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The BreathExperience Forum is an online platform for people interested in and new to the BreathExperience work, where they can learn about the work and also practice some of the basics of our work.
Weekly Sample Classes
Every Sunday at 9am PT / 12pm ET / 6pm CET. Click the zoom link below on Sunday to join the class. The next class is on Sunday, December 15 and will be taught by BreathExperience staff.
Zoom Link (BreathExperience staff)

These sample classes are free, and you can also sign up for classes with a BreathExperience practitioner

You're always welcome to email us at marty(at)breathsense(dot)com if you have any thoughts or questions.

What is our work

The BreathExperience practice connects with the source of allowing the breath to come and go on its own, by sensing the movement of breath in your body.

You practice this in sitting, using a stool, or standing and moving, following the invitations of the teacher who guides you through simple sequences that will facilitate your allowing the breath to come and go on its own and your sensing the movement of breath in your body.

In this way you enter a processes of growing and developing using your own innate intelligent resources, your teacher within, holding your own unique, individual path of healing.

More Information

How does BreathExperience differ from other approaches, like meditation or other somatic practices?

BreathExperience will feel very different from practices that actively manage the breath – for example, certain yogic practices or an approach like Wim Hof. In BreathExperience there is no manipulation, influence or control: the breath needs to have every possibility available to be able to do what is needed. If we direct the breath with a plan, it can fulfill a plan, but it may not necessarily be the development needed at that moment. The breath that comes and goes on its own, in its undisturbed state, that we consciously experience, will indicate the steps that need to happen. The experience of breath becomes our teacher.

There are also several meditative practices where attention is given to breath; however, the focus for these practices usually emphasizes the spirit or the emotions. BreathExperience is rooted in the sensation of the movement of breath in our body. It is through this sensation, together with our presence and conscious experience, that we come to know not only our body, but also our soul and spirit. In our work we come to understand that a spiritual or emotional experience is never separate from an experience of Self, an experience of body, and an experience of breath. Through the sensation of the movement of breath we have a simple door to access all of this.

What is the goal of this work? What will I get out of it?

People come to somatic and meditative works with all sorts of goals, and absolutely participants in BreathExperience report beneficial effects.

  • reduction of stress and anxiety,
  • emotional balance
  • increased stability and flexibility in mind and body,
  • clearing of holdings and restrictions along the skeletal structure/posture in the spine, so that it becomes naturally realigned and balanced
  • Sense of overall wellbeing
  • Personal growth and more fulfilled partnerships
  • and more

One quality that people seem to deeply appreciate with BreathExperience in particular is that helps with a strong sense of authenticity – that it helps you be more who you are. And that since your teacher is your own experience, it builds a sense of self-reliance and less need for an outside resource to “fix” something.

There have been practioners who’ve looked at BreathExperience from a scientific point of view. Here is a summary of a study looking at how BreathExperience work was as helpful as skilled physical therapy in treating lower back pain.

About the work

Since its inception this artistic form of breathing education has achieved international attention for its effectiveness as a somatic healing and growth process. Professor Ilse Middendorf began practicing her work in 1935. She founded the Institute of the Perceptible Breath, or Breathexperience, in 1965, lived and worked in Berlin, Germany, maintaining a full schedule-leading workshops and training practitioners throughout the world up until shortly before her death in May 2009. Juerg Roffler is the current director and founder of several Institutes for BreathExperience. He is continuing Ilse's work and has developed it further, participating in each of the schools as a team member of the training staff.

In Europe this work is recognized as one of the major practices in somatic education. It has seen a pattern of steady growth and each year schools graduate between seventy and ninety new Breathexperience practitioners who work in a variety of areas of private practice, music and acting schools, clinics for rehabilitation, and psychology. During COVID our institutes offer mainly online classes. Workshops, retreats, classes, and private sessions with certified practitioners will resume as soon as possible.

Further reading

Classes

In German

Christine Ritt
Berlin (CET)
BreathExperience Berlin Schedule
Gertrud Kutscher
Berlin (CET)
BreathExperience Berlin Schedule
Claudia Maradof
Frankfurt (CET)
online and in-person classes (German/English)
refer to the art of breathing
claudia@the-art-of-breathing.de
Karin Meinzer
Leipzig (CET)
Combined online/live intro class, Mondays 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Atemlounge Leipzig, Euro 15 per class, +49 (0)178 558 1150 whatsapp or phone,
Rega Rutte
Regensburg (CET)
Tuesdays 9:30 am and 8:00 pm live classes (Euro 12/h), more classes and private sessions, also online, please inquire. +49 178 677 0088

www.rega-rutte.de, atem@rega-rutte.de

In English

Juerg Roffler
Chur, Zürich, Berlin
Combined online/live intro class starting Jan. 12, 2021, Tuesdays 7:45 to 9 pm CET, 10:45 to 12 noon PT, 1:45 to 3:00 pm ET. More classes and individual sessions online and/or live available.

breathexperience.de, breathexperience-alpin.com, juero@bluewin.ch

Breathexperience Canada
Vancouver (PT)
Steve Savage
Mission District, San Francisco (PT)
Beginners Class Come and learn how we are all beginners when it comes to breath: each breath is an opportunity for growth and renewal, and we will follow the traditional breath-class format as we learn to sense the breath, to still the mind and enliven the spirit. Monday afternoons, 3-4 pm. $15 per class or a series of 5 for $60. E-mail me at breathheals@yahoo.com from more information and to register. On-line for now – soon to be in person.
Eliana Kirschbaum
Fernie, British Columbia (MT)
Breath work for pregnant woman as a preparation for giving birth. Time: 5.15pm - 6.15pm - online using skype. Contact elianakirsch@yahoo.com for more information.

Website

We're constantly adding new classes as they come