A breathwork coach guides clients one to one, using breathing practices to help with stress, sleep, focus and mood, then coaching them to keep the practice going between sessions. Becoming one means training in a range of techniques rather than a single method, learning safety and screening properly, practising on yourself first, then certifying with a school that also teaches you how to run a practice.
That last part is where most people get caught out. The breathing is the easy half.
What does a breathwork coach actually do?
The job splits into two halves that most training only covers one of.
The first half is the breathing work itself. You assess how someone breathes, pick the right practice for their situation, guide them through it, and adjust it as they change. The second half is coaching. That means the conversation before the session, the goal behind the goal, the habit that never sticks, the follow-up three weeks later when motivation has gone flat.
Niraj Naik, who founded SOMA Breath after burning out as a community pharmacist, sorts clients into three groups, and the distinction is genuinely useful when you are deciding who to work with.
“I am in pain, I need help now.” These clients arrive stressed, exhausted, sleeping badly, carrying something heavy. They want relief and they want it soon.
“I want the edge.” Athletes, founders, performers, people who are already functioning and want to function better. Focus, stamina, recovery, decisions under pressure.
“I have got it all, now what?” People with the career and the house who feel oddly flat. They come for meaning, peak experience and self discovery rather than symptom relief.
Those three groups need different practices, different session lengths and different language. A coach trained in one technique will give all three of them the same thing and get results with roughly one of them.
Coach, instructor, facilitator or therapist?
These words get used interchangeably, and the sloppiness costs people money when they buy the wrong training.
| Role | Main setting | What the work centres on |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor | Groups and classes | Teaching technique correctly and safely |
| Facilitator | Groups, deeper sessions | Holding the room and whatever surfaces in it |
| Breath therapist | One to one | Working with what is stuck, using breath plus guided process |
| Transformational coach | One to one, plus groups | Designing a programme across weeks for a specific outcome |
SOMA Breath teaches these as a sequence rather than alternatives. You certify as an instructor first, because guiding a group teaches you the techniques in your body and in your mouth. Then breath therapy, one to one. Then coaching, where you build a customised protocol for a particular client instead of running everyone through the same template.
Niraj's reasoning for that order is worth borrowing even if you train elsewhere: you cannot coach a practice you have not stood in front of a room and taught. If you are weighing up the group side of the work, the breathwork instructor career guide covers what facilitation actually demands week to week.
What good breathwork coach training covers
Ask a school this directly, because very few volunteer it: most breathwork schools teach one core technique and then apply it to everything.
Niraj's analogy is blunt. A dentist trained only in extractions is not much use when you turn up wanting your teeth whitened. Best case they cannot help. Worst case they pull the lot out. He calls the alternative a pharmacy of techniques, which is the idea a coach needs a range and the judgement to pick between them.
A serious coach training covers roughly seven things.
Functional breathing first. How someone breathes all day matters more than what they do for 20 minutes. SOMA Breath starts new trainees on an 11 day protocol called BreathFit, built from Buteyko method work and traditional pranayama, aimed at making everyday breathing more efficient before anything intense is introduced. You go through it as a client before you guide anyone.
A real range of techniques. Slow rhythmic breathing, functional retraining, breath retention, practices comparable to the Wim Hof method, and process work in the territory of holotropic and rebirthing styles. Knowing four practices is not the point. Knowing which one a specific client needs on a specific week is.
The rhythm and music layer. Rhythmic breathing is the foundation of SOMA Breath, and the reason is practical. Most pranayama asks you to count, or use a stopwatch, or run mala beads through your fingers. Clients hate counting. Breathing to a fixed musical tempo removes the maths, so the practice becomes a breath meditation instead of an arithmetic exercise. It also means every client in a group receives the same rhythm and the same retention timing.
Guided process work. SOMA Breath calls its method NeuroSomatic Programming, or NSP. In plain English, that is using the body to shift the mind rather than arguing with the mind directly: movement, shaking, dance and breathing combined with guided visualisation and language. Niraj built it after training with Marissa Peer, founder of Rapid Transformational Therapy, and with an NLP trainer who studied directly under Richard Bandler.
