobster claws.” Your fingers, hands, wrists, feet, jaw, or other muscles may tingle, tighten, cramp, curl, or temporarily feel difficult to move.

Tetany can occur when sustained deep or rapid breathing causes you to exhale carbon dioxide faster than your body produces it. The resulting low carbon dioxide level and respiratory alkalosis can temporarily increase the excitability of nerves and muscles and alter the availability of ionized calcium, contributing to tingling, cramping, and carpopedal spasms.

If this happens, do not panic. It does not mean that your hands will remain that way. For most people, the tightening begins to ease as the breathing slows and carbon dioxide levels move back toward normal.

If the sensation is manageable and you remain calm, oriented, and medically safe, you may choose to stay present with it and continue breathing. You might reframe the experience by saying:

“This is intense, but I understand what is happening. I can remain present, breathe gently, and allow it to pass.”

You may choose to bless the sensation rather than immediately fear it. You can be proud of yourself for remaining present with something unfamiliar and challenging.

However, greater pain does not necessarily mean that a larger trauma or deeper complex is being released. You do not receive extra credit for making tetany more severe. If the cramping becomes painful, frightening, or overwhelming, press the brake. Reduce the speed and depth of your breathing and return to slow, gentle breaths through your nose. Relax your jaw and shoulders. Alert me if you need assistance.

Once the symptoms do begin easing after you slow down, you can then begin the deep mouth breaths when ready.

Working With Physical Discomfort

When manageable discomfort arises, you may use it as an opportunity to practice your intention to lean in. Rather than immediately resisting every unfamiliar sensation, become curious about it. Notice where it is, how it moves, whether it changes, and what happens when you soften around it.

You may tell yourself:

“I am doing meaningful work today. I am proud of myself for staying present. I can breathe with this sensation without fighting it.”

The full spectrum of sensation is welcome within the journey—pleasant, uncomfortable, subtle, powerful, warm, cold, light, heavy, still, or moving. Sensations do not have to be dramatic for the journey to be meaningful. A gentle experience is not an unsuccessful experience, and a painful experience is not automatically a deeper one.

The active portion of the journey may last approximately 45 minutes, but that does not mean you should expect 45 continuous minutes of discomfort. The intensity may rise and fall in waves. You can move between active breathing and gentler breathing as needed. You are not required to endure suffering or ignore warning signs. You remain the captain of your own ship throughout the experience.

Emotional Preparedness

9D Breathwork is designed to create space for emotional experience. Many of us have learned to suppress, repress, hide, minimize, intellectualize, or move quickly away from emotions that once felt unsafe or unacceptable. Those emotions may include grief, anger, fear, shame, sadness, joy, relief, love, or even emotions we cannot easily name.

If we want to become better healers, we must learn to become better feelers.

During the journey, emotional expression may appear as crying, laughing, smiling, shaking, sighing, yawning, making sounds, shouting, or simply feeling an emotion quietly inside your body. Some journeys may include guided opportunities to use your voice, release sound, or scream into the space in an intentional and supported way.

If you feel the need to cry, give yourself permission to have the sloppy, ugly cry. You do not need to remain composed, look attractive, apologize, explain yourself, or worry about what anyone else in the room may think. Everyone will be inside their own headphone experience, and this is a space where emotional expression is welcome.

Allowing an emotion to be felt and expressed can create room for processing, movement, relief, and a different relationship with what you have been carrying. You do not need to know exactly where the emotion originated or understand every detail of the story behind it. You may simply notice the feeling, breathe with it, and allow it to move in whatever safe form it takes.

At the same time, do not force an emotional release. You may arrive determined to have a massive cry and never shed a tear. That does not mean that nothing happened or that you failed. Not everybody cries. Your process may appear as sensation, insight, imagery, quietness, trembling, laughter, deep relaxation, or something you do not recognize until later.

There is no single correct way to release, process, or experience a 9D journey.

Let Go of Expectations

I am explaining what may happen mentally, physically, and emotionally so that you are prepared rather than frightened or surprised. However, this creates a bit of a paradox: after learning what could happen, your next task is to release the expectation that any of it must happen.

Do not enter the journey demanding a psychedelic experience, an out-of-body experience, a prophetic vision, a huge cathartic release, a childhood memory, or a life-changing revelation. Those experiences may occur, and powerful journeys are possible, but they cannot be forced or guaranteed.

If you become attached to one particular outcome, you may overlook the experience that is actually unfolding. You may also leave disappointed because your journey did not resemble someone else’s story or meet the picture you had created in your mind.

Your journey may be intense, quiet, emotional, physical, visual, peaceful, confusing, deeply meaningful, or surprisingly ordinary. It may make sense immediately, or its meaning may become clearer over the following hours or days. Whatever unfolds is the experience available to you today.

Come in with intention but release expectation.

Prepare to participate fully, but do not demand a particular result.

Stay open, stay curious, and allow the breath, your body, and the journey to meet you where you are.

Remember

If your mind wanders, return to the body and the breath.

If physical sensations become intense, remain curious, self-modulate, and slow down when needed.

If emotions arise, give yourself permission to feel and express them safely.

If nothing dramatic happens, do not assume that nothing meaningful occurred.

You do not have to perform, force, prove, or manufacture an experience. Your work is to breathe, remain present, listen to your body, release expectations, and allow your own journey to unfold.

Direct Coaching During Your Journey

Most of the coaching and guidance within your 9D journey will come through your headphones. However, if I notice that you may benefit from a breathing adjustment, encouragement, reassurance, or help reconnecting with your body, I may gently lift one side of your headphones and speak quietly into your ear.

You might hear me say: “Breathe a little deeper.”  “Slow it down.” “I’m right here with you.” “I’ve got you.”

“You’re safe.” “Lean in.” “You can do this.” “Well done.”

