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Breathing forms a bridge between mind and body. Breathing is so self-evident, that we may notice it only when we hold back breathing or over-breathe. The authors of this book introduce imbalanced breathing as an important cause of different somatic symptoms and as a mirror of preconscious and unconscious affects and anxiety. The book describes how imbalanced breathing patterns develop as the result of early interaction, in addition to physical factors, and how they find expression in present interactions and various personality patterns. The many illustrative case descriptions as well as vignettes from other life areas make the theories and practices described in the book come alive.
Based on these conceptions, the book presents a treatment method they have named psychophysical breathing therapy. The authors represent various professions and different orientations of psychotherapy. They are all highly experienced with patients in different health-care settings, and have enjoyed a long collaboration with each other.
Minna Martin started as a physiotherapist, and later became a psychologist and psychotherapist in cognitive-analytic and psychophysical psychotherapy working in the Student Health Care Services in Turku. She applied and further developed the theories and methods of the psychophysical breathing therapy in collaboration with Maila Seppä.
Maila Seppä is a breathing and movement therapist who had been working in a psychodynamically-oriented mental hospital for 10 years. At that time, she had already noticed that by using psychophysical methods, it was possible to vitalize mind and body and to come into contact with a person who was difficult to reach with words. Maila Seppä developed physical breathing therapy which is based on her understanding on the links between affects, interaction and breathing, mind and body.
According to Seppa, the basis of her breathing therapy lies in her early childhood experiences, in her mother's cradlesongs comforting her in the mid