What?  You Just Listen to Music?

or

What Is This “Eupsychia Process”?

By Susan C. Moyer, LICSW,  © 2007

The Eupsychia Process of Integrative Breathwork is rooted in Holotropic Breathwork™, developed by psychiatrist, Stanislav Grof and his wife,Christina Grof. Some of you may have heard of Holotropic Breathwork™ or participated in a workshop in the past. Jacquelyn Small, MSSW,  worked with the Grofs for several years before developing The Eupsychia Process of Integrative Breathwork (“Breathwork”), a modified version of this cutting edge modality. She is the founder and director of the Eupsychia Institute based in Austin, TX where she devotes her time and abilities to conducting workshops across the country in soul-based psychology and transformational processes. Ms. Small has authored a number of books and articles addressing the importance of a psychology that includes the spiritual component of us as human beings.

This deeply profound experience has been around since the early 1980’s, yet it has not yet made inroads into the mainstream mental health or addictions treatment fields – or even gained general acceptance by the current therapy profession. One reason may be that the experiences are so unique and deeply personal that the process does not easily lend itself to scientific research. You just can’t measure how meaningful a person’s first contact with their concept of God is, or that physical energy that had been blocked for years feels like it is released in one session. People can, of course, rate their experience subjectively, such as “on a scale of 1 to 7, this experience was a 6 ½ for me” – but science prefers hard numbers. And when it comes to hard numbers, sacred and deeply healing experiences are challenged.

So what is this process? It is an inner journey that occurs in an alternate state of consciousness as a rich variety of music is played. Prior to the actual “journey” segment, sacred space is created by a brief meditative centering, followed by an introduction of the facilitator (myself) and participants.

I explain the theoretical underpinnings of the modality so that the mind has a construct of what will be happening. This makes it a little less threatening to the intellect, as it will be asked to take a short vacation while you, the participant, let go of thinking and allow a very personal process to unfold as the music plays. The beauty of The Eupsychia Process of Breathwork is that what occurs for you may be physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual – or a mixture of any of the four. A core belief of this work is that there is an Inner Wisdom or Healer in each of us that knows what we need most at any given time. Therefore, even if you come into this work with the idea Wow! This will be a great way for me to work through the anger I’ve had towards my mother there is no guarantee that your mother will even come up in your process. You may instead feel energy flowing completely through the body that gives you a sense of the totality of what it means to embody Spirit.

I do not guide your experience in any way except for the relaxation visualization.  The music serves as the guide for your internal process. Its trajectory goes from “wild” (drumming, tribal, earthy sounding pieces) to “mild” (relaxing, meolodic  and etheric pieces). This gives the body the chance to resonate at all different levels with the sound vibrations. Recent research in music is showing what practitioners of Breathwork have seen for many years:  music accesses the part of the brain where memory and emotions are both stored. This means that music has the potential to access the emotions connected with our life experiences – even those we may not consciously remember. It is an ideal way to release physical and/or emotional pain that has occurred during your life – possibly even before you learned to talk. Our consciousness has filed away pre-verbal experiences – but we can’t access them using words because we had not learned words at the time the event happened. Using Breathwork, you do not have to express what needs to be released with words – you can use moans, singing, screams, toning or physical movement to express what has been held inside for years.

After the musical journey, artwork serves as the bridge between the meditative state participants have been in and the “real world”, helping to express symbolically what you may not quite know yet how to express in words. You do not need to be an artist for this part. Believe me, I’m not!  Stick figures are fine or any other representation of your experience that feels right to you.

In the day-long workshops that I hold, there are two “breathing” sessions, each with 90-minute music sets. Participants select a partner, and each experiences one set of music as a “breather” (the person experiencing the journey to the music). For the other music set, they are acting as a “keeper of the space” of the person “breathing”, providing simple assistance as needed for their partner. This “sacred witness” presence provides an excellent codependency recovery arena! After both music sessions and drawing sessions, the experiences and artwork are shared verbally in the group (to whatever extent the person is comfortable).

Shortened workshops with just one set of music and no witnessing are an option, as are individual sessions. The structure is much the same, so even for individual Eupsychia Process sessions I tell people to allow 5 hours. This is truly time for yourself, with the potential for deeper understanding and self-knowledge. Treat yourself to this experience if you have the opportunity!

For more information or to arrange a group or individual session, contact Susan Moyer at 509 455-4079 or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Eupsychia’s website is www.pathoftransformation.com.