Therapy focuses on letting go of the pain

By Sandy Kleffman

At first glance, it may seem like a new age massage treatment or a strange free-form dance.

But a type of alternative medicine known as breath therapy can be as effective as physical therapy in treating chronic low-back pain, a recent study by a University of California-San Francisco professor found.

The study, published in the July/August issue of Alternative Therapies, has drawn attention to the role that mind-body techniques and “body awareness” can play in dealing with pain.

“In any chronic pain, the coping is the big issue,” said Dr. Wolf Mehling, the study author and an assistant clinical professor at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.

The study involved 28 people with continuous low-back pain for at least three months. During a six- to eight-week period, they underwent 12 sessions of breath therapy or physical therapy at the university. Researchers then assessed their pain levels.

Although physical therapy has long been considered the gold-standard treatment for such pain, the study found breath therapy to be as effective as, but no better than, physical therapy.

Whether breath therapy benefits hold up long-term remains to be seen.

During a follow-up review six months later, researchers found that more of the breath therapy group experienced a pain relapse.

The breath therapy was provided by the Middendorf Institute for Breathexperience in Berkeley, Calif., which used techniques developed 70 years ago in Germany by Ilse Middendorf.

Participants would lie on a table while a breath therapist touched parts of their bodies, using gentle pressure to draw the patient’s attention to breathing movements and sensations at the point of contact.

Breath therapy adherents speak of the breath in almost mystical terms, believing that if unfettered, it has healing powers.

“Allowing the breath to come and go on its own connects with a deeper intelligence of the self,” said Juerg Roffler, who founded the institute in 1991.

“Each cycle — each inhale, exhale, pause — is different from the other. Each one means something different. But this is what we can learn to understand ourselves.”

Margot Biestman, a 73-year-old breath therapist from Sausalito, Calif., recently demonstrated the technique at the institute’s office in Berkeley.

Jeanine Aguerre, a 58-year-old massage therapist from Mill Valley, has periodic neck, shoulder and back pain. She tried hypnotherapy, yoga and meditation before settling on breath therapy.

“I’d like you to sense your body as it is on the table,” Biestman told Aguerre. “Beginning with your heels, can you let them be supported? Let your whole self be carried.”

Biestman moved her hands to Aguerre’s stomach, legs, back and other parts of her body, pausing a few moments in each location, sometimes rubbing or gently squeezing as Aguerre let out big sighs.

“Can you sense an ease beginning to come in your breath?” Biestman asked.

“I’m feeling a release of tension,” Aguerre said, adding that she felt a “fullness” and “opening.”

Twice during the session, Aguerre began to sob loudly.

Aguerre later said the tears came after her “armor” of pain and tension began to soften.

“Underneath that there has been a sadness that has been suppressed and held in the body,” she said.

Aguerre is not alone in reacting strongly to the sessions. One person dropped out of the study after the breath therapy provoked “painful emotional memories.”

Many of the techniques will seem strange to those used to traditional medicine. Mehling said he first tried breath therapy nearly 30 years ago in Germany to deal with his own back pain. He always felt better after the sessions.

Mehling noted that many Eastern philosophies focus on breathing or body awareness, including yoga, tai chi, Zen meditation and Tibetan Buddhism.

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