How one movement therapist discovered the missing link in breathwork
March 15, 2026 | 9:41 AM GMT | Sponsored by Oxygen Advantage®
How one movement therapist discovered the missing link in breathwork
During the COVID years, movement therapist Verity appeared to be holding everything together.
But inside, she was struggling to breathe.
She was homeschooling two young children during lockdown, caring intensely for her mother who was dying from Parkinson’s and dementia, supporting her husband’s demanding work schedule, navigating the hormonal shifts of perimenopause—and trying to keep her movement therapy practice running online.
“I was doing everything I thought was right,” she says.
“Long slow breathing, calming techniques… but I was still hyperventilating.”
Despite more than two decades of working professionally with breathing and movement patterns, something was clearly missing.
“I thought I understood the breath. But when life brought me to my knees in 2020, I realised I was missing some key pieces.”
Discovering Oxygen Advantage®
That search led her to the Oxygen Advantage® method.
Her first BOLT score shocked her.
Eight seconds.
A score that low indicates significant breathing dysfunction.
“I was stunned,” she recalls. “But suddenly everything made sense — the chronic tension, the exhaustion, the feeling that I was always on the edge of breaking down.”
She describes the experience of chronic hyperventilation vividly.
“There’s a kind of madness that comes with the chemosensitivity of low-level hyperventilation. I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t steady myself like I used to.”
Through structured breathing retraining, her nervous system slowly began to stabilise.
“When my BOLT score reached 40 again, that ‘madness’ feeling disappeared. I was still dealing with grief and a very intense situation, but I could manage it.”
The breath hadn’t changed her life circumstances.
But it gave her the resilience to navigate them.
The Missing Link in Movement Therapy
As her own breathing improved, Verity began integrating the method into her professional work.
Her practice now combines:
• movement therapy
• functional breathing
• gait analysis
• whole-body patterning from feet to cranium
And the results have surprised even her.
“One client came to me with long-term left knee pain,” she explains.
“At first glance it looked like a structural issue. But when I assessed his breathing, I realised he couldn’t inflate the right side of his ribcage properly.”
That imbalance was affecting his walking mechanics.
“Once we retrained his breathing alongside his gait pattern, the inflammation reduced dramatically. Within weeks the pain was almost gone.”
For Verity, this pattern is common.
“Many clients have lived with pain for five or ten years. That inevitably leads to anxiety and a sense of helplessness.”
Which often drives dysfunctional breathing.
“That panic leads to faster breathing. Faster breathing increases inflammation. And the cycle keeps people stuck.”
Breaking that loop starts with breath.
“Learning to change breathing patterns is often the turning point.”
“This Is a Miracle.”
“No,” she laughs. “It’s science.”
Through gentle air-hunger exposure, nasal breathing, postural retraining and rib mechanics, Verity helps clients regulate both breath and nervous system.
“The phrase I hear most often from clients is: ‘This is a miracle.’”
But she quickly corrects them.
“It’s not a miracle. It’s physiology. And it gives people their power back.”
Breathwork at Home
The benefits didn’t stop at her clinic.
Her family began noticing the difference too.
“My husband had been told he needed surgery for a deviated septum because of severe snoring,” she says.
Instead, he began retraining his breathing.
“He worked up to taping his mouth at night with me. Now he sleeps so quietly it actually wakes me up because I’m so used to the snoring.”
Even her children use the techniques.
“When they get stuffy or feel a cold coming on, they ask if they can tape their mouths at night because they know it helps open their sinuses.”
Her eldest daughter also used the breathing tools during a difficult period of grief and anxiety after her grandmother died.
“Now at 14 she’s incredibly confident with it. She has real tools when she feels anxious.”
Sometimes Verity overhears her daughter helping friends.
“That’s when you realise how powerful these skills are.”
Less Breath, Better Results
For Verity, the biggest revelation was simple.
“I used to think more breathing was always better.”
But for most people, the opposite is true.
“For the majority of my clients, less is more. Gentle, functional, nasal breathing changes everything.”