Laila Nielsen

Track: Transpersonal Psychology, Psychotherapy and Clinical Studies

Measure of Significance of Holotropic Breathwork in the Development of Self-Awareness

Objectives: To investigate whether Holotropic Breathwork (HB) has any significance in the development of self-awareness.
Design: A quasi-experiment design and multiple-case studies. A single case design was replicated. The statistical design was a related, within subject and repeated measures design. A Pre-During-Post design.

Subjects: The subjects (n=20) were referred from Danish HB-facilitators. Nine subjects were novices, and eleven had previous experience of HB.

Intervention:  The subjects (n=20) participated in four HB sessions.
Outcome Measures: The novices (n =9) underwent positive temperament changes, and the more experienced subjects (n =11) underwent positive changes in character. Overall, positive self-awareness changes were indicated.
Results: Subjects (n =20) experienced reductions in their Persistence temperament scores, Pre-test mean (M=114.15, SD=16.884) decreased at Post-test (M=110.40, SD=16.481), Pre-During p 0.046 and Pre-Post-test p 0.048, Pre-Post d 0.2.
Temperament changes were followed by an increase in Paranoid Ideation, where Pre-test mean (M=47.45, SD=8.88) at Post-test has increased to a higher, but normal score (M=51.55, SD=7.864), Pre-During p 0.0215 and Pre-Post p 0.021, Pre-Post d 0.5.
Pre-test Hostility mean (M=50.50, SD=10.395) decreased at Post-test (M=47.20, SD=9.001), p 0.0185, d 0.3.
The Inventory of Interpersonal Problems Total Pre-test mean (M=59.05, SD=17.139) decreased at Post-test (M=54.8, SD=12.408), p 0.044, d 0.2.
Overly Accommodating Pre-test mean (M=56.00, SD=12.303) is decreased at Post-test (M=51.55, SD=7.797), p 0.0085, d 0.4.
The Intrusive/Needy Pre-test score (M=57.25, SD=13.329) decreased at Post-test (M=52.85, SD=10.429), p 0.005, d 0.4.
Conclusions: The theoretical conclusion is that HB can induce very beneficial temperament changes, which can lead to a beneficial development of character, measured as an increase in self-awareness.

Laila Nielsen is a psychologist educated in 2010 at Aalborg University in Denmark. Together with Ph.d. Tanja Miller she carries out research in Holotropic Breathwork. Their first article was published in the scientific peer reviewed journal; The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine: ”Measure of Significance of Holotropic Breathwork in Development of Self-Awareness” (Miller and Nielsen, 2015). The article has open access at this link: http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/acm.2014.0297
At the moment Ph.d Tanja Miller and Laila Nielsen are working on a new research article to investigate the efficacy of Holotropic Breathwork on potentially clinical problems (in prep).
In 2003 Laila Nielsen was certified Holotropic Breathwork (HB) facilitator and offer together with her husband HB facilitator Thomas Kristensen, Holotropic Breathwork weekend workshops in Denmark. http://www.psykologlailanielsen.dk/129054032