How can mastering mindful breathwork techniques help you achieve overall well-being? What is mindful breathing and how is it different from regular breathing?
MEET Kelsey Rudzinsky
Kelsey Rudzinsky is a Registered Nurse and Certified Breathwork Facilitator with a deep passion for helping people connect more deeply with themselves and with nature. After a decade of working in Western Medicine Kelsey stepped away from nursing to travel the world and feed a hunger for a more meaningful life. Along this journey, Kelsey experienced the transformative power of breathwork and has never looked back. She is dedicated to giving as many people the opportunity to experience this incredible self-healing modality as possible. Outside of work she enjoys yoga, exploring new places, training for American Ninja Warrior, and spending time in Nature.
Find out more at Boston BreathWork and connect with Kelsey on Instagram
IN THIS PODCAST:
What Is Breathwork?
- What is a breathing pattern?
- Finding what works for you as an individual
- What is the difference between breathwork and meditation?
Who Is Breathwork For?
- How often should you practice breathwork?
- What is Coherent Breathing?
- Examples of different types of breathwork
- The importance of setting an intention
What Are The Benefits Of Breathwork?
- Breathwork for creativity
- Finding your true voice
- Connecting to your spirit
- Breathwork and spirituality
- Being trauma-informed when it comes to breathwork with clients
- Are there any risks with practicing breathwork?
Connect With Me
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Resources Mentioned And Useful Links:
Find out more at Boston BreathWork and connect with Kelsey on Instagram
Transcript
Chris McDonald: In this enlightening episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast, learn how mastering mindful breathing techniques can significantly boost your mental clarity, reduce stress, and improve physical energy, as well as rejuvenate your mind and body. Today's guests share their insights and experiences, guiding you through various breathwork practices that can easily be integrated into your daily life.
Thanks Discover holistic benefits for mind, body, and spirit. Tune in and learn how to harness the power of your breath to achieve deep and holistic healing. So slow down, settle in, grab your tea and relax. You are going to love this episode.
This is Holistic Counseling, the podcast for mental health therapists who want to deepen their knowledge of holistic modalities and build their practice with confidence. I'm your host, Chris McDonald, Licensed Therapist. I am so glad you're here for the journey.
Have you been interested in adding yoga into your therapy sessions, but are unsure how? Get ready to unlock the power of yoga in your clinical practice with my recorded one hour training, Startup Strategies for Integrating Yoga into Clinical Sessions, and earn one continuing education contact hour. In this training, learn how to harness the powerful benefits of yoga and breath to help your clients learn how to reduce their anxiety and depression.
You will also learn how to differentiate between slow mindful yoga and fit yoga to tailor your approach for therapeutic settings. Get started with confidence and develop skills essential for integrating yoga into your practice. How to create a trauma informed approach and you even get a script to help you learn how to guide clients safely through a yoga sequence for anxiety.
Transform your clinical sessions and empower your clients with the healing power of yoga today. All of this, including one CE for only 65. Go to hcpodcast. org forward slash startup yoga. That's hcpodcast. org.
Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast and a big hello to you, Holistic Healers Tribe. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the new name for those who follow the Holistic Counseling Podcast and welcome. I had sent out a survey to those on my email list. And in my Facebook group, the Holistic Counseling and Self Care group, if you aren't a member, please join us.
It'll be in the show notes. Um, I would love to have you in there, but I want to have a name for those that follow the podcast. And this turns out, I think, to sum up. Perfectly for my followers, because holistic, of course, we have to have that in there and healers, because you are all healers as you are a therapist, or I have other people who are maybe you're not a therapist, but that's okay.
Maybe you are a Reiki person or a healer in another capacity, and I think tribe sums it up because we're all. community. So this really sums it up all together perfectly. Holistic healers tribe. So it does my heart good. So if you hear that again, you know where that is coming from. So in today's episode, we're going to be talking about breath work and thinking about our breath.
