Join us in an enlightening interview with The Healing Couple – Dr. Cory Ostroot and Jessica Waala as they share their transformative journey into the world of breathwork. Discover how breathwork found them and how they are now using it to help others achieve harmony and healing through their innovative techniques and inspiring breathwork events. MysticMag has the pleasure.
How did you get involved with breathwork and what drew you to it?
Jessica: My breathwork journey began over a decade ago, even though I didn’t even know such a practice existed before that. Growing up in a small town in Wisconsin, practices like breathwork, yoga, or meditation were not very common, especially over a decade ago. So, I often say that I didn’t find breathwork; breathwork found me, particularly at a time when I was very stressed and anxious with no healthy outlets to express or process my emotions.
At that time, some of my friends had started practicing breathwork. I noticed how calm and happy they seemed, which intrigued me. They would invite me to join them, but I always declined, thinking I didn’t have time for it. I was skeptical, questioning what breathing exercises could do for me since we breathe all the time. Eventually, I reached a point where I thought, “What’s the harm? What’s the worst that could happen?” I decided to give it a try.
My first experience was challenging; I was in my head, overthinking the whole process. But after the session, people shared their incredible breakthroughs and how free and light they felt. Their experiences were so profound that I decided to keep trying. I returned the next day, and that’s when everything changed for me.
During that session, I remember a moment of uncontrollable laughter and a big smile on my face. It felt like I was experiencing true joy for the first time. This was a pivotal moment because it allowed me to reconnect with myself and look within, rather than seeking happiness outside of myself through other people or achievements. This experience fundamentally changed my life and how I approached everything from my epilepsy diagnosis to my relationships.
Dating Cory and sharing breathwork with him has been profound for me, as well. It helped me get out of my head and back into my body. Breathwork has allowed me to connect with deeper parts of myself and others, leading to a new level of connection and love in our relationship.
Cory: In short, what was profound about breathwork and what drew me to it was its ability to connect me with things that are otherwise hard to reach. It allowed me to find the space and time to get out of my head and back into my body. Breathwork was instrumental in helping me achieve that connection.
Can you walk me through one of your typical private sessions?
Cory: A typical private session, which lasts about 60 minutes, though it sometimes extends to 75 minutes for the first session. However, the sessions can vary depending on the breathwork technique used, as breathwork encompasses a range of practices, from short, gentle pranayama exercises to more intense physiological fitness routines like Wim Hof methods, and long-form journeys.
As an example, I can describe a long-form journey session. During these long-form journeys, you’ll lie down and breathe deeply for an extended period. The goal is to disconnect from the incessant chatter of the mind—the monkey mind—and reconnect with your body. The more opportunities you have to do this, the more opportunities you have to heal. Most of us navigate our external world through our five senses—taste, touch, feel, smell, and sight. Our experiences in this external world often dictate our behaviors, thoughts, and actions. The trick is to reverse this perspective and create those sensations and experiences within ourselves. By doing so, we can dictate our own lives and become victors over our circumstances rather than victims.
In these 60-minute sessions, anything can come up, but the focus is on facilitating an inner experience. This inner journey helps you tap into your inner wisdom, which can then inspire new principles, visions, and actions to guide and enrich your life.
What can you tell me about your breathwork teacher training and the work you do through “RESET Breathwork”?
Jessica: Our breathwork training is a certification program that is entirely online and spans 10 weeks. It is specifically designed for healers, yoga teachers, coaches, and health and wellness professionals who want to integrate a powerful healing modality like breathwork into their practice. This addition can significantly amplify their ability to help clients.
Many professionals in the coaching and health and wellness industries find that, while they are doing incredible work, they often reach a point where they feel something is missing. They sense a need to go deeper with their clients to help them create more profound breakthroughs and address root causes. Breathwork, particularly our method called RESET Breathwork, is a way to tap into the subconscious mind, which is where our patterns, habits, and behaviors originate.
