Accredited Breathwork Training:
What You Need to Know Before Getting Certified
Table of Contents
Do you need an accredited certification to be a Breathwork Facilitator?
What Is Accreditation in Breathwork Training?
The Difference Between Accredited vs. Non-Accredited Breathwork Training
The Marketing Ethics in Breathwork
Recognised Breathwork Certification Bodies
Do You Really Need Certification to Teach Breathwork?
What to Look for in a Breathwork Certification Program
Introduction
Breathwork is an ancient practice that is gaining recognition in modern wellness, therapy, and healing spaces. If you’ve experienced the power of breathwork as a healing modality and feel called to guide others, you may be wondering:
Do I need a qualification to teach breathwork?
What is the best breathwork certification?
Do I have to be certified to be a breathwork facilitator?
Breathwork is currently unregulated, meaning anyone can call themselves a breathwork facilitator—but that doesn’t mean they should.
Accredited breathwork training ensures that you develop the skills, ethics, and knowledge necessary to facilitate safely, responsibly, and effectively. Choosing the right training will equip you with the confidence to build a sustainable breathwork practice and support your clients in profound healing journeys.
In this guide, we’ll explore:
Why accreditation matters in breathwork training
The accrediting bodies in breathwork
Whether you really need certification to teach breathwork
What to look for in a high-quality breathwork training program
Do You Need an Accredited Certification to Be a Breathwork Facilitator?
Technically, no, you don’t need a certification to teach breathwork because the industry is not yet regulated in most countries. This means that you can call yourself a breathworker afetr a weekend workshop, a 1-week course, a 1 month intensive etc.
This is a challenge that professionals are coming up against. As an unregulated field, the standard of training and care in the field varies quite considerably. For me, if you are concerned about peoples safety moving through trauma, cultivating an ethical practice with integrity and a commitment to career sustainability, it important to get trained properly in breathwork and doing so with an accredited course is the good step.
While breathwork is powerful, without proper training, facilitators can unintentionally cause harm. This is something we are seeing more and more of and at Inspire Breathwork, we are working to uplift the standards of care and the evolve the field.
What Is Accreditation in Breathwork Training?
Accreditation ensures that a breathwork training program meets industry standards for quality, safety, and ethics. Since “breathwork facilitator” is an unregulated title, anyone can claim to be a trainer, even if they have little experience or ethical grounding. A natural consequence of this is the possibility that people teach after experiencing breathwork only once, without deeply integrating the practice themselves.
It is unfortunately quite common that folks will be quite ill-prepared to hold trauma and move through it with grace. Without proper knowledge, people may trigger trauma responses in clients without knowing how to attend to them. This is scary for both the breather and the facilitator. Something we would like to avoid.
And so, what we see is that breathers who have negative first experiences get turned off from breathwork forever, missing the possibility that it may be the medicine that they need. Essentially, robbing people of breathwork as a healing modality that is could be best suited for them.
In breathwork, there is currently only one accrediting body: The Global Professional Breathwork Alliance. This is where all accredited trainings are listed. If you are interested in being accredited, make sure the school you are looking at is listed here.
The Difference Between Accredited vs. Non-Accredited Breathwork Training
Accredited Training
Backed by a recognised professional body
Follows a code of ethics beyond internal rules
Prioritises student safety & client protection
Can help with public liability insurance
Facilitators can be listed on directories
Non- Accredited Training
No external oversight or accountability
No ethical guidelines outside the school’s own policies
Risk of incomplete or misleading teachings
May not qualify for insurance
Harder for potential clients to verify credentials
Something also to remember, accreditation isn’t perfect, and the regulatory bodies for breathwork are still in their infancy. BUT it does provide a layer of accountability that non-accredited programs may lack.
The Marketing Ethics in Breathwork
The breathwork industry is growing fast. The wellness industry is jumping on this modality, and there is little surprise. Its a powerful modality.
Unfortunately, the wellness industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and with that, becomes a highly enticing modality to profit from. While many schools operate ethically, we have noticed some characteristics of capitalism and supremacy culture in the way others who are profit-first market their courses.
