How is your sleep? Do you feel exhausted upon awakening? Are you frequently waking during the night? Are you considered a snorer? Would you like a better night's sleep and wake with more energy?
If this is you, then this 🎙 episode of me&my health up will help you. We all know that breathing is crucial to staying alive. So we invited our special guest Dr. Rosalba Courtney who will enlighten you on the different methodologies around breathing. She is a functional breathing expert.
About our guest Dr. Rosalba Courtney
Rosalba has a PhD on the topic of dysfunctional breathing and breathing therapy and has published widely in the scientific literature and contributed to textbook chapters. Rosalba is passionate about both the art and science of breathing. She believes that breathing combined with movement, mind-body techniques, other health practices has enormous potential as a tool to heal the mind and body. She is actively involved in ongoing research on broad topics related to breathing and health.
Rosalba has developed a system called Integrative Breathing Therapy based on the models and tools she developed during her PhD and subsequent research. She has trained health professionals from many disciplines including physiotherapy, psychology, speech and language pathology, osteopathy and integrative medicine in the theory and applications of breathing therapy for their field. She is currently developing her first online certification course in Foundations of Integrative Breathing Therapy for Health Professionals.
Rosalba also runs online and face to face programs for individuals and groups. These programs include Breath Mind Body, Functional Breathing Retraining, Healthy Breathing Healthy Child and Altitude Power Breathing. She sees private patients at the Breath and Body Clinic in Avalon and at Genbiome in Edgecliff, Sydney.
How to best connect with Dr. Rosalba Courtney ND, DO Email: rosalba.courtney@gmail.com Website: https://www.rosalbacourtney.com/
About me&my Health Up & Host
me&my Health Up seeks to enhance and enlighten the wellbeing of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food is medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.
Podcast Disclaimer Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more
How is your sleep? Do you feel exhausted upon awakening? Are you frequently waking during the night? Are you considered a snorer? Would you like a better night's sleep and wake with more energy?
If this is you, then this 🎙 episode of me&my health up will help you. We all know that breathing is crucial to staying alive. So we invited our special guest Dr. Rosalba Courtney who will enlighten you on the different methodologies around breathing. She is a functional breathing expert.
About our guest Dr. Rosalba Courtney
Rosalba has a PhD on the topic of dysfunctional breathing and breathing therapy and has published widely in the scientific literature and contributed to textbook chapters. Rosalba is passionate about both the art and science of breathing. She believes that breathing combined with movement, mind-body techniques, other health practices has enormous potential as a tool to heal the mind and body. She is actively involved in ongoing research on broad topics related to breathing and health.
Rosalba has developed a system called Integrative Breathing Therapy based on the models and tools she developed during her PhD and subsequent research. She has trained health professionals from many disciplines including physiotherapy, psychology, speech and language pathology, osteopathy and integrative medicine in the theory and applications of breathing therapy for their field. She is currently developing her first online certification course in Foundations of Integrative Breathing Therapy for Health Professionals.
Rosalba also runs online and face to face programs for individuals and groups. These programs include Breath Mind Body, Functional Breathing Retraining, Healthy Breathing Healthy Child and Altitude Power Breathing. She sees private patients at the Breath and Body Clinic in Avalon and at Genbiome in Edgecliff, Sydney.
How to best connect with Dr. Rosalba Courtney ND, DO Email: rosalba.courtney@gmail.com Website: https://www.rosalbacourtney.com/
About me&my Health Up & Host
me&my Health Up seeks to enhance and enlighten the wellbeing of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my wellness which provides holistic health solutions using food is medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.
