Breath & Meditation

There are many types of breathwork. Some styles act like a psychedelic blowing past our default mode and into experiences that can offer new existential perspectives. These transpersonal type practices are driven by sympathetic breathing and are meant to expand our consciousness. There are other practices that support more interpersonal healing. They rely on a supple, responsive breath that can harness energy in a myriad of ways. Together, these practices can be transformative.

I teach breathwork for interpersonal and embodied liberation. I am interested in the breath as a tool for the relational to support platforms for connection, grounding, boundary making and grieving in relationship. Both have their place in healing and work well together.

My interest is in the interpersonal more than the transpersonal in part because I want to continue to learn to connect and be in community since I see a strong local community as essential to financial, climate and ecosystem collapse.

Breathing is one of the fastest ways to mitigate stress in the autonomic nervous system. It gives us direct access to a system that is involuntary and reactive, that is, one that functions on its own without conscious thought. When we develop a conscious relationship with the breath, we can often shift the state of our nervous system in as little as 90 seconds.

A conscious relationship with the breath is one of the most life-changing practices available to us.

Read more here.

WEEKLY Breath Practice

on Zoom

Breathing in community has a powerful personal, communal and global impact.

One breath shifts our personal nervous system.

Multiple synchronous breaths shift the collective nervous system and change the world. To learn more, click here.

We breathe M, W, F 7:30 - 8 AM EST and first Saturday 8 - 9 AM EST. Recordings available.

Close-up of a tree branch covered in green moss and lichen with blurred, leafy background.

Apprentice TO the Breath

An 11 month Journey Home.

September 2026 thru July 2027.

Foundation Path: for those new to my work.

Mastery Path: for those who have completed the Foundation Path or who have breathed with me for one year or more.

Close-up of tree branch with green lichen and moss.

Breathing Liberation: Moksha, Nirvana & the Granthis

Where Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra yield to the exhale

The body holds its wisdom in knots. The Granthis: Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra - are not obstacles to liberation but its doorway; concentrations of prana, pattern, and unfinished becoming.

In this online breath practice, we move through the layers of tissue and history that organize each threshold, breathing into what has been bound, softening what has been braced, and touching liberation only to lose it again and again.

Sunday, April 19th, 2 - 3:30

Venmo to register. $30 - $50 sliding scale

pranayama

Every Wednesday, 12 - 1, at Sol Yoga in downtown Frederick, I will be guiding pranayama centering the breath as relational doorway.

We often begin with qigong or gentle yoga and then explore the curated breath and the breath as it arises.

Donation based.

Join here 

I have been consciously exploring the breath for 30 years as a student of meditation, yoga therapist, psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. All of this teaching and learning has culminated into my Daily Breathwork Practice and the 11 month Apprenticeship.
The daily practice emerges from the opening that interbeing offers. A practice of remembering our true nature through the exploration of our inner landscape as both the home of and the catalyst for liberation.  I weave Somatic Experiencing, quantum physics with ancient practices that draw from Vedic philosophy, Chinese medicine, Buddhism and my direct experience with trees, fungi, bull frogs, and many other sentient beings that walk my path with me.
I have been offering a breathwork practice that has been running live, daily on zoom since 2021. I also teach practitioners how to harness the breath for liberatory healing and I provide Relational Somatic work (with and without psychedelics).  
I am committed to personal sovereignty, regenerative practices, local community resiliency and loving ourselves and each other back to wholeness.
Person in a patterned cloak standing by a river with autumn foliage, arms outstretched, facing hills in the background.

Breath practices

“Peace is a practice not a hope.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

This is a compassion practice animated by the breath. RAINN: recognize, allow, intimacy, nurture and non-attachment. Travis, my partner, and Bella, one of my fur babies breathe with me daily.

The qigong explores Chen or the quality of sinking or yielding and through the yielding, Wu wei, the ease in the effort, the being in the doing. We then drop into heart coherence breathing as we cultivate regenerative emotions for ourselves and each other.

This practice explores nourishment through the Prana Vayu and Alternate nostril bee breath.

After some gentle movement, we drop into a breath awareness journey.

This practice begins standing to explore the healing sounds of qigong to purge the organs and with that freed up qi, we move to our seats and play with the vayus, the energy patterns in the subtle body.

In this practice we explore the Bija Mantras, Voo'ing, Kapala Bhati into Mahabandha and Akash Breath. This practice is both energizing and calming.

Cherished feedback

  • Amidst all the chaos and uncertainty of life right now, I have found such a grounding, calm and peace in my daily breathwork practice with Alicia and our breathwork sangha (community). It is much like the still points we have cultivated at the bottom and top of the breath. Alicia guides this practice so masterfully, with compassion, permission, and such great care. Her playfulness throughout the practice is such a wonderful reminder to embrace that childlike wonder inside of me, that can get so lost in all the responsibilities and heaviness of being an adult human, navigating this complex world.