Breath is the first thing we do when we enter this world, hopefully. And the last thing we do when we leave it. Yet, how often do we really pause to truly appreciate the power of our breath? Because we have this in yoga. It's an ancient yoga practices to use breath, right? And there's been some research on breath and the impact on the nervous system.
But in today's episode, we are going to talk about the benefits on the body, mind, and spirit of conscious breathing. There are so many amazing benefits, which I think you will love to hear today's guests talk about this and also about the healing potential of the body by using breath work. We'll also touch on some of the potential risks, cause we cannot give benefits without talking about some of the risks and also how this apply to you if you use breathwork in sessions.
And also we'll touch on how to keep this trauma informed if you're using this with clients. Now, if you're someone who says, I don't work with trauma, guess what? You work with trauma. Everybody works with trauma, whether you know it or not, because sometimes clients won't tell you they've had trauma in the past.
So it's always good to have a trauma informed lens. And I will bring this up in this interview. You will find that out in a little bit. So just, just to be mindful and have some awareness, I think, in your sessions, especially with any somatic practices, so you're not taken off guard. And we're going to look into some very specific, uh, breathing practices and just some other considerations when teaching clients breathwork.
To help guide us on this holistic breathwork journey is Kelsey Rudzinski. She is a registered nurse and certified breathwork facilitator. the deep passion for helping people connect more deeply with themselves and with nature. And after a decade of working in Western medicine, Kelsey stepped away from nursing to travel the world and feed a hunger for a more meaningful life.
Along this journey, Kelsey experienced the transformative power of breath work and has never looked back. Welcome to the Holistic Counseling Podcast, Kelsey. Thanks for having me. So I wondered what first interested you in breathwork and learning about those practices?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, so I was introduced to breathwork along my own health journey.
So I was experiencing some hormonal imbalances and specifically wasn't getting the my period after coming off of birth control and was sort of coming up on dead ends in terms of what to do for myself and was introduced to this womb healer, which at the time I did not know what that was. And within this container that we were in, we did this specific type of breath work that completely changed my life and brought my period back.
So, you know, obviously when you have that type of experience, it like spark something in you to, to want to learn more about that. And, you know, it, it really changed the whole trajectory of my life in the best way. Yeah,
Chris McDonald: well, now you got me curious.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. So what
Chris McDonald: is the breathwork that changed you and, and helped you so much?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. So it's a, a three part breath and I was trained by a man named David Elliott. It's an interesting modality to be involved with because it's difficult to describe. It doesn't. technically have a name. So it's this very like, you just got to experience it type of thing. Yeah. But it is a three part breath.
So it really gets you out of your head and into your body in a way that I had never experienced before without, you know, taking some type of substance or something. So it was just a really, really profound reconnection with my body.
Chris McDonald: Yeah, and I think that's the beauty of breathwork, isn't it? Because it really can help you to shift from the thoughts, right?
Overthinking and getting back into the body. And I know a lot of therapists listening to you notice that with clients, too. It's our clients often come to us just. in their mind.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. And just that disconnect,
Chris McDonald: right?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Most of our lives just confined by the
Chris McDonald: mind. Yeah. Overwhelming the mind.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. And just an inability to turn it off in any kind of way, which, you know, we need some respite from thinking.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. And I think that that's, that's such a great way to help people to start these somatic practices is through breath work. I always say that's always. a good first step is, is if you want to become a holistic therapist too, breathwork is a wonderful way to kind of get started, but let's rewind for a moment.
So let's start with what is breathwork for those who are not sure what we're talking about here. Can you just start with that?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Sure. Yeah. So, Breathwork is the manipulation of your breath in a certain pattern for a specific amount of time. So it is essentially combining breath awareness, so bringing your awareness to your breath, with conscious breathing, so with breathing in a certain way.
And doing that, as you said, really switches off that mind. And what's happening in the body is, you know, you are releasing endorphins and you're alkalizing your cells and you're changing the way that your circulation is moving. So there are all of these physiological changes that are happening. And mentally what happens is the mind switches.