Podcast Disclaimer Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more
Do you snore? Or are you a mouth breather? Or do you slobber on your pillow at night? Or would you just like to optimize your breathing for optimal results and manage your life better through having a better rhythmic breathing more oxygen feeling calmer? If this is you, or you just like to know how to breathe better, better functional breathing, then this episode of me and my health up is for you. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being. And today we have Dr. Rosalba Courtney, who's an osteopath and breathing therapist to share her wisdom on this topic. And I'm your host, Anthony Hartcher, the clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist also known as the healthy man by his children. So Dr. Rosalba is an osteopath, researcher, author and teacher. She has a PhD on the topic of dysfunctional breathing and breathing therapy and has published widely in scientific literature and contributed to textbooks chapters Dr. Rosalba is passionate about the art and science of blue breathing. She believes that breathing combined with movement, mind-body techniques and health practices has enormous potential as a tool to heal the mind and body. She is actively involved in ongoing research on broad topics related to breathing and health. So without much further ado, I'd love to welcome you into the discussion I'm having with Dr. Rosalba Courtney, welcome on the me and my health up podcast show Dr. Rosalba Courtney, how you doing today?
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Hi there, Anthony. It's Rosalba, it's hard
Anthony Hartcher:
Rosalba.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
It's true
Anthony Hartcher:
Yes.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Yeah. It's an Italian name. Rosalba
Anthony Hartcher:
Well, my wife's Italian. So here we go. I've now got a correct pronounciation even though I was practicing the incorrect pronounciation before the episode so that I'd get it right. So Dr. Rosalba, please share how you have arrived at what you're doing today as a functional breathing expert.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Okay, I'd be delighted. So my story is that long time ago, over 40 years ago, I started working as a naturopath and I was an osteopath. And this is way back in the 1970s. In those days, osteopath and naturopath were trained with one degree, it was like a six year course, I also did acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. So I became interested in breathing because I had a few patients who had strange and bizarre breathing problems. And I'd also run across some very interesting practitioners who were using breathing as you know, a tool for healing. So these patients who weren't responding well, I thought that I would look into their breathing. And it just sort of grew and grew. And I got more and more deeply into it. I in the 1990s, when I had my youngest child, I took some time off work. And then got involved very involved in a breathing therapy called the Buteyko method. And I went off to Russia, did some study with Dr. Buteyko, and became chairperson of the association and so on. And it was like, back then, there was a lot of public interest in the Buteyko method. But for me, what started to happen was we saw great results, really fantastic results. But the more I learned, the more questions I had, I realized that there was some sort of gaps and things about Buteyko theory that didn't quite work and that there was more to the story. So actually stopped practicing. And I stopped teaching, and I went to do a PhD in 2002. And that turned into an eight year PhD, which was called dysfunctional breathing, its parameters measurement, and clinical relevance. So I took a really, really deep dive ended up with this coming out of that I came out with therapy, which is integrative breathing therapy, which is a particular way of working with breathing in a way that's really like professional, evidence based, comprehensive. And it's this sort of model that is about the three dimensions of breathing, which is the biomechanical which is like the muscles and the breathing patterns, the biochemical which is about oxygen, carbon dioxide and pH. And then about the psychology of breathing the psycho physiological about how the body perceives symptoms really, and how the mind and emotions affect breathing and how breathing affects the mind and emotion. So it's this sort of complex but really quite in the end practically quite simple way of working with breathing as a tool for healing.
Anthony Hartcher:
It's such a interesting area of health because we come into the world with a first breath How can we leave the world without Last breath. And so breathing is something we need to do in order to stay alive.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Yeah, absolutely!
