Everything you need to know from the neuroscience to your first session and beyond. Lisa Mort, Director of Coaching at Elemental Rhytrhm, breathwork facilitator, teacher ,integration coach, and founder of Compass.
Breathwork is one of the most powerful tools available for changing how you feel, not by thinking differently, not by pushing harder, but by working directly with the body and the nervous system. This guide will walk you through exactly what it is, how it works, and how to get the most out of your experience.
Section 01
The Neuroscience and the Nervous System
To understand why breathwork works, you need to understand what your nervous system is doing most of the time and why it is so hard to change without going through the body.
"You cannot think your way out of a pattern that lives in the body. That is why nothing else has worked long-term."
The Two States
Survival: fight, flight, or freeze
Your sympathetic nervous system activates in response to perceived threat. Heart rate increases. Muscles tighten. Cortisol and adrenaline flood the body. The rational mind narrows its focus. This state is designed for short-term emergency, not for the hours, days, and years most of us spend living in it.
Recovery: rest and digest
Your parasympathetic nervous system takes over. Heart rate slows. Muscles release. The body repairs itself. This is the state where actual healing takes place, physical and emotional. Most of us spend far too little time here.
The Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body, running from the brainstem down through the heart, lungs, and digestive system. It is the primary communication pathway of the parasympathetic nervous system and specific breathing patterns directly stimulate it.
When you breathe in a slow, rhythmic, conscious pattern, you are sending a signal directly through the vagus nerve to the brain that says: we are safe. The body responds immediately. This is not metaphor, it is measurable, physiological change happening in real time.
Transient Hypofrontality
During deeper breathwork sessions, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for rational thought, self-criticism, judgment, and the constant mental chatter, temporarily reduces its activity. This is the same phenomenon that occurs during deep meditation and flow states.
When this happens, you can access layers of the subconscious that are normally blocked off by the thinking mind. Old patterns, buried emotions, suppressed memories, and conditioned beliefs become accessible, not in a frightening way, but in a way that allows you to witness, understand, and begin to release them.
This is why breathwork can do in one session what years of talk therapy sometimes cannot reach. It goes underneath the thinking mind entirely.
The Bilateral Stimulation Headphones
At Compass, sessions use professional-grade surround sound bilateral stimulation headphones. Bilateral stimulation means sound alternates rhythmically between the left and right ear, activating both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously. This is the same neurological mechanism used in EMDR therapy.
Combined with breathwork, bilateral stimulation deepens the meditative state, enhances emotional processing, and allows the nervous system to release stored tension more effectively than breath alone. The music is layered with binaural beats and healing frequencies that guide the brain into states of deep relaxation and openness.
Section 02
Types of Breathwork Techniques
There are many forms of breathwork, each with different mechanisms and purposes. Here are the most widely practiced and are woven into the Elemental Rhythm method used at Compass.
Elemental Rhythm Breathwork
Used at Compass
A contemporary, evidence-based breathwork method combining conscious connected breathing with bilateral stimulation, somatic awareness, and integration coaching. Sessions are fully guided and customized. This is the primary method used at Compass — designed to access the subconscious, release stored emotional and physical tension, and support lasting nervous system change.
Box Breathing
Also known as square breathing or tactical breathing
Inhale for 4 counts. Hold for 4. Exhale for 4. Hold for 4. Used by Navy SEALs and high-performance athletes for stress regulation and focus. A practical daily tool for acute anxiety, overwhelm, or pre-performance nerves. Teaches the nervous system that you can control your physiological state through breath.
Holotropic Breathwork
Developed by Stanislav Grof
An intensive practice using accelerated breathing combined with evocative music to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness. Often produces profound psychological insight and emotional release. Typically done in group settings with trained facilitators. One of the foundational approaches that informed modern breathwork practice.
Physiological Sigh
Researched at Stanford University
A double inhale through the nose followed by a long exhale through the mouth. Shown in research to be the fastest known method for reducing physiological arousal in real time. A single physiological sigh can measurably lower heart rate and cortisol within seconds. A powerful on-the-spot tool for stress and anxiety.
Coherence Breathing
Also known as resonance breathing
Breathing at approximately 5 to 6 breaths per minute — typically a 5-second inhale and 5-second exhale. Creates a state of heart rate variability coherence, aligning the rhythms of the heart, lungs, and nervous system. Associated with reduced anxiety, improved emotional regulation, and enhanced immune function.
Section 03
What Happens in a Session, Step by Step
A Compass breathwork session is structured to create safety, depth, and integration. Here is exactly what to expect from the moment you arrive to the moment you leave.
