The Breath Psychologist-Elif Clarke

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The Breath Psychologist-Elif Clarke

As a senior trainer and facilitator in Transformational Breath®, I share ideas about how to achieve

25/09/2025

Breathwork, Safety & Healing Expression

Not every emotional release is safe. In trauma work, it’s important to distinguish between healing expression (integration) and harmful reactivation (disintegration).

As a psychologist and breathwork therapist, my first priority is stabilization. Before going into deeper layers of dissociation or trauma, we focus on:

Symptom relief – reducing flashbacks, panic, and numbing
Building coping strategies – practical tools that can be used outside the session
Self-care and regulation – restoring daily functioning and creating a sense of safety in the present

The aim at this stage is not catharsis but to help people live better, safer, and more functional lives right now. Healing begins by relieving symptoms, increasing coping skills, and improving daily functioning.

Once stabilization is established, we can safely explore deeper layers — working with dissociation, throat sessions, longer Transformational Breath with body mapping, and helping clients learn to distinguish between emotions and sensations.

22/09/2025

On Saturday we gathered again for our monthly breath group. Some of us have been breathing together for over two years now, creating a circle of trust and community. Others are newer to the group, stepping into this journey for the first time. What I love witnessing is how the old and new come together, how we continue to learn from one another through the breath.

Many who joined in the beginning were carrying fear of truly feeling their feelings. Some would say, “I only want to meditate, to think positively every day, so I can push away the negative thoughts.” That was their survival strategy — to manage life by staying “up” and avoiding what felt too heavy.

Over time, through the breath, people began to realise something deeper: that the only way out of fear, shame, guilt, and rage is through. These emotions, when unacknowledged, lie underneath most of our emotional and physical distress. They don’t go away when we ignore them, try to replace them with positive affirmations, or criticise ourselves for having them. They soften and release when we allow them to be felt, expressed, and integrated.

In our group, I’ve seen participants stay with their feelings rather than run from them. They’ve chosen not to bypass or numb, but to trust their bodies and the breath to guide them. That courage to stay — even in discomfort — is what transforms fear into safety, shame into compassion, guilt into forgiveness, and rage into vitality.

19/09/2025

In conscious connected breathwork, we see similar transformations:*

Default Mode Network reset → Breathwork can quiet the mind’s constant loops of self-criticism and worry, creating the same mental “letting go” people feel with mushrooms.

Neuroplasticity boost → By oxygenating and stimulating the brain, breathwork can open new neural pathways, making space for fresh perspectives and creative problem-solving.

Emotional release & integration → Just like mushrooms can surface repressed memories, conscious connected breathing allows buried emotions to rise and release safely, so you feel lighter and clearer.

Spiritual connection → Many people in breathwork sessions describe meeting something bigger — God, the universe, their higher self — and leaving with a deep sense of peace and trust in life.

The beauty is: your breath is with you everywhere. No plant medicine required. Just you, your body, and the willingness to connect.”

17/09/2025

⸻

The Rooms Within

I think of my inner world as a house with many rooms.
For years, I kept the doors closed, numbing myself so I wouldn’t see the chaos inside.

But now, the doors are opening.
I enter slowly — not to judge, but to notice, to breathe, to care.
Every room has been waiting for me.

This is my practice:
to turn toward the chaos with love,
to remember that every room belongs in my house,
and every part of me is worthy of being home

10/09/2025

Living in constant fight-or-flight keeps our nervous system on high alert—leaving us drained, tense, anxious, and stuck in a cycle of stress and temporary relief.

The way out isn’t to stop everything overnight, but to gradually reset with mindful breathing, tech breaks, and slower, grounding activities.
Balance isn’t about doing less—it’s about letting your body rest, recharge, and thrive.

🌱 Breathe. Pause. Reset.

03/09/2025

🌬️ Emotions & Feelings 🌬️

Emotions aren’t just “in the mind” — they live in the body. What we call feelings are often a mix of both: the inner sensations (tight chest, lump in the throat) and the emotions we name (sadness, fear, joy).

