Making Breathwork Inclusive and Accessible for Black Women
After practicing breathwork for more than four years, Jasmine Marie decided to amplify her love of the therapeutic practice and become a facilitator. But when she started her training, she noticed a startling lack of diversity within the field—particularly a scarcity of Black facilitators.
This realization propelled in Marie a desire to create a space for Black women where they could receive and heal from a practice that helped her emotionally and mentally heal in so many ways. The need was intense. “I knew the health effects of chronic stress and high cortisol levels that impacted my community,” Marie tells us, “and was inspired to bring this work as a balm to combat those health challenges.”
Those challenges cover a wide-ranging spectrum that include unhealed trauma linked to widespread racism, microaggression, biases, and marginalization. Research covering the physical, cognitive, and emotional health of Americans shows that Black women are disproportionately impacted by chronic psychological stress and emotional trauma. Marie wanted to provide her community a safe way to face these traumas, breathe together, and heal. Breathwork, she says, is a true somatic healing tool, “that can rid the body of stagnant energy, decrease stress and anxiety and help reframe one’s nervous system’s response to triggers.”
Black Girls Breathing is Marie’s physical and virtual manifestation of her work. It is a space for Black women to lean into meditational breathwork, “deepening our inhale and lessening our stress,” as stated on its website. The endeavor is inclusive and safe. It stands for what true wellness should be—equitable and inviting—while also fighting against the harsh reality that the wellness and mental health space is often too expensive and exclusive. “Our work is accessible,” says Marie. “One can access my work and experience for free if they need to.” Black Girls Breathing virtual breathwork circles are offered on a sliding scale from $0 to $25.
Marie and her team initially hosted breathwork sessions both in-person and virtually. They also produced a wildly successful multi-city breathwork tour in 2019. Since the pandemic, they are focusing on emboldening their community, which includes women between the ages of 18 and 65, virtually, and expanding ways to impact more Black women. The team has launched a crowdfunding program that aims to raise $50,000 by the end of October to help them in their efforts to provide virtual breathwork sessions to black women free for an entire year. Marie says they plan to eventually bring in licensed therapists “to combine the somatic healing with traditional talk therapy.”
Black Girls Breathing also will be launching its Re-Allocation Initiative after October 12, as a way to refocus the attention of that day (Columbus Day) and put energy toward further fundraising to encourage platforms, publications, and leaders “to make actionable steps to support communities and spaces like Black Girls Breathing’ whose work focuses on Black women who have largely been left out and not engaged by organizations with large resources and reach,” says Marie.
What is so fascinating and inspiring about Marie’s endeavor is that it is quickly growing, yet it bloomed from a humble seed. Marie says she committed to keeping Black Girls Breathing accessible “forever,” even beyond their fundraising efforts.
Theirs is work that is redefining the world of wellness and erasing the stark boundaries that never should have been there in the first place.
