Inspiring Conversations with Elise Milam of Respirit Breathwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Elise Milam, a Health & Wellness Professional in the Denver Metro Area and founder of Respirit Breathwork LLC offering 3 types of holistic healing sessions: Breathwork, Pilates, and Shamanic Chakra Clearings.

Hi Elise, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Absolutely! I worked in corporate advertising sales and marketing for 10 years before making a total career change. Now, Elise inspires people to live more joyfully through transformational breathwork (aka: “pranayama” = the art of breath control) through healing sessions. Elise curates artful breathwork journeys that reprogram limiting beliefs, rewire overactive nervous systems, and induce brain and heart coherence dropping clients into a deep state of mediation — in as little as 60 minutes. Elise guides clients, couples, families, groups and corporate teams into relaxation and stillness with a variety of visualizations, mantras, and music. She educates communities on conscious breathing techniques for emotional regulation, reducing stress and anxiety, trauma release and deep psychological reprogramming.

Elise discovered the power of transformational breathwork in February of 2020. “I released more (stress, anxiety, negativity, fear and trauma) in my first two breathwork sessions using crystals, than I did in two years of talk therapy! Breathwork was more effective for processing and releasing trauma efficiently, through my own body, and healing layers of PTSD from family dynamics, failed friendships and relationships, and work stress. I thought to myself: ‘If I need this deeper somatic release work, other people must, as well. Humans aren’t meant to spend 5+ years in talk therapy, negatively looping and not actually living.” Elise’s own experience was so profound, she decided to enroll in a 6-month Breathwork Facilitator Program (a 150 hour curriculum through PAUSE Breathwork) that focused on: nervous system regulation, parts work, trauma looping, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and somatic release work. Respirit Breathwork LLC is the name of her business, which now includes a trifecta of 3 types of “healing sessions”: Breathwork + Pilates + Shamanic Chakra Clearings (offered both in-person and online).

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. The entrepreneur road is a bumpy, unpredictable, and obstacle laden road. Landing on the name of my business, creating a website, formulating offerings, partnering with venues across the city, scheduling events, promoting those events and offerings, cancelling events, curating sessions, and creating new content are all challenges I’ve faced and struggled to manage solo. Session attendance continues to be unpredictable and challenging to gauge. “There’s plenty of clients and traumatized people out there struggling to manage and cope with the stresses of modern day life. People’s schedules are just busier than ever and there’s an education piece missing. Respirit Breathwork’s reach, exposure, and visibility to the right audience is not as robust as I’d like it to be, but I only have so much time in the day to promote my sessions and work. “Social media detoxing” is also common with more conscious communities, so that has been a disadvantage with half my clients.” Unless a person understands the benefits of regular breathwork and meditation, they won’t make the time to practice or seek community group sessions like the ones Elise offers monthly across Metro Denver and online.

“I also experienced ridiculously strong push back from yoga studios I tried partnering with across Denver, which felt odd to me. Most yoga studios were skeptical and acted territorial about “pranayama education” coming from a certified Breathwork & Pilates Instructor (since I don’t t have a yoga teacher certification) and other healers (saying I couldn’t use “shamanic” in my business offerings or practice).” When Elise asked the head Shaman & famous founder of The Four Winds Society, Alberto Villoldo, his opinion on this push back, he responded: “That’s very old school thinking of the Denver community. Tell them you’re a ‘neo-shaman’ or ‘neuro-shaman’ since we study neuroscience. Don’t hide you are, Elise! When people hide or they are, they get sick.” Elise is proud of her unique blend of beautifully gentle, alternative, holistic healing sessions that balance the mind, body, heart and spirit. Her healing sessions empower clients to listen to their OWN intuition and take their power back in all areas of life.

Elise currently partners with crystal stores, Pilates and fitness studios, coworking spaces, and cryptocurrency conferences offering “pop up breathwork sessions” since she’s found more receptivity to her work in these communities. “I’m here for the transformation of the collective. Working with creative, high performing entrepreneurs, coaches, and businesses making a positive impact on the world is more aligned with my purpose. Supporting other healers and lightworkers that need deeper energy work is also a part of my mission.” Elise welcomes the opportunity to work with veterans, teenagers, cancer patients, cancer survivor groups, veterans, people suffering from autoimmune issues, PTSD and eating disorders. Any group, community or circle interested in healing together, in a collective setting.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?