So yeah, breathwork is really any kind of breathing pattern and there are hundreds of different ways to breathe and each way has a different impact on the body. So that's another cool thing about it as practitioners are integrating this into what they already do. There are so many different types of breathing that you can learn and depending, you know, what type of clients you're working with and what they're experiencing.
Chris McDonald: There's breathing techniques for that.
There's a breathwork for that.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: I like to say, yeah, there's a breathwork technique for that.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. And I think that that's, what's the amazing part. And I always tell clients, I can show you a lot of breathworks, but guess what? You can try to find one that works for you because you can individualize.
There's so many. so many different ways to breathe. That's what's so exciting.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. And you can learn about it. You can read about it. You can know about it, but to experience it and feel it. And I think that's another good thing for practitioners. Just try things because you know, with these embodiment practices, once you feel them in your own body, you're able to hold space from a place of.
true experience.
Chris McDonald: True experience. Yeah.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Anybody can Google it and say like, Hey, here's a nice one. Let's try this. Right. Yeah. But to feel what changes happen in your own being, your own energetic field is where the real magic comes from.
Chris McDonald: Yeah, and just like when I teach therapists how to use yoga with clients, I think breathwork too is you have to do these practices first in your body and really experience them to notice what is that like for you?
What does that feel like? It is an experience, isn't it? And what's the difference between breathwork and meditation?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: So breathwork is an active meditation and that's why I love it so much because as somebody who myself, you know, I've always had a hard time just sitting still and meditating and, you know, a short attention span and with breath work, you have something to focus on.
So it's a type of meditation. It is an active meditation. And I think because your mind has a task that it's doing, it has to stick with a certain breathing pattern. it makes it much more accessible for people to access that meditative state or, you know, the benefits of meditation.
Chris McDonald: So it might be helpful for people who say they can't meditate.
Totally. Yeah. So what kind of clients do you work with that like to use the breath work?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. I primarily work with women generally, you know, I say women that are going through major life transitions, but I find that That's everybody. You know, we're all at some point in our life going through something, especially it feels like now life is moving at such a fast pace.
So yeah, I primarily work with women who are really desiring and are living, you know, their lives to the fullest and, and stepping into their authentic selves and wanting to really ignite. or reignite their power, their empowerment, their confidence. And then in terms of any sort of physical health issues, women that are experiencing hormonal imbalances, which many are, especially as we go through perimenopause, menopause just changes in the human body.
People trying to conceive, people that are pregnant. Just, you know, breathwork is a really beautiful way to bring the body back into a state of coherence, and we're on such a spectrum throughout the day of what can feel like just, yeah, feeling out of control in some ways, and so breathwork really brings people back to their center.
Chris McDonald: Yeah, it really does, doesn't it?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah.
Chris McDonald: So what do you recommend with people that you teach breathwork? Should they be practicing it each day or how do you, what kind of recommendations do you give to people?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, I recommend that people practice every day. So I teach a few different types of classes. The transformational breathwork, the three part breath, that's really like my primary offering.
That can be done every day. I generally recommend that people do it once a week because I like to think of it as breath work in, in an analogy of like cleaning a house, right? And for maintenance, you wanna go in and you wanna wipe things down and dust, but before you do that, you wanna go in and you need to get a real big clean sweep in there.
And to me that's what the transformational breathing is. You're really getting in and recalibrating everything and then coherent breathing or. You know, deep diaphragmatic breathing is something that's really, really beneficial to do every day. And so to me, that's the equivalent of going in and kind of dusting and straightening things up.
But everybody's different. Some people love doing the transformational breathing every day. And once you are able to sort of access that embodied state, they want to feel that every day. You know, it really depends on the person, how much time they have. But in terms of implementing some sort of breathwork into your life, people should be doing it as often as possible.
You know, setting as many triggers throughout your day to either take a deep breath, Or if you're sitting in your car at a light doing some alternate nostril breathing. Or if you're laying in bed at night and like thinking about grabbing your phone one more time instead doing some box breathing. Let me
Chris McDonald: check that Instagram or Facebook.
