High ventilation breathwork (HBV) is one of the fastest growing mind body modalities in the world. Once largely confined to spiritual and personal growth spaces, it is now being increasingly embraced by therapists, trauma specialists, coaches, and clinicians. As interest in somatic and integrative healing continues to expand, many practitioners are recognizing breathwork’s unique ability to engage the nervous system, deepen self awareness, and support trauma resolution in ways that talk based approaches alone often cannot.
Rather than working solely through insight or analysis, high ventilation breathwork directly involves the body and subconscious mind. This makes it especially relevant for trauma informed work, where unresolved experiences are often stored in the nervous system rather than in conscious memory.
What Is High Ventilation Breathwork
High ventilation breathwork refers to intentional breathing practices that involve sustained, rhythmic, and often faster breathing patterns that increase ventilation and alter carbon dioxide levels in the body. These techniques are commonly practiced with a connected or circular breath, meaning there are no pauses between the inhale and exhale.
This style of breathwork goes by several names depending on lineage and context, including Conscious Connected Breathing (CCB), circular breathing, holotropic breathwork, and rebirthing. While specific techniques and frameworks vary, we all share a common foundation. Sustained connected breathing, often accompanied by music and facilitation, is used to support deep physiological and psychological exploration.
Rooted in somatic traditions, these practices have been adapted for therapeutic, clinical, and personal growth settings. By engaging both physiology and subconscious processes at the same time, high ventilation breathwork creates a direct bridge between body and mind that many people experience as deeply transformative.
HVB Science: What Happens in the Body and Brain
Breathwork and Nervous System Regulation
Research on breathwork continues to demonstrate that deliberate breathing patterns can significantly influence the nervous system and emotional regulation. A large meta analysis published in Nature Scientific Reports found that breathwork interventions were associated with significantly lower self reported stress compared to control conditions, indicating measurable psychological benefits across diverse populations.
Brain Activity and Altered States of Consciousness
Studies examining high ventilation breathwork show clear effects on brain activity, mood, and states of consciousness. Research published in Springer reported changes in neural parameters following connected breathing sessions, alongside improvements in mental state. These findings support breathwork’s potential as a complementary therapeutic modality.
More recent neurobiological research has begun to map these effects in greater detail. A 2024 study titled Neurobiological substrates of altered states of consciousness induced by high ventilation breathwork accompanied by music examined how sustained high ventilation breathing affects brain networks involved in emotion, self perception, and awareness. The study found temporary alterations in the default mode, limbic, and salience networks, patterns similar to those seen in other non ordinary states of consciousness. These changes appear to facilitate emotional access, memory retrieval, and increased interoceptive awareness, offering a neurobiological explanation for experiences commonly reported during breathwork sessions.
Research on Holotropic Breathwork
Holotropic breathwork is one of the most widely studied forms of high ventilation breathwork. Clinical and observational research has reported improvements in psychological wellbeing, reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms, enhanced self awareness, and increased emotional resilience. Participants frequently describe meaningful emotional processing and long term positive changes, particularly when sessions are held within structured, supportive, and trauma informed environments.
Physiological Mechanisms Behind High Ventilation Breathwork
At a physiological level, high ventilation breathwork alters carbon dioxide levels in the blood. Lower CO2 leads to temporary vasoconstriction and changes in cerebral blood flow, which in turn affects how oxygen is distributed across different regions of the brain. Rather than a global increase or decrease in oxygen, there is a functional redistribution.
Research on high ventilation breathwork and related altered states shows increased activity in limbic and subcortical regions, particularly the amygdala and hippocampus, areas involved in emotional processing and memory retrieval. At the same time, activity in the prefrontal cortex, the region associated with executive function, cognitive control, and self monitoring, is often reduced. This shift away from top down cognitive processing and toward bottom up emotional and sensory awareness helps explain why breathwork can bring suppressed memories, emotions, and bodily sensations into conscious awareness.
These changes occur alongside shifts in autonomic nervous system signaling, interoceptive feedback, and salience network activation. Together, they create a state in which emotional and somatic material becomes more accessible, while habitual cognitive defenses and analytical thinking soften. This physiological pattern helps explain why high ventilation breathwork can access material that may remain unavailable through talk based or purely cognitive approaches alone.
While these physiological states are temporary, they can create powerful windows for insight, emotional release, and integration when facilitated skillfully and responsibly.
Benefits of High Ventilation Breathwork: What Practitioners and Research Suggest
Although research on high ventilation breathwork is still evolving, both practitioners and early studies point to a range of notable benefits.
Emotional and psychological regulation
Breathwork’s impact on the nervous system may help reduce stress and anxiety, support emotional processing, and enhance psychological resilience.
Accessing subconscious material
Because breathwork engages both physiology and altered states of consciousness, many participants report accessing deeply held emotions, memories, or insights that are difficult to reach through cognitive techniques alone.
Enhanced self awareness and integration
Participants often describe increased clarity, emotional resolution, and a sense of completion around unresolved experiences.
Nervous system regulation
High ventilation breathing directly influences autonomic activity, offering a pathway for addressing chronic stress patterns and supporting nervous system balance.
Physiological and somatic benefits
Deep, sustained breathing supports circulation, oxygenation, and a renewed sense of connection to the body, which can feel both physically grounding and emotionally stabilizing.
Discover more benefits of high ventilation breathwork here, and explore how breathwork can support addiction recovery here.