Our language shows this body–emotion link:

💢 Anger – “a pain in the neck”

😢 Sadness – “I’m choked up”

😨 Fear – “butterflies in my stomach”

😳 Shame – “I can’t look you in the eye”

✨ Join our upcoming events in September:

💚 Free online breathwork – 17th Sept

😊 monthly breath circle -20th sept

🌿 CPD Day for facilitators & interns

🫁One-day retreat with cacao ceremony, two breath sessions, sound healing & lunch

All details are in the [Linktree] on Instagram.

27/08/2025

✨ Did you know? ✨
If danger was a frequent presence while growing up, fear can become your baseline program for survival.

Paradoxically, fear can even feel safe — because hyper-vigilance becomes the norm. When we try to relax, the body often feels more uncomfortable.

💡 To work through fear, we need more than understanding. Fear lives in the body. It shows up as:
➡️ wanting to run and hide
➡️ anger and activation
➡️ paralysis and confusion

Allowing the body to express these instinctual responses helps complete the cycle of trauma — breaking the pattern of fear.

🌬️ This is where breathwork comes in.
Your breath not only supports release and integration, but also builds inner resources to meet future challenges with strength and resilience.

The breath is the gestalt — the completion of what once was left unfinished.

💫 Breathe. Release. Reclaim

20/08/2025

🌬 The throat is more than a voice box.
It holds our thyroid, our energy, our unshed tears, and the words we never spoke.
Gently placing your hand here for 5 minutes with breath can calm your nervous system, soften tension, and begin to release years of holding back.
Your truth is waiting.
Your body remembers.
Your freedom lives here. ❤️

15/08/2025

🎶 Learning the Language of Sound 🎶
I’m spending 3 days in an Introduction to Sound Healing training, learning how to use a variety of instruments to support deep release and integration.
Sound has the power to shift stuck, unprocessed memories and experiences held in the body — opening space for flow, healing, and ease.
✨ Sound + Breath = Deep Healing ✨
In breathwork, sound isn’t just beautiful — it’s medicine.
It works like a high-vibrational frequency, helping to shift heavy energies like pain, anger, shame, and fear into lighter states.
When sound and breath work together, they release stress and trauma stored in the body’s cellular memory.
You don’t lose the memory — but the charge softens.
Your reactions change.
You feel lighter.
Yesterday’s session was pure magic — energy flowing, hearts opening, deep healing for everyone.
I can’t wait for two more days of this powerful work.
💫 Experience it for yourself
📅 23rd August | 10:30–4:30
🌿 2 Breath Sessions | Cacao Ceremony | Yoga Nidra
📩 DM to register

12/08/2025

The Cosmic Joke
Life has a way of convincing us that we’re incomplete.
We spend years searching outside ourselves —
for love, approval, purpose, or the “missing piece”
that will finally make us feel whole.

We search in relationships, careers, possessions,
even in spiritual practices,
believing that once we find it,
we’ll finally arrive.

And then, one day,
maybe in a moment of stillness,
or after a long journey of seeking,
you realise the truth:

The missing piece was never “out there.”
It was you all along.
Whole. Complete. Worthy.

That’s the cosmic joke —
you were already what you were searching for.
And when you see it clearly,
you can exhale.
You can laugh.
You can simply

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Milton Road
London
SE240NP

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https://www.elifclarke.com/

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Empower yourself by breathing

Welcome to my page!

I’m Elif Clarke, a counselling psychologist and cognitive behavioural therapist for 18 years in national health service and my private practice in London. I’ve been a Transformational Breath® facilitator and trainer for 8 years.

Transformational Breath® is powerful self-empowering tool, I guided hundreds of people using this breathing technique to connect to their deepest self, to achieve their physical, emotional and psychological well-being. I’d like to share my knowledge and experience of breathwork on my page to help more people to use breathing to improve their lives.

I offer online Transformational Breath® sessions for individuals to cope with trauma, depression, and stress; I also offer breath sessions for couples who would like to improve their relationships and connect better. You can book online sessions by contacting me directly on info@elifclarke.com or phone on (+44) 07944 532456.