Totally. Yeah. So you said, what did you say? Coherent breathing? What is that? Can you share what that is?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. So coherent breathing is. it has a couple different names. So it's also known as diaphragmatic breathing or deep breathing. And what that's doing is essentially bringing the heart into a state of coherence.
And so taking deep diaphragmatic breaths at a rate of about five seconds in, five seconds out, so that you're getting to about five or six breaths per minute is the goal. Doing that for about five to ten minutes It brings the heart into a state of coherence. So then everything can just sort of relax, move a little more smoothly.
And these benefits, they're all cumulative, right? So just like anything we do, if you, you really want to feel results, you have to practice. You have to put in time. Yeah. And do it, do it daily.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. Mm hmm. The cumulative effect. So when we say five, because I know people get caught up in numbers. So if we say count for five.
So what does that mean for a counting practice? Is it one, two, three, or is it whatever their pace is in their mind? Yeah.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. I mean, the goal is to elongate the breath, elongate the breath. Yeah, generally we take pretty shallow breaths, so the more that you can think about expanding your lungs, sending the breath down through your whole abdomen into your chest, you know, that the longer of a deep breath you can take, the better, the better.
Yeah.
Chris McDonald: And you mentioned alternate nostril breathing. Can you talk what that is too?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. So you must know that one. Of course I
Chris McDonald: do.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Breathing practice. Yeah. So alternate nostril breathing is another way to quickly bring the body into coherence. So it's essentially sending the breath in through one nostril and out the other, because.
You know, we have these two sides of our bodies. And by sending the breath back and forth, we're really bringing them together. And it's a quick way to calm yourself down, to switch into that parasympathetic rest and digest and assimilate system. it offers a really quick boost of mental clarity. So this is something that I like to do before a difficult conversation before an interview.
Yeah. Anything like that. So especially in yoga, you know, because none of these breathing techniques are new. These are all ancient healing modalities. And so people can get kind of caught up on like, you know, how do I put my hand? And am I doing this correctly? And so for something like alternate nostril breathing, I try to teach it as simple as possible because the medicine is the breath.
So whatever will get people to engage. Oh, it doesn't matter
Chris McDonald: where you put your thumb or your forefinger or As
Kelsey Rudzinsky: long as it's blocking one nostril and then blocking the other. So I always tell people, you know, Gently block your right nostril. I gotcha. Inhale in through your left switch, release your right block.
Yeah, because I've been
taught different ways, but I guess it doesn't matter.
Yeah, and it does right. And in whatever intention it means to you, but if it's going to prevent people from doing it, my philosophy is the easier and the more accessible the better.
Chris McDonald: True. Yeah. So we want to make sure that we're not getting too caught up in the details of this as well.
Yeah. Yeah. So is there any other breath practice that you really like to teach? Well, the
Kelsey Rudzinsky: three part breath is my favorite. That's your favorite.
Chris McDonald: Okay. Yeah. That one's
Kelsey Rudzinsky: my favorite. I really like box breathing. You know, that's something that I think most. therapists are very aware of. I really liked 478 breathing technique.
Do you know that one? Okay. And yeah, I mean, the ones that we've talked about, it's really keeping it simple and creating a practice where you're doing it every day. That's, you know, that's where the nectar of it comes from is by actually creating. a ritual and a practice around this and doing it every single day and doing it with presence.
Chris McDonald: Right, because if your mind is on your to do list, then you're not going to probably get as much out of it, I'm guessing.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah.
Chris McDonald: And if you do it once in a while, and I tell clients this as well, if you just wait to your stress too, it's going to be helpful, but it's not going to be as helpful as if you make it a real consistent practice.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And what I do is primarily in person groups. And I've found that breathing as part of a community is such a powerful experience. What is that like? It's incredible, honestly, because the benefits are just expanded throughout the energy in the room. And so much of our lives, even the people that we are connected with, it's on a pretty superficial level.