The subconscious mind stores every thought, emotion, and experience we’ve ever had, whereas most traditional approaches deal only with the conscious mind. To achieve long-lasting healing, it’s essential to bridge the conscious and subconscious minds. Our teacher training program equips participants with the skills to use RESET Breathwork to help their clients achieve this integration.
We train participants on how to hold space and guide one-on-one sessions, couples sessions, and group experiences. The program also covers the science and energetics behind breathwork, providing a deep understanding of what happens during sessions. Additionally, we delve into the business aspects of breathwork, which is often missing from other training programs. This includes how to attract clients, monetize the practice, and make a living doing what they love while creating a significant impact.
By incorporating these principles, our goal is to empower our trainees so that, upon graduation, they are ready to hit the ground running and serve the maximum number of people possible with their newfound skills.
You also organize different breathwork events. What are those like?
Cory: We host both in-person and virtual events. These events can range from 20 to upwards of 100-150 people in one room. The best way to describe them might be to say that it’s akin to being part of a family you haven’t connected with in a long time. It’s an opportunity to experience something deeply transformative with friends, family, or even strangers, and to create new experiences that foster inner shifts and evolution, just as Jessica was saying, from the inside out.
At the end of the day, we believe that as human beings, we are inherently social. An experience is profoundly enriched when shared with others. For example, we have all these movies where astronauts or explorers venture into space or isolated places like Mars, and they often suffer from not being able to share their experiences with someone else. It’s fundamental to who we are as humans to share our experiences.
Our events provide the opportunity to do just that. You get to have a transformative experience with a fantastic group of people, which helps you feel lighter, clearer, and genuinely vulnerable.
What would be your advice for someone considering trying out breathwork for the first time?
Jessica: That’s a question we often get asked as it can feel overwhelming to start, especially with breathwork becoming more popular nowadays, almost as much as yoga. My advice for someone just starting out is to understand that breathwork can mean many different things. There are various types of breathwork, just like there are different types of yoga or fitness practices. The key is to find what works for you, a modality that resonates with you.
If you want a simple starting point, consider practicing breath awareness. Breath awareness is just about becoming mindful of how you’re breathing day-to-day. When I first started, I was skeptical about how breathwork could help because, after all, we breathe all the time, right? But here’s the thing: we take around 25,000 breaths every day. That’s a lot of breaths! Many people don’t realize how much we breathe.
So, what if we became more aware of those breaths? When we just let our breathing happen automatically, our emotions and external environment often dictate it. By becoming aware of our breath, we can change our breathing patterns, which in turn can change our emotions and how we feel.
Start with a simple practice: spend three minutes a day becoming aware of your breath. Set a timer on your phone, close your eyes, and “watch” each inhale and exhale. Notice if you’re breathing fast or slow, deep or shallow, if your breath is choppy or smooth, etc. Just by noticing these things, your breath will naturally start to deepen, and you’ll put yourself in a more calm and relaxed state. There are so many benefits to this simple practice.
Furthermore. for anyone wondering where to even begin, we do host monthly virtual workshops. If you’re ready to dive deeper, feel lighter, feel calmer, and feel more powerful and ready to change your life, we invite you to join our next monthly workshop. You can always check out www.thehealingcouple.com, go to our events page, and see what’s coming up. Every month has a different theme, and we always offer a fun brand giveaway. Plus, we’d love to offer you a free class—your first one on us—by using the code BREATHE100. Come join us, experience it, and maybe, just like it did for me, it might change your life.
Do you have any special messages for our readers?
Cory: I think that at the end of the day, no matter who you are or what you’ve experienced in your life, breathwork can be a really great option for you to start or even dive deeper into your personal growth and healing journey. Breathwork is free and accessible at any time and anywhere. If you can really master your breath, you can master your life. You’ll find that you’re not beholden to your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in the same way. The more people we can free through their breath, the better world we create.
To learn more about Cory and Jessica, you can visit www.thehealingcouple.com or resetbreathwork.co
