Rebirthing Breathwork Training Review (2026)

A review of Rebirthing Breathwork practitioner training. What the method is, what certification costs at RBI, AIR School, and Summer Healing, and whether it is worth it.

Rebirthing Breathwork is where modern conscious connected breathing starts. Leonard Orr developed it in the 1970s, and most of what is now sold as “breathwork” (the continuous, circular breathing with no pause between inhale and exhale used by PAUSE, Alchemy of Breath, ReWild, and many others) traces back to it.

That makes this review different from our others. There is no single Rebirthing school. Orr trained many teachers who went on to run their own trainings, and today Rebirthing is taught by independent schools and trainers in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia, each with its own structure, price, and standards. So rather than reviewing one product, we review what Rebirthing training is, what a good one looks like, and three schools that publish enough detail to assess.

Our view in short: the best Rebirthing trainings ask for more supervised practice and personal work than most modern certifications, often at a lower price. But the method’s founding ideas (birth trauma, past-life karma, breath as “Divine Energy”) are metaphysical claims with no research behind them, there is no central body setting a standard, and the quality you get depends almost entirely on which trainer you pick.

What Rebirthing Breathwork Is

According to Rebirthing Breathwork International (RBI), the training organization carrying on Orr’s work, Orr discovered connected breathing in the bathtub. He noticed that staying in the water for long periods brought up memories and emotion, and that circular, connected breathing helped clear them. RBI quotes him dating the main discovery to 1974-1975. Orr died in 2019.

A Rebirthing session is usually one-to-one. The client breathes in a gentle, connected rhythm, merging the inhale into the exhale, while the practitioner (sometimes called a sitter) supports them. Orr held that people learn the practice best through a series of ten two-hour private sessions, and many schools still build their trainings around that idea. Water, where Orr made his discovery, still features in some trainings: RBI’s Level 2, for example, works with the elements of earth, air, water, and fire.

The framework around the breathing is explicitly spiritual. RBI describes Rebirthing as “the ability to breathe Energy as well as air” and as a way to heal what Orr called “the Biggies,” which he listed as including birth trauma, “the parental disapproval syndrome,” “the unconscious death urge,” and “karma from past lives.” Spiritual purification practices, affirmations, and prosperity consciousness are part of most curricula.

You should know what that means for you as a facilitator. If you train in this lineage, you are learning a spiritual practice with a breathing technique at its center, not a clinical method.

The Name Problem

One more thing to know before you put “Rebirther” on your website. In 2000, a 10-year-old girl, Candace Newmaker, died in Colorado during an attachment-therapy session described as “rebirthing.” That session involved wrapping her in a sheet and having her struggle to get out, not conscious connected breathing, and the therapists were convicted. Colorado then passed a law banning restraint-based techniques of this kind in psychotherapy. Rebirthing Breathwork is a different practice, but the name still turns up alongside that case in search results, and some clients will make the connection. Several schools in this lineage now use “conscious connected breathing” or their own brand names instead.

The Evidence

There is no meaningful research on Rebirthing Breathwork as a named method. A PubMed search for “rebirthing” returns 14 records, and none is a controlled trial of the practice. The claims at the heart of the tradition, that people can recall and resolve their own birth, are not supported. There is no evidence that people can reliably remember their own birth, and memories that seem to surface are generally explained as constructed or false memories.

Some of the marketing goes further. RBI’s site states that “70% of toxins are released through the breath itself.” We could find no scientific source for that figure.

The breathing technique itself is a different matter. Connected breathing at a higher-than-normal rate is a form of high ventilation breathwork. A 2023 review in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, which discusses Rebirthing among related practices, finds that this family of techniques has profound effects on the nervous system and calls for rigorous clinical testing of its possible benefits for trauma-related and mood disorders. So the breathing does something. What the evidence does not support is the explanation Rebirthing gives for why it works.

What Training Looks Like

Because there is no central standard, structure varies a lot. In the UK, the British Rebirth Society (BRS) accepts professional members who meet its prerequisites and abide by its code of ethics, and lists them on a practitioner map. In Australia, Breathwork Australia endorses some trainings. The Global Professional Breathwork Alliance sets a cross-method standard that several Rebirthing schools cite. None of these is a licensing body.

Here are three schools that publish enough detail to compare.

Rebirthing Breathwork International (USA)

RBI’s certification program is closest to Orr’s own teaching, and its trainers include his widow, Elvi Orr, who co-founded the Leonard D. Orr Foundation in 2019. It has four levels:

Level	Format	Hours
1. Foundations of Breathwork	3 days	17
2. Self-healing through Breathwork	5 days	31
3. Journey with the Breath	9 days	59
4. Certified Rebirthing Breathwork Professional	3 days + mentorship	17 + ongoing

Level 4 also requires completing RBI’s One Year Seminar, a monthly online program. Trainings run as retreats in places like Colorado and Maui, with some online. Over the four levels you receive 13 Rebirthing sessions yourself and begin guiding others in Level 3.

