What Is Somatic Breathwork? How It Heals Trauma & Awakens Feminine Energy
Have you ever felt like you’ve tried everything—therapy, coaching, journaling, meditation—but still can’t shake the emotional weight or disconnection from your body? Maybe you’re a high-functioning woman who carries a lot, who’s done the inner work, but still feels a sense of stuckness, anxiety, or burnout.
If you’ve hit a plateau in your healing journey, somatic breathwork may be the missing piece you’ve been searching for.
In this post, I’ll break down what somatic breathwork actually is (and how it’s different from other techniques), why it’s especially powerful for trauma healing and feminine embodiment, and how to get started in a safe, supportive way—even if you’re brand new.
So, What Is Somatic Breathwork?
Somatic breathwork is not just box breathing or a calming technique—it’s a powerful therapeutic practice that uses rhythmic, circular breathing to shift you into an altered state of consciousness (ASC). This altered state can help you access buried emotions, repressed trauma, and unconscious beliefs that are stored in your body and nervous system.
Like psychedelics or sacred plant medicine, somatic breathwork softens your psychological defenses and allows deep insights, memories, and emotional processing to emerge—but without the need for substances.
This isn’t about bypassing. It’s about going in, gently and safely, to meet the parts of you that still need healing and love.
How Does Somatic Breathwork Heal Trauma?
When we experience trauma—especially early or developmental trauma—it often becomes stuck in our body. Talk therapy is helpful, but it doesn’t always reach the non-verbal, somatic layers of the nervous system where trauma lives.
That’s where breathwork comes in.
Breath is one of the most direct pathways to the nervous system, giving us access to stored emotional pain, suppressed memories, and outdated survival patterns. In breathwork sessions, many of my clients report:
Releasing grief, rage, fear, or shame they didn’t know they were carrying
Gaining new perspectives on painful life experiences
Feeling more connected to their bodies and intuition
Experiencing deep emotional release and a sense of peace
Reconnecting with their feminine energy, sensuality, and creative flow
Breathwork supports what trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk calls “trauma resolution”—the moment when you’re able to process and integrate a traumatic event so it no longer controls your reactions, emotions, or relationships.
But Is Breathwork Safe?
You may have read Reddit threads or heard stories about people feeling worse after breathwork. And yes, breathwork—like psychedelics—isn’t for everyone.
That’s why trauma-informed care is essential. When facilitated in a safe, intentional, and grounded space, breathwork becomes a profoundly healing tool. In my trauma-informed breathwork circle for women, we move slowly, we build trust, and we prioritize emotional safety and nervous system regulation over intensity.
You’ll never be pushed to “go deeper” or forced to re-live your trauma. Instead, you’ll be guided to listen to your body, honor your edges, and gently open to what’s ready to be released.
What Does the Research Say?
While anecdotal stories have long pointed to the healing power of breathwork, we now have scientific studies that back it up.
A 2024 peer-reviewed study published in npj Mental Health Research found that circular breathwork sessions led to:
Reduced depression and PTSD symptoms
Increased psychological openness and well-being
Enhanced emotional processing
Positive results that closely mirror those seen in psychedelic-assisted therapy
What’s more, the setting—including music, group support, and facilitation—was found to significantly enhance the experience and depth of healing. (Berglund et al., 2024, npj Mental Health Research)
Read the full study here
The Breath & The Feminine: Reconnecting to Your Cycles
If you’re on a journey of reclaiming your feminine energy, you know that it’s deeply tied to rhythm, intuition, and embodiment. The breath is a sacred mirror of the feminine—it constantly flows in cycles: inhale, exhale. Expansion, contraction. Birth, death, rebirth.
When we work with the breath in a trauma-informed way, we begin to sync back up with our own natural rhythms and reclaim our inner wisdom.
You become more resilient. More grounded. More you.
How Can You Get Started?
If you’re feeling the call to explore breathwork but aren’t sure where to begin, here are three ways to take the next step:
✨ 1. Try a Free Somatic Breath Practice
Start gently with a guided, trauma-informed breathwork session on Insight Timer. It’s a beautiful introduction to this work. Click here to get started
✨ 2. Get $19.50 Off Your First Membership
Ready to dive deeper with more support? Use this link to receive $19.50 off your first monthly, annual, or day pass for my guided classes, programs, and workshops.
✨ 3. Join the Monthly Trauma-Informed Breathwork Circle for Women
This 90-minute circle is a safe space to explore breathwork in community with other women. Each session supports you in regulating your nervous system, processing life experiences, and reconnecting to your body, emotions, and feminine power.
Click here to learn more + reserve your spot
The breath is here. When you’re ready, I’ll be here too.