How to Tell If Your Breathwork Facilitator Is Safe with Megan Ashton

Before today's episode notes, I have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: After 4+ years of continuously making and sharing new episodes for you, Reclaiming Consciousness will go through a 90-day pause.  As with everything in life, I feel an evolution is needed for the show, and although I have a few ideas on my mind on what the next chapter will look like, I prefer to keep it as a surprise for you until the day comes.  Obviously, all the episodes will remain available for you. I'll also be creating playlists on Spotify, organized by topic so you can easily find your favorite content. As always, THANK YOU so much for being there. See you soon! -------------------------------- "There's just a lot of facilitator stories where the facilitator's almost chasing catharsis, 'cause that feels good for the ego. They wanna see the screaming and the big cries, and they're chasing it at the expense of the agency of the breather, and that's when it can become re-traumatizing." Today I'm joined by Megan Ashton, founder of Unity Breathwork, and this is a conversation every single person who's ever considered breathwork, or who's already facilitating it, needs to hear.  Megan spent almost 20 years chasing healing through holistic nutrition, clinical hypnotherapy, shamanic work, and a genuinely traumatic week with ayahuasca before conscious connected breathing finally did what nothing else could. We get into her own history with alcohol dependency and bulimia, and how breathwork succeeded where so many other modalities failed her, including me, since I went through something strikingly similar myself. But where this episode really goes deep is the safety conversation almost no one in this industry is having out loud. Megan and I talk about the real danger of combining breath holds with connected breathwork (including seizures she's witnessed firsthand), the guru complex some facilitators fall into, why chasing catharsis can actually re-traumatize people, and what "trauma-informed" is supposed to mean versus what it's become. TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS * Megan's 15-year healing quest: nutrition, hypnotherapy, shamanic healing, and a traumatic week with ayahuasca * The Bali breathwork session that finally released decades of grief and ended Megan's eating disorder * Why most addictions are rooted in trauma, not willpower * Alyse's own experience healing an eating disorder through breathwork * Why talk therapy and EMDR hit a ceiling: the case for working bottom-up through the body * Red flags in facilitators: chasing catharsis, guru energy, forcing the breath, exploiting vulnerable states to sell * The real danger of combining breath holds with connected breathwork * What "trauma-informed" actually means (and why a 50-hour certification isn't it) * How to vet a breathwork facilitator or training program before you commit CONTACT MEGAN * unitybreathwork.com [https://unitybreathwork.com] * Instagram unitybreathwork [https://www.instagram.com/unitybreathwork/] * Facebook unitybreathwork [https://www.facebook.com/unitybreathwork/] * Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitator Training [https://unitybreathwork.com/breathwork-facilitator-training/] * Free Conscious Connected Breathwork Journey [https://unitybreathwork.com/free-breathwork-online/] * Breathwork Retreats (Sayulita, Mexico) [https://unitybreathwork.com/breathwork-retreat/] **WAYS TO ENTER MY WORLD** * When you leave a review of the podcast on Apple Podcasts and send us a screenshot of it, we'll send you a $250 credit that you can apply to anything else in my world. <