Science taught by someone qualified. Breath physiology, posture, gas exchange, what retention does and does not do. SOMA Breath's curriculum was co created with Dr. Prakash Malshe, a medical doctor and yogi who sits on the company's board. Ask any school who wrote their science module and what their qualifications are. The answer is revealing.
Safety and screening. Niraj is direct that some breathwork can cause harm when used wrongly, particularly intense heavy mouth breathing that amounts to sustained hyperventilation. A coach needs contraindications memorised, an intake form, and the confidence to tell someone no.
Trauma-informed grounding. Fast breathing and retention can surface material a client was not braced for. The case for trauma training for breathwork practitioners explains why this belongs at the centre of a curriculum rather than in an optional module.
One unglamorous practical detail that almost nobody asks about until it bites them: music licensing. Plenty of trainings hand graduates a Spotify playlist, which is not legal to use commercially, and rights holders have been tightening enforcement. SOMA Breath produces its own tracks and licenses them to certified instructors, which also means you can record your own voice over the top and give or sell the result to clients. Ask any school you are considering what you are actually licensed to play in a paid session.
How much do breathwork coaches earn?
There is no salary. Almost every breathwork coach is self employed, so income depends on what you offer, what you charge and how many clients you keep. Anyone quoting you an average figure for this job is guessing, and no reliable industry salary data exists.
What you can do is arithmetic. This is the model Niraj teaches, and the useful part is the structure rather than the specific numbers.
The old way is to charge per head, per hour. A group class at roughly ten units a ticket, or a one to one session somewhere between two and three hundred. To reach five thousand a month on class tickets alone you need to teach a great many classes, and the working week eats you.
The alternative is a ladder. A low cost or donation based group session at the front, sometimes free, to bring people in. A sharing circle at the end, where you learn what people are actually struggling with. A group coaching programme in the middle at a monthly fee. One to one coaching at the top for the few who want depth.
Run the numbers on one group of twenty five people. Twenty five at around ten each is two hundred and fifty. Three of them joining group coaching at two hundred a month is six hundred more. One taking a high ticket one to one programme is where the rest comes from. Retained one to one clients paying five hundred to a thousand a month for six months or more are what turn this from a hobby into an income.
Two honest caveats, because the pitch version of this leaves them out.
First, those figures are an illustration of how a ladder works, not a forecast for you. Nobody can promise you clients. Filling a room of twenty five takes existing audience, local reputation or a lot of unpaid months.
Second, the wellness industry gets described as recession proof, including in SOMA Breath's own materials. No self employed practice is recession proof. Coaching is discretionary spending and it is one of the first things people cut. What training can genuinely give you is more than one income stream, which is a different and more defensible claim: classes, group programmes, one to one work, digital products, retreats. The guide to becoming a breathwork coach covers the practical scaffolding around getting started.
Can you work as an online breathwork coach?
Yes, and for one to one coaching it works better than people expect.
Slow breathing, functional breathing retraining, education, habit work and accountability all travel fine over video. You can see someone's shoulders and hear their breath. You can watch their face. SOMA Breath's own training is delivered online at your own pace with mentor calls, precisely because the model works, and it runs in person training centres in the United States and Europe for people who want the room.
Three things make online coaching work rather than merely happen.
Screening gets stricter, not looser. You are not there to catch anyone. Take a proper health history before the first session.
Set the physical environment. Client seated or lying down, on the floor or a bed, never in a chair they could slide out of, never near water, never with a screen balanced somewhere it can fall. Say it out loud every time.
Keep intense work for in person, at least at first. Extended retention and sustained fast breathing are harder to supervise through a laptop camera. Many coaches run gentler protocols online and keep the intense sessions face to face. That is a sensible default rather than a limitation.