Anthony Hartcher:
But we've never really taught at any point unless they do your course or that to people getting curious about breathing, or these different methodologies around breathing. And so I was just wondering, why is it that we struggle to breathe like so? Is it something that yeah, because expect it to be innate, or
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
everyone's breathing expert, because everybody breathes to stay alive. So breathing is the most commonly used self regulation tool, you know, there's actually research showing that that cross cultures breathing differently, more slowly focusing on the breath, taking a deep breath, structuring OSI is the most common way that people will self regulate across all cultures, like it's really there in the human experience. So in a way, everyone's an expert, but thing is that breathing, because breathing is affected by everything, it's so fundamental to life, that even sort of your experiences early in life, you know, in that neonatal period of breathing, or the airway is threatened, that can change the neuroplasticity, of breathing control. And then you know, a lot of people have some obstruction in their breathing or airway. As children, they might have enlarged adenoids, and tonsils or they might have some issues with their throat, or upper airway or tongue, you know, which slightly impair breathing, or they might have illnesses, you know, viral illnesses, chronic infection, they might have stress, or trauma, and all of those things impact on breathing control. So our breathing control system is highly sophisticated. And breathing is very connected to really a whole history, and also the functioning and health of all other body systems. So that's what I learned when I was doing my PhD. And I, when I delved into the literature, and really looked at the science of breathing, and I looked at the, you know, traditions and the different ways people have worked with breathing, trying to bring it all together, was just absolutely fascinating and intriguing. And I'm still completely, you know, passionate about the whole subject. So the thing is, you know, like, once, breathing becomes dysregulated, once breathing becomes dysfunctional, then people don't feel right about their breathing, and they're not often very good at breathing in the way that, you know, makes them feel better or feel good, or improve their health and wellness, because they get locked into certain vicious cycles. And that's what dysfunctional breathing years, and sometimes what looks like dysfunctional breathing was actually an adaptation to something that was happening in their life, you know, like an obstructed airway, or having a high level of stress and trauma and arousal, because of increased, you know, readiness for dealing with a crisis. And so they, you know, need need sort of help when that breathing is no longer helpful. And then what I try and do is evaluate people carefully. So I evaluate the chemistry of breathing, I evaluate breathing muscles, I evaluate how they're perceiving and feeling their breathing, and what have stress and breathing a prominent, you know, in their daily lives. And then I said about trying to create an individualized, you know, assessment, informed treatment of their breathing. So it's kind of beyond just simple breathing exercises. It's really about another realm breathing as a team link tool.
Anthony Hartcher:
Wow, there's so much to it. I didn't realize it was so complicated.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
I'm sorry if I made it sound complicated.
Anthony Hartcher:
No, It's just me.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
I'm trying to put it all in a nutshell, in a short period of time,
Anthony Hartcher:
are you doing really well, I was just thinking from a listener point of view, they're thinking, Well, how do I know that? What are the telltale signs and symptoms that someone's not breathing as they should? Or as optimally? Or what are the some of the telltale signs and symptoms? Yeah,
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
I think looking at the major things, so some major signs would be okay, looking at, say, regularity of breathing. So a healthy person doesn't have a rigid breathing pattern, you know, they will have breathing that's responsive and variable, so there'll be some size in there, some yawns in there, and their breathing will change, you know, in response to life. And that's called, you know, structured or normal variability. And then there are people who have dysfunctional breathing, where their breathing becomes highly irregular. So, they have too many pauses, you know, too many size, too many yawns and some people just sign your nonstop, okay, so that would be one sign. Another one would be like, you know, breathing has lots of functions. So it has primary and secondary functions and one of the secondary functions of breathing is