Health Disclaimer
Last updated: 9 October 2026
Please read this before taking part in any session, workshop, event or recording with Home With Nicola. Before your first live session you will be asked to complete a short health screening and to confirm that you have read and understood this page. Your confirmation is recorded and dated. If anything here is unclear, or you are not sure whether something applies to you, please ask before you practise, not after.
1. This is not medical care
Home With Nicola offers breathwork facilitation and nervous system education for general wellbeing. It is self-care and educational work. It is not a medical, clinical or diagnostic service, it is not psychotherapy, counselling or mental health treatment, and it is not a substitute for advice, diagnosis or care from a qualified healthcare professional.
I am a certified conscious connected breathwork facilitator, not a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist or psychotherapist, and I cannot give medical advice. I make no claim that breathwork treats, cures or prevents any condition. Where I describe benefits, they relate to how people tend to feel, not to a medical outcome. If you are under treatment for any physical or mental health condition, breathwork should sit alongside that care, not replace it. Please do not stop or change any prescribed treatment because of something you experience in a session.
2. Two kinds of breathwork, two levels of risk
The practices I use fall into two broad groups, and they carry very different risk.
Regulating practices (for example slow diaphragmatic breathing, longer exhales, coherent breathing, box breathing and alternate nostril breathing) are gentle, stay within your normal breathing range, and are suitable for most people.
Activating practices (conscious connected breathwork, circular and faster breathing, and any sustained breath holds) deliberately change your blood chemistry, produce much stronger effects, and carry the real contraindications below. Where a caution applies only to this second group, I say so. Being unable to do conscious connected breathwork does not close breathwork to you, it usually means we simply work in the gentler way.
Activating practices can bring on light-headedness or dizziness, tingling or temporary tightening in the hands, feet or around the mouth, changes in heart rate, temperature shifts, shaking, strong emotional release, vivid imagery, and occasionally brief loss of consciousness. Most of this is a normal response to changing carbon dioxide levels, but it is real, it can be disorientating, and in the wrong setting it can be dangerous.
3. When not to take part
Please do not take part in activating breathwork, or speak to a qualified healthcare professional first, if any of the following apply, and please disclose all of them on your health screening even if you believe they are resolved or well managed.
Cardiovascular: heart disease, angina, heart failure or a history of heart attack, high blood pressure that is not well controlled, a history of stroke or mini-stroke, arrhythmias including atrial fibrillation, a pacemaker or other cardiac implant, or an aneurysm of any kind.
Neurological and psychiatric: epilepsy or any history of seizures (rapid breathing is used clinically to provoke seizures, so this is a genuine risk), current or recent psychosis or schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (especially near a manic episode), severe PTSD unless your clinician agrees, active suicidal thoughts or a recent attempt, significant dissociative disorders, or a current eating disorder or active mania where intense practice could destabilise recovery.
Respiratory: severe or poorly controlled asthma, COPD, a current chest or respiratory infection, or any history of a collapsed lung. If you use an inhaler, bring it and keep it close.
Recent surgery, injury or acute illness: any surgery in the last three months (particularly abdominal, chest, cardiac, eye or brain), recent fractures (especially ribs) or injuries that deep breathing could aggravate, or any acute illness with a fever.
Other: glaucoma, recent eye surgery or retinal detachment, severe untreated osteoporosis, severe migraine triggered by breathing changes, unstable diabetes, or anything a doctor has told you to avoid intense breathing or breath holding for.
For several of these, breathwork is not permanently off the table. It needs your clinician's input, and usually a regulating rather than activating approach.
4. Pregnancy and postpartum
Pregnancy is not a barrier to breathwork, and gentle breathing can be one of the most useful things available to you. What changes is which practices are suitable.
Suitable in pregnancy: regulating practices such as diaphragmatic breathing, longer exhales, coherent breathing, gentle box breathing without long holds, and alternate nostril breathing.
Not offered in pregnancy: conscious connected breathwork, circular or forceful breathing, and breath holds, because sustained fast breathing and holds can reduce oxygen delivery to your baby. I also avoid strong forceful abdominal techniques.