Language is less of a barrier than people assume. SOMA Breath has certified instructors guiding in Spanish, French, Italian, Serbian, Russian and Hindi, and coaching in your first language to your own community is usually easier than competing in English.
Your own daily practice is what keeps you credible, and the SOMA Breath app is the simplest way to keep it consistent while you build.
Where a coach's scope of practice stops
This section matters more than the income section, and it gets skipped more often.
A breathwork coaching certificate is not a clinical qualification. It does not become one at level three, or after a retreat, or with a longer certificate. To Niraj's credit, the SOMA Breath materials say this plainly: the work is complementary to medical treatment and therapy, not a replacement for either, and anyone claiming a single technique cures everything is not being straight with you.
So, as a coach:
You do not diagnose. You do not treat disease. You never advise a client to reduce or stop prescribed medication, no matter what they tell you about their doctor. If a client's medication is part of the conversation, the answer is their prescriber, every time.
You screen before you teach. Pregnancy, epilepsy or seizure history, cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled blood pressure, aneurysm, retinal conditions, severe asthma, psychiatric conditions, and any history of panic attacks or dissociation. Read the form before the session, not after.
You get insured before your first paid client, and you check that the policy names breathwork specifically, including fast breathing and retention, rather than filing you loosely under yoga.
You keep referral routes. A short list of GPs, therapists and trauma-trained clinicians you can point someone towards. Saying “this is outside what I do” is a professional skill, and the coaches clients trust most are usually the quickest to say it.
Two research notes, stated carefully. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have studied the SOMA Breath 21 Day Awakening protocol, which SOMA Breath reports more than 9,000 people have completed. A university studying a method is not a university endorsing a company, and it is not clinical validation. Quote it accurately or not at all. The same discipline applies to everything you will say in a sales conversation, because the habit of overclaiming is contagious, and a school willing to overclaim to you has already taught you to overclaim to your clients.
What actually stops people
The objections are predictable enough that SOMA Breath's own materials list them. They are worth naming because the fix is usually smaller than the fear.
“I am not good enough to facilitate.” Nearly universal, and it does not go away by waiting. It goes away by facilitating small groups while someone experienced watches. SOMA Breath runs weekly practice sessions and community calls partly for this reason, and instructors describe the first live session to a real audience as the thing that broke the block.
“I have no clients.” The honest gap in most breathwork training. Technique without a way to find people is an expensive hobby. Ask any school what business training is included, who teaches it, and whether you get an instructor listing that sends enquiries your way.
“I have no time.” Roughly 20 minutes a day of study, plus a longer window once a week for the deeper practices, is the realistic minimum. A six month part time route is normal.
“My accent is wrong for guiding.” It is not. Guiding is closer to reading a bedtime story than to broadcasting. Coach in your own voice, in your own language.
“My family thinks this is mad.” Mine did too, is Niraj's answer. He spent years being laughed at for this work before Cambridge researchers took an interest in it.
How to choose a breathwork coach certification
Ten questions. Ask them before you pay anything, and judge the school on how comfortable the answers are.
- How many distinct techniques will I be trained in, and which ones?
- How many one to one client sessions will I run before you certify me?
- Who observes those sessions and what are their qualifications?
- Who wrote your physiology and safety content, and what is their clinical background?
- Is trauma-informed practice a module or a thread running through everything?
- What business and client acquisition training is included, and who teaches it?
- What music am I licensed to use in paid sessions, and is that in writing?
- What support exists after I certify, and for how long?
- What are the limits of what I will be qualified to do, in plain terms?
- Which claims am I permitted to make about this work, and which are off limits?
If a school goes vague on four, nine or ten, you have your answer. Ongoing support is the one people underrate at the point of purchase and miss most at month three, so look at what a school's member community and continuing support actually includes.
Frequently asked questions
What does a breathwork coach do?
A breathwork coach works one to one with clients, choosing breathing practices for their situation, guiding sessions, and coaching the habit between sessions. Good coaches also assess everyday breathing patterns, screen for health risks, and design a programme over weeks rather than selling single sessions.