to actually act as it as the conductor of the orchestra of the other oscillating systems. So, heart rate variability, blood pressure, you know, there are different oscillators within our body and breathing shouldn't be able to coordinate those. So, for example, you know, if you don't very effectively, and I don't know how the average person is going to measure this, but if you're, if you breathe really slowly, and it doesn't affect your heart rate variability in a positive way, that would be another sign, you know, you've disconnected oscillators. Another thing would be, if now the function of breathing is self regulation, being able to focus on your breath, as people do in meditation, you know, mindfulness of the breath. And most of us, when we stop focusing on the breath, mindfully, feel it, we feel calmer, and it makes us feel good. People with really dysfunctional breathing, when they connect with their breathing, it's uncomfortable and unpleasant for them. And that's a big red flag for dysfunctional breathing. So for example, there's been some research showing that, you know, while meditation traditions, many, many of them focus on the breath as the primary focus of attention, in modern society, about 40% of people do not choose breathing as their primary anchor for attention, it distresses them, perhaps not all of them, but you know, they don't use it as a primary anchor. And they'd be some of those people that it's because, you know, focusing on their breath makes them uncomfortable. So that would be another red flag. Another one is things like just feeling kind of unusually breathless, with no explanation. So feeling breathless, out of proportion to your level of fitness, or suddenly appearing to lose your fitness. I've worked with some elite athletes, and I've worked with, you know, people on sports scholarships, and major universities in the US and whatever, you know, Ironman champions, and so on, all of a sudden, it's like, they were really unfit, all of a sudden, their heart rate is high, and they're easily breathless. And that's because their breathing has become dysfunctional. They'd be some signs, things like, you know, if you've got a very rigid pattern, where you're always breathing upwards, you know, in a vertical pattern breathing with your shoulders and up into the upper chest, it's okay to breathe in all kinds of ways, because functional, normal breathing should be adaptive, I say that functional adaptive breathing should have ears, right, it is an acronym for efficient, adaptive, appropriate, responsive, and supportive of other vital body systems, which maybe sounds like a lot, but it's got ears. So it's breathing with ears is variable, because it's always adapting to situations, your internal or your external environment. And, you know, that's quite different to how, like, you know, breathing has become a bit popular. There's books, and, you know, popular books and so on, and different breathing techniques that people hook into, you know, anyone goes, well, what's the perfect way to breathe? You know, is it always nasal? Or is it always diaphragmatic is always into the lower ribcage and chest. And I go, Yeah, well, mostly, it should mostly be those things. But people get kind of, they start to do things that aren't right for them, because they're not getting the nuance about what a wonderfully responsive system, the breathing system is, where it's a regulator of the body, and multiple body systems. And it's also an indicator of homeostasis, and of the function of multiple body systems. just noticing, you know, if you're
Anthony Hartcher:
Thanks for sharing. I was wondering also, breathing in the day, and notice, whether you start to how does someone tell if they're like a mouth, predominantly a mouth breathe with a challenge, like little bit of exercise, if mouth breather, versus they're using their nose? Like, for example, I sort of come across this as a default in my own personal life, because I kept slobbering on my pillow at you go to the gym, most people the minute they hit a treadmill, night. I didn't actually draw the connection until many years I've been talking for decades of doing this, right. Yeah, so I was just wondering, is there some ways in which people could determine whether their mouth breather may need some support in order to breathe, or nasal, even if it's not very hard, the mouth opens, right? They've got no sort of capacity to keep the breathing through the nose when there's a little challenge a heel or, you know, a bit of extra exercise. So that's something to look at first. So, you know, normally we would breathe about five liters of air in a moment in a minute, one minute and but We can actually breathe about 40 liters for zero liters through our nose in a moment, if we've got just an average nose, and many people are way below their capacity, and they immediately switch to mouth breathing. So keep an eye out for things like