Often, this direct coaching is simply intended to bring you back to a felt sense of safety and remind you that you are not alone. The movement of your headphone and the sound of a live human voice may also serve as a gentle pattern interrupt, helping you reconnect with the room, your body, and the present moment.

Any direct feedback I offer will be brief, focused, and intended to support you in navigating whatever may be arising. Listen for my voice, receive what is helpful, and remember that you still remain in control of your breathing and your experience.

The Journey Arc and the Scream

Each 9D journey has its own structure, but many follow a carefully designed arc of activation, release, and integration. Understanding this arc ahead of time can help you relax into the experience rather than wondering what is coming next.

During the first several songs, the journey gradually builds energy and activation within the body. The vocal coach will guide you every step of the way as the music, breathing, hypnotic suggestions, binaural beats, and other 9D audio elements help you move out of the analytical mind and more deeply into the body. You can think of this stage as revving the engine and preparing the body for a deeper release.

At certain points in some journeys, you may be guided to take a full breath in, briefly hold it, and apply a light squeeze through your core. This should be a gentle, controlled engagement—not a forceful strain. Putting the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth can help you hold a bit longer.  Always follow the instructions within the journey, remain aware of your body, and use your self-modulation skills. If breath retention or squeezing does not feel safe or appropriate for you, release the breath and return to comfortable breathing.

At the end of the breath hold, you may be invited to release the breath with a powerful scream. The scream is included for a specific reason. Many of us have spent years silencing our voices, swallowing anger, suppressing grief, holding back fear, or making ourselves smaller so that others would remain comfortable. A full-bodied scream can provide an opportunity to give sound and movement to energy that has been bottled up within the body—sometimes for years and, when viewed generationally, perhaps much longer.

When the opportunity comes, my invitation is to lean into the scream and allow yourself to use your voice fully. You might imagine the scream carrying out anger, grief, frustration, fear, shame, or anything else you are ready to release. For some people, the experience feels like an explosion of energy followed by relief, spaciousness, or liberation.  For some, only a squeek comes out the first time. 

You may notice resistance to screaming. You may feel embarrassed, self-conscious, afraid of being heard, or uncertain about allowing that much sound to come through you. That resistance may itself be worth noticing. You are invited to explore what happens when you give yourself permission to be loud, take up space, and express what may have gone unexpressed for a very long time.

However, the scream is always an invitation, not a requirement or a test of how deeply you are participating. You may scream loudly, release a quieter sound, sigh, cry, growl, hum, or simply exhale. Do not force your throat, strain your voice, or judge yourself if a scream does not come naturally. Your release belongs to you and may take whatever safe form your body chooses.

After the first release, many journeys include a period of reset before gradually building the energy again. There may then be another breath hold, gentle core engagement, and opportunity for a second scream or vocal release. The specific timing and number of release points will vary depending on the journey you are breathing.

Following the more active portion, the journey moves into beautiful downregulation and integration with all the 9D effects and all of the hypnotic scripting and subliminal messaging and binaural beats and all those amazing elements and ingredients that we bring into our 9D journeys. The breathing becomes gentler as the music, hypnotic scripting, subliminal messaging, binaural beats, and other 9D elements help settle your nervous system and ground the shifts that have occurred. This part of the journey gives your body and mind time to absorb the experience rather than ending immediately after the peak intensity. 

It's going to ground you and ground the shifts and changes in your body so that you can leave here feeling renewed, refreshed, revitalized, reset, and ready to take the next steps into your life with grace and strength and hope and optimism and on the path of healing and growth and transformation.   Are you ready for a little bit of that?   Because that's where this is going.   The intention is for you to complete the journey feeling grounded, renewed, refreshed, revitalized, and better prepared to carry what you have experienced into your life with greater strength, grace, hope, and possibility. The active work builds the energy, the release allows it to move, and the integration helps you settle into what comes next.

Sounds From Other Participants

The guided scream may be one of the few times during the journey when you clearly hear the other people in the room. You may also occasionally hear someone crying, laughing, shouting, sighing, or expressing emotion in another way.

If you hear someone else having a strong emotional release, remember that they are moving through their own process. You do not need to understand it, rescue them, or become involved. You can silently send them compassion and then gently return your attention to your own body, breath, and journey.

Because the headphones create such an immersive experience, they will reduce many of the environmental sounds around you. However, if another participant’s expression becomes too distracting or activating, signal me. If necessary and practical, I can help create more space between you and the other participant.

Your task is to remain within your own experience as much as possible: breathe, listen, release, and allow everyone else in the room the same freedom to move through their journey.

For those doing it on Zoom, you only need to alert those that may hear you that they may hear all kinds of sounds, and there is nothing to be alarmed about.

A Final Word Before You Breathe

Thank you for taking the time to prepare yourself for this experience. I know this has been a substantial amount of information, but my intention is for you to arrive feeling informed, supported, and confident about what may unfold. You do not need to remember every detail or perform the journey perfectly. But to get the very most out of your breathing session, do review this a few times! I have provided this in written, audio and video form so you can choose what works best for you.  Come as you are, remain curious, listen to your body, and allow your experience to be uniquely your own.

Breathwork is not about forcing a breakthrough or becoming someone different. It is an invitation to meet yourself more honestly, release what you may be ready to let go of, and create space for greater freedom, connection, vitality, and peace. Some journeys are powerful and cathartic, while others are quiet and subtle. Every experience has value, and the work may continue unfolding long after the music ends.

It is an honor to hold this space for you. I look forward to supporting you as you explore what may be possible on the other side of the patterns, stories, and burdens you have carried.

Come with intention. Release expectation. Trust your breath. Trust your body. And allow the journey to meet you exactly where you are.

Blessings,

Heidi Ward