- a space to...
pt [hespiˈra] = breathe
... reconnect with yourself.
... relax your body and mind.
... release blocked emotions.
... renew your trust and commitment to life.
... remember what you are grateful for.
... rediscover your inner wisdom.
... rebalance your nervous system.
I’m Dominik, a trauma-informed breathwork facilitator and former corporate leader who found this work through my own healing journey. Today I guide individuals and groups in Portugal and online to reconnect with their breath, their body and their truth.
Ways To Work With Me
Breathwork Immersions
4 / 5 / 6 day Retreats
Our multi-day breath immersion weaves conscious connected breath, movement, nature and authentic connection into a deep transformational journey.
Alive, joyful, empowered & free - this is how participants feel after completing a Breath Immersion. Releasing tension, building connections, gaining clarity & optimism for their life.
1:1 Breathwork & Inner Work Sessions
In-person & Online
A personalised journey tailored to where you are and what you’re moving through.
Private sessions combine breathwork, presence and integration coaching to support clarity, emotional release, and inner steadiness.
Available in Aljezur or online for deep, focused work at your own pace.
Guest Facilitator
For Retreats, Festivals & Events
Bring breathwork to your retreat, festival, community gathering or company event.
I offer breathwork sessions, workshops, cold exposure and guided journeys tailored to your group and theme.
A safe, grounded, professional facilitation that supports emotional release, presence and deeper connection in your event.
What Makes This Work Different
Safety & Trauma-Informed Guidance
You are held in a safe, steady space where your pace and boundaries are respected.
Conscious Connected Breath as the Core Tool
A powerful, simple breathing method that opens access to deeper layers of your inner world.
Grounded, Mature Facilitation
Guidance rooted in presence, clarity, and lived experience - never pushy, never performative.
Integration & Practical Tools
Support that continues beyond the session, helping you bring insight into everyday life.
How This Work Has Supported Others
Real stories from retreats, group sessions and 1:1 journeys.
❝ Safe space ❞
You created a safe space, where I felt accepted. I went deeper into my pain and emotions and allowed myself to be seen. I leaned into the uncomfortable situations trusting that I will be held. You guys have created magic. It deeply touched my soul.
Jason
🇳🇱 Nomad
Immersion Sep 2022
❝ Nourishing deep dive ❞
This retreat is a nourishing deep dive into self. Dina and Dominik guided us through movement, sharing circles, playful exercises and very supported breathwork sessions. It was my first time exploring breathwork and it brought me to a very deep space. A truly beautiful experience.
Charlotte
🇬🇧 Ericeira
Immersion Sep 2024
❝ Overcame limitations ❞
I did things during the immersion, I thought I'd never be able to do. Stepping out of my comfort zone and getting a totally new vision of myself. An experience I would never want to miss. I still can feel so much love and fulfilment.
Laila
🇪🇬 Zurich
Immersion Apr 2023
❝ Opening experience ❞
Breath Immersion was the most opening (self but also to others) and unique experience I ever had in my life. I have not realised that breathwork can create such clarity and deep meeting with yourself.
Joanna
🇵🇱 Poland & Costa Rica
Immersion Sep 2023
❝ Life changing ❞
Each facilitator held space so beautifully and had their own signature way of leading the Immersion. I felt more connected to myself, others and awareness of my emotions. Life changing.
Annie
🇦🇺 Australia
Immersion Sep 2022
❝ Express emotions ❞
Being able to express my stronger emotions out loud, being heard, held, loved, without judgement, unfolded a safe path for me to be authentic. I have the feeling we just came out of a love bubble.
Mafalda
🇵🇹 Lisbon
Immersion Sep 2023
❝ Transformational experience ❞
True transformational experience. I had a break through after a long time, in each of my goals. Everything from program, awareness to participants, holding space, bonding and creating safe space was done with attention to details and mainly a full heart.
Ori
🇮🇱 Algarve
Immersion Sep 2024
❝ Grounded & nourished ❞
Marta, Dominik and Dina have weaved together a magical retreat where one can find connection - with self, with others, with nature. I leave feeling more myself than I have in months. Open, relaxed, nourished, grounded.
Alexandra
🇷🇴 Zurich
Immersion Sep 2022 & Apr 2023
❝ Tools for relationships ❞
I’m feeling reenergised and with more tools to improve my relations with myself and with others.
Susana
🇵🇹 Lagos
Immersion Apr 2023 & Sep 2024
❝ Face my wounds ❞
It’s unbelievable what a difference five well spent days can make in your life. Wonderful and intense experience. I felt safe and secure enough to show my vulnerable side. I could open up for once and focus on myself and my wounds. For the first time in a long time I felt heard, seen and understood.
Rahel
🇨🇭 Chur
Immersion Apr 2023 & 2024
Dominik, Coach
Through Dominik, I experienced the power of Conscious Connected Breathwork for the first time in August 2023, and it changed my life. With his calm presence and aura, he creates the perfect conditions for a deep and transformative journey. I want to thank Dominik from the bottom of my heart for opening the door to the world of breathwork for me and for always being there with his support beyond that.
Elina, Photographer
Dominik holds space from a very grounded and heart-centered place. From the preparation to the 1:1 session itself, I always felt seen, heard, and safe thanks to his presence and guidance.
The breathwork was an empowering experience, allowing my breath to guide me and deepen my connection to both my body and higher self. A magical and transformative experience.