From the middle of the second trimester, please avoid lying flat on your back for long periods. I will set you up on your side or propped up instead. If you have any pregnancy complication, please tell me and check with your midwife or obstetrician first. After birth, gentle practice can usually begin when you feel ready. For conscious connected breathwork, please wait until after your postnatal check and full recovery (around six weeks for an uncomplicated birth, longer after a caesarean or a complicated delivery).
5. Substances, water and environment
Do not take part while affected by alcohol, cannabis, psychedelics or other recreational drugs, and tell me if you have used a substance in the previous 24 hours.
Never combine breathwork with water. Do not do breath holds in a pool, bath, hot tub, the sea or any body of water. Breath holding in water has caused deaths through shallow water blackout, which gives no warning. This applies with no exception, whatever your experience.
Do not practise while driving or using machinery, or anywhere you could fall (near heights, edges, stairs or glass). If you take prescription medication, especially anything affecting your heart, blood pressure, mood, anxiety, seizures or nervous system, speak to your prescriber before starting activating breathwork, and note it on your screening.
6. Online sessions
Online, I cannot physically reach you. I cannot steady you, catch you or call for help as quickly as I could in person, so that responsibility shifts to you and your space. Before an online session, please practise lying down or seated on the floor (not on a chair, sofa or bed), clear hard edges and glass from around you, keep a phone within reach, have someone else in the home where possible (especially for your first sessions or any activating practice), and keep your camera on so I can see you and respond. If you cannot meet these conditions, tell me and we will adapt or reschedule.
7. Stop if
Stop, return to normal breathing, and tell me straight away if you feel dizziness or faintness that worries you, chest pain or unusual heart sensations, a sudden or severe headache, numbness or tingling that does not settle when you breathe normally, cramping that becomes painful, emotional distress that feels overwhelming rather than releasing, or anything that frightens you. You can stop at any moment, for any reason, without explaining. If you cannot speak, raise a hand and I will notice.
8. Emotional and psychological responses
Breathwork can surface unexpected emotion, memory or sensation. For many people this is the heart of the work and is safe and valuable. It can also be destabilising. If a session leaves you shaken for more than a short while, disturbs your sleep, worsens existing symptoms, or brings up more than you feel resourced to hold, please pause your practice and speak to a qualified mental health professional, and tell me so I can adjust. I am not able to support anyone through an acute mental health crisis, and it would be dishonest to suggest otherwise.
If you are in crisis in the UK: Samaritans on 116 123 (free, 24 hours), NHS 111 (mental health option), your GP, or 999 in an emergency. Elsewhere, please use your local emergency number and national helpline.
9. Groups and events
In a group I am dividing attention across everyone present, so your own awareness of your limits matters more than in one to one work. Other people's emotional release can be audible and affecting to witness, and you are free to leave the room at any point. What is shared in a group stays in the group. I ask everyone to respect that, though I cannot guarantee the conduct of other participants.
10. Under 18s
Sessions are intended for adults aged 18 and over. I will only work with someone under 18 where a parent or guardian has given written consent, has completed the health screening with them, and is contactable throughout.
11. Your health can change
Your screening is a snapshot. Please tell me before a session if anything changes: a new diagnosis, new medication, a pregnancy, a surgery, an injury, a bereavement, or a period of acute stress or poor mental health. You are responsible for the accuracy of what you tell me, because I make decisions about what is safe to offer you based on it.
12. Liability
Nothing here limits or excludes my liability for death or personal injury caused by my negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded under the law of England and Wales. Subject to that, and to the fullest extent permitted by law, I accept no liability for adverse health outcomes arising from your participation, particularly where they follow from information you did not disclose on your screening or from not following guidance given during a session. Nothing here affects your rights as a consumer under UK law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
13. Your acknowledgement
Before your first session you will be asked to confirm that you have read and understood this disclaimer, that you have considered whether any contraindication in section 3 applies to you, that where one does apply you have either consulted a healthcare professional or decided on your own responsibility that the practice is safe for you, that your screening information is accurate and complete, and that you accept responsibility for your participation.
14. Questions
Email nicola@homewithnicola.com. I cannot give medical advice, so for anything medical please speak to a qualified healthcare professional. This disclaimer should be read alongside my Terms and my Privacy Policy.