Conscious
Connected
Breathwork

A Different Approach to Healing

Talking helps us understand. But the body holds what the mind cannot process.

Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB) is a powerful, body-led approach to release trauma, begin emotional healing and regulate the nervous system - helping you return to presence, safety, inner clarity and more of your real self.

I am a fully qualified CCB Practitioner, trained with Intuitive Breathwork UK.

I currently offer 1:1 sessions in Cambridgeshire, and soon online and in group spaces.

What is Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB)?

CCB (Conscious Connected Breathwork) is a connected, diaphragmatic style breathing. That means we’re breathing down into the belly, into the diaphragm, with an open mouth and no pauses between inhale and exhale. 

CCB is a self-healing modality, also considered as “therapy without talking”. You are literally using your own breath as medicine and it works on a deep, therapeutic level. It differs from Pranayama, which is an ancient, more meditative/spiritual yogic modality and from Functional Breathwork, which is usually about optimizing the breath for energy, focus, or calm, used a lot to train athletes. With CCB, we’re inviting the body to guide the process, instead of us controlling it with the mind.

In activating the diaphragm, we have an activated nervous system, so we can start feeling safe to explore our subconscious. CCB is not about control. It is about surrender. We allow the body and subconscious to guide the process, rather than the mind.

Please note, this practice is not always suitable in its full form for everyone. Certain health conditions may require adjustments. If you have any specific needs, let’s chat and together we can discuss what breathwork practice will best support you. - (this to be put somewhere in the CCB page as it is important info).

How Conscious Connected Breathwork helps

  • Trauma doesn’t just live in our mind. It lives in the body, specifically in our fascia, the web-like connective tissue that wraps around every muscle, bone, and organ. Fascia is like this fluid spiderweb in the body, but when we experience stress, trauma, or grief, that tissue can literally contract and harden.

    This breathwork is powerful because it bypasses the thinking brain and goes straight into the body. By breathing this way, we can access what is deeply buried in our subconscious and any event, emotion, situation that hasn’t been processed or hasn’t been dealt with, can now finally be integrated.

  • The way we breathe is the way we live, so when we bring awareness to the breath, we’re also bringing awareness to how we’re living.

    That’s why conscious connected breathwork is so powerful. It gives us a chance to reset old patterns. By opening the breath, we open up the space to feel what we’ve been avoiding and we can re-train the nervous system so that it feels safe to expand and live more fully. In opening our breath, we give our body the chance to release any tension or emotional blockages and gain a state of balance and regulation.

  • From a neuroscience perspective, around 80% of the information in our nervous system travels from body to brain, and only 20% from brain to body. This is called a bottom-up approach and it explains why simply thinking differently doesn’t always help. You can know something logically (I shouldn’t be scared, I know I’m safe,I shouldn’t overthink this, etc) and still feel overwhelmed. The thinking mind can’t override a dysregulated nervous system. Healing has to come through the body. And the breath gives us direct access.

  • The diaphragm is not just a muscle. It is directly connected to the vagus nerve, our primary “regulation switch.” When the diaphragm begins moving again:

    • The vagus nerve signals to the brain: “We are safe.”

    • The survival system can stand down.

    • The body becomes available for softening and healing.

  • During CCB the pH in our body changes, because we have more oxygen and less carbon dioxide. This alters brain states and can unlock: Old memories, Emotions, Deeper insights, Physical release.

  • CCB gently changes the breath pattern, which changes the body’s signals to the brain, helping dissolve survival responses that may have been running for years.

