“Thank you so very much for holding space and creating such a safe and loving atmosphere to go deep.  I thoroughly enjoyed the experience both being the breather, and the sitter.  My connection to healing and holding space for others is expanding rapidly. I want to bring this transformational experience to others by being present for those in need.” Derek Daviss

A Personal Story and Explanation of Holotropic Breathwork
Joan Heartfield, PhD

Holotropic Breathwork was developed by world pioneer of psychedelic therapy, Stanislav Grof, MD, and his wife, Christina, as a substance-free means for discovering the healing power of human experience in non-ordinary states of consciousness.

In this 8-week class, we will explore entering these Holotropic states of consciousness as we learn to sit for one another. I will share the levels of consciousness that may come up, and the Perinatal Matrixes that Stan found associated with Birth Memories. I will give an overview of the music that underlies the experience, and how to create it.

This will be a Journey of Self Discovery for each individual, and  create confidence in holding space for others who want to “journey inward to the Source.”

How I came to this work is a story in itself.

Coming of age in the 60’s I had the great good fortune of exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness in (mostly) safe and supportive environments. My first experience was ingesting 250 mics of LSD with 9 others in our community house in Manoa Valley, Oahu. We brought in a friend who would act as our “protector” and would deal with any outside forces. He was only smoking a doobie the size of a cigar and I have no idea what would have happened if someone had come to the door unexpectedly.

Fortunately, the angels were watching over us, and in that curious environment I was gently guided by a friend into a phantasmagorical world I could not have dreamed of. I felt quite comfortable in this world of sacred beauty and design and felt astonished and humbled by what lived within me. I realized the implications that other realms existed, parallel, yet somehow interwoven into this reality, that we could access.

Other Sacred Substances presented themselves through the years and I explored each one, adding these to the amazing pharmacopeia that unfolded in those formative years.

I recognized in that very first journey that I was destined to take other souls to this realm. I intuitively knew what I was doing, and how to create safety for those on their first “trip”. I began “sitting” with people even before I was trained by Dr. Stanislov Grof to “sit” for Holotropic Breathwork sessions.

So imagine 15 years later, in my first Holotropic Breathwork experience, as I relived many lives as a Shamanic kind of healer or therapist and as a dancer, (in most of these lives, dancing was part of the “shamanic” healing). I realized that this “soul path” was inherent in me, and that I was destined to live it fully and to take it into all my future lives.

In my 3-year training with Stan Grof (who was an avid researcher and had sat with over 5000 people in psychedelic and Holotroic Breathwork sessions), I learned about the levels of consciousness it is possible to experience and I grew my knowledge. In the next 7 years I would offer a monthly Holotropic Breathwork experience. That, along with private clients, I have “held space” for upwards of 2000 people over the 5 decades since I began.

Of all the ways to enter into what Grof calls a Holotropic State of consciousness, Holotropic Breathwork is one of the safest and simplest ways to do it. It triggers experiences that open us to psychic depths and spiritual understanding. Lost memories from our personal history, experiences from our birth, and archetypal and cosmic phenomena become available to us in holotropic awareness, helping us transcend the constraints of our ordinary thoughts and habits.

Holotropic Breathwork operates under the principle that we are our own best healers and our Inner Healer does its best work in non-ordinary states of consciousness.

The goals are wholeness, healing, and wisdom. When our body and mind enter a holotropic state through controlled breathing, powerful evocative music, and focused bodywork, our inner wisdom uses the opportunity to work toward physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual healing, and developmental change.

8 Classes on Thursdays from 3pm-6pm:
– dates to be announced –

If you’d like to join us, respond to this email, or text/call Joan at 808 280-9005.

Cost $600, can be paid through PayPal, Venmo, visa, MC, check or cash