that. And in terms of breathing through your mouth at night, if you're snoring, you know, that could be a sign that you're a mouth breather, because mouth breathers snore more, although you can also snore with your mouth closed. So it's not definite indicator, and things like do you wake up with a dry mouth in the morning? You know, do you wake up with a dry mouth slobber on the pillow is probably a good one too. And then you can always ask your bed partner to film you. So there'll be things you can do. But for example, actually do it. Nose breathing test, three minute nose breathing test when I'm assessing and evaluating patients. And we do it you know, we do a few things in that three minutes, but just getting people to close their lips, either with tape, or holding water in their mouth, or just really making that conscious effort to keep the lips closed. And then I timed them for three minutes. And the test is if you can breathe through your nose for three minutes, then, you know, that means that you've got a trainable and adaptive nose that can be trained to breathe better. People who cannot breathe through their nose for three minutes, usually need to go and see an EMT in nose and throat doctor to have their nose looked at because they might have a severely deviated septum. Or they might have enlarged terminates very large. polyps, do you know something that's actually obstructing their nose to the point where they can't train nasal breathing, but maybe people can train nasal breathing? And actually be aware of that I did a research study on nasal breathing, please share, please share. Yeah, yeah,
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
we actually, you know, like it's in the breathing scene. You know, it's sort of well known that you really should try to encourage people to breathe through their nose because the nose has about 30 different functions, you know, antibacterial, antiviral, connects with the brain, regulates the breathing system protects the lungs, on and on, you know, it's associated with better headspace, more calm, clearer, less brain fog, and all that. So you do want to encourage nasal breathing. And so many people in the breathing world actually say, well just shut your mouth and breathe through your nose, you know, use it or lose it, no one's actually tested how much this is the case, and whether breathing rehabilitation protocols work. So we did a little study where we got, you know, about 25, people who had trouble breathing through their nose, we did that three minute nasal breathing test. And if they passed it, we did a four week breathing rehabilitation protocol. With breathing exercises, where we trained the functions of the nose, the muscles, we trained the nerves like the trigeminal nerve, which picks up sensations, people who are mouth breathers sometimes get, you know, they get a kind of a deafferentation, or reduced function of some of those nerves in the nose, that connect with the brain. And we did, you know, techniques to improve the health of the nasal mucosa, using oscillating breathing techniques and humming and things like that. And then we re evaluated them at the end of four weeks. And people got a fantastic improvement in their ability to nasal breathe. But they also told us that they were sleeping better, felt calmer, felt more energy just felt better in ways that they didn't expect. So we thought that was a bit of a win. And we published that paper in a journal. And so my hope like I'm all about people getting appropriate treatment. So if you need to have nasal surgery, or you need some intervention, then that's what you need to have. But there are a lot of people who don't respond 100% to E and T treatment, and they can't forever take the medications or the medications don't really work. So I'm trying to sort of get the word out there that just like other parts of the breathing system, like the pharynx do, you know like the larynx, like the diaphragm, like the ribcage, you can train the function and hardly anybody does. And it's actually a big gap. Do you know in the wellness scene, you know, appropriately evaluate, individualize and rehabilitate their breathing system.
Anthony Hartcher:
You often hear about, you know, the exercise, the diet and the sleep and they're probably the three main areas but breathing up until I guess recently, it hasn't really come into mine
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
this is true. Like, I mean, I think it was it was 30 years ago that I started really getting into breathing. And I just think you're kind of mad like they'd say, I mean, I always work I still work as a regular osteopath. You know, I do manual therapy, and I work with all kinds of things and so on, you know, but in those days as an osteopath, they'd say, Oh, you know, what's your sort of special interest? Or what do you do? And I go, Oh, I'm really into breathing. Right. Good luck with that.
