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How to choose a breathwork practitioner

By Alan Dolan, Founder of Breathguru® • 23 years of breathwork experience

CCB practitioners | Breathguru® Graduates

Breathwork has entered the mainstream. What was once a niche practice known only to a small community of dedicated explorers is now widely discussed — in newspapers, on podcasts, in gyms and wellness studios across the country. That is genuinely wonderful. The more people who discover the power of the Breath, the better.

But the growth of breathwork has also brought a proliferation of practitioners — and not all of them are equal. A quick search will reveal hundreds of people offering breathwork sessions, from experienced facilitators with decades of practice to weekend-trained coaches who have completed a short online course. For someone new to breathwork, navigating this landscape can feel overwhelming.

So how do you choose? Having spent 23 years in this field, I want to offer you an honest guide — not to promote myself, but because I believe the quality of your practitioner genuinely determines the quality of your experience. And your experience matters.

1. Look for genuine experience — years, not certificates

Breathwork is a practice that deepens with time. A practitioner who has been working with the Breath for fifteen or twenty years has sat with thousands of people across an enormous range of life situations, emotional states, and challenges. They have learned, through direct experience, how to hold space for someone who is in deep emotional release. How to recognise when to step forward and when to step back. How to work with what arises rather than simply following a script.

This cannot be learned on a weekend course. It cannot be learned in a year. Certificates matter — but they are the beginning of a practitioner’s education, not the end of it. When choosing a breathwork practitioner, ask how long they have been practising, how many people they have worked with, and what their own journey with the Breath has been. The answers will tell you a great deal.

2. Check their qualifications and professional memberships

While experience is the most important factor, formal qualifications and professional memberships provide an important baseline assurance. Look for practitioners who are:

A practitioner who is accountable to a professional body is one who has agreed to uphold ethical standards and best practice. This matters, particularly for a practice that can reach deep emotional and psychological material.

3. Read their testimonials — and look beyond the star ratings

Testimonials are one of the most reliable guides to a practitioner’s quality. But not all testimonials are equal. Look for testimonials that are specific — that describe what the person was struggling with before they came, what happened during the session or retreat, and what changed for them afterwards. Vague testimonials that simply say “great session, highly recommend” tell you relatively little.

Also pay attention to who is leaving the testimonials. A testimonial from someone well-known — a public figure, a professional in a relevant field — carries more weight than an anonymous review, not because ordinary people’s experiences matter less, but because well-known people are unlikely to put their name to something they do not genuinely believe in.

4. Look for press coverage and independent validation

Has the practitioner been featured in reputable press? Have journalists — who are paid to be sceptical — written about their work approvingly? Has their practice been cited in the context of broader conversations about health, wellbeing, and mental health?

Independent validation of this kind is meaningful. It suggests that the practitioner’s work has been scrutinised by people with no commercial interest in promoting it, and found to be genuinely valuable.

Look for coverage in publications with editorial standards — national newspapers, established magazines, reputable health and wellbeing titles. A practitioner who has been written about in The Guardian, Forbes, The Times, and The Telegraph has had their work tested against a standard of scrutiny that self-promotion cannot replicate.

5. Assess the quality of the relationship before you commit

A good breathwork practitioner will want to have a conversation with you before your first session. They will want to understand your history, your current situation, what brings you to breathwork, and whether there are any contraindications that need to be considered. They will answer your questions openly and honestly. They will not pressure you into booking.

Pay attention to how you feel in this initial contact. Do you feel heard? Do you feel safe? Does this person seem genuinely interested in you, or are they simply processing you as a booking? The breathwork space requires trust. That trust begins before the session starts.

6. Consider the setting

Where and how a practitioner works matters. A one-to-one session in a calm, private, well-prepared space is a very different experience from a group session in a busy studio. Neither is inherently better — but for someone new to breathwork, or for someone working with significant emotional material, the intimacy and containment of a one-to-one setting is usually preferable.

For those seeking a deeper and more transformative experience, a residential retreat — where you remove yourself entirely from your ordinary environment and dedicate several days exclusively to the Breath — produces results that a single session, however powerful, cannot replicate. The setting itself becomes part of the healing.

7. Trust your instincts

Finally — and this may be the most important thing I can tell you — trust your instincts. Breathwork is an intimate practice. You will be lying down, eyes closed, in a vulnerable state, with this person holding the space for you. You need to feel safe with them. You need to feel that they are present, skilled, and genuinely committed to your wellbeing.

If something feels off — if a practitioner seems more interested in their own story than yours, if they make promises that sound too absolute, if the initial contact feels rushed or transactional — listen to that feeling. Your instincts in this area are worth honouring.

A note on online sessions

Online breathwork has become increasingly common and, in the hands of an experienced practitioner, can be genuinely effective. A 2026 randomised controlled trial found that online Conscious Connected Breathwork produced large reductions in anxiety symptoms — comparable to in-person results. If geography or schedule makes in-person sessions difficult, online sessions with a skilled practitioner are a genuinely viable option.

In summary: what to look for

The right practitioner can make the difference between a pleasant experience and a genuinely life-changing one. Take the time to choose well. The Breath deserves it — and so do you.

About Alan Dolan
Alan Dolan is the founder of Breathguru® and one of the world’s most experienced Conscious Connected Breathing practitioners, with 23 years of practice and thousands of clients across the globe. He has been featured in The Guardian, Forbes, The Times, and The Telegraph, and is a member of the International Breathwork Foundation. He offers one-to-one sessions in London and online, group workshops, a practitioner training programme, and residential retreats at his home in Lanzarote.

Visit breathguru.com to find out more.