And this is really being in this. vulnerable space together and going through this journey of embodiment and dropping into the heart with each other. It's just, it's, it's so beautiful to witness and to watch people feel safe enough to open up. Generally at the beginning of a group, we sort of, you know, introduce ourselves and say an intention for.
What brought us to the group, what we're hoping to get out of it. And then we breathe and after open the space up for people to share. And it's just so extraordinary to see and hear the way that people experience their breath and what comes up for people. And, and also just how similar the experiences that we all.
are having in our external world, right? Like we all come in and whether it's, you know, something with the relationships or jobs or our bodies to hear to witness one person open up and really share from the heart what they're experiencing. You can just see the ripple effect and everybody else in the group sort of, you know, drop their shoulders a little open their hearts of just recognizing that we are all in this together.
Chris McDonald: That universality, we call that in counseling speak. Yes. So powerful. Absolutely. It can make big, big changes for people. That connection and likeness it's huge. Yeah. That's amazing. You offer that.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Thanks. Yeah. I'm excited to see as it becomes more integrated into different settings and styles.
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org forward slash workbook today. So what are, I know you said some of the benefits, but what are the benefits of these breath practices?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, so there's tons of them, you know, it, it truly is a holistic practice in the sense that there are benefits, mental benefits, physical physical, emotional, spiritual, you know, in terms of the mental benefits, it, it really does quiet the mind and quiet those thoughts, increases clarity and has been shown to really increase memory.
It gives you access and increases your creative thinking and gives you more inspiration. I love doing breath work with. artists and creatives who are maybe birthing a new project or trying to create something new. They just get access to these visions and inspiration. I love that. It really helps people connect with their truth, learning to speak your true voice.
You know, when we get down into the root, a lot of times breathwork can illuminate, um, traumas that we've been through, different, energies that we've been holding on to that we maybe haven't thought about in decades. And so to be able to do that and feel that helps people feel more centered in who they are.
And then after the active part of the breath work, that relaxation time, people feel greater sense of calm than, you know, I've had numerous people come up to me and say, like, I have never experienced my mind just like, Quiet like that. Yeah. How do I get to that? You know, let me hold on to that. Yeah. Um, physical benefits.
It can improve digestion. You are alkalizing your cells and releasing toxins as you're breathing and moving that circulation. It can help regulate blood pressure. It helps with sleep. It can help relieve some chronic pain, increases energy. It strengthens the immune system for emotional benefits and spiritual benefits.
It's a really powerful way to increase and to tap into that self mastery and really knowing who you are, help you know your true self and step into your full potential, can help eliminate some of these like negative Thought blocks that we have and we can get stuck on because it quite literally connects you to your spirit.
So people can find and feel that connection that they've maybe never felt or have lost. And yeah, that, that was a big thing for me. I never. I didn't grow up religious. I didn't really know what I believed in and through breath work, I feel like I connected with spirit and with just a higher power in a way that created a much deeper sense of safety for me here on earth.
Just knowing that powerful. I was able to tap into something more and that's a sentiment that a lot of people have shared after engaging in this type of practice. And, you know, when I became a facilitator and had the opportunity to connect and meet with so many other people around the world who want to hold space, they said the same thing that, you know, once you experience something like this, it's just this.
overwhelming sense of like, people need to know about this, people need to experience it. So yeah, that's some of the benefits. I mean, I feel like I could just keep going.
Chris McDonald: So much. I love that. The spiritual component you mentioned too.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. And you know, one thing I will say, because I feel like I just touched on it a tiny bit about traumas coming up and, um, emotions.
And so I think in terms of therapists being involved in this, that's a huge part because I think the combination of talk therapy and these somatic practices is so important because bringing up, you know, especially if it's you know, big T traumas and things that people have never done any work to go through.