Anthony Hartcher:
But you're leading the way. I mean, you're at the forefront today. And there's so much interest in it. There's, you know, there's a lot of people out there talking about techniques. And you know, you hear about the mouth taping and that takes off virally on social media on tick tock. Yeah. So I was wondering, is there anything out there that you think you can see that there's really misleading people around breathing? Is there any statements that you've seen published around breathing or particular techniques that you think aren't as effective as what they say they are,
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
I think there's a play everything that's out there and popular, it's got a place and works for somebody, otherwise, it wouldn't be out there and popular, because it's working for some people. But the thing is, that one size doesn't fit all. And that would be an important message to get out there, one size does not fit all, you really can't assume that because someone is doing really, really well with big, strong, deep breathing, you know, combined with ice baths, you know what I'm talking about, that that's going to work for everybody. And some people it will really destabilize them. And, you know, it might, you know, it destabilizes brain rhythms, like, you know, some people get kind of seizures, or it might destabilize cardiac rhythms, or a lot of people are on the edge of having hyperventilation, you know, they don't have good recovery with hyperventilation techniques, and so they don't do well. So some older people, people with a lot of stress and trauma, or just someone who's breathing is really compromised, might not do as well. But those techniques can be fantastic, you know, and I love them all. And I love that sort of stuff. And also, like, you know, there are other people out there saying that what we've all got to do is reduce our breathing, reduce our breathing, breathe less breathless, everyone is hyperventilating. And you know what, a lot of people are stressed and over breathing. But sometimes they're stressed and over breathing for a reason, like their airways are too obstructed, or they've got some compromise of their lungs. And in a way, you know, or maybe their airways closing up at night with sleep apnea. And it could be that they're actually hyperventilating, meaning that they're actually under breathing, and their co2 is too high, you know, and so you actually need to measure to find out what is going on with that person, and adjust the therapy to them. But you know, so that would be the main message, really, I think, even some of the more extreme hyperventilation techniques, you know, where they really do it, and they do it for hours, and on and on, people have had amazing breakthroughs and transformations from those things, you know, and that's really great. It's just that doesn't necessarily work for everybody. So I think that, you know, most of these things are not dangerous or bad, because what will happen is that when something isn't working for someone, they just won't continue it most of the time, you know, so in a way, it's self correcting. But in my world where I work with people with chronic and complex conditions and illnesses, they've often been through lots of tracks, and they've spent a lot of time and energy doing things that haven't really worked for them. And the bottom line is that they've needed someone to accurately assess their breathing, and give them a targeted, individualized approach. So that's the thing in the mouth, taping unit all about that for a second. What do I think of lately, so mouth taping again, do you know it's not for everyone, and you don't want to be so obstructed and have your oxygen dropping at night, because you've got like a super, you know, bad upper airway and tongue that's dropping in your throat, mostly breathing through the nose will help to open up the upper airway. But there are some people who are just there to obstructed you know, and to compromise to do it. And children, of course, will often have enlarged adenoids and tonsils and really shouldn't be taped, you know. So, again, most people who don't tolerate the taping where it's not right for me, they just won't do it. They'll wake up in the morning with a headache and feel bad or end up taking it off. So I guess it's not really dangerous. In fact, we did a big survey. This is 20 years ago, of potato practitioners who were recommending mouth taping when we said, Have you had any reports of adverse events. We there was myself and a doctor from the UK. And he, you know, contacted people and we didn't actually get any reports of adverse effects, but just in theory, and myself as a health professional who takes their responsibilities very seriously. I don't just say take him out. I say let's check you out. Let's tape your mouth and check your oxygen. Let's tape your mouth and see if it's putting you into a sim pathetic stress state, let's actually see what this is like for you. Yeah. And I never taping until someone's been working with their breathing. For a while, we've sorted out the major problems,
Anthony Hartcher:
such great advice in terms of it's not a one size fits all, it really requires a tailored approach based on what they need in terms of addressing the underlying issues. What's behind that, you know, why, why, why and that's essentially the work you do is get to the wire and understand what's obstructing or what's driving the dysfunctional breathing, and then address the, you know, the concern, and then start correcting breathing patterns and getting the conductor back leading the orchestra. You know, as you said, Absolutely.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
And I guess the other thing, too, is like, breathing doesn't cure everything, you know, you go to, it's always appropriate. So it's a matter of, you know, appropriately, appropriately taken care of things like underlying pathologies, and, you know, getting appropriate help with a psychologist or whatever. At the same time. It's an adjunctive therapy, often breathing.
