This is a late response to this strand about breathwork catching up with
email after a break.
Also, a first contribution to this group...
... something that I think is important to understand about Holotropic
Breathwork, adding to what Blanche said earlier. The work is not directed
but rather supported by the facilitator it doesn¹t involve a particular
technique other than breathing more deeply and quickly than normal, and
there is no intervention unless requested, or necessary for the safety of
the one who is breathing. The session evolves through a kind of inner
guidance system within the breather¹, activated through shifts in
consciousness which is brought about through the breath and music. The whole
process is often profoundly gentle and healing. It is by no means focused on
catharsis although, as Sneh (I think) pointed out, sometimes people have a
need or a longing to push to the edge taste the extreme - in order to find
their way towards healing and learning, and this form of breathwork can
offer that possibility. Certainly that has been my own experience it was
utterly transformative and met me where I needed to be met. I have great
respect for this way of working, and for Grof and the community that has
shepherded it into being.
And... it¹s only one method among many, and not for everyone by any means,
and facilitators need to have a good intake process to ensure that it¹s a
right fit. But I do find that most people who come towards Holotropic
Breathwork find it helpful, and often brings healing and opening when they
had not been able to find their way with other methods.
And... most important is the nature and capacity of the facilitators. The
set and setting. To hold a safe, respectful environment for HB calls for
deep awareness, presence, heart, observation, humility, steadiness and the
ability to get out of the way and trust the wisdom of the field.¹ Just like
constellation work.
Some time ago I asked Albrecht Mahr who knows Stan Grof and has experience
with HB what relationship there may be between the two methodologies, and
he suggested that HB would be a valuable training experience for SC
facilitators.
With great appreciation for all that I learn in this wisdom field.
Marianne Murray
On 1/29/09 6:16 AM, "Sneh Victoria" <sneh.victoria@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi everyone, and Blanche in particular: welcome!
just when I lately was thinking a lot about all the great techniques
I experienced and learned in my life, for instance breath work,:
rebirthing, holotropic breathing- it shows up in CT! Interesting!
In the late 70th I did a long workshop with Stan Grof and his future
wife. The title was: "Birth, Sexuality and Death". It was - besides
many things - like an initiation into a deeper place of being, the
beginning of a spiritual path.
At no point did I feel re-traumatized, even though I did dive into 2
major traumas of my own. I came through and ended in one of my
deepest religious experiences ever.
Years later I trained at my indian masters ashram in something
called: breath awareness, where we used stronger than usual breathing
together with witnessing. The main point was the meditation part in
it, to not loose the watcher while encountering strong emotions. Also
there I did not see anybody being traumatized through the process.
And yet, I would expect this today, after a 3 year long training in
Somatic Experiencing and quite a few workshops with Peter Levine and
all my learning about the the ways the nervous system works.
This leaves me believing:
It is not the technique, but the ones using them: "US" and also the
environment, where we do what we do. A place has a soul, many
experienced this in constellations. Anne Ancelin Schützenberger ("Oh,
my ancesters") and Rupert Sheldrake (in many books) hint in this
direction, even though with many different words.
My same traumas had their day also in constellation work, when
different layers of the old stories showed up some 15 years ago and
again during the SE training last year.
I would not wonder, if they showed up again at some other junction of
my life, like sign posts, to keep me interested in my own life´s story.
What was the most important learning from all of it for me: None of
the methods were better or safer, or brought more inside to me- they
simply were the right ones at their time- and I just seem to feel the
most at home with working with "putting in scenes", placing
constellations, having people as vessels of feeling- sensing-
understanding, sharing their inside...
(Who knows, maybe tomorrow I might want to apply breathing into
working in constellations.)
This all leaves me (again) wondering: what is it than, that we as
trainers can teach about how to be a constellation facilitator?
Aside from all that can be read and experienced in doing your own
constellations, what are the qualities most needed in working with
people?
Something more: in most of my trainings I had someone who only took
part for their own good, without wanting to become a facilitator- and
invariably they were at the end amongst the most accomplished.
Could it be that the most important part about how to be a
facilitator is to first be a mensch, and that if we support this
before anything else, we support this work best?
Oh my, where am I going. Well: for everybody who is still with me
here, how about creating a training that has at it's core profound
learning about -meditation and mindfulness- about how to love
yourself so you can truly love the people who come to you- about not
caring for success and not caring for failure either- about how to
reach the place where wright and wrong don't matter and so on. This
could happen while learning about constellations, even through
constellations, and many other techniques too.
I am truly interested in knowing who has similar ideas, or
controversial ones.
I hope we can continue to inspire one another. It is already
happening to me with these last weeks' mails,
Sneh
