Grof® Breathwork

The Practice

Moving Toward Wholeness

Grof® Breathwork is a powerful, experiential method of self-exploration and healing that uses the body's own breath as the primary tool for entering non-ordinary states of consciousness. Stan Grof coined the word holotropic to describe these states — from the Greek holos (whole) and trepein (moving toward) — literally, "moving toward wholeness." It is a new word he created to capture something that had no adequate name in Western psychology.

The method combines accelerated breathing, evocative music, and focused bodywork to activate the psyche's natural inner healing intelligence. With eyes closed and lying on a mat, the breather surrenders to an inner journey that is unique to each person and each session — no two experiences are ever alike.

Grof® Breathwork differs significantly from traditional talk therapy. It operates not only in the biographical dimension of our personal history, but also in what Stan Grof called the perinatal and transpersonal dimensions — encompassing birth memories, death-and-rebirth sequences, archetypal realms, and experiences that reach beyond the individual self into the collective and the cosmic.

"holotropic states activate the natural inner healing process of the individual's psyche, bringing the seeker a particular set of internal experiences."
— Stanislav Grof

How It Works

The Process

Breathing

Accelerated, conscious connected breathing is the core of the practice. The breath itself — not any substance — is the key that opens the door to non-ordinary states, releasing blocked energies and activating the unconscious.

Evocative Music

Carefully curated music journeys support and amplify the inner experience. The soundscape moves through phases — opening, building, peak, and integration — holding the breather throughout.

Bodywork

Trained facilitators offer focused, supportive bodywork to help release any residual bioenergetic or emotional blocks that surface during the session. This is always led by the breather's own inner process.

Sitter & Breather

Sessions are usually held in groups. Participants work in pairs, alternating as "breather" and "sitter." The sitter's role is simply to be present and available — not to guide or interpret, but to witness and support.

Mandala & Sharing

Following the breathing session, participants draw or paint a mandala — a visual expression of the inner journey. Small group sharing sessions then offer space to integrate and give language to the experience.

Integration

The work does not end with the session. Integration — making meaning of what arose and weaving it into daily life — is essential. Ayeh offers dedicated integration support as a companion offering.

Origins

Stan & Christina Grof

Grof® Breathwork was developed in 1974 by Stanislav Grof and his late wife Christina Grof during Stan's long tenure as Scholar-in-Residence at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Following the suppression of legal LSD research in the early 1970s, they sought a non-pharmacological method capable of inducing the same depth of non-ordinary experience they had witnessed in thousands of clinical sessions. The result was a practice that drew on ancient wisdom traditions, depth psychology, and the latest findings from consciousness research — and needed nothing more than breath, music, and the body's own inner wisdom.

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.

Born 1931, Prague · Psychiatrist & Consciousness Researcher

One of the founders of transpersonal psychology, Grof spent decades exploring non-ordinary states of consciousness — first through clinical LSD research in Czechoslovakia and at Johns Hopkins, then through the breathwork practice he developed with Christina. His expanded cartography of the psyche — including the perinatal matrices and transpersonal domains — remains one of the most rigorous maps of human inner experience ever produced. He was founding president of the International Transpersonal Association and distinguished faculty at CIIS until 2018.

Photo: Anton Nossik / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Christina Grof

1941 – 2014 · Artist, Teacher & Co-Founder

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College — where she studied with mythologist Joseph Campbell and poet Muriel Rukeyser — Christina Grof was an artist, writer, teacher of art, writing, and Hatha Yoga, and a deeply influential figure in the transpersonal movement. She co-developed this breathwork practice alongside Stan and co-authored the foundational Principles of holotropic Breathwork. She was also the driving force behind the concept of spiritual emergency — the recognition that profound transformative crises require support rather than suppression. Christina passed in 2014.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Theory

Cartography of the Psyche

One of Grof's most profound contributions is his expanded cartography of the human psyche — a map of inner experience that extends far beyond the biographical domain of conventional psychology. Through thousands of sessions with LSD and breathwork, Grof identified three major domains of the psyche:

The Biographical Domain covers our personal life history — from childhood experiences to present day. This is the terrain familiar to most Western therapy. Grof found that even here, breathwork could access and release material that years of talk therapy had not touched.

The Perinatal Domain encompasses experiences related to birth, death, and rebirth. Grof identified four Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPMs) corresponding to stages of the birth process — from the oceanic unity of the womb, through constriction and struggle, to the experience of death-and-rebirth. These matrices resonate with universal mythological themes found across world spiritual traditions.

The Transpersonal Domain includes experiences that transcend ordinary boundaries of time, space, and the individual self — ancestral memories, archetypal encounters, identification with other species, cosmic consciousness, and mystical union. These are the realms mapped by Carl Jung, described in ancient cosmologies, and experienced by mystics across cultures throughout history.

Ayeh's doctoral dissertation, Birthing the Absolute, places this cartography in dialogue with Friedrich Schelling's organic metaphysics — asking what Grof's map of non-ordinary experience reveals about the generative ground of being itself.