GPBA Recognised Breathwork practitioner Training
A 400-hour breathwork practitioner training from The Exhale Awakening (TEA). A Breathwork Apprenticeship that is trauma informed and science backed, held gently, at your own pace, by two experienced teachers rooted in the rhythm of Ireland and the British Isles.
Choose your pathway: fully online curriculum with zoom 1-2-1’s, or add in-person retreats in Donegal and York.
You’ve been breathing consciously for a while now, and you know what it feels like when a room shifts, when someone exhales and something releases. You’ve watched it happen in yourself and in other around you.
And quietly, perhaps for longer than you’ve admitted, you’ve wondered: what if I could hold this for others?
This page is for that question. To give you information, yes, but also to give the question some space to breathe as you explore further.
You might be a complete beginner or an experience facilitator wanting something extra, there is something for both of you here.
50 hours · 12 weeks · Your starting point
The foundation of everything. Anatomy of breath, facilitation skills, ethics, and your first supervised sessions.
Self-paced · Deep study · Your own rhythm
Psychology, trauma-informed practice, breathwork lineages, and the theory that underpins skilled facilitation.
Case studies · Graduation Project – Optional Retreats
1-2-1 supervision, client case studies, blogs, books and a graduation project. Optional In-person retreat days,
Unique to the Exhale Awakening
Live and Recorded Breathwork Sessions, Community and Continued learning – Included for 2 Years
A journey into becoming.
This training is led by Sharyn with a Why and Marie Doherty, two experienced breathwork facilitators who met through their shared love of the breath, the land, and the quiet work of accompanying others.
Between them they bring decades of experience in breathwork, somatic and trauma-informed practice, space holding and facilitation. They don’t just teach the curriculum, they live it.
The same qualification. The same curriculum. Held in two different voices, rooted in the same intention.
Two ways to complete the same 400-hour qualification. Same teachers, same curriculum, same outcome – different in how you experience the journey. Payment plans are available for both pathways
Everything online. Entirely flexible. Deeply personal.
Study entirely online,
Self-paced journey – between 6 and 24 months
24 one to one online mentoring and supervision sessions with 2 teachers (12 each)
Fast or slow, you set the pace. No travel required.
Full 400-hour qualification. GPBA accredited and recognised.
Includes 24 months Exhale Library access (worth £1,056)
Investment: £4,250 – monthly payment plans available.
Online learning. In-person magic. The full experience.
2 x Exhale Gatherings* – In-person retreats in either Donegal or Yorkshire (or one in each!)
Self-paced journey – between 6 and 24 months
12 one to one online mentoring and supervision sessions with 2 teachers (6 each)
Fast or slow, you set the pace.
Full 400-hour qualification. GPBA accredited and recognised.
Includes 24 months Exhale Library access (worth £1,056)
Investment: £4,250 – monthly payment plans available.
*Travel and Accommodation not included
Come together in person for the moments that need to be lived as well as learned.
We’d love to hear from you too, if you’ve trained with us, please do leave a review.
This training is for those who have already found their way to the breath.
Maybe it found you first – in a moment of stillness, a season of healing, or a quiet knowing that something here matters. And now, something in you is beginning to stir. A sense that this gift isn’t only for you.
You might be a yoga teacher, a therapist, a coach or bodyworker, feeling the breath wanting to weave itself more fully into the work you already offer.
You might be a nurse, a midwife, a counsellor – someone who has held others through hard times and seen, first-hand, what stress does to a body, a spirit, a life.
Or perhaps you carry no formal training at all. Only the lived experience of what breath has done for you, and a growing sense that you’d like to offer that to someone else.
All of this is welcome here.
You don’t need a list of qualifications to begin. You need curiosity. Commitment. And a willingness to tend your own breath – your own inner life – alongside those you’ll eventually serve.
If something in you is leaning toward this, you’re already closer than you think.
Unit 1 Breath Coach foundation can be taken as as stand alone accredited certification.
£500 or £125 a month for 4 months
If you continue to the full 400-hour training, your investment is fully credited back.
