Rebirthing and Conscious Connected Breathing: What They Are and What Is Known

What the names mean

The words are used for different things, which causes confusion.

• Rebirthing (rebirthing breathwork) is a practice founded by Leonard Orr. Sources disagree on the date: Healthline says he developed it in the 1960s, and a Reachout Trust page says he founded it in the late 1970s. [2][3] Healthline says it first focused only on breathwork and that its meaning later widened to include other therapies that simulate birth. [2]
• Conscious connected breathing (CCB) is the breathing style itself: breaths joined together with no pause between in and out. A 2023 meta-analysis lists it among breathing techniques that emerged alongside psychedelic communities. [4] Studies define it differently (see below).
• "Rebirthing therapy" in news stories can mean simulated-birth exercises rather than breathing. Healthline links those exercises to a child's death during a session lasting over an hour, and says laws made them illegal in Colorado and North Carolina. [2] That is a separate and far more dangerous practice than breathing alone.

Rebirthing is not a traditional practice with its own cultural lineage like pranayama. The sources we read describe it as a late-20th-century movement. For yoga breathing in its own terms, see pranayama.

What practitioners claim

A page reproducing the practice's own descriptions says it uses breathing "to help activate and release stored stress, pain and emotional trauma of all degrees." [3] This is a marketing claim. "Release" of stored trauma is not a measured outcome in any study we found. See the somatic breathwork page for how that idea is weighed.

What research found

Proper evidence not found for rebirthing as a treatment. Healthline says there is no research in the medical literature to support using it for mental health symptoms. [2] We searched PubMed for "rebirthing," "rebirthing breathwork" and "conscious connected breathing" and found no trial of rebirthing. The one paper on it, in the Journal of Religion and Health, is an author's personal account that raises concerns about psychological and physical harm. [5]

Studies of conscious connected breathing are few, recent and small:

1. 38 mothers of children in cancer treatment, pilot randomized trial: CCB plus sleep hygiene teaching vs sleep hygiene teaching alone [6]

   Promising but limited (small, self-reported, not blinded)

   Sleep quality and anxiety scores improved more in the CCB group. Controls got only sleep hygiene teaching at baseline

2. 48 breast cancer patients, one session, before and after, no comparison group [7]

   Physiological finding only; no health outcome

   Blood tests showed changes consistent with mild respiratory alkalosis, meaning lower carbon dioxide. Stress hormone levels fell

3. 11 adults with chronic pain, one group session, no control [8]

   Insufficient evidence

   Pain scores fell at 2 and 6 weeks; people rated the session acceptable

Definitions differ: one trial used continuous deep mouth breathing with no pause, [6] another used circular nasal breathing deeper than resting breaths without breath-holding. [7] The cancer study's authors note the small sample, that only clinical patients took part, and that emotional states were not measured. [7] A broader meta-analysis found benefits for stress with slow-paced breathing but not fast-paced breathing, and said more research is needed on the safety of fast-paced breathwork. [4]

Training and cost

Training for rebirthing or connected-breathing facilitators is not described in the sources we read, and we found no regulator page for it. A certificate does not guarantee safety training. We do not list facilitators. See choosing a qualified practitioner for questions to ask, and intensive breathwork for related practices.