    This is why people often experience emotional release, clarity, new insight, deep rest, a greater sense of safety, more space in the body and mind and triggers losing their charge

Who This Work Supports

CCB is helpful if you:

  • feel overwhelmed, anxious or “stuck in your head”

  • live in freeze, shutdown or high alert

  • can’t relax even when life is calm

  • have done talking therapy but still feel something stuck in your body

  • experience self-abandonment, patterns you can’t break or emotional triggers

  • want to feel more grounded, connected, alive and at home in yourself

  • Thank you! <br> The course of breathwork sessions we’ve done together has brought me a level of closure and healing I didn’t expect. It feels like sadness that had been stored in my body for years has finally released. Your intuitive guidance and the safe space you hold continue to help me connect with my body on a different level. I’m truly grateful.

    Hannah D.

  • Desiree holds a beautiful, grounded space for conscious breathwork. I felt safe, supported, and deeply connected throughout the session. Her guidance is calm, intuitive, and powerful, a healing experience. I have done more than one session and I can feel the difference in my everyday life.

    Francesco C.

  • My breathwork session with Desirée helped me to reconnect with myself in a profound way. I had been really stressed and quite overwhelmed and during the breathwork I felt present in my body and free of my mind. Afterwards, during the reflection stage, I had such clarity about what was important to me and it helped me to course correct to make some adjustments in my life. Incredible really!

    Caitriona M.

How the Sessions Work

First sessions are 90min long
The session is divided into:

Introduction to the technique
I’ll guide you through what to expect, how the breath works, and how to work with your body safely and intentionally.

Personalised Breath Analysis
This is an essential part of my approach.
In these first few minutes, I observe the natural rhythm, depth, and patterns of your breath. Your breath reveals a lot: how your nervous system is functioning, where tension lives in the body, which emotional patterns may be active, and how energy moves (or doesn’t move) through you. It gives us a clear starting point, so your journey is personalised, effective and deeply supportive.

FULL Guided Breathwork Session
Where I will continuously guide you, track your body’s responses, and support shifts that want to happen, with 10 minutes at the end of Integration, allowing your system to soften, settle, and make sense of what was released.

Closing Sharing
We take a moment for you to share anything that felt significant, ask questions, and gently come back into the space.

Follow-up Sessions
Follow-up sessions are 60 min.

During every session, I will invite you into a practice called toning, making a gentle sound and grounding movements. This helps to send safety signals to your vagus nerve, opening the chest, and helping with emotional release and regulation..
 

I may also work with acupressure points if I notice areas where your breath is restricted. Applying gentle pressure can help open the breath, soften physical holding patterns, and support emotional release. It’s subtle but powerful.

Throughout the session, I work with affirmations directed to your subconscious.
You don’t need to respond or repeat anything, simply allow the words to land and move through you.

Ready to begin?

If you feel the pull, even if it’s only a whisper, trust it!

Click the button below to set up your introductory call.
Your breath knows the way back home.

Book your Call

 FAQs

  • It is similar in that both use conscious connected breathing for deep emotional release, but CCB is generally more trauma-informed, nervous-system focused, and designed to be gentle, safe and resourcing rather than overwhelming.

  • You might, but you don’t have to. Some sessions are emotional, some peaceful, some full of insight. Your body will only go as far as it feels safe to go that day.

  • That’s extremely common. In fact, many clients come to breathwork because they can’t drop into their body. I guide you through grounding, safety and techniques that help the body soften at its own pace.

  • Yes. When CO₂ levels shift and the nervous system activates, the body unfreezes and releases tension. Trembling, warmth, tingling or movement are signs of stored energy discharging.

  • Yes. CCB is designed for trauma healing and done slowly, gently and resourced. However, you must disclose any medical or psychological conditions so we can ensure the session is appropriate for you.

  • Something always happens, it just may not be dramatic. Even a small shift in breathing pattern equals: reduced nervous system activation, more internal safety, long-term emotional regulation. Sometimes the deepest healing is subtle.

  • Clients often describe feeling: lighter, grounded, clearer, open, softer, more in their body. Some feel emotional or introspective for a day as their system integrates - this is normal.

  • Every journey is different. I would personally recommend a minimum of 3-5 sessions for lasting results and changes. But we’ll always work at your pace.