SVARA
A Somatic Training in Breathwork & Nervous System Based Facilitation
SVARA is a professional training in breathwork and somatic facilitation for people who want to learn not only how to guide a process, but how to meet the person in front of them.
We work with conscious connected breath, the nervous system, somatic practice, personal process, nature and ritual.
You will learn how to work with individuals and groups while developing your capacity to observe, listen, respond and stay present with what emerges.
Because facilitation is not only about knowing what to do.
It is also about knowing when to wait, when to intervene and when less may be more.
SVARA Breathwork Training
Our carefully designed program offers 4 different Modules.
EARTH Module, Foundations: (10 Days)
Oct 2-4 & Nov 7-8 (online), October 19-25, 2026 in Portugal (Hybrid Version)
Learn the foundations of 1:1 breathwork facilitation while developing your understanding of the breath, nervous system, safety and relational work.
You will learn how to structure a session, work with what emerges and respond to the person in front of you rather than simply following a protocol.
WATER Module, Expansion: (7 Days) TBA
Deepen your intuitive and energetic awareness while exploring the relationship between breath, creativity, sexuality and the elements.
The Water Module invites you to work beyond structure, developing sensitivity, intuition and trust while remaining grounded in clear facilitation.
FIRE Module, Blossom: (7 Days) 29th of Nov- 6th of Dec 2026
Learn how to facilitate groups with clarity, confidence and responsiveness.
The Fire Module explores group dynamics, leadership, music, ritual, ceremony, assistants, safety and the practical skills needed to hold larger spaces without losing connection to the people inside them.
AIR Module, Deep healing: (7 Days) Spring 2027
Deepen your capacity to work with trauma, nervous system responses and complex emotional processes.
The Air Module brings together somatic practice, bodywork, and deeper personal inquiry, with a strong focus on the facilitator’s own nervous system and capacity to stay present.
Breathwork is a powerful entry point, but it is not the work on its own.
At SVARA, breath is one of the ways we enter into the body