How do you become a breathwork coach?
Practise consistently yourself for several months. Train with a school that teaches a range of techniques, breath physiology, screening and trauma-informed practice, and that includes supervised one to one sessions before certifying you. Get insured. Start with a small number of clients at a low fee while you build confidence. SOMA Breath's facilitator and teacher training certification sets out one structured route.
Do you need a certification to be a breathwork coach?
No statutory licence exists in most countries, because breathwork is largely unregulated. Certification still matters for three practical reasons: insurers ask for it, venues and corporate clients ask for it, and you need to know what to do when a session goes sideways.
Can you get a breathing coach certification online?
Yes. Most reputable programmes now run online with live mentor calls, virtual classrooms and practice sessions, and some also offer in person training weeks. What matters is not the delivery format but whether you are observed guiding real people before you are called qualified.
What does a breathwork coach earn?
There is no salary figure, because the work is almost always self employed. Income depends on your offers and your client retention. Coaches with one income stream tend to earn little. Coaches running group sessions, a group programme and a handful of one to one clients earn considerably more from the same hours. Treat anyone quoting a fixed number with suspicion.
Can I work as an online breathwork coach in the UK or USA?
Yes, and location matters less than insurance and tax. Check that your policy covers clients in the countries where they live, be clear in writing that you are a coach rather than a clinician, and learn your own jurisdiction's rules on health-adjacent claims before you write any marketing.
Does one to one breathwork coaching work online?
For slow breathing, functional retraining, education and habit coaching, yes. For sustained fast breathing and long retention, supervise more tightly or keep it in person. You cannot read someone's state through a laptop as well as you can in a room, and pretending otherwise is how coaches get into trouble.
Can a breathwork coach help with anxiety?
A coach is not a treatment provider for a diagnosed anxiety disorder, and should say so. Slow rhythmic breathing is widely taught for everyday stress and many clients find it settles them. If a client's difficulty is clinical, the right move is to work alongside their doctor or therapist, keep the practices gentle, and refer rather than take it on alone.
What is the difference between a breath coach and a breathwork coach?
Mostly marketing. “Breath coach” often leans towards functional breathing, nasal breathing and performance. “Breathwork coach” often implies deeper sessions and emotional process work. Neither is a protected title, so read the syllabus rather than the label.
Where to go next
- Feel the method before you evaluate any training. Try a free guided SOMA Breath session.
- New to the field: start with what breathwork is and how the styles differ.
- Build your own practice first with breathwork techniques and how to practise them.
- Weighing up the group side of the work: the breathwork instructor career guide.
- Ready to look at a structured route: the facilitator and teacher training certification.
Niraj trained with Wim Hof and worked alongside him for years, and the lesson he repeats from that period is not a technique. It is that the people who build something lasting in this field are the ones still practising daily long after the certificate arrived, and still honest about what breathing can and cannot do.
Important safety and medical information
This article is educational only. It is not medical advice. SOMA Breath is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and it does not replace medication, therapy, or professional medical care. A breathwork coaching certificate is not a clinical licence, and no certification qualifies anyone to diagnose or treat a medical condition.
Slow, gentle rhythmic breathing suits most people. Intense fast breathing and extended breath retention are different practices and carry real cautions. Anyone practising or coaching these should speak with a qualified health professional first if they are pregnant, or live with epilepsy or a seizure disorder, cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled high or low blood pressure, an aneurysm, a retinal condition, severe asthma, a psychiatric condition, or a history of panic attacks or dissociation.
Never practise breath retention or fast breathing in or near water, in a bath, while driving, or while standing without support. Breath holding in water can cause loss of consciousness and drowning.
As a coach, screen every client before their first session, keep the completed form to hand, and stop a session if someone shows distress that does not settle. If a client needs care beyond a breathing practice, refer them to an appropriate professional. That is the job working properly.
