Bodies breathe! No two breaths are alike. Each new cycle of breathing can be viewed with curiosity and potential discovery. And we never know if we will get another breath. Each breath is a gift to animate our lives. Breathing consciously provides an opportunity to have a direct relationship with our inner landscapes and for our breath to become an inner resource for our interactions and connection with life—the life which surrounds us. The mission of a Somatic Movement Approach to Breathing is to guide you in establishing an intimate relationship with your breathing and the responsive movements of your body to the changes that arrive in the presence of breath. Noticing how breath moves within you and how the body responds to it are invitations to a deeper knowing of your emotional life, your spiritual life (spirit is literally breath), your physical wellbeing, your health, your professional life, and your private practice.  

In this 3-class series that draws on the anatomy and physiology of breathing, Robert Litman will guide you with Continuum explorations to learn to tune in deeply to your own breathing body, an embodied experience that can be passed on to your clients.  Personal histories and adaptations to circumstances shape the tensional patterns of our bodies, patterns that, in turn, shape our breathing. Overly protective tensions that arose from trauma, whether hypervigilance or collapse, limit the capacity of the breath to fully provide nourishment to all the cells of the body—bringing in oxygen and removing excess carbon dioxide. Learning to perceive the “messages” that breath, breathing, and our somatic responses to breathing express can inform us as healthcare providers. In fact, Robert believes that learning to read breathing patterns is an essential skill in any somatic movement or complementary field. Equally important is to be able to speak to the client about these patterns and to offer cues that can open new possibilities for wellness.

 Participants in this course will learn: 

• The basic science of respiration, proper breathing mechanics, and how nose breathing plays an essential role in oxygen nutrition and maintaining health. 
• To attend to the body to shift disordered breathing to functional breathing patterns that rest and settle the nervous system, potentially reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. 
• To apply breathing practices in therapeutic settings to alleviate symptoms of anxiety, panic, and dysfunctional breathing, i.e. asthma, COPD, and emphysema.  

Robert Litman

RSME

Hay House Publishing recently published Robert Litman’s first book: The Breathable Body – Transforming Your World and Your Life One Breath at a Time, and it was featured for a month on OprahDaily.com. 

For more than 35 years, Robert Litman has guided artists, musicians, health professionals, athletes, activists, people with health challenges, retirees, and those interested in allowing breath to be a doorway to consciousness into their personal and spiritual growth by restoring healthy breathing rhythms, structural alignment, and coherent/coordinated movement. He co-developed the Wellsprings Practitioner Program with Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum Movement®, and co-taught with her for 18 years. 

Robert Litman is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and has been a faculty member and head of the Departments of Anatomy and Physiology and Movement Education at the Desert Institute of the Healing Arts Massage School in Tucson. He is a registered educator and trainer of the Buteyko Breathing Educators Association and is certified in the Duggan/French Approach to Somatic Pattern Recognition. Robert was a preceptor at the University of Arizona School of Integrative Medicine, teaching The Breathable Body to visiting doctors for Dr. Andrew Weil. He has a Graduate Certification as a Breathing Behavior Analyst at The Graduate School of Behavioral Breathing and Health Sciences, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.   

He lives on Vashon Island, Washington, and offers private sessions and classes in movement and breathing, locally and worldwide. His YouTube video “The Relationship Between Breathing and Anxiety” has 163,000 views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhEEtWNbLJ4&t=1777s  

For more information, contact Robert Litman • The Breathable Body • thebreathablebody.com