1
The check-in
Before anything begins, you will have a brief conversation about where you are right now. What is present for you today. What you are carrying. What you are hoping to move through or understand. This allows the session to be customized to what is alive for you in this moment.
2
Setting up and grounding
You will get comfortable, lying down is typical for deeper sessions. Headphones go on. A brief grounding exercise settles the nervous system and brings you out of your head and into your body. You are moving from doing mode into being mode.
3
The breathwork journey
The main event. You are guided through a specific breathing pattern while music flows through the bilateral stimulation headphones. Lisa's voice guides you throughout, offering cues, support, and permission to go deeper. The session typically runs 60 minutes depending on the format. You are never alone in the experience.
4
The release and landing
As the active breathing winds down, you enter a period of stillness. This is often when the deepest insights, emotions, and physical releases occur. The body needs time to process what just happened. This phase is honored, not rushed.
5
Integration conversation
After the session, you will share what came up, images, emotions, sensations, realizations, questions. This conversation is where the experience becomes meaning. Integration is how the session creates lasting change rather than remaining a passing experience.
6
Your recording
You will receive a downloadable audio recording of your breathwork journey. This is yours permanently. Many people find that returning to their recording recreates much of the same nervous system shift as the live session.
Section 04
How to Prepare for Your First Session
You do not need to do anything special to prepare for breathwork. But there are things that will help you get more from the experience.
Before the session
Eat lightly in the 2 hours beforehand. A full stomach can interfere with deep diaphragmatic breathing and sometimes causes nausea during the session.
Avoid alcohol and caffeine on the day of your session if possible. Both affect your nervous system in ways that can limit how deeply you can go.
Wear comfortable, loose clothing. You will be lying down and breathing deeply for an extended period. Anything restrictive around the chest or waist can be distracting.
Come with an open mind rather than specific expectations. The session will go where it needs to go, which is often not where you expected. Trust the process.
If there is something specific you are working through or hoping to release, you can bring that intention. Hold it loosely.
The right mindset
The most important thing you can bring to a breathwork session is willingness. Not certainty. Not readiness. Just willingness to show up honestly and let the breath do what it does.
Many people arrive nervous, especially for their first session. This is completely normal. Nervousness and readiness are not opposites. You can be nervous and ready at the same time.
"You don't need to know what's going to happen. You just need to be willing to let it."
What to leave at the door
The need to do it right. There is no right way to breathe in a session. There is only your breath.
The need to make something happen. The experience is not a performance. You are not being evaluated.
The need to understand everything as it happens. Some things make sense in the moment. Others make sense days later. Both are fine.
Section 05
What to Do After a Session: Integration
Integration is the work that happens after the breathwork ends. It is how the experience becomes change rather than just an experience. Most people underestimate how important this phase is and how long it lasts.
The integration window
In the hours and days following a session, your nervous system is in a heightened state of plasticity. Old patterns are loosened. New neural pathways are forming. This is a window of opportunity and how you move through it matters.
In the first few hours
Give yourself transition time. Do not book a difficult meeting or stressful appointment immediately after a session if you can help it. You need space to land.
Drink water. Breathwork is physically activating and can be dehydrating.
Rest if you feel called to. Many people experience deep tiredness after a session, this is the body processing and repairing.
Journal if you can. Even a few sentences about what came up, what you felt, what you noticed. Do not try to make sense of it yet, just capture it.
Avoid numbing. Alcohol, overeating, excessive screen time, these close down the integration window.
In the days that follow
Things continue to move after a session. Emotions may arise unexpectedly. Old memories may surface. Dreams may become more vivid. Physical sensations may shift. This is all part of integration, the body and psyche continuing to process what was activated.
Return to your session recording during integration. Many people find that listening again reactivates the nervous system state from the session and supports continued processing. Use it whenever you feel activated, overwhelmed, or disconnected.
Section 06
Common Experiences and What They Mean
First-time participants often have experiences during breathwork that surprise them. Here is a guide to what commonly happens and what it means.
Tingling or numbness
Very common, especially in the hands and feet. Caused by changes in carbon dioxide levels from altered breathing patterns. Completely safe and temporary. Often accompanied by a feeling of lightness or expansion.
Tetany
Muscle cramping or rigidity, often in the hands. Alarming for first-timers but completely harmless. Caused by CO2 changes affecting calcium ion channels. Releasing into it rather than resisting usually helps it dissolve.
Emotional release
Tears, laughter, anger, grief, joy. Emotions that have been suppressed in the body surface when the rational mind quiets. This is not a breakdown — it is a breakthrough. This is precisely what the work is designed to do.