RBI does not publish its tuition. The site asks you to email about prices, so we cannot tell you what certification costs. RBI’s main website also currently shows a “coming soon” placeholder that points visitors to the training site. Neither is a reason to rule it out, but you will need to get the full cost in writing.

AIR School of Breathwork (UK and France)

The AIR School of Breathwork runs the most transparent Rebirthing training we found. Its diploma takes two years and four week-long modules, adding up to 300 contact hours plus 100 hours of assessed coursework, and it says the diploma meets both BRS and GPBA requirements. Groups are capped at 16 with two trainers on every module, and there is free monthly online supervision.

Modules run online or as residentials in Devon and South West France. The 2026/2027 prices are:

Item	Price
Online module	£750
Residential module (food and lodging included)	£1,300
Assisting module	£400 online, £650 residential
Full four-module booking	£300 off
Deposit	£150, non-refundable but transferable

Using those listed prices, the full diploma (four modules plus the assisting module) comes to about £3,100 all online, about £4,200 for two residential and two online modules, and about £5,550 all residential. That is roughly $4,100 to $7,400. The page gives a slightly different total in its own worked example, so confirm the figure with the school. Prices rise in 2027, to £800 online and £1,350 residential.

Summer Healing (Melbourne, Australia)

Summer Healing in Melbourne runs a three-level path, taught by a trainer in Orr’s lineage and endorsed by Breathwork Australia. All three levels can be done fully online.

Level	Hours	Price
1. Foundation Training	50	$2,000
2. Practitioner Training	50	$2,500
3. Practitioner Training	350 (6 months to 2 years)	$2,500

The page does not state the currency. As a Melbourne school, Australian dollars is the likely reading, which would make the full path A$7,000, about US$4,600. Level 3 is heavy on supervised practice: 180 hours of supervision and mentorship (including 20 supervised sessions with a practice client), 60 hours facilitating supervised sessions, and 150 hours of what the school calls Seva class over one to two years. The certificate requirements also include daily spiritual purification practices and a “Forgiveness diet.” Summer Healing has a no-refund policy.

What They Have in Common

Across these schools, a serious Rebirthing training means a lot of breathing yourself, a long apprenticeship of supervised sessions, and a spiritual curriculum that is required, not optional. AIR and Summer Healing both land at around 400 to 450 hours over up to two years, which is far more practice than most online certifications ask for. That depth is the strongest argument for the lineage.

Pros and Cons

Rebirthing Market Comparisons

Rebirthing vs. Holotropic Breathwork

Both came out of the 1970s. Holotropic grew from Stanislav Grof’s psychedelic research and is built around long, intense group sessions with evocative music and a sitter for every breather. Rebirthing is gentler, usually one-to-one, and spiritual rather than transpersonal-psychological in its framing. Holotropic training takes two to three years entirely in person and costs $7,000 or more in tuition. Choose Holotropic if you want to run deep group processes within a clinical-adjacent framework. Choose Rebirthing if you want to work one-to-one, with a gentler technique, often at lower cost and with online options.

Rebirthing vs. Alchemy of Breath

Alchemy of Breath is one of the modern schools that grew out of the Rebirthing tradition. It costs $5,800 to $6,900, runs 400+ hours over four to eight months, and adds shadow work and a residential in Tuscany. It is better organized and better known than most Rebirthing schools, with a more modern presentation. Choose Alchemy if you want one well-structured school and a stronger brand. Choose a Rebirthing school like AIR if you want the original lineage, a longer apprenticeship, and a lower price.

Rebirthing vs. PAUSE Breathwork

PAUSE teaches the same core breathing pattern online over six months for $4,000 to $6,000, framed in trauma-informed and nervous-system language rather than birth trauma and Divine Energy. Choose PAUSE if you want modern, secular framing and a fully online program from a single brand. Choose Rebirthing if the spiritual roots of the practice are what draw you and you want more supervised practice for your money.

Rebirthing Breathwork Verdict

Rebirthing is the root of the conscious connected breathwork tradition, and its best schools still offer one of the deepest training paths in the field. AIR’s 400-hour diploma with capped groups and two trainers per module, or Summer Healing’s 450 hours with 180 hours of supervision, are more demanding than most modern certifications that charge more.

But you cannot buy “Rebirthing training” as a single thing. You buy a specific trainer’s version of it, with no central body making sure it meets a standard, and the lineage’s main US organization does not publish its prices. And the framework you are trained into, from birth trauma to past-life karma to toxins leaving through the breath, makes claims the evidence does not support. You can practice it with integrity, but you should not repeat those claims to clients as fact.

Bottom line: A strong choice for spiritually minded practitioners who want deep, supervised training in the original conscious connected breathing lineage and are prepared to vet their trainer carefully. A poor fit for anyone who needs evidence-based framing, a recognized single credential, or a name that does not need explaining.

If you go this way, check whether the school meets BRS or GPBA requirements, get the full cost in writing, ask how many supervised sessions certification requires, and speak to two or three graduates. Our transformational breathwork certification guide compares Rebirthing’s descendants and relatives side by side.

Still deciding? Take our 2-minute quiz to find the certification that fits your goals and budget.