Elise’s “healing sessions” are vital for everyday people seeking mental clarity, physical strength, and emotional balance. They help people manage stress, enhance overall well-being, and provide tools to navigate life’s challenges with renewed energy and focus. Perfect for anyone feeling stuck, tired, blocked or seeking more fulfillment through deeper connection to themself. Elise offers three types of “healing sessions” described below:

• BREATHWORK: Clears energy blockages, boosts the immune system, and balances the body. Experience calm, focus, relaxation and clarity. Supportive for people during times of transition, stressful change, grief and heartache, overwhelm, and for anyone that struggles with meditation. Breathwork effectively melts stress, tension, anxiety, fear and profoundly shifts emotional wounds, chronic pain and energetic blockages in as little as 30 – 60 minutes.
• PILATES: Low impact exercise to strengthen, lengthen, tone, improve flexibility, posture, and proper alignment. Builds deep core abdominal strength, ankle, knee, hip and pelvic stability, whittles the waistline, boosts proprioception – using one’s bodyweight and small props for resistance. Excellent for all ages, autoimmune issues and people rehabilitating from injuries and surgeries (spinal fusions, hip replacements, elbow, knee and back issues).
• SHAMANIC CHAKRA CLEARINGS: Clears old, heavy energy and toxic imprints in the luminous energy field. Turns off adrenal glands and stress hormones to promote deeper sleep, improved digestion, and radical healing. Resets the nervous system from “fight, flight or freeze” to “rest, digest and heal.” Balances and realigns the body. Includes extractions, visualizations, somatic release, chakra draining and illuminating, soul retrievals and more. Takes 2 – 4 weeks (a half to full moon cycle) to integrate sessions and see changes in the physical reality. Excellent for treating core emotional issues, family wounds, generational trauma and curses, gently.

“I have touched extraordinary moments of peace, clarity, connection, joy and bliss during and after the types of healing sessions I offer. These moments keep me devoted to deepening my own practice and holding space for others.” Elise’s enthusiasm and passion for exploring alternative treatment, holistic healing modalities, energy medicine, Eastern healing practices, and sharing the power of breathwork, Pilates, and Shamanism is tangible, heartfelt and contagious. Clients report feeling surprisingly better, more connected to themselves and attuned to their heart, body, mind and intuition, sleeping deeper, and experiencing profound clarity and calm after sessions.

Different facilitators, breathwork styles, techniques, and methods of integration will appeal to different personality types. Elise describes her breathwork styles as a mix of: yin (calming), yang (energizing), integrative (sessions under 15 minutes), meditative (journeys over 15 minutes), transformational and conscious. There are dozens of breathwork styles, programs, and apps available to the public now, as the benefits of breathwork and pranayama become more reputable by modern science. What all breathwork styles have in common is they: relax the mind, soften the body, open the heart, and help regulate emotions by activating or down regulating people’s emotional states to boost the processing of emotions quickly and efficiently; which enriches life by increasing the quality and depth of one’s presence.

What sets Elise apart from other “Breathwork Facilitators or Breathworkers” is her unique trifecta of healing sessions: Breathwork + Pilates + Shamanic Chakra Clearings. Elise’s embodiment as a teacher also sets her apart — she practices, dives deep, and truly lives by what she teaches. Elise has a powerful soothing presence and eclectic toolbox of energy healing modalities and techniques she leverages and incorporates seamlessly into her sessions. This makes her work more effective, on all levels (emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually) and efficient.

Elise inspires people to live more joyfully through transformational breathwork (aka: “pranayama” = the art of breath control) through healing sessions. Elise curates artful breathwork journeys that reprogram limiting beliefs, rewire overactive nervous systems, and induce brain and heart coherence dropping clients into a deep state of mediation — in as little as 60 minutes. Elise guides clients, couples, families, groups and corporate teams into relaxation and stillness with a variety of visualizations, mantras, and music. She educates communities on conscious breathing techniques for emotional regulation, reducing stress and anxiety, trauma release and deep psychological reprogramming.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Oh, yes. The COVID-19 Crisis taught me that: “If isolation kills, then connection heals. Humans are social, tribal and complex creatures. We need community to survive and thrive because nobody makes it through life alone, and none of us make it out alive. One purpose of shamanism is to learn how to die consciously and not fear death, so that people can live more fearlessly and joyously in the present.”

In February of 2020, Elise couldn’t handle her stress levels. She was barely coping with various friendships and relationships ending, a jarring job transition, isolation, and other extreme life changes beyond her control; as many people experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guided breathwork offered her the permission to unwind, surrender, release emotional baggage, shift false narratives and unsupportive stories that weren’t serving her. Breathwork immediately and effectively melts stress, tension, anxiety and fear from the inside out. Breathwork profoundly shifts deep emotional wounds, chronic pain, stress, anxiety and fear in as little as 60 minutes.

Pricing:

• Individual Breathwork = $75 for a 75 minute session (in-person or online over Zoom)
• Group Breathwork = $100 for 2-4 people, $200 for 5-10 people, $300 for 11 – 30 people for a 90 minute session (in-person or online over Zoom)
• Private Pilates Mat or Reformer = $50 for a 60 minute session (in-person or online over Zoom)
• Shamanic Chakra Clearing with a Package of 3 Sessions required @ $125 each = $375 for 3 x 75 minute sessions (in-person or online over Zoom)
• Available for Podcast Conversations. Elise has recorded 3 podcasts as a guest speaker, to date. Listen to them here: https://linktr.ee/respiritbreathworkllc

Contact Info:

• Schedule & Healing Sessions: https://linktr.ee/respiritbreathworkllc
• Website: https://www.respiritbreathwork.com/
• Instagram: @RespiritBreathwork
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/respiritbreathwork
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elisemilam/
• Best way to get in touch? Email business inquiries to Elise at bliss@RespiritBreathwork.com