Some of the things to be aware of when taking a look at which course you’d like to take that could reveal their allegiance to quantity over quality:
any use of the word ‘best’, or ‘world’s best’
the use of numbers and statistics that are kind of wild: millions of people, world’s ‘largest’ etc
the use of celebrity or fame could also be something worth looking at
the use of tactics of urgency or scarcity
the promise of instant and guaranteed transformation over a short period of time
the use of preying on vulnerable people in their search for healing ‘are you depressed? anxious? are you spiralling? come join this course’
Of course, these are just suggestions and not a definitive of what we should be careful of, but I invite you to be critical in your exploration and be aware of how people are trying to get you to buy in through grandiose words.
Bare in mind, we might say things like this at some point, and it’s not a point of moral failure, but an indication of how capitalism can bleed its way into what is a deeply powerful and healing modality.
I hope this is a little helpful!
Recognised Breathwork Bodies
If you want to enroll in an accredited breathwork training, here are the key organisations to check out:
Recently established to regulate breathwork practice in the UK, the UKBA aims to:
Ensure integrity, safety, and accountability in breathwork
Provide a central hub for professional development
Act as a solution to the lack of local regulation
The IBF is a global network of breathworkers that focuses on advocacy, education, and professional community-building but does not regulate or accredit specific trainings
Has a Code of Ethics members must follow
Provides international networking opportunities
The only international accrediting body for breathwork training.
Establishes professional standards for breathwork training programs
Accredits schools that meet quality and safety guidelines
Has limited authority over malpractice beyond expelling members
Do You Really Need Certification to Teach Breathwork?
Breathing is fast becoming a recognised profession. It’s important to know that as a field in its evolution, accreditation is important for a few key reasons.
The first is about legal and business reasons. For you become insured, the training that you take must be accredited. This helps you run your business with the support of the legal frameworks and gives you legitimacy for funding, and working with other institutions. If you are interested in working with marginalised communities, it is likely you will collaborate with other organisations. This can often be a pre-requisite for any form of professional partnerships.
The second is credibility and trust. It is alreday so hard for folks to find practitioners they can trust. Accreditation can helo soothe that anxiety in clients and ensures ethical practice for them, but also a support system for you as a prctitioner if you need.
The third is participation in the community and a commitment to continue learning. Being part of an accredited course connects you with other serious professionals and helps give you access to other training, supervision and referral systems.
What to Look for in a Breathwork Certification Program
Not all accredited breathwork trainings are the same, and many of them have considerable variables for you to consider. I have made a list here to help you move through your decsioning process which may be helpful.
Does it align with your values? Breathwork is deeply personal, does the training ethics and philosophy resonate with you, do you resonate with the trainer or the school?
Does the curriculum cover more than techniques? What does the course include that you value? Does it include the fundaments like:
Anatomy & science of breath
Trauma-informed facilitation
Ethics in therapeutic settings
Does it include business training? If you want to start a breathwork practice, does this course set you up for future evolution? what happens to their students? What is the ‘success’ rate? How do the students feel of the training?
What support is available after graduation? What ongoing mentorship is there, what does it mean to be a graduate of the school?
Some programs meet the minimum accreditation standards but don’t provide deep, trauma-informed training. Always research beyond the accreditation label.
Final Thoughts: Choosing The Right Breathwork Certification
Accredited breathwork certification is not just about checking a box, it’s about becoming a responsible, skilled, and ethical facilitator.
If you’re serious about guiding others through the power of breath, investing in the right training will give you the skills and confidence to facilitate safely, the credibility to grow your business and t he support of a professional network. Take your time in choosing the right course. Ask questions, get curious, get thorough.
And notice how it feels to be with them and who you would like to spend time with.
Next Steps: Is Inspire Breathwork for you?
If this has been helpful, and you’re interested in diving deeper with Inspire Breathwork, please take a look at our training and see if it resonates.
My Mission
Establish a foundation of expert breathworkers by revealing the stolen medicine of the breath to the lost healers of our time.
The breath has always been our medicine, we have been forced to forget it. My role is to remind you of the power of the breath and how it can help you change your life
Inspire Breathwork Facilitator Training is a comprehensive 2-year program that fully equips you to become an accredited breathwork therapist. With this breathwork facilitator training, you will be able to work professionally anywhere in the world and burn the toxic pillars of the current wellness industry to the ground.
This training goes beyond traditional approaches by integrating embodied social justice principles and embracing a decolonial framework.
With a keen focus on addressing the wounds of our modern context, this training empowers participants to facilitate healing and transformation in a way that is sensitive to systemic oppressions and fosters inclusive, equitable spaces.