“Show me how you breathe, and I’ll show you how you live.” (author unknown)

Breathing is a key pathway to healing which is always available to us. It can help us manage our emotional distress, to self-regulate, to open our hearts, and to reach deeper states of consciousness to access the wisdom of our higher mind.

What is a Peer Circle?

* Co-creation of a 6-week group of 6 women which offers mutual support, Teams of Two (see below), and a safe space for healing, peer-learning and empowered self-discovery. We take turns sending group healing energy to each woman (inspired by Lynne McTaggart’s Power of Eight).

* Deep listening and responding to the needs of the group, offering the choices below:

• Teaching of slow diaphragmatic breathing and progressive relaxation for calming, relief of anxiety, better sleep
• Transforming the inner dialogue for choice and empowerment
• Heart breathing for coherence and access to heart wisdom
• Self-exploration through LeShan exercises
• Healing, through slow breathing, deep relaxation (allowing alpha and & theta states of consciousness), and imagery
  • Imagery of a healing place
  • Meeting an Inner Guide
  • Meeting the Inner Child
  • Dialogue with an illness or symptom
• Sharing holistic health resources

90 minute weekly group sessions

My role is sister-explorer, a step ahead in breath practice; my goal is to listen and respond, support and learn.

We will work with various breathing exercises and techniques, cultivating mindful awareness of how we are breathing at moments throughout the day.

Three 1:1 coaching sessions: These hour-long personalized sessions allow you the private space to go more deeply into your healing. We will work together to uncover and address root causes to catalyze your healing.

Pay it Forward: Instead of charging a fee, I am inviting people to contribute toward the next person joining the group. At the end, just decide what you would like to donate based on the value you received.

Testimonials:  “I thought Cathy’s mentorship was great: soft, gentle, instructing with a heart.  It feels very clear that she is what she teaches and that she is strong in knowledge and experience.  That feels wonderful to meet with. Accountability partnering was helpful… intention and reinforcement when learning new things is incredibly supportive. The work done with partners was experimental and also very helpful. Enjoyed the intentional reflection we did
–working with intuition.”  – Nancy Graham

“I was concerned about being in a group where I didn’t know any of the women, since I have always been, in the past, anxious in groups and hesitant to speak up. But, after just one week, I felt comfortable about speaking and that I wanted to share, especially after one of the other women was nodding her head like she could relate to what I was saying–which gave me courage. I was able to move into my heart, and as I finally opened to the idea of accepting help–help started easily showing up! I’m letting go of my old story that ‘no-one is ever there for me,’ which was how it felt in my family. I mentioned a need and people jumped to fill it! I felt supported, like I’m OK and the world is OK.” – F.H.

To learn more: Please send an email to cathy@breathing4health.net.

What is a Team of Two?

To paraphrase my mentor, Dennis Rivers: We all need mutual support for emotional resilience, and to help us reach our goals: “a swim-buddy for the ocean of life,” as he says. In such a relationship, we are each a giver and a receiver of emotional support, an accountability partner and peer coach. To provide mutual support, we call forth our caring, sincerity, and nonjudgmental empathic listening, to help another person mobilize her own coping resources. We’re drawing on the well of intelligence and loving awareness that we all possess, while opening ourselves to receive the same from our partner. We’re all teaching by example; we are all teachers and learners. In helping another person with a genuine spirit of giving, we invariably help ourselves.

Here is an excerpt from Dennis’ website:

Three-Part Learning Companions

One important aspect of the Teams-of-Two theme is an emerging, three-part vision of what it means to be on an equal footing with another person, given that no two people ever have exactly the same experiences, temperaments or skill sets. In my experience, with every person I meet, I have (and am invited by life to deepen) at least three parallel, different and complementary relationships, like a chord of three notes played on the piano.

-There are many areas and topics in life where you know more than I know, and you have lived more than I have lived. In relation to those areas I am your student and apprentice.

– There are some areas and topics in life where we know roughly the same amount and/or we’ve had roughly the same amount of experience. In relation to those areas, I am your companion and co-explorer.

– And there will be some areas and topics in life where I know more than you do, or have had more experience than you. In relation to those areas, my task is to support, accompany and encourage you in your exploration and learning.

… We are all perpetual beginners, each of us facing our own multiple horizons of the unknown.

…What we can do is walk along beside one another in a journey of exploration and discovery. And that walking-along beside can be a powerful, life-giving, form of encouragement, even though it focuses on living with ongoing questions rather than providing dramatic answers. I can’t run for you, no matter how good a runner I am, nor can you run for me, but running together we can encourage each other to run further than either of us would have run alone. We are co-mentors on the road of life.

– Dennis Rivers