Pain & Body
Hypnosis for asthma and breathing
Ease the worry and tightness around breathing.
Asthma and Breathing is a session for the moments when breath feels tight and the chest seems to close up in worry. It guides your attention to the air moving in and out without forcing a change in pace.
The focus stays on finding space around the ribs rather than fighting for air.
The problem is rarely the air itself. It is the watching of the breath and the waiting for the next tightness, which turns the ordinary act of breathing into something that requires supervision.
Your mind becomes a lifeguard that never leaves the pool, and that vigilance keeps the body on edge.
What’s in it
A calmer, easier relationship with your breath, so the anxiety and tightness around breathing can soften.
Why do it
When the worry settles, the breath has more room to flow at its own steady, natural pace. This supports you alongside your medical care, never instead of it.
- Theme
- Pain & Body
- Delivery styles
- 3
- Lengths
- Quick ~26mStandard ~27mDeep ~29m
- Ends
- Calm and present
- Stages
- 4
- On this shelf
- 18 sessions
Perfect use-case: Asthma & Breathing — hypnosis session
The watchfulness around your own breath kicks in most when you are meant to be doing something else entirely.
What you’ll hear in the Asthma & Breathing session
The session guides your attention to the feeling of your chest and ribs, suggesting a softening and release of guarding muscles to create more space for your breath to move with ease.
You notice the chest feeling less tight and constricted right now, as your awareness settles upon it
There is a gentle softening beginning to happen, a release you did not have to force
The muscles around your chest and ribs are learning they can relax, letting go of their constant guarding
This softness creates a little more space inside, just enough to feel a difference immediately
Your breath appreciates this new room to move, responding with a quiet sense of ease
You feel the ribs expand with gentle ease as your focus drifts to that area
Imagine your ribs as a structure that can soften and widen with each breath you take
There is no strain or effort involved, just a natural unfolding
With each gentle exhale, you release any lingering tension holding them tight
This allows the next inhale to expand them a little more freely
- letting go of their constant guardingNames the physical habit of tension as a protective 'guarding' that can be released
- a release you did not have to forceFrames the change as something that happens to you, not something you must achieve
- Imagine your ribs as a structureUses a simple image to help you feel a physical change in your own body
Timeline: Start to Finish
The build moves from a settled body to a specific rehearsal of that easier, wider relationship with the breath, keeping the focus on gentleness rather than control.
3 of the 4 stages are named techniques with a published origin, credited under each.
-
InductionStage 16 min
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A classic head-to-toe relaxation. Tense and release, or simply soften, each muscle group in sequence.
After Edmund Jacobson PMR (1929); Dave Elman Hypnotherapy · what progressive muscle relaxation is
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DeepenerStage 23 min
Staircase Descent
Visualized stairs descending into a deeper level of trance. Each step takes you down.
After Ledochowski, Deep Trance Training Manual
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Suggestion ScriptStage 310 min
Asthma & Breathing — Balanced
This block focuses your attention on the physical sensations in your chest and ribs, guiding you towards a sense of release and creating more internal space.
-
AwakeningStage 42 min
Calm Alert Awakening
Awake and present, but calm rather than energized. Good for evening or pre-meeting use.
After Yapko, Trancework
Why this works — and what the research actually says
Group-level, not session-level: no study has tested this exact session, and we will not pretend otherwise. Every source below was opened and read on 2026-08-25 before it was quoted.
Why do it as hypnosis?
This does not replace your inhaler or pretend the air is different. It settles the attention and then spends the middle section on the relationship with the breath.
It rehearses a sense of ease while you are seated and safe, so the habit of guarding the chest has something to compete with.
Pain: strong for the sharp kind, weak for the long kind
A 2025 review split pain in two, and got a different answer for each.
For acute pain — a procedure, an operation, an injury — hypnosis made a real, measurable difference, and those patients also needed fewer opioids.
For long-running chronic pain, the same review found no significant effect at all.
- Acute pain: a medium, significant effect across 6 trials and 888 people
- Those patients also used significantly fewer opioids
- Chronic pain: 6 trials, 595 people, no significant effect
Worth knowing: The authors name their own weaknesses. The small number of articles available limited the analysis, and two different pain scales were pooled.
A wide variety of hypnosis methods were used, and the lack of double blinding may affect trial quality. They also note high heterogeneity and small sample sizes in most studies.
The exact wording and figures
For acute pain, 6 randomised controlled trials and 888 participants showed a medium, statistically significant effect (Hedges' g = 0.54, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.90, p = 0.0024).
Opioid consumption was also 1.5 SD lower in the hypnosis group (95% CI 0.12 to 2.88, p = 0.03).
For chronic pain, across 6 trials and 595 participants, the effect was not statistically significant (Hedges' g = 0.07, 95% CI -0.14 to 0.27, p = 0.518).
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Yerzhan A, Ayazbekova A, Lavage DR, Chelly JE (2025). The Use of Medical Hypnosis to Prevent and Treat Acute and Chronic Pain. Journal of Clinical Medicine.
open access (CC BY 4.0)
Three ways to say it
One goal, written three ways: pick the voice that most sounds like the calm you want to feel, and let that guidance lead the way.
Balanced
A warm, all-round session that eases the anxiety around breathing and lets the breath settle into its own gentle rhythm. The default.
A calm, steady voice that guides your attention to your ribs and the space around your breath.
Future self
Picture your calmer, easier-breathing self a week, a month, a year ahead, and bring that settled steadiness back.
You picture the version of you who no longer checks their chest, and bring that settled feeling back.
New identity
Step into being a calm, easy breather now, someone at home in their own breath and steady when it tightens.
You step into being someone at home in their own breath, steady when it tightens.
Questions people ask about Asthma & Breathing
Will this stop me needing my inhaler?
No. This session supports your medical care, it does not replace it. It is for the anxiety around breathing, not the physical airway itself.
What if focusing on my breathing makes it worse?
The guidance is to notice the space around the breath, not to control its pace. It gives your mind something else to do besides watching the breath.
Do I have to believe in hypnosis for this to work?
You do not have to believe in anything. The session is a guided focus of attention; you can follow the words and see how you feel.
How is this different from just breathing exercises?
It does not give you breathing exercises to do. It works on the mental habit of watching the breath, aiming to let go of that vigilance.
How long before I feel less tightness?
Some people feel a sense of softening during the session itself. For others, the change is more gradual, building over time with repeated use.
Where it sits
Discomfort, tension and the parts of the body that will not let go.
Before you press play
Hypnosis is not for everyone. If you have epilepsy, a psychotic illness, or you are under psychiatric care, talk to your clinician before using this — here or anywhere.
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