Yoav, Dentist
I like private sessions because I can let go and release more. Sometimes in group settings I get conscious of my impact on others, which makes me hold back a bit. Or I get distracted by the people around me. Also in a 1:1 setting the flow of the session is more open and follows more my needs / where I am in my journey. For example we can go for another peak if I haven't reached completion yet.
About Dominik
Before becoming a breathwork facilitator, I spent many years in high-pressure leadership roles in the digital world.
Personal crisis and longing for aliveness led me on my inner journey and eventually to breathwork, where I found the tools I had been missing. The breath invited me back into my body, my emotions, and a truth I had avoided for years.
Today, after years of training, guiding dozens of retreats and hundreds of group & 1:1 sessions, I offer this work with grounded presence, trauma-informed care and lived experience.
This is for you if...
Benefits of Breathwork
Stress Relief and Relaxation
Breathwork lowers stress, calms the mind, and relaxes the body, fostering a sense of peace and balance.
Emotional Healing
It helps release trauma, negative emotions, and limiting beliefs, unlocking emotional freedom and lightness.
Improved Sleep and Vitality
Breathwork enhances sleep quality, boosts energy, and increases clarity, joy, and overall vitality.
Enhanced Mind-Body Connection
Strengthens the bond between mind and body, promoting presence, self-awareness, and emotional grounding.
Personal Growth and Creativity
Facilitates self-discovery, new perspectives, and authentic self-expression, igniting creativity and growth.
Location
Respira is based in the Aljezur region - a place of wild coastlines, soft mountains, and a growing conscious community. Whether you're visiting or living here, you're invited to breathe with us.
Address
5min drive from
Aljezur, Algarve, Portugal
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do you need any previous experience to participate?
No, you don't. We have participants that had never done breathwork before and had a very deep and meaningful experience.
What is conscious connected breathwork (CCB)?
Breathwork is a therapeutic technique that uses simple breathing practices to lead people into a non-ordinary state of consciousness where unconscious and previously repressed thoughts, sensations, energies and emotions, that are held in the body, can more easily rise to the surface for integration.
CCB is a breathing technique in which the breather intentionally connects the inhale with the exhale without any pauses, commonly practiced through the mouth. During a breathwork session, the facilitator guides the breather through a journey, accompanied by music, guidance and touch (if wished).
What are the contraindications for this type of breathwork?
This work is powerful and will move things within you - physiologically, emotionally and energetically. Therefore it is not advised for people with any of these contraindications.
If any of these health conditions apply to you, you should speak with your doctor prior to practicing:
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Cardiovascular or heart disease
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Detached retina or glaucoma
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Diagnosed brain or abdomen aneurysm
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Epilepsy
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Diagnosed mental healt issues (e.g. bipolar or schizophrenia)
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Uncontrolled diabetes or thyroid conditions
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High blood pressure
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Recent surgeries
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Pregnancy - especially 1st and 3rd trimester
If in doubt, please get in touch with us.
Why is it called an immersion?
We call this offering an immersion not a retreat and here is why:
The word to “retreat” literally means to withdraw, to go away, to not do something.
And what we offer is the opposite.
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We dont go away, we come towards.
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We dont withdraw, we take full responsibility.
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We dont escape life, we face life.
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We dont relax, we work.
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We dont retreat, we immerse.
The overall promise is not to get away from your life, find a peaceful time in nature for yourself and come back rejuvenated.
The invitation is to come if you hear the call to meet yourself in a safe yet intense container where everyday you have an opportunity to challenge and meet another part of yourself and continue to deepen the connection. Once it is done, you will probably need a day or two to integrate and rest.
It is a special blend of ancient and modern rituals & practices, inspired by different traditions from east to west that come to support the work and to feed the daily themes of connection to self, to others, to nature and to all that is. All on the solid foundation and strong potency of conscious connected breathwork as a tool for self liberation and growth.
Let's immerse in the beauty of life together.
What are the benefits of breathwork?
Breathwork offers many benefits. It can nurture the ability to manage stress, improve sleep, relieve physical discomforts, increase self-compassion, release limiting beliefs, access inner wisdom, make new connections, gain new perspectives and reach clarity. Main benefits can include:
🎈 reduce stress, worry and mental rumination
🎈 alleviate anxiety, insomnia and depression
🎈 support the resolution and integration of traumatic energy and fear
🎈 reduce self sabotage, brain fog, lethargy
🎈 support emotional release
🌱 balance energy and enhance vitality
🌱 support nervous system regulation and the resilience to meet the experiences of life
🌱 promote mental clarity
🌱 expand awareness and open new pathways of seeing and understanding
🌱 connect us to our intuition, our wisdom and our peace
It can bring significant improvements in mood, anxiety, sleep, and dysfunctional thought and behavior patterns. In the context of grief, trauma, and PTSD, Breathwork offers a safe container in which to experience, process, and ultimately release traumatic or difficult memories stuck in the body, through the body. Increased level of presence, shifts in perspective and release of trapped memories and emotions, all lead to a dramatic reduction of stress and anxiety levels.
Breathwork help develop neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to develop new neural pathways to reorganise itself. By changing the way we breathe, we can change the way we think, act and behave through strengthening a new pathway.
Finally, Breathwork helps is by toning the vagus nerve. With repeated practice, your parasympathetic system becomes strengthened and sympathetic activation becomes less frequent, leading to an inner calm and increased resilience. Every breathwork widens our window of tolerance for our nervous system to gradually hold more and more charge.