Anthony Hartcher:
Yeah, fantastic. And as you said, it needs to be taken into context. And you're very much that holistic practitioner in obviously, making sure you're working on what's most important for that patient, and what's going to get them the best result.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
very pragmatic approach I've got these days, very pragmatic, it's like what's going to reduce suffering the most the fastest, you know,
Anthony Hartcher:
or after all those years experience, I can imagine you can get to a row quickly with your clients hopes to be able to try. And now you know, you recommend that it's not a one size fits all, but is there some general tips that you can share with the listeners that could really help optimize or improve their breathing,
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
happy to, you know, thinking about breathing, we've got two sort of ways of breathing. This is from the work of an anatomist called Anton detroy, who was really looking at the muscles of breathing. And he came up with two terms, he said, there's the active configuration of breathing, and there's the relaxed configuration. So when you're about to jump, or run, or do something active, or there's a need for a lot of air, you will breathe high. And you'll make your breathing faster. And you'll put more emphasis on the inhale. And many people are too much in the active configuration of breathing. So most of us can do with taking some time to just sit, relax our shoulders, drop them down, focus on the body, and just gently, slow, and lower the breath. Do you know, that's pretty safe advice for everyone. And it's never just about the breath. It's about how you pay attention to it. So pay attention to it without trying too hard to make it perfect. But just you settling into your body, you settling into your breath, and you just gently encouraging your breath to be expressive of a relaxed state of a relaxed configuration. Respecting that your breath may be the way it is for whatever reason, you're just taking it towards that relaxed configuration so that you're getting more of the stillness and calm that we all crave and need. Because you need to switch on switch off thing to be going on for your body to function. Well. You got to go when you go and you really want to stop and rest. And you got to do that. So you can use the breathing to help that happen. And you just do that frequently throughout the day. And that would be fundamental advice that pretty much work for anybody
Anthony Hartcher:
are fantastic tips have really appreciated the conversation and all the wisdom you share with listeners on functional breathing. It's such a well, as you said, it's a very popular topic at the moment. And I'm so glad that you're able to share I guess the evidence base behind functional breathing and help lead the listeners on a course that is probably more appropriate. And certainly, it leads me to the next question is how can the listeners best connect with you?
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Oh, well, you know, my contact details are all on my website, which is my name, which is just rosalbacourtney.com. So my contact details are there on my website and info about what I've got happening there in terms of practitioner training or patient consultations or workshops or online training. So that would be the way I work in Sydney at the Genbiome Clinic in Edgecliff. And also at my own clinic in Avalon on the Northern Beaches.
Anthony Hartcher:
I know you're building an online course, which I think you've pretty much I think you've completed is right.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Yep. So we've got a course starting in October, the 17th of October, but that's the course is actually full now, but I'll be doing ongoing courses. And the thing with that course is because I'm dedicated to this idea of individualized breathing therapy, people have to have an assessment with me first, where I can evaluate, you know, their CO2, their oxygen at rest and under challenge. And we do breath holding times and breathing pattern tests, and so on and so on, check their lungs. And then if it's suitable for them to do the course, then, you know, we're just doing small groups, because over the time of COVID, I just learned, hey, this is a really great way to do it. People don't have to travel and, you know, I could do it. People from all over
Anthony Hartcher:
this US listeners, listeners from Europe, and I'm thinking they're thinking, Well, you know, how can you help me?
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
I see people from the US in the UK and Europe all the time these days. Online.
Anthony Hartcher:
Fantastic. It's great. It's so we're so interconnected with technology these days. It's really wonderful. And that's yeah. And to the listeners, I'll include the link to the website in the show notes. So you can just go directly to the show notes, click on the link, and everything will be there for you on the website. And I'd like to thank you. Once again, Dr. Rosalba Courtney, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your wisdom. It's been wonderful. I've learned a lot and I'm sure the listeners have.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
Thank you, Anthony for your great questions and your interest in helping spread the word.
Anthony Hartcher:
You're very welcome. And to the listeners. Thank you for tuning in to another insightful episode of me and my health up. And please share it with others that you could think that would benefit from better functional breathing or if you know that they snore or if it's someone that you have heard that snore or has a reputation for not breathing quite normally or what's normal, I guess.
Dr. Rosalba Courtney:
You're right.
Anthony Hartcher:
Yeah. Then please share it with them. We'd love to get the word out there and get the great work of Dr. Rosalba Courtney out to the world. So thank you
