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Álvaro Jardim is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist, who was certified in Holotropic Breathwork in September 1997 in the first certified group in Brazil, and a Specialist in Human Values and Transdisciplinarity at the Salgado de Oliveira University. He has a private consulting practice and taught at the Brasilia Center of Unified Teaching
and at the Salgado de Oliveira University. He coordinates a certification program, which is a Specialization in Applied Transpersonal Psychology, estructured on the Stanislav Grof's Theory, a partnership contract among Centro Psicoterápico e Transpessoal and the Universidade Católica de Goiás. www.aljardim.com.br .

Carmen Maciel, M.S., is a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist. She is a Specialist in Health Psychology and holds a Master of Science in Social Anthropology. She was certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner in 1997 in the first certified group in Brazil. She has a private consulting practice and has taught for 22 years at Pernambuco Federal
University, where she developed a project on Health Psychology, coordinated research and published articles, such as: Beware, Hospital! A Critical Vision (1987); Humanization of Medicine (1993); Emotion, Illness and Culture: The Case of Essential Hypertension, in The Practice of Psychology in Hospitals (1994). She was on the Editorial Council of the magazine Psychosomatics and coordinated the Grof Transpersonal Training in Brazil with Álvaro Veiga Jardim. ccm01@hotmail.com .

We are licensed psychologists who have been working as psychotherapists in Brazil for more than 20 years. In September 1997, we were awarded Grof Transpersonal Training (GTT) certification as facilitators in the very first certification held in Brazil. In July 1998, we established a partnership in Brazil in order to facilitate groups in several cities, such as Recife, Goiania and Fortaleza. In February 1999, we started to coordinate GTT modules in Brazil including "The Cosmic Game" (Tav Sparks and Stan Grof in February 1999); "The Practice of Holotropic Breathwork, Parts I and II" (Tav Sparks and Jill Moore in July/August 1999;) and "Architecture of Psychopathology" (Tav and Stan in September 2000.) A select group of seven people from Recife were able to complete their certification in Argentina. Since then, interest and participation in Holotropic Breathwork sessions seems to be decreasing. One reason for this includes the enormous economic turmoil that Brazil has been going through in the past few years. Moreover, there are many other variables which need to be taken into consideration. They reflect our culture and symbolic universe. Some of them are topics that we feel need to be discussed within the larger Holotropic Community.

Taking a closer look at the work we have been doing throughout the last years, we can say that some things need to change. We have been introducing Holotropic Breathwork to many groups of people - inviting them to give the work a try and experience its effects. Some people have come only for one or two sessions, and never returned (this group includes psychologists and psychiatrists). Those who are still attending our monthly sessions are typically in the process of initiating or already going through individual psychotherapeutic treatment with one of us - or, eventually, with a third party. We strongly recommend psychotherapy with a transpersonal orientation.

The practice of Holotropic Breathwork in Brazil certainly demands a lot of work. Groups have been shrinking, according to many facilitators, and it has become a common complaint that, although people have achieved profound experiences, many of them do not continue with the work. Analyzing the situation, we conclude that the reasons for that include the following:

-- The fact that people are generally used to the old science paradigm. This work requires theoretical changes that are quite challenging. Brazil is a very open-minded country regarding diversity of all kinds, including religious beliefs; however, there is a tacit agreement which could be better described as a 'mind your own business' behavior. Science has nothing to do with religious practices, and it is worse if a practice seems to be somehow linked to spiritualism and beliefs about past lives. If a person is spiritualist (and by that we mean people who believe in the primacy of spirit above matter and in reincarnation,) it is likely that he or she would more easily accept Holotropic Breathwork than a traditional Catholic would. However, some Catholic people report that they have tried Holotropic Breathwork because they were familiar with our work and found it very reliable and extremely professional.

--Some certified people have mentioned that there is too much time, effort, and money involved in becoming a certified facilitator, and that the financial outcome of becoming a practitioner is not tempting from an economic perspective. One needs to make a living from another job while investing in becoming a certified practitioner.

--In Brazil we have no spiritual emergency network available. Occasionally, we have had cases of people entering an emergency status and being unable to give them the support they needed in a timely manner. Therefore, they had to go to traditional psychiatrists and have medication prescribed. The doctors were not aware about Holotropic Breathwork and its effects (as is common here in Brazil,) thus they reject the Breathwork and contribute to creating a bad reputation for it.

-- Another challenging aspect of the work has to do with the sharing in the end of the sessions. We think we need to pay more attention to the group dynamics - especially in the training modules where people interact deeply for six days or more. During the training, many participants go very deeply into their emotional process, so we must be aware of the relationships arising between participants and between participants and facilitators. Group dynamics include emerging subgroups, projections, acting out, self-defense mechanisms, etc. Giving attention to those dynamics would be very helpful. The whole setting could function as a learning process of diagnosing and communicating inner emotions - as well as providing a very precious opportunity to be authentic in oneself and to others. Acknowledging inner emotions and facing them is not an easy thing to do. Understanding what is inner and/ or outside of oneself is a complex task. By creating the intention to focus on the group dynamics and learn more about healthy relationships, and by investing the necessary time, attention and support, we can assist participants and provide a point of reference as they re-enter their daily lives.

-- Although it is important not to interpret what comes out during the sharing sessions, it is also wise to listen and work with someone who is deeply touched. We want to give them support and also an opportunity to deal with the emerging material. We do that not only for a better integration; but also because it represents a symbolic message that we agree to take the time to explore the inner world and never to deny or ignore what is happening inside. We probably need to learn how to impose some limits in such situations, but it is better to cope with the need for limits than not to take the emerging process into consideration. As we work with states of amplified consciousness, we need to create some links with real life - giving the group more opportunity to become better aware of their perceptions and insights. We believe this approach would be a more effective means to facilitate the evolution of the group's consciousness.

Finally, we proudly announce that a post-graduate course called 'Specialization in Transpersonal Psychology' (which will focus on Stanislav Grof's theory) has been approved as a project supported by the Catholic University of Goias. It is the very first initiative of this sort in our country and represents the legitimization of Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic Breathwork in the academic setting. It will be a 500 hours course, spread over 20 monthly meetings. Stan Grof will be our confirmed Honored Guest. All teachers are Brazilian citizens - with specialization, masters degrees of science, and certified by GTT. Some of them have worked with Stan Grof in various workshops throughout Brazil and in other countries.