Sharyn came to breathwork through her own experience of what it can unlock, the kind of shift that arrives not through effort, but through finally learning to exhale. She has been guiding people with breath ever since, working across the UK and Ireland with a style that is warm, direct, and deeply attuned.
She is a certified Breathing Space practitioner and mentor, a business coach, and the co-founder of The Exhale Awakening. She brings to every mentoring relationship a rare combination of practical groundedness and genuine depth, the ability to meet you exactly where you are, and help you see the practitioner you’re already becoming.
Sharyn is based in Yorkshire
“Sharyn, your quiet wisdom has been so nurturing and insightful for me this past year. I have a notes page in my phone with phrases to remember and quotes from you appear in there numerous times. Some of your seemingly off-the-cuff comments have really stopped me in my tracks sometimes, and I am forever grateful for that..”
Lottie, UK
“I’ve gained strength through working with Sharyn. Sharyn supported me with delivering online breathing space which was quite a stretch for me. I received great guidance and felt fully prepared to deliver my breathwork. Sharyn is great at making you feel empowered, which is exactly how I felt. I can do this. Thank you Sharyn for all your knowledge and wisdom. I feel much stronger, confident and equipped to take my breathwork facilitation forward.”
Nanette., UK
Marie spent over thirty years as a teacher, giving, holding, and pouring herself into the wellbeing of others, often at the cost of her own. Her path to breathwork was a path back to herself, and she brings every part of that experience into how she teaches and mentors.
She is rooted in the land and seasons of Donegal, in the old Irish Celtic ways of knowing, and in the understanding that healing isn’t about becoming someone new, it’s about remembering who you’ve always been beneath the exhaustion.
Marie is a certified Breathing Space practitioner and mentor, co-founder of The Exhale Awakening, and the creator of the Sacred Natures framework. She holds space with a quality that has been described, by someone who knows breathwork well, as magic.
Marie is based in Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, Ireland.
“What a teacher! I will always remember the bus analogy when talking about the BOHR effect. I’m very grateful for your visual explanations of things. It seems your way of teaching works with my brain. Thank you for your calm, your kindness and everything else that you’ve brought to the course.”
Anne Swallow, UK
“Oh Marie, you are truly a blessing in this world. You hold space with so much love and compassion. Your words are such medicine to the soul. Everyone you meet is better for having known you. You have a gift of balancing learning with compassion and honesty. Your insights, your knowledge, just you, have certainly made me a better person and a better facilitator.”
Karen, UK
A journey into becoming
Our training is not about mastering a single technique, but about learning to rest in p…nding on your needs.
We teach the skills of true facilitation: how to welcome silence as a teacher, how to trust the natural rhythm of breath and being, and how to create spaces where every part of a person feels safe to arrive.
Our journey is deep, our destination is calm
Every pathway includes the same qualification, the same teachers, and the same 18 months of Exhale Library access.
The difference is in how you experience the journey.
Option A – fully online, entirely flexible
£425 for 10 months
or £3,825 upfront (10% saving)
Longer payment plans are available
Option B — online + in-person retreats
£425 for 10 months
or £3,825 upfront (10% saving)
Longer payment plans are available
Co-Teaching with Breathing Space.
£300 for 10 months
or £3,825 upfront (10% saving)
Longer payment plans are available
Taught by Sharyn and Marie · Start Unit 1 now · begin Unit 2 and 3 in November 2026
Have a question about cost, payment plans, or bursaries?
You don’t need to be certain. You just need to be curious, no pressure, no pitch. Just a chance to ask your questions and get a feel for whether this is the right path.
Or start gently – explore the Breath Coach foundation as a first step→
A note on safety. Breathwork is a powerful practice. If you have a history of cardiovascular conditions, epilepsy, severe anxiety, bipolar disorder, psychosis, or are pregnant, please speak to your GP before beginning any breathwork training programme. This page is for information purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. The Exhale Awakening reserves the right to decline enrolment where we feel a programme is not appropriate for an individual’s current circumstances.