When
Sunday, June 16, 2024
8:30am - 7pm
Where: The Journey Space, 6110 Oberlin Avenue, Glen Echo, MD 20812
Trainers: Dory Perry, MSEd and Yulia Meshoyrer
Cost:
Pricing for this workshop is discounted for members of PsychedelicAssisted Therapy and Healing. To learn more about PATH or to join, visit us at PATH - https://pathdc.org/
➢ PATH Member: $250
➢ Non-Member: $350
Course Description:
We will begin the workshop with an opening circle, which will include introductions and the opportunity to begin connecting as a community, followed by a Q & A session. We will then take a break, providing time for participants to choose their breathing partner for the day. There will be two breathwork sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. One person will "breathe" in the morning session, while the other will "sit" for them. They'll reverse roles in the afternoon. In simple terms the breather lies on a mat with eyes closed and engages in a more accelerated, circular breath, while listening to evocative music. The sitter ensures the breather's basic, comfort needs are attended to (without interfering in or interrupting the process), by assisting them to the restroom if necessary or by offering water, tissues, etc., but only as solicited by the breather. There is a 10 minute relaxation before each breathwork session, led by a facilitator that will end with a brief instruction about the breath and then the music, and session, will begin.
After each breathwork session time is provided for those who breathed to engage in an integrative practice, such as journaling or drawing a mandala. We will provide art supplies and an art space for this purpose. Please bring you lunch with you to eat between the morning and afternoon sessions. There will be tea, coffee, water, and snacks throughout the workshop. The afternoon breathwork session begins immediately after lunch. The workshop day will conclude with a closing circle and opportunity for participants to share their experience. We'll also talk about integration, as we prepare to leave the close community we've created, re-enter the day-to-day world and begin to integrate our experience into our everyday lives.
Instructor Bios
Dory Perry began her journey with Holotropic Breathwork® in 2001, after attending a weekend workshop led by Stan Grof and Tav Sparks. On the heels of a cancer diagnosis and driven by the need for meaning and a more expansive perspective, her experience was profound and life affirming/altering. She began attending weeklong, residential Grof Transpersonal Training modules over the course of several years, integrating the work into her life as an ongoing spiritual practice. She has a deep trust in the power of Holotropic Breathwork® and in the inner, ancient wisdom within each of us. In 2005, she was certified as a Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator and has since been dedicated to offering the work to others. She regularly leads workshops throughout the U.S. and is also a module facilitator and a teacher in the Grof Transpersonal Training.Dory has an MSEd, with a focus on writing and literacy. A writer, musician, and filmmaker, she has spent much of her life working in the arts and has a particular interest in the power of writing, sound, and visual storytelling as healing and integrative practices. Originally from the tropics, she now resides in Pittsburgh where she works in higher education.
Yulia Meshoyrer is a Grof-certified facilitator of holotropic breathwork, a transformative technique developed by Stan and Christina Grof. With an MA degree in General Psychology from Russia and an additional MA in Transpersonal Psychology from Sofia University, Yulia possesses a rich understanding of the human psyche. She is also certified in Spiritual Emergency support and Dream Studies, and has received extensive training as a Kundalini Yoga teacher and Therapist. Currently residing between New York and New Jersey, Yulia is deeply rooted in both states, which are vibrant cultural and holistic communities. She hosts events in Holotropic Space, located in Colts Neck, a picturesque farmland just an hour away from New York City. Within this tranquil setting, participants are invited to explore profound states of consciousness through breathwork and various complementary modalities.
As the visionary founder of "Holotropic Space," Yulia leads a groundbreaking initiative to facilitate transformative experiences and holistic well-being. In addition to her role as a facilitator, she serves as an educator and mentor within the Grof Legacy Training US program, sharing her wealth of knowledge and experience with aspiring practitioners. Yulia's unwavering dedication to the advancement of consciousness underscores her significance within the field of transpersonal psychology.
The History of Holotropic Breathwork
Holotropic Breathwork was developed by Czechoslovakian psychiatrist, Dr. Stanislav Grof and his wife, Christina Grof. The word "holotropic" is taken from the derivative of the Greek words for "holos" (whole) and "tropic" (moving towards), thus "moving toward wholeness". Dr. Grof is a cofounder of Transpersonal Psychology and has made major contributions to the fields of psychiatry and psychology through his study of non-ordinary states of consciousness. A Freudian analyst, he began his initial study of these states in the 1960s as a young psychiatrist working with one of Sandoz Pharmaceuticals' experimental drugs, LSD, which he administered to psychiatric patients and the terminally ill. Following the banning of LSD in 1967, Grof developed Holotropic Breathwork, which uses the breath and evocative music to access and continue his work with expanded states of awareness and their use as a healing modality. It is his belief that these states have enormous therapeutic value and potential for healing, through the accessing of unconscious material that can then be made conscious.
Typical Elements of a Breathwork Session
Participants of Holotropic Breathwork have a variety of experiences from re- experiencing and releasing biographical events/trauma, to reliving birth experiences, as well as transpersonal experiences that transcend the personal and extend to cosmic dimensions. While there are sometimes recurring themes, no two breathwork sessions are ever quite alike. A typical breathwork session is 2.5 to 3 hours in length.
There are three primary elements of a breathwork session: the breath, evocative music and the use of releasing bodywork. Lying on a mat with eyes closed, the "breather" engages in a rhythm of breathing that is slightly deeper and faster and more cyclical than ordinary breathing. This combined with a specific type and trajectory of music, evokes a non-ordinary state of consciousness. The third element of the breathwork, can be focused-release bodywork. A breathwork session can include psychosomatic manifestations. Sometimes intense emotions come up during a breathwork session that can be the result of blocked physical or emotional energies related to repressed memories made suddenly available to the breather's consciousness for integration. Participants might experience twitching, spasms or other movement, resulting from the physical discharge of energy. They may also experience the release of blocked emotions through crying or other types of vocal expression. Bodywork is a focused and effective means of helping the breather bring their attention to areas where they are feeling tension or an energetic charge and intensifying that sensation as much as possible in order to release it. When correctly applied, this can allow the breather to reach a state of closure. It's important to note that the breather is always in complete control of this work and it is never done without the breather's consent. If the breather requests this work, they can also halt it at any time by simply saying "stop".