It can really leave people in potentially a re traumatized state if they don't have the support to go through that. So I think it's really important to know what people are ready for and make sure people know that and to know that they have the support that they need. Because sure, you can have this incredible experience, but But the most important part is integration and how to integrate any of these experiences into your life.
Chris McDonald: I find breath to be one of the most helpful ways to integrate with anytime I treat trauma or, or anxiety as well. It's so impactful.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. And I'm not a therapist myself. I come from a family of therapists. My brother actually, um, Graduated with his master's in social work about two hours ago. Oh, congratulations.
Yeah. Yeah. I've always, you know, been part of a team that involves therapists and yeah, surrounded with it in my family. So love therapists and love the combination of therapy. Yeah.
Chris McDonald: That's awesome. So cool. I'm sure you'll have a positive impact on him too. That's so cool. I know we have a lot of good benefits.
So from your experience, cause I know you're a certified facilitator too, are there some risks too with teaching people these practices?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: I don't think so.
Chris McDonald: I know you mentioned trauma too.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, I mean, so there's that piece. I tend to come from the philosophy that, and, and one of my favorite things about the breath is based on my experience, it really meets people where they're at.
And, you know, because the mind as the protective mechanism does come in. at certain times, right? Because in order for any of these deeper and more so recently, I've heard a lot of breathwork classes being called. I actually went to one last weekend that was called psychedelic breathwork because I wanted to know what that meant, you know, and.
Is that me? I'm, I'm still not sure. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I assume, you know, mind altering in some way. Oh, I see. I see. So I'm talking in terms of these because the hundreds of breathing techniques, of course, I feel like, you know, this is, we're just learning how to tune our instrument of something that we already have.
And from what I've seen, the breath really meets people where they're at. And unless you're, you feel completely safe for the mind to be able to fully let go and surrender in and have a deep transformative experience like that, you do have to feel safe. So I think for most people, their minds will step in and say like, Nope, nope, we're done.
We can, we don't want to do this. I mean, you know, Can breathwork ever be unsafe? Yes, if we're talking in terms of like breath holds and people holding their breath too long and passing out. Um, also, you know, we haven't really talked about breath holds, but the one thing with that is, you know, people who have any kind of uncontrolled heart condition.
So
Chris McDonald: are you talking about like just holding it for a certain amount of time?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, so there's a lot of newer practices, or not newer, I guess newer to me, where you do similar to like, like Wim Hof, where you do some like faster breathing for a specific amount of time and then you inhale and you exhale all the breath out and you hold at the bottom.
Chris McDonald: Oh, yeah. You got to be cautionary with it. Yeah. You just want to
Kelsey Rudzinsky: make sure that you're not putting more stress on an already stressed out heart.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. And I, and I tell clients just to be mindful of their bodies as they do these, any breathing practice too. Cause what I found is that some clients will over breathe and that sometimes people pleasers too, they try really hard and they get dizzy or, you know, they get light headaches.
They're really trying and they haven't done it before. So just, just letting them know that if they feel any of these symptoms, you know, they can just. back off at any time, just as therapists, we got to keep it trauma informed too. So just for therapists listening, just keeping that in mind too.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. I guess for me, I generally work with people.
So I wasn't thinking about it in terms of like giving them these to do on their own. So yeah, that's, that's true. Totally true.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I said, that's just some of my experience.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. Do you, are you aware of any other things to be cautioned about?
Chris McDonald: That's the big thing is, is people over breathing.
It's just people do try too hard sometimes, or if I give homework, I'll give very specific because some people will be like, okay, well you, she gave me a breathing, so I'm going to try this for like an hour and a half, like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Wow. So, so just try this for about, you know, five to six breaths and you're good, you know?
Yeah. Because I got people that just will take things to the, to the max, so. That makes sense.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. Mine, I'm generally working with people who are just coming to the classes.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So just, just cautionary tale. Yeah. Know your clients and what they'll do. Right. But just offering an out. So I always keep everything trauma informed with the clients I see too.
