SHARYN
AND MARIE
Two teachers. One practice. A Wisdom School that has been quietly growing for over a decade.
SHARYN
Who we are
The Exhale Awakening began with a question neither of us could stop asking: where is the space for extraordinary breathwork that is not dramatic. Could a soft and gentle practice bring equally powerful results?
Quieter than most of what we saw advertised. Older. Rooted in the seasons and the land rather than in outcomes and transformation promises. Without knowing it, we have been weaving that answer together through out own practices for over a decade.
Now here we are, offering it online every Wednesday. In-person retreats in Yorkshire and Donegal. In online training rooms where the people sitting with us often become the next people holding the room.
This page is where you can find out who we are and what brought us here.
Neither of us planned this.
Sharyn with a Why came to breathwork in the first COVID lockdown through a circle of women she had only recently joined. Someone invited a facilitator along one morning. She did not research him, did not look into the practice, just showed up because she trusted the people in the room. She thought there might be some pranayama. There was not. There was her first ever conscious connected breathwork session, and she sobbed for half an hour in an office she shared with her partner, who sat frozen on the other side of a partition not knowing whether to interrupt. She signed up to train the following day.
Marie came to breathwork from thirty years of teaching in Irish classrooms, carrying a relationship with control that had quietly shaped most of her adult life. When things in teaching began to slip beyond what she could manage, she found herself Googling breathwork training one evening on a kind of instinct, sent a message to Breathing Space without much research, signed up before she had ever done conscious connected breathwork, and hated her first session. She stayed anyway.
They met through Breathing Space, became facilitators together, and then teachers. The Exhale Awakening did not begin with a business plan. It began when Marie wanted to bring breathwork training to Ireland and Sharyn offered to help. They started a free Wednesday evening session to attract people to both of them, the Midweek Exhale, and thought they would alternate weeks. Everything else, the school, the training, the name, grew around that one weekly hour the way a practice grows around a single commitment held with care.
There was a moment when they were building a breathwork journey with the Hawthorn tree, and it was not coming together. They had been at it for weeks. Then one conversation about the relationship between the trees and the Celtic astrology calendar shifted something, and in twenty-four hours the whole thing fell into place. That, they say, was the birth of the Wisdom School. Not a decision but a recognition. A safe clicking into place.
They describe their partnership as something that happened rather than something they chose. Their paths to breathwork were different. The things each carries are different. Marie is steeped in Irish land and language and old knowledge in a way that is simply her life. Sharyn came to Celtic wisdom through a calling she had to respond to rather than a history she grew up inside. Both of them notice that the difference is the point. The people who train with them get both sets, and can take from whichever one lands.
What they agree on is this: it does not have to be difficult. The work is real, sometimes uncomfortable, always honest. But difficult is not the same thing as hard. They have both been through enough to know the difference, and they carry that knowing into every space they hold.
If you have watched the video, you will know by now whether they are the kind of people you would like to learn with. If you have not, there is no rush. Come to a Wednesday first. Take your time. Both yes and no are equally welcome.
Sharyn with a Why
The key to the door I didn’t even know existed
Sharyn with a Why came to breathwork from a background in accounting and business coaching. A high performer, she was not looking for something gentle. She found it anyway.
She has been facilitating for over a decade. Her sessions are rooted in the Celtic tradition, shaped by the seasons, and held with an unhurried attention that tends to let something shift that didn’t know it needed to.
She created co-created The Exhale Awakening because she believed breathwork could be something quieter and more honest than most of what she witnessed. Curious to explore this, she is now more sure of that than ever.
She is also an astrologer and training as a druid. Her Yorkshire base keeps her close to the land. That closeness shows in how she teaches.
If something in you is wondering about training, her door is open. Book a quiet conversation.
For one-to-one sessions, see what Sharyn offers →
Marie Doherty
Gentle caring and tending, as natural as breathing
Marie Doherty spent thirty years in Irish classrooms before she found breathwork. Those years are not background. They are the reason she understands what it costs to give, and what it takes to return to yourself.
She is steeped in Irish-ness. The land, the old stories, the old language. When she facilitates, the room settles. People come back because of what they feel in her presence, which is difficult to name but easy to recognise.
As co-founder of The Exhale Awakening, Marie brings the wisdom of flower essences, the gentle wisdom of the trees and natural Irish wisdom that tends our soul. Marie tends the community space, and brings a depth to the work that never loses its warmth.
Her Donegal base keeps her close to the Atlantic. That edge of Ireland is in her voice whether she means it to be or not.
If you are wondering whether this work might be yours to carry forward, Marie’s door is open. Book a quiet conversation.
For one-to-one sessions, see what Marie offers →
Stay close
Our seasonal newsletter arrives a few times a year. It reads like a letter, not a broadcast. A sharing of the seasonal invitation from Earth and Sky.
News from the school, what is coming. Nothing you didn’t ask for.
HOW WE WORK
What we are building together
What we offer is not only breathwork. It is a way of being with each other and with life that honours both the sound and the silence.
Our Breathwork roots are in Conscious Connected Breathwork. The heart of the work is in the art of holding space. Not just guiding, but listening, pausing, and allowing what needs to unfold to find its moment.
We work online every Wednesday through the Midweek Exhale and in person at retreats in Yorkshire and Donegal. We train breathwork facilitators through a GPBA-accredited programme in conjunction with Breathing Space that asks as much of us as it asks of the people training with us.
If you want to understand how the whole school fits together, The Exhale Wisdom School is where the map lives. And if you want to understand what is at the roots of everything we teach, the TEA Tree is a good place to spend an hour.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
What we hold to
These are not rules. They are the qualities we return to when we are not sure what to do next.
Gentleness. We honour soft landings, slow mornings, and the medicine of moving at your own pace.
Reciprocity. Giving and receiving, listening and speaking, teaching and learning. All held in balance.
Attunement to Nature. The cycles of earth and sky shape our work together. The outer world is not separate from the inner.
Sovereignty. You are the wise keeper of your own breath. We offer guidance and support, not commandments or instruction.
Silence and Listening. Pauses are sacred. Silence is not absence. It is presence.
Joy in the Mystery. Not everything is to be solved or fixed. We honour the unknown and the unfolding.
THREE WAYS IN
Any questions are welcome.
A quiet conversation with us is just that – a conversation. No pressure, no pitch.
This is an invitational wellbeing practice and does not diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. You choose your pace and may rest at any time. If you have medical concerns, please consult a qualified professional.