Your First Class
You don't need to know what you're doing. You don't need to have tried hypnosis or breathwork or yoga nidra before. You don't need to be in the “right” headspace.
You just need to show up exactly as you are. The practice meets you there.
Before my first group class, I had been practicing on my own for about three months. Yoga nidra, mostly. Alone in my apartment, from my iPhone, no witnesses. The way I'd always done hard things: quietly, privately, with no one watching in case it didn't work; or in case I fell apart.
The idea of doing clinical hypnosis and breathwork with a group of strangers in a live setting felt like a different ask entirely. I was skeptical I could allow myself to let go in the same way as in my own bed. I was afraid of what might come up when someone else was in the room for it. The contradictory fear of crying in front of people I didn't know, and the fear that I wouldn't, and that the second one would mean it wasn't working.
You don't have to have practiced on your own first. But if going it alone was your first instinct. If that's how you've always approached the hard things, I understand exactly why showing up with other people feels like more.
When I did show up, what moved in that first session wasn't what I expected. Which is, I've come to understand, almost always how it goes.
Here is everything you need to know before yours.
Why this approach works when others haven't
95% of your thoughts, habits, patterns, and beliefs reside in the subconscious mind. The part that runs underneath the thinking, analyzing, efforting part you're used to working with. Most approaches, e.g., therapy, coaching, self-help, often work on the remaining 5%. That's why you can understand your patterns completely and still not change them. You're working on the wrong part of the brain.
Clinical hypnosis, breathwork, sound, and yoga nidra work differently. They intentionally slow the brain down from the beta waves of active thinking into alpha and theta — the brainwave states where the subconscious becomes accessible. Where new patterns can take root. Using neuroscience to work with the brain, not against it.
Your safety
These practices are safe for most people and have been used clinically and in research settings for decades. That said, they are not appropriate for everyone.
Before joining any class, please read the Safety and Contraindications page. Certain practices — particularly conscious connected breathwork — may not be suitable if you have uncontrolled blood pressure, severe asthma, a history of seizures, or kidney disease. If you have any medical concerns, consult your doctor before attending.
The Three Class Formats
The Good Muck offers three live virtual class formats. Each works on the same principles but serves a different entry point into the practice.
Clinical Hypnosis x Breathwork:
The most active of the three. We open with intention setting, move into induction and deepening to access the subconscious mind, then into rounds of conscious connected breath designed to release held emotions and clear the patterns stored in the body. You receive hypnotic suggestions aligned with your stated intention throughout. We close with time for integration.
Breathwork x Yoga Nidra:
Moves from conscious connected breath into sound and yoga nidra, the intentional practice of non-doing. Sound creates the conditions for the nervous system to settle. Yoga nidra guides the brain into the slower brainwave states where stress releases, tissue repairs, and memory consolidates. We close with integration.
Clinical Hypnosis:
Works through induction, deepening, and direct suggestion. No activating breathwork. The focus is accessing the subconscious mind and encoding new patterns aligned with your intention, closing with integration.
In all three: you remain fully conscious, aware, and in control throughout. Everything in class is an invitation. These are collaborative processes that center your choice, your agency, and your voice for the duration of the experience.
What You Might Experience
There is no wrong way to be in class.
You may feel emotional release, unexpected laughter or tears as something surfaces and moves through. You may notice physical sensation: tingling, temperature shifts, spontaneous movement as the nervous system unwinds. You may encounter resistance or temporary discomfort. That's the muck. We move through it, not around it.
You may also feel something you didn't expect on the other end of it. A clarity that arrives without warning. A lightness. A moment where something that has felt stuck simply isn't anymore. That's also possible. Often in the same class.
And you may fall asleep. That's perfectly okay. It means your body took the rest it needed. Even in sleep, the subconscious remains open and receptive. You still receive the full benefit of the practice.
Whatever happens or doesn't is simply information. There is no version of showing up that doesn't count.
How to Prepare
Your space
Find somewhere quiet where you won't be disturbed and where you can lie down comfortably: a couch, bed, or yoga mat. Have props nearby: pillows, a blanket, an eye mask. Please keep your camera on throughout class. I use visual cues to read the room and calibrate the practice for everyone in it; your camera is essential to that process.
Your body
Eat lightly in the 60-90 minutes before class. Avoid heavy meals (deep breathing and relaxation can be uncomfortable on a full stomach.) Hydrate beforehand. Dress in warm, comfortable layers; body temperature often drops during deep relaxation.
Your device
Confirm your internet connection is solid and your device is charged before class begins.
Your journal
Keep something to write with nearby. Insights and emotional threads often surface during integration at the end of class. Writing them down matters.
After Class
Integration is part of every class and it doesn't end when the Zoom does. Give yourself time after class to be still before moving into the next thing. Drink water. Write down anything that came up. Avoid immediately filling the quiet.
When the brain is returning from slower brainwave states, it's in a window of heightened plasticity. What you notice in those first quiet minutes after class is worth paying attention to. What you write down has a way of staying.
Shifts can happen in a single class. Lasting change takes repetition and time. Both are true.
The Work Compounds
If you found this page before you've experienced the work, it might feel safer to start with the Future Self Session: a free guided clinical hypnosis audio and future scripting guide that you can experience on your own time.
»Experience The Future Self Session
And if breathing with strangers (at first) is the right next step for you, The Grove is there. A monthly membership with three live virtual classes a week in clinical hypnosis, breathwork, sound, and yoga nidra. A place to not do this alone.
Or try a single Grove class first — $28, no commitment.
»Book a single Grove class