And that if anything feels uncomfortable in any way, just know you can stop at any time. Totally. And that's for any, you know, of course, any of these body based practices, because it can bring up some uncomfortable things. If we're doing breath work, if we're doing movement, even meditation. That could be triggering for some people.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, absolutely. And before any group, I, I go over, you know, the, the three pillars that I really go over are safety, sovereignty and support. Yeah. And giving people, you know, there's, I generally tell people, you know, if at any point you don't like what you're feeling, there are Three different ways to come out of the practice and most of the time people are wearing an eye mask.
So I say, you know, just flip open your eye mask and just let that light come in, change your breathing to just a natural inhale and exhale. That's a good practice. Or start thinking about your taxes and you'll come right back. Distraction.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. Yeah.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Or, you know, just turning the mind back on and bringing yourself back into the present moment.
Chris McDonald: True.
Mm hmm. Those are all
Kelsey Rudzinsky: good
Chris McDonald: practices. So I guess, is there a takeaway that you'd like to share for any therapist that might be considering adding breathwork with clients and they might be uncertain about how to get started?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, I would say try it for yourself. Experiment with different breathing techniques.
You know, maybe it's just because of the corner of the world that I'm in, but it seems like there are more and more breathwork practitioners that are offering both in person and virtual classes. So try different styles out for yourself and see how it resonates in your body and in your mind and go from there.
Chris McDonald: And what was the trainings that you went to? What was your, what were you certified in? What was the kind of training you had?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. So I went through a five level training with David Elliott and it's a healer training. So more so than learning the technique, it's about learning how to hold space and be with energy as it's moving.
So that was my main training. And then I learned some breathing techniques in nursing school, actually, that that's amazing. Yeah. Interesting to implement. And initially, when I started facilitating, I thought that I would only be doing the three part breath. And I quickly learned that most people don't know how to breathe in general.
Wanted to learn basics of breath work, so that's where I started implementing these different classes to really just bring people back to their breath.
Chris McDonald: Yeah, and I think the other thing that comes to mind too is I always tell people, just notice your breath first. Can you just pay attention to where it is?
Sometimes, like you said, the simplest, right? Where do I feel my breath right now before we even get to breath? Because especially for those with trauma, sometimes we got to start there because changing the breath can be triggering to for people that might be more, have more trauma or, or high anxiety too, if we're looking at that.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Absolutely. Yeah. I found. People who experience a lot of anxiety often fear their breath.
Chris McDonald: Yes, that too, the physical sensation.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah, and that sometimes anxiety for people can feel like they can't breathe. Even bringing the attention to the breath and trying to take bigger breaths can cause some initial panic in people.
Chris McDonald: Yeah, yeah, so true.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: So really starting slow and gentle, especially if you're working with people who have significant trauma. Exactly.
Chris McDonald: So what's the best way for listeners to find you to learn more about you?
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram. I'm kind of going through a rebrand right now because I just moved back to Boston where I'm from.
So on Instagram, I am at Boston underscore breath work. And then my website is breathewithkelsey. com. That's where, both places are where I put all of my upcoming in person events. I do a virtual group every Tuesday at eight o'clock Eastern time. That's on
Chris McDonald: Zoom. And that's available for people virtually.
Yeah. Oh, fantastic. And we'll have that in the show notes listener. So if you want to join Kelsey and her group, that would be a great experience to learn some breath work.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. Come check it out. It's a good time.
Chris McDonald: Yeah. And thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, Kelsey.
Kelsey Rudzinsky: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
Chris McDonald: And thank you listeners for tuning in today and for being a listener and for your support. I have a free 30 day aura meditation app for you and you can learn actually some breathwork in there as well as a meditation to help balance body, mind and spirit as well as get restful sleep. Check it out today at hcpodcast.
org forward slash better sleep. That's hcpodcast. org forward slash better sleep. And once again, this is Chris McDonald sending each one of you much light and love until next time, take care. Thanks for listening. The information in this podcast is for general educational purposes only, and it is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are giving legal financial counseling or any other kind of professional advice.
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