The Breathworks approach to pain and chronic illness management is based on the experience of Vidyamala Burch, who sustained a severe spinal injury in 1976 when she was sixteen, leading to multiple surgeries and partial paraplegia. Over 27 years ago she began exploring mindfulness and meditation to manage her persistent pain and in 2001 wondered if she could share these life-changing skills with others who were suffering from pain, stress or illness. She was soon joined by Gary Hennessy and Sona Fricker, both mindfulness practitioners for over three decades and together they developed Breathworks as it is today.
Along the way, Vidyamala wrote two books, Living Well with Pain and Illness, and Mindfulness for Health (co-written with Danny Penman). These form the 'backbone' of the Breathworks approach to mindfulness-based pain and illness management.
"The Breathworks approach to Mindfulness-Based Pain Management (MBPM) is the most comprehensive, in-depth, scientifically up-to-date and user-friendly approach to learning the how of living with chronic pain and reclaiming one’s life that I know of.....I admire Vidyamala tremendously... her approach could save your life and give it back to you."
Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD author Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
In order to share this wonderful tool called 'mindfulness', the founders of Breathworks have developed courses and resources that can be accessed in a number of ways. So wherever you are, whatever your health and mobility, you can find a way to learn mindfulness for relieving the suffering that comes from living with pain, illness or stressful circumstances.