Holotropic Breathwork by Stanislav Grof

Author:Stanislav Grof [Grof, Stanislav]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2010-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

3. Conducting follow-up interviews

Ideally, Holotropic Breathwork sessions would be combined with follow-up interviews on a one-to-one basis. This is mandatory when this method is used in the treatment of emotional and psychosomatic disorders. When the emotional condition of the client allows it, the Holotropic Breathwork sessions, as well as the follow-up interviews, can be conducted on an out-patient basis. If we work with severely disturbed clients, the entire treatment—the breathwork sessions and the processing interviews—requires an in-patient facility, a twenty-four-hour residential center.

In our training for Holotropic Breathwork facilitators, which consists of a series of six-day modules scheduled in pairs, we have the possibility of combining group sharing with individual interviews. The situation was also similar in our month-long seminars that we conducted when we lived at the Esalen Institute. However, over the years, we have conducted a large number of weekend and five-day workshops, where the discussion about the experiences was limited to the processing groups. People often came to these workshops from great distances and had to leave shortly after the workshops ended.

This situation requires more careful screening of participants for history of emotional disorders. Whenever possible, we provide participants the addresses of trained facilitators, preferably in their area, whom they can contact if they have questions or need any assistance. This is becoming easier as the number of trained facilitators is growing. As of now, over one thousand people in different parts of the world have completed our training. This has made it possible for us to conduct public workshops in places where trained facilitators can provide such back-up.

Individual post-session intervals have several functions. They provide an opportunity for attaining a deeper and more refined understanding of the experience in the session using the material that has emerged since the breathwork session in dreams or during meditation, drawing of additional mandalas, writing of session reports, or journaling. Breathwork sessions regularly bring specific archetypal images or material related to shamanism, Tantra, alchemy, or other esoteric teachings. It can be very useful to direct the attention of the breathers to specific literature that may help clarify such experiences and can be used to guide them in further explorations.

If the session took place in an ongoing group and some specific problems occurred in its course, the post-session interview can also be used to chart the strategy for the next session, should the same issues emerge again. An example of such a situation is fear of losing control, which requires reassuring the breather that such fears are unwarranted and explaining why. Another common hurdle is the experience of hopelessness associated with reliving of the onset of birth (BPM II). Here we have the task of convincing the breather that the fastest way out of such a situation is to go deeper into the experience of hopelessness until it reaches the intensity it had during the actual birth process. When that happens, the feeling of hopelessness disappears and the process automatically moves to the next stage. Fears of death, insanity, and not coming back from the experience are among other important problems that need to be discussed.

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