    Alison Kennedy, LMT

  • I am absolutely loving the practices and am so grateful to have found this body of work. Really appreciate your depth of knowledge and nurturing kindness. These practices feel very safe and sacred within the container.

    I am noticing a shift in my ability to sit in quiet meditation afterwards as well.

    Eleni R

  • Breathing within a community practice provides a sacred space for me to connect with myself, my community, and the world around with deep intention every day. I arrive each morning just as I am, knowing I am unconditionally accepted and loved.

    Sarena F

  • I don't think anything has been as impactful for my overall well being...like ever. Alicia's Breathwork Apprenticeship and the daily Breathwork practices have helped me better connect with myself and others. It's inspired me to work differently with my clients and students and honestly, Alicia is just really lovely to sit and listen to.

    Carrie Dennison, Yoga Teacher Trainer and Rieki Master

  • Alicia's Breathwork Apprenticeship has been revolutionary for me both professionally and personally. She has helped me safely explore and inhabit my body in a completely new way by helping me tap into our body's most powerful tool, the breath. Her incredible wisdom and tender guidance is soul quenching. It is so apparent that she takes incredible care when curating this apprenticeship. Her approach is gentle, thoughtful and trauma informed. It has been an honor to sit and breathe, laugh, cry and hold joy and grief alongside so many other beautiful humans during these last 6 months. I cannot recommend it enough!

    Amanda Phelan, LCSW-C

  • I have been breathing with Alicia for 15 years a my partner. The Apprenticeship has helped me regulate in a new and deeper way. It's one thing to be mindful, it's another to know how to breathe functionally and use the breath to change the way I am feeling. This work is profound. Coming into deep relationship with my breath has been so incredibly useful. It has been life changing on every level.

    Travis Wanner, SEP, Somatic Coach

  • Alicia's daily breathwork and apprenticeship program has absolutely transformed my overall health and wellness. Thanks to these last six months, I now have a rich toolkit of breaths available when I'm fatigued, anxious, or need to work out the stiffness in my joints. More than that, though, I also have a community and a sense of belonging.

    I have returned to my natural state of being thanks to this practice of attuning to my breath!

    Safrianna Loughna, LCPC

  • I feel blessed to have been part of daily breath work practice with Alicia for the past year. It’s a unique experience to be gently and expertly guided into the body, accompanied by breath and in concert with others. I would call it the ultimate nervous system daily tune up, with the benefits that last throughout the day. I loved the structure of a daily routine, with flexibility built in to breathe in a way that suits my needs. Alicia is a gifted teacher with a big heart, with years of practice and ages of wisdom to share.

    Julie McCarter, LCSW

  • Alicia is a treasure among treasures. I feel incredibly grateful to have found her. She brings breadth and depth to her teachings, drawing from an impressive array of traditions and approaches including Yoga, Qigong, Somatic Experiencing, and Parts Work, to name a few. I am often astounded by her knowledge, and wisdom in drawing upon that knowledge. How can one person hold so much? Alicia's background as a Trauma Therapist combined with her profound empathy allows her to bring highly skilled safety and attunement to the Breathwork Practices. She creates a container that allows for grounded trust, expansion and transformation, a rare combination. I consider it to be a real privilege to be one of Alicia's students and a member of her Breathwork Sangha.

    Sara Silvia, Therapist

  • I can’t say enough about Alicia and about this program. To share this container and community is so incredibly special and I am so grateful! The apprenticeship is full of practical knowledge that I know I can take with me into not only my personal practice, but my practice as a therapist as well. Knowledge of the breath and regular practice has made me a better clinician, a better partner, and a more connected human. This program has been a breath of fresh air that I didn’t even know I needed. Thank you Alicia!

    Nicole Sparrow, Therapist, Reiki Master

FAQs

DO you require cameras on?

I strongly encourage folks to keep their cameras on (with audio off). Seeing each other’s faces has a powerful co-regulating effect that impacts accountability, sense of community, and amplifies the practices and their impact on us and the larger community. Certainly, you can always move out of view if you decide to move into a Shavasana (deep rest) or into some tears. Or not, bring your tears and share your rest.

Do i need any equipment?

We will be seated on the floor or standing for these practices. All of these practices are adaptable to a chair with a firm bottom. A bolster, blanket, or cushion will help get the hips slightly above the knees to protect the lower back when seated on the floor. 

Is it important to do bReathwork on an empty stomach?

Yes! It is important to do breathwork on an empty stomach. Water and black coffee or tea is fine.

Do I need to show up everyday?

The gift of daily practice is the intimacy with oneself that is born out of taking the time to connect to breath, sensation, and emotion every damned day. It is a deep listening that over time transforms our relationship to self. And, when done in the container of community, the relationship to self with and through the other deepens the process. That being said, make it your own. Commit to 3 days a week or every other. Commit to something.