Part Four: Prioritizing Safety, Accessibility and Choice in Teaching Breath Work

If you are just tuning in here is a recap of this Four Part Breath Work series. If you haven’t checked out these previous blogs I highly encourage you do so prior to reading this as Part 1-3 frame the context for this piece.

• Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work
• Part Two : Understanding the Breath and Nervous System
• Part Three: Exploring Breath Work, Where to Start?

The first thing I always encourage others that are interested in teaching or coaching breath work to do is self exploration. Self exploration should be the first place we start and I whole heartedly believe we should not be teaching or coaching breath work practice that we haven’t spent time with ourselves. You are your own best teacher. I fully believe that we can teach others by way of intimately knowing the practice. Part Three: Exploring Breath work, Where to Start? Can help you with this!

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Part Three: Exploring Breath Work, Where to Start?

If you have not read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series I highly recommend you do as this will give you an in depth look at what breath work is and why it is imperative we be teaching and coaching breath work in more trauma aware and trauma informed ways.  

• Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work
• Part Two : Understanding the Breath and Nervous System

I am passionate about helping all of my clients and athletes understand what breath work is and explore this practice with more awareness so that they may engage with the practice in ways that are centered around accessibility, safety and choice. These are what allow people to practice in ways that support them.  

There are a variety of ways to engage in breath work but more importantly you do not have to engage in it at all. This is why I highly encourage everyone to start by thinking about their goal or intention for breath work before embarking on a...

Part Two: Understanding the Breath and Nervous System

If you haven’t checked out Part One of this four part breath work series, A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work  I highly suggest you do so. We break down why a trauma aware and trauma informed approach is critical when teaching and coaching breath work.

Now we will dive in to the nuances and connection of the breath and nervous system to reveal exactly why a trauma aware/informed approach supports our clients best.

What is breath work?

We can’t talk about breath work without first acknowledging what the breath is. To breathe is to be alive and breathing is the most basic physiological process that is required for living. Pranayama, which is often used to refer to “breath work” is the one of the 8 limbs of yoga. Prana, means “life force”. Yama means “extension or control”. 

The breath is automatic but we can also control it.

In order to control or...

Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work

As mainstream society continues to jump on the breath work bandwagon it is very important we continue to prioritize safety, accessibility and choice with regards to this practice. As a mental health therapist and mindfulness coach that works extensively with athletes, I am passionate about sharing the nuances of such an individualized and powerful practice. I have also personally experienced significant trauma, chronic anxiety and panic disorder in my life and I know firsthand how challenging breath work can be due to these experiences.

Welcome to this Four Part Series on Breath Work.

• Part One: A Trauma Aware Approach to Breath Work
• Part Two : Understanding the Breath and Nervous System
• Part Three: Exploring Breath Work, Where to Start?
• Part Four: Prioritizing Safety, Accessibility and Choice in Teaching Breath Work

Lets dive in!

Breath work is often sold as a grounding and calming practice. Things I have seen or...

Hello! Welcome to my work.

My name is Emily Perrin and I am a Mental Health Therapist and Mindfulness and Performance Coach. I am so thankful you are here and I’m excited to share my journey with you in detail. Although my path to this work has not been linear much of it has been shaped by my own lived experience. 

The truth is I grew up in and around sport. My Dad was a college basketball coach at the University of Virginia for the first 10 years of my life where he also received his Ph.D. in Sport Psychology. Some of my earliest childhood memories are running around University Hall (which sadly no longer exists) at UVA and going to team practices. Even after leaving college basketball he has continued to work with some of the best athletes in the United States. His career has taken him across multiple professional leagues including the NBA, MLS, NWSL and to two World Cups with the US Men’s National Team. From a very young age this was my life. I...

If you haven't tuned in to Part One and Part Two of this Series I recommend starting there. 

Part One: The role of the Nervous System in both Mental Health and recovery 

Part Two: The link between Recovery and Mental Health 

But the impact of failing to prioritize recovery will also be a foundational piece of how an athlete performs. 

Impact on Performance 

For those of you who have gotten this far, THANK YOU.  But alas, we have one more element to also consider. 

Performance. 

Although I believe that there is NOTHING more important than the overall well being of an athlete, I also know that sport is competitive. Although we are moving in the right direction with mental health in sport there are still MANY athletes and coaches who prioritize performance and winning over overall health.  

Performance is a critical piece to sport. But mental health is the foundation for performance.

Many athletes come to sport with goals and...

 If you are just tuning in make sure to go back and read Part One. This will give you look at how the Nervous System is going to be central to both Recovery and Mental health. Now let's look at the link why we cannot talk about Athlete Mental Health without thinking about Recovery. 

Recovery and Mental Health 

Now lets see WHY an athlete needs to be prioritizing and making MORE of an effort to make this intentional down SHIFT in their nervous system after recovery.  This is where we begin to link Recovery and Mental Health.  

Have you ever looked at a typical college athlete’s life? 

If not, let me paint a picture for you: 

1. Training every day (1 off day mandatory —- is it ever really off?) 
2. Many teams lift in season so add at least 1 lift (maybe more) on top of training 
3. Anywhere from 1-2 games per week (baseball is an anomaly) 
4. Outside of practice film review or individual sessions with coaches 
5. ...

As a Mental Health therapist and Mindfulness and Performance coach I have worked with countless elite high school, college and professional athletes. More often than not the athletes and coaches I work with are driven, competitive and meticulous about their training both on and off the field. Yet, these same athletes and coaches fail to be as meticulous and prioritize recovery in the same way. 

Athlete recovery is directly linked to mental heath and well being. We are moving in a time where mental health across many environments, including sport is gaining the attention it deserves yet athlete recovery is an absolutely CRITICAL piece to the athlete mental heath equation. This 3 part blog series aims to clarify the connection between the two.

Elite performance requires elite recovery. Hopefully through this series you will see why. 

The Nervous System and Mental Health  

The Nervous System is the foundation of our health and well being....

As I finished yet another year of school this year and look towards my graduation in November of 2022, I thought it would be a good idea to write a piece about Clinical Social Work. 

Several questions and comments I get when I tell people that I am getting a Masters in Clinical Social Work are: 

“What is that?” 

“How does Social Work have anything to do with sport and athletes?” 

“So you’re going to take kids away?” 

“Why didn’t you just do Sport Psychology?” 

These are fair statements and mostly come from a place of simply not knowing. Clinical Social Work is a relatively new field compared to Psychology or even Counseling. There is a large misconception that Social Work is about taking children away from their families and helping the poor while making absolutely no money. 

This is far from the full truth. I believe that society and more specifically the news play a large role in why...

This isn’t a new subject by any means. We’re seeing more and more professional athletes speak up and go public with their various struggles.  College Athletic Departments are putting more structure and programming in place to address mental health for their student athletes.  I believe were making progress, but we as an elite athlete community have a long way to go.  

In the field of Clinical Social Work, one of our jobs is to research and address social problems. A social problem is an alleged situation or widespread issue that affects a significant number of people.  Over the last few months my work has been dedicated to researching and addressing the social problem of mental health within the elite athlete community. 

Remove competitive sport from the scenario and mental health in general continues to be a widespread issue within the United States.  We’re living in a time where stress and anxiety are at an all time high. A...