Altered states
Some people experience visual phenomena, altered sense of time, feelings of expansion, or deep states of peace. These are natural effects of the neurological changes occurring during deep breathwork. They are safe and temporary.
Memories or images
The subconscious mind can surface memories, images, symbols, or scenes from the past. They are often the content that most needs to be witnessed and integrated. This is where the coaching conversation afterward becomes essential.
Nothing happening
Some people, especially in early sessions, experience very little. This is also valid. The nervous system has its own timeline and protective mechanisms. Something is always happening even when it does not feel dramatic. Consistency builds depth over time.
Deep peace
Many people finish a session feeling lighter, cleaner, and more present than they have in years. A softness in the body. A quieting of the mind. A sense that something held has been released. With practice, this state becomes more accessible in everyday life.
Resistance
Sometimes the mind pushes back. This is the ego's protective response to being asked to let go of control. Gently returning to the breath is the practice. The resistance itself is often where the most important material is hiding.
A note on intensity
Breathwork can sometimes feel intense emotionally or physically. This is why every Compass session is fully facilitated. You are never alone in the experience. If anything feels like too much, you can always return to normal breathing and the experience will naturally soften.
Section 07
Contraindications and Safety
Breathwork is safe for the vast majority of people. However, there are specific conditions where full breathwork sessions are contraindicated or require medical clearance first.
Please consult your physician before participating if you have
Pregnancy
Cardiovascular conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure, or history of heart attack or stroke
Epilepsy or seizure disorders
Severe psychiatric conditions including active psychosis, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder in an active manic phase
Recent surgery, especially abdominal or thoracic
Severe asthma or respiratory conditions
Glaucoma or detached retina
Active substance use disorder
Modified sessions are often possible
For many of the above conditions, a modified breathwork session using gentler techniques can be appropriate and still deeply beneficial. Please reach out to discuss your specific situation before booking.
Emotional safety
Compass sessions are held in a trauma informed container. The pace, depth, and intensity of every session is guided with awareness of how trauma lives in the nervous system and how to work with it safely. You will never be pushed beyond what is appropriate. Your comfort and autonomy are always honored.
Important
Breathwork is not a substitute for medical care, psychotherapy, or psychiatric treatment. It is a complementary practice that works alongside other forms of support. If you are currently working with a therapist, physician, or psychiatrist, please let Lisa know and consider informing your provider that you are adding breathwork to your wellness practice.
Section 08
How Compass Is Different
There are many breathwork practitioners and programs available that are great. Here is what makes Lisa's approach genuinely different, not as a sales pitch, but as an honest explanation of what you are choosing when you work with Lisa:
Lived experience, not just credentials
Lisa spent 30 years suffering from depression silently behind a successful exterior — trying therapy, medication, hypnosis, self-help programs, and workshops without lasting relief. Breathwork was the first thing that actually worked. She does not teach from a textbook. She teaches from 30 years of being the person sitting across from her. Every pattern, excuse, and self-protection strategy her clients bring, she has lived herself. That is not a credential you can earn in a training program.
Breathwork integrated with subconscious coaching
Most breathwork practitioners facilitate the experience and send you home. At Compass, the breathwork is the doorway, not the destination. What surfaces during a session is worked with intentionally through integration coaching, subconscious reprogramming, and nervous system education. The session opens the door. The coaching ensures you actually walk through it.
The bilateral stimulation technology
The professional-grade surround sound bilateral stimulation headphones used at Compass are not a gimmick, they are a clinically informed tool that measurably deepens the neurological effects of breathwork. Most facilitators bring a Bluetooth speaker. Compass uses music layered with healing frequencies specifically chosen to support the breathwork journey.
Directness without harshness
Lisa will not tell you that you are doing amazing. She will not accept your excuses because she has used them all. She is trauma informed and deeply compassionate, and she will also call you on your patterns with love and zero tolerance for the story that is keeping you stuck. For people who have outgrown gentle encouragement and need someone who actually sees through the performance, Compass is that place.
A custom recording that is yours forever
Virtual session at Compass have the option to include a downloadable audio recording of your breathwork journey. This is not a generic guided meditation, it is the actual recording of your session, with your music, your breath, and Lisa's guidance tailored to what was present for you that day. It is yours permanently, to return to whenever you need it.
Ready to experience it for yourself?
Book a Complimentary Discovery Call
A free, no-pressure conversation to learn more about customized plans and find the right path for you. No commitment required — just an honest conversation about where you are and what might help.
