Breathwork Retreats and Immersions: What to Know Before Booking

What a retreat or immersion is

A retreat or immersion is a multi-day program that may combine breathwork with meditation, movement, talks, group sharing or other activities. This page does not list, rank or recommend any retreat, venue or leader. It describes what to check before you commit time, money and travel.

What research says

Proper evidence not found on the safety of breathwork retreats as a format. We searched PubMed for breathwork retreats and for adverse events in breathwork group sessions and found no study that measured retreat harms. One small pilot in nursing students tested a structured three-day retreat built around breathwork, meditation and mindfulness, and reported lower perceived stress afterwards. [4] It used a quasi-experimental pretest-post-test design with students recruited by convenience sampling, and its program mixed several practices, so it cannot show what the breathing part did or whether it is safe for others. [4]

Questions to ask before you pay

Before arrival

• Is there health screening before booking, not only on arrival? The code asks facilitators to give participants a chance to disclose conditions, medicines and any thoughts of self-harm. [5]
• What exactly is on the daily schedule? Is any breathing fast, forceful or breath-holding? We give no instructions for those, and they are discussed critically on our intensive breathwork page.
• Are cold water, sauna, pools, the sea or hot tubs part of the program? Breath-holding or overbreathing near water raises the blackout risk described above. See Wim Hof-style breathing and water.
• Are plant medicines or other psychoactive substances involved? The alliance code says that breathwork under the influence of a psychoactive substance is outside its scope, and describes combining them as requiring extraordinary training and experience. [5] See evaluating retreat claims.

On site

• Who is trained to handle a seizure, fainting or panic, and how would emergency services be reached from this location? The code says to be prepared for these emergencies, including basic life support training and knowing how to contact local emergency services. [5]
• How many facilitators are there for how many participants? One hospital program reported one facilitator for every four patients, but that was one setting, not a standard. [6]
• Is the space suitable? The code mentions privacy, accessibility, ventilation, space and temperature. [5]
• Can I sit out, rest or leave at any time? The code says participants can withdraw consent at any time. [5]
• Is touch used, and is it optional? See consent, touch and boundaries.
• Will sessions be filmed or photographed, and can I say no? The code asks for consent. [5]

Claims, costs and after

• Does the retreat promise to cure, to clear trauma or to replace medicine? The code asks facilitators to avoid exaggerated claims, and not to advise stopping a prescribed medicine. [5]
• What are the total fees, refund and cancellation terms? The code asks for clear, accessible information on fees and policies. [5] NIH says not to assume insurance will cover a practitioner's services. [7]
• What happens if I feel worse afterward, and is there a complaints process? The code asks facilitators to provide information about complaints processes. [5]

Trauma and strong emotions

NIH notes that people occasionally report negative experiences with relaxation techniques, such as increased anxiety, intrusive thoughts or fear of losing control, and that there are rare reports of problems for people with epilepsy, certain psychiatric conditions or a history of abuse or trauma. [8] Our pages on trauma-informed breathwork and emotional release and distressing experiences have more.

Who runs retreats

The sources we read do not describe a government license specific to retreat leaders or breathwork facilitators. NIH says credentials for complementary health practitioners vary tremendously from state to state and from discipline to discipline. [7] See facilitators, training and credentials and group sessions and retreats: safety questions.