Hormetic Stress and High Ventilation Breathwork
High ventilation breathwork also aligns with research on hormetic stress. Hormesis refers to a biological process in which brief, controlled stressors stimulate adaptive resilience in the body and nervous system. While breathwork research does not consistently use the term hormesis, many of the physiological patterns observed in CCB and holotropic breathwork closely resemble hormetic response models studied in exercise physiology, cold exposure, and stress adaptation.
During high ventilation breathwork, the body undergoes a temporary physiological challenge. Reduced carbon dioxide levels, shifts in blood pH, increased sympathetic activation, and changes in cerebral blood flow create a short term stress response. Research shows that heart rate variability often decreases during the active breathing phase and then rebounds during recovery, suggesting improved autonomic flexibility and regulatory capacity after the session.
As the practice transitions into integration and rest, this acute stress resolves. The nervous system reorganizes and returns toward baseline with increased regulation. This pattern of stress followed by adaptive recovery is a defining feature of hormetic processes.
Neurobiological research supports this framework. The 2024 study on high ventilation breathwork and music demonstrated temporary changes in brain networks involved in emotion and self processing, supporting emotional access and nervous system recalibration. Research on holotropic breathwork further reinforces this model, with studies reporting lasting improvements in emotional regulation and psychological wellbeing when sessions are conducted in trauma informed, well supported contexts.
Importantly, hormetic responses depend on dose, safety, and context. When high ventilation breathwork is facilitated with appropriate screening, pacing, and trauma informed care, the temporary stress response can become a catalyst for regulation rather than overwhelm. This distinction highlights why proper training and skilled facilitation are essential and why breathwork is increasingly explored as a therapeutic adjunct rather than a purely experiential practice.
Taken together, this growing body of research suggests that high ventilation breathwork can function as a controlled physiological challenge that supports long term nervous system resilience, emotional integration, and psychological flexibility when practiced responsibly.
Important Safety Considerations for High Ventilation Breathwork
- Contraindications: This type of breathwork is not suitable for everyone. Avoid practice if you are pregnant, have heart conditions, high blood pressure, glaucoma, epilepsy, or severe mental health concerns without professional guidance. For a complete list of high ventilation breathwork contraindications click here.
- Safety: Because high ventilation breathwork engages the subconscious, nervous system, and stored trauma, it is safest to practice in a guided setting with a certified facilitator to ensure intense physiological and emotional responses can be supported and contained.
- Professional Guidance by a GPBA-Certified Facilitator: Experienced facilitators are essential for managing powerful nervous system effects, preventing retraumatization, and ensuring a safe, effective session.
- Avoid Substance Interference: Do not combine breathwork with alcohol, recreational drugs, heavy pharmaceuticals, or sedating medications that could impair awareness or physiological safety.
- Integration & Post-Session Care: Allow time after the session for rest, journaling, or discussion to process emotional and somatic experiences. Support gentle movement, hydration, and grounding practices, and avoid driving immediately after intense sessions if feeling lightheaded.
High Ventilation Breathwork Training: How to Facilitate Safely and Skillfully
High ventilation breathwork involves deliberate modulation of breathing patterns and can evoke powerful physiological and emotional responses. For this reason, proper training is essential.
Trauma-informed breathwork facilitator training equips practitioners with a solid foundation in anatomy, nervous system dynamics, and breath physiology. It develops skills in creating safety, pacing, and consent, alongside strategies for supporting emotional and somatic release without retraumatization. Ethical frameworks, scope of practice, and integration techniques are central components of responsible facilitation.
For therapists and clinicians, integrating breathwork into existing care expands the therapeutic toolkit, offering a direct way to support nervous system regulation alongside talk-based work. For non-clinicians drawn to deep somatic healing, trauma-informed facilitation training provides a structured, ethical, and evidence-based pathway to serve others with integrity.
When selecting a training program, consider the following:
- Trauma-informed and certified: Ensure the program is certified by the Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA).
- Comprehensive curriculum: Programs of at least 400 hours provide sufficient depth in theory, practice, and experiential learning.
- In-person experiential learning: Hands-on practice is vital for mastering supportive touch, voice work, nervous system attunement, and real-time facilitation skills.
- Ongoing support: Look for programs that provide guidance not only during training but also after, fostering continued growth and integration.
Unity Breathwork offers one of the most comprehensive trauma-informed breathwork facilitator trainings worldwide. Classes are kept small to ensure personalized attention and integrity. Delivered as a hybrid program, it combines the convenience of online learning with the depth of in-person training. The program is GPBA-certified and emphasizes trauma-informed care, covering:
- Developmental, intergenerational, acute, and chronic trauma, including complex PTSD, collective trauma, and perinatal matrices
- Parts Work (IFS), trauma and memory integration
- Nervous system dynamics and polyvagal theory
- Practical applications of the 12 Steps as a breathwork model
- Tension and trauma release exercises, and guided experiential practice
- This is an all-levels training: whether you are an experienced therapist, a practicing breathworker, or completely new to the field, all participants graduate as advanced-level facilitators, fully prepared to hold transformative sessions safely and skillfully.
Throughout the training, you’ll cultivate trauma-responsive skills that enable you to facilitate safely, effectively, and with profound support for every participant, preparing you to hold space for deep transformation with confidence and integrity.
Extra Citations:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763423004220
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-64254-7
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0329411
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12385377
