Somatic Trauma Release Breathwork
Emotions live in the body. When they’re not fully expressed, they can get stuck, showing up as tension, stress, reactivity, or a sense of disconnection.
This practice blends somatic healing and conscious connected breath to gently release stored trauma, soften fight–flight–freeze patterns, and restore flow in the nervous system.
My focus is on real healing and not just the temporary cathartic high often seen in holotropic breathwork or even in many psychedelic journeys. My approach is grounded in trauma science, somatic experiencing, relational attunement, energy system attunement, and compassionate presence.
Through rhythmic breath, the body completes what was once interrupted, often accessing preverbal layers of experience: the pre- and peri-natal patterns at the root of it all. This opens space for presence, creativity, and deeper connection with yourself—helping you feel lighter and more alive in your body.
True healing happens from a place much deeper than just analysis alone, and that’s this work.
This work is for you if:
You feel stuck in patterns of stress, tension, or overwhelm
Old emotions resurface but don’t seem to resolve
You want to soften fight–flight–freeze responses in your nervous system
You’re navigating grief, trauma, or big life transitions
You long to feel more present, connected, and alive in your body
Traditional methods may have helped but still leave you feeling stuck
Psychedelic journeys or other altered-state work were profound but not integrated or lasting
Breathwork FAQ
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My breathwork is not about a temporary cathartic high nor is it performative. Most breathwork can overstimulate the nervous system or bring us to profound transpersonal awareness but without the support for true integration.
My approach is grounded in presence, safety, and real trauma resolution science, while woven together with deep transpersonal integration.
These sessions are rooted both in extensive training in integrative somatics and trauma healing, along with a personal, intuitive attunement to the subtle body’s energy system. I draw from a wide range of modalities, always with deep respect for the body’s timing and inner intelligence.
I prioritize deep listening, careful pacing, and relational dynamics. Each session and pace is adapted to your unique nervous system.
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Breathwork refers to intentional breathing techniques used to support regulation, presence, and healing. The breath is a mirror of the nervous system and functions as a way of meeting what is otherwise unconscious but alive in the body.
Breathwork can be understood across various categories but this offering uses conscious connected breath which is an intentionally activated breathing style. When paired with somatic healing, trauma science, and relational attunement, it offers not just temporary catharsis but lasting transformation.
The rhythmic, connected breathing brings forward stored or stuck emotional patterns. Gentle and oscillated, but deep release helps the body complete unfinished responses to past overwhelm or trauma. It’s somatically powerful and taps into pre-verbal layers of transformation: often awakening pre- and peri-natal root patterns. This type of breathwork is also helpful for more deeply connecting with your physical body and becoming more confident in it.
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Emotions are physiological. Notice how you get butterflies in the stomach when nervous, tears when sad, or flushed cheeks when embarrassed?
Somatic healing is based on the understanding that the body (not just the thinking mind or conscious understanding) holds memory, emotion, and lived experience. When overwhelming experiences aren’t fully processed, the nervous system can get “stuck” in survival states like fight, flight, or freeze. For example, you may rationally know an event is over or a relationship wasn’t right, yet the body can still carry it viscerally until it’s resolved and reconsolidated.
Through tuning into inner sensations and body signals, somatic healing allows the nervous system to complete what was interrupted, releasing stored patterns and restoring balance. This process works with the unconscious (where most of our experience is shaped!) so that change is not just intellectual but embodied, lasting, and real.
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Trauma isn’t a pathology, but an adaptive survival response. Healing trauma means restoring safety so you can be present with yourself again. Presence is the gateway back to your true self, because trauma creates barriers to the heart, which is inherently self-healing.
Trauma may come from acute events (“big T”) or from chronic, developmental, or relational wounding (“small t”). These survival strategies can become protective identities that mask the authentic heart. Healing supports the completion of what was once interrupted—stored impulses, emotions, and stress—so the nervous system can restore its natural flow.
Not everything in us is a trauma response importantly but honoring the ways we once protected ourselves opens the path to safety, wholeness, and self-trust (and thus a guiding and stabilizing intuition). Even if you don’t identify with the word trauma, the same principles apply to grief, chronic stress, or unexplained tension: true healing means returning to the body and self, to presence, and to your innate resilience.
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If currently managing a heart condition, detached retina or glaucoma, diagnosed brain or abdomen aneurysm, high blood pressure, uncontrolled diabetes or thyroid conditions, epilepsy, experiencing or being treated for psychotic or mental illness conditions (including diagnosed bipolar or schizophrenia), recent surgery/injury, currently pregnant, or any serious medical or mental condition mentioned that you are unsure about, this type of activating breathwork is not recommended.
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Sessions are either online from anywhere in the world via live Zoom, or in-person in NYC.
In-person sessions are in Midtown Manhattan and carry a small additional fee.
Private groups as well as couples’ sessions are also available.
Meet your practitioner
About Susan Reis
As a Somatic Practitioner, I weave real somatic training with conscious breathwork, and trauma science with energy healing & attunement to support deep release and integration. My approach is grounded yet compassionate, blending nervous system work with the present moment experience so the body can complete what was left unresolved and open into new presence. Having walked through freeze, disconnection, and chronic pain myself, I bring both lived experience and extensive training, meeting each person with attunement, care, and the trust that true transformation comes through presence, not force.