Breathwork

Breathwork is not a performance. It’s a Return.

It is one of the most direct paths I know to what lies beneath the surface of our everyday lives – the grief we haven’t finished with, the fear we’ve learned to manage, the parts of ourselves we’ve quietly set aside.

For 25 years I’ve been guiding people through that territory. Individually and in groups, I’ve sat with hundreds of people as they’ve moved through grief, trauma, fear, awakening, collapse, clarity, rage, surrender and profound transformation. I’ve held space through the silence after someone’s breakthrough – and stayed present for what arrived in the days that followed.

This work can open extraordinary states of consciousness and healing. But it can also bring you face to face with deeply vulnerable parts of yourself. That deserves more than enthusiasm and a technique.

It requires skilled, experienced, grounded facilitation. No playlists. No shortcuts. Just experienced, grounded facilitation for the territory beneath the surface.

What I offer is two and a half decades of learning how to be genuinely present with another person in some of the most important moments of their inner life.

One of the navigational tools I bring to this work is the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche, developed by the Animas Valley Institute of Colorado. This map offers a way of understanding the different voices and forces alive within us – including the protective sub-personalities that often ‘run the show’, keeping us safe but also keeping us small. In breathwork, these parts can surface powerfully. Knowing how to meet them – with curiosity rather than confrontation – changes everything.

Safety in this work is not simply physical. It is emotional, psychological, relational and spiritual. And it only comes from experience – the kind that can’t be shortcut.

What I know after all these years is this: real breathwork is a journey. Not an escape from yourself, but a return to what was always there.

You don’t need someone to lead the way. You need someone who has genuinely learned how to walk there too – and who can stay present with you while you find your own path through.

Within this context we offer 4 breathwork pathways being: (i) Wild Breathwork afternoon, (ii) Deep Imaginal Breathwork (iii) A concise Breathwork Pop-Up and (iv) A weekend Breathwork Retreat.

Select from these programs:

Or, Let’s have a chat:

What is Breathwork

Breathwork is an umbrella term for various types of conscious and controlled breathing practices that have the power to improve your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

It is a contemporary form of pranayama, a practice with a long history on the Indian subcontinent. Breath-centred practices and meditations can be found in many ancient cultures and traditions, including Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Yoga, Qigong, Shamanism, Sufism, and martial arts.

For these programs, we will practice breathwork as originally taught by Leonard Orr (RIP). This uses a very gentle circular breathing process to enable a release of physical, emotional and mental stress, energise the body and induce a deep state of relaxation and clarity of mind.  Breathwork is:

  • a tool for inner work using full, conscious connected breathing
  • a technique that can provide resolution and clearing of issues, patterns and limiting beliefs
  • spontaneous and organic
  • beyond the mundane
  • a sacred, soulful experience

Every session is different as Breathwork is an organic, self-generated process. Participants can have a physical, emotional, mental and/or spiritual/soulful experience during their session (usually a combination of a few of these).

About Me

David Mallard – is a uniquely experienced trainer, coach, mentor, guide, adviser and consultant. He is a member of the Soulcraft ANZ Inc. leadership council, and is co-founder and President of Melbourne Men’s Group Inc. He is also a graduate of the professional Wild Mind Training Program (WMTP) from the Animas Valley Institute of Colorado.

The WMTP is a professional certificate training in the use of the Nature-Based Map of the Human Psyche to support others to cultivate their innate wholeness and to acquire the skills of Self-healing. The cultivation of wholeness is a new paradigm for human development that contrasts radically with psychotherapy and its focus on healing (the elimination or reduction of psychopathology). While wholeness does enable healing – in particular, a more potent form, namely Self-healing – it offers so much more: Wholeness engenders true adults and visionary artisans of cultural renaissance.

David is a certified Rebirthing/Breathwork practitioner (2003 by Diane McCann – an early pioneer of Breathwork in Australia – and Robert Mathews (RIP) of Beyond the Ordinary Pty Ltd), holds a Cert. IV in Training & Assessment and Mental Health First Aid and has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.

He also has extensive senior executive leadership experience having worked closely with corporate Boards, CEO’s, executive leadership and in leading and transforming teams. Over the journey, David has facilitated, coached and guided people in hundreds of personal growth meetings, workshops and seminars.  David is a recent recipient of CPA Australia’s ‘President’s Award for Excellence – Distinguished Service’ with a specific focus on Human Development and Mental Health.