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Is breathwork safe?

For most people, breathwork is safe, especially when it’s guided by someone trained who works in a safe, trauma-informed way. But it isn’t right for everyone.What’s happening in your bodyThe style I use, conscious connected breathing, changes your physiology. Deeper, connected breaths shift the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body, which is why you can feel things so quickly. Which is why it deserves respect, its a powerful process.What you might feelSensations arising is comp...

What Happens in a 1:1 Breathwork Session?

The most common thing I hear before someone’s first session is “I don’t really know what to expect.”And I totally get it, breathwork can sound mysterious. In my first session, I had no idea what I was showing up for.It starts with a chatEvery session starts with a chat. How are you, what’s been showing up this week, what’s sitting heavy. There’s no script or agenda you have to arrive with.This part matters more than most people realise. It tells me where your body and mind are...

Breathwork at Home vs a Facilitated Session: What’s the Difference?

“Can’t I just do this on my own?”It’s a fair question, and my honest answer is yes, partly. There are really three ways to practise, and each does a different job.1. Home practiceSimple breath practices are some of the most accessible tools we have. A long, slow exhale. A few minutes of gentle, steady breathing. Five deep breaths before a difficult conversation. These calm your nervous system, ease the grip of stress, and bring you back into your body.They cost nothing, take a few minute...

How to overcome the stories we have been told

I nearly believed them.I've been thinking a lot lately about my journey and how I got here. To a place where I feel confident, self-empowered and free.I was reflecting on the number of times limitations were placed on me, and all the times I've proved the “professionals” wrongWhether that was in school, being placed in the “slow” class, in high school and eventually dropping out, only to get first class honours at university.Being told that I would need orthotics to support my knees, onl...

How to process guilt and shame

Two themes have been showing up again and again recently.Guilt and shame. And all they do is push people deeper into the sense that there is something wrong with them. That there is no point. That they may as well give up.Often these emotions are layered. A guilt or shame about feeling a certain way in the first place. Maybe you find yourself lashing out at your partner, friend or your child, knowing they are not really the cause of your pain, only the outlet.That's the important thing to rememb...

Are you passively agreeable?

Lately, I’ve been noticing something in myself that I’m calling “passive agreement.”It’s subtle. It happens when someone says something I don’t fully agree with, but I nod along anyway because it feels easier. Not significant enough to challenge. Polite. For a long time, I thought that was kindness. Years ago, I read The Four Agreements and was struck by the line, “Be impeccable with your word.”Not just in big promises.But in small, casual moments. The other d...

Conscious Connected Breath and 9D Breathwork

Breathwork has become increasingly popular in recent years, with many different styles emerging. One in particular seems to be getting especially recognised, and that is "9D Breathwork". Ive had a few people reach out recently and ask how my work compares.Both the work I do, Conscious Connected Breathwork, and 9D breathwork share a common foundation.Both 9D Breathwork and conscious connected breath use a continuous breathing pattern, a cyclic breath, without pauses. This style of breathwork is k...

Breathwork to improve your senses

When you live from the mind, you can’t live from the heart.Most of us were raised to live almost entirely from the mind. To analyse, to justify, to explain, to stay in control. The mind becomes the place we turn to for "certainty" and safety. But the mind can only work with what it already knows. It loops, it rationalises, it protects, and while all of that can feel productive, none of it actually heals.Because healing doesn’t happen in the mind, it occurs in the body.And when the truth in t...

My core values

Recently, someone asked me, "what are my three core values. I loved this question; I'd never really considered it before. Interestingly, they are all inextricably connected.The first was obvious,Freedom: There have been opportunities that I have turned down that to an outsider would have appeared to be a perfect fit because I could see that they would limit my potential for autonomy. I am here for the complete human experience and do not wish for that to be restricted unnecessarily. This helps m...

Can Breathwork Help When Talk Therapy Isn’t Enough?

As we try to understand ourselves on a deeper level, we often find ourselves at the door of a counsellor or therapist. For me, it was Psychotherapy. And for a while, it was incredibly supportive. To have someone to express what was arising within me, and to be seen in that. But eventually, it felt like I hit a wall. People would ask me, "So you think it's helping?" and I was unable to answer with conviction. In some ways, absolutely, but it felt like there was more that I wasn't able t...

What is this new trend of Breathwork?

Breathwork has been around a very long time. When people hear ‘breathwork,’ they often think of:Pranayama (ancient yogic practices like Nadi Shodhana)The Wim Hof Method (modern ice-and-fire endurance training developed by Wim & Marcel Hoff)But there’s one that merges ancient wisdom with cutting-edge trauma release, which goes by a number of different names; Conscious Connected breath; Transformational breathwork; Owaken Breathwork; Somatic Breathwork to name a few. ...

Cacao adventure in the Solomon Islands

I've drank/worked with cacao for about 4 years now and have seen first hand how supportive it can be for myself and my clients. So much so that I offer it as part of my coaching packages. However i'd never had the chance to see the trees first hand....

How breathwork can help shift emotions

As I sit here and write this, surrounded by vibrant house plants, the first taste of spring sun warming my back, the lingering taste of cacao on my lips. I'm very grateful to be in this space to look back with gratitude on the last few weeks that were.I would have felt immeasurably differently if you'd asked me a few days ago.I was harbouring a certain “F the world” energy. I'd spiralled into a deep dark place, a place where it felt like light(ness) was unattainable. A distant memory.I was s...

How to Prepare for Your First Breathwork Session

What do you need to know before attending your first somatic breathwork session?There are a few things to be aware of before entering the space of breathwork. Firstly, and this goes with working with any practitioner. Find a facilitator you resonate with, ideally, someone you feel safe with. It’s been proven that a large percentage of what influences the effectiveness of any therapy is the client's ability to feel safe with the facilitator. You may do this by searching on Google and checking o...

Reducing the effects of Asthma

I was reminded recently of a time in my life that now feels like a bad dream. It’s such a distant memory that it’s hard to believe it was ever my reality.Growing up, I was sick a lot, often with chest infections. It became a running joke in our family that I’d be sick for my birthday, almost like clockwork. I was frequently on antibiotics, and I lived in fear that using too much energy would lead to burnout. I tried everything I could think of to fight it, but back then my toolkit was far ...

Living rent free. My experience house sitting in the UK and Europe

First off I should say, that this is what I would have done if it weren't illegal to house-sit on a tourist visa, and I'm a law-abiding citizen. If it were legal, my trip may have looked something like this..I was a month or so into my travels abroad after I'd taken the leap of faith and headed from New Zealand across to the UK, my savings were rapidly depleting, and I needed to find a solution to my lack of accommodation. One evening, whilst having a mild freakout trying to work out how on eart...

How to do a Gallbladder Cleanse

The infamous Gallbladder Cleanse. I've preached about this for years and threatened to write about it for just as long, but I never quite get around to it. Mostly because afterwards, it’s the last thing I want to relive. But here I am, taking one for the team.So, what's a gallbladder:The gallbladder’s main function is to produce bile which helps you break down fats in the gut. Think of it like trying to clean a greasy plate without soap. The gallbladder creates the “soap” to help break d...

4x4 adventure around the south island

This is the blog I wrote after completing a one-month/4000km camping trip around NZ, over summer/New Years break, almost a year ago.This year I decided to do things a little differently. Whereas normally I would write my new years resolutions out, this time I decided to try my best to embody them. In the lead up to new years, I was at work one day and was chatting to one of the subcontractors about how it would be fun to kit out my car and go travel the South Island, to which he said “mat...

Current thoughts on spirituality

I wrote this piece about 20 months ago, maybe longer. I have slightly edited it for more modern times but wanted to keep the essence. Enjoy.What a topic… I feel like I’m going to have to be cautious with what I choose to focus on in this post as spirituality can be seen/felt/experienced in all aspects of life. I see it more as a way of life I’m learning to navigate than a set of practices.What I’m learning is that there is no road map for life. We all must venture our own way, and if we ...

Navigating Breath

I vividly recall the morning I signed up for the Owaken breathwork facilitator training. I mean, how could I not. It was a bone-chilling night in the Kaimai Ranges, just out of Tauranga. One I hadn’t really been prepared for, so I was cocooned deep within my sleeping bag, tucked up in my rooftop tent, on that frosty Autumn morning. It was the morning of an immersive workshop that we had all camped out the night before in preparation of.I’d decided to start the day with a cold swim in th...

Reconnecting to your inner wisdom

I’ve been pondering how, at many points in history, we had, what seemed to be, genius born every minute. Coming up with and revolutionising theories in all manner of fields completely shifted the way we understood life. Now it seems as if someone has ripped up the handbrake, we have made minor adjustments but nothing like before, no individuals like the Telsa’s, Freud’s, Jung’s or Nietzsche’s of times gone by.I wonder what happened. Has all the chaos in our lives now made it hard to fo...

From Head to Heart: The Journey That Led Me from Psychotherapy to Breathwork

A few years ago, I completed over two years of weekly psychotherapy sessions with Megan Daube, a skilled and compassionate therapist who held space for some of the deepest parts of my inner world. What we called a “conscious uncoupling” marked the end of a chapter that was as rich as it was transformational. Together, we processed, reflected, celebrated, and grieved. That space became a sanctuary of safety, structure, and self-reflection—something I’ll always be grateful for.Therapy was ...

Barberyn Resort: Two weeks of Ayurvedic detox

In April 2017 I spent two weeks at Barberyn Beach Ayurveda Resort in Sri Lanka. This video documents my experiences during this time. It includes my understanding of the 5000 year old therapies I received and the thoughts and emotions I had along the way. It also touches on my experience of my Nana passing during this time.“Because we cannot scrub our inner body we need to learn a few skills to help cleanse our tissues, organs, and mind. This is the art of Ayurveda.” – Sebastian ...

A Rude Awakening

As I become more connected to this spiritual aspect of myself, the process of growth seems to increase exponentially. I went from minor insights and changes to times when it felt like everything around me was morphing and falling apart and I had to learn to become okay with it (and am still learning) using the tools I’d developed along the way to try help come to terms with the new challenge. The last few weeks have been no exception. It seems that off the back of a lot of work I’d done on m...

Returning to New Zealand

When I think of moving back to New Zealand it creates a well of emotion. It’s been a long time since I lived there and in many ways, I was a different person then. I left New Zealand unsure of myself and without any understanding of where things may lead. Five years later I return with a lot more tools to deal with situations and a world of new experiences. I’m not entirely sure what New Zealand holds for me, but in many ways, I feel like I no longer belong there. I know that sounds rid...