Erin Forbes
Wellness coach, Meditation guide, Breathwork facilitator, Somatic practitioner
You are the expert here. My job is to provide tools and instructions on how to use them, to offer a different perspective to help you see things in another way, and to cheer you on, because you already have the magic in you! The body carries the wisdom and the breath is the gateway within.
I've been diving into ways to truly connect with myself and live authentically for over a decade now. I hit a point of realizing I was walking the path others laid out for me and it wasn't what I wanted at all. I quit a job I'd been in for 8+ years with zero plan of what happened next.
I rediscovered creation and movement through burlesque and yoga. Completed my first 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in 2014, followed by 100hr Yoga and Ayurveda in 2015, and a second 200hr YTT in 2018. Meditation helped me find myself again and give back some of the things others had placed upon me. In the fall of 2018 I experienced transformational breathwork for the first time at a wellness gathering in the mountains. I had no idea what I was going into but I came out of this massive group session completely shifted and fascinated.
Since then I've been diving into learning as much as I can about the breath and how we can work with it to tap into the wisdom of the body for our personal health and well-being. Through Breath Masters I received certification as a breath coach and I have completed 400 hours of training with Numa Somatics - which has included breathwork, Hakomi, mindfulness, TRE, other somatic practices and more. This journey has connected me with so many parts of myself and released so much that isn't mine and I am stoked to be sharing all of this with the world.
Why does this matter? We breathe all day every day and often have no conscious awareness of it. Life experiences impact the way that we breathe and 90%+ of people breathe in a way that is not optimal for health. The good news, there are science backed practices and thousands of years of experiential practice that we can use to shift our breathing back towards the optimal. Learning to breathe better is one of the simplest things you can do for your own health (especially considering the breath is involved in the removing 70% of toxins from our bodies).
I offer coaching to help you improve your breathing in your day to day life, along with other techniques and tools to help you manage stress, anxiety, energy levels, attention, focus and more. I also offer breathwork journeys, transformational and restorative, in private and group settings.
So, what is breathwork? Simply, consciously manipulating the way one breathes to achieve an intended state of being. It can be activating, calming, or balancing. There are different techniques for each.
Transformational breathwork journeys are an active process that quiets the mind and gets into the body in order to shake loose all the stored stuff we don’t need to carry anymore. It’s been described as 10 years of therapy in a hour, so it’s potent work.
Restorative breathwork journeys are focused on rest and relaxation, a slowing down, and coming home to oneself. The main aim here is to be present with the breath, release stress and tension, and find a place of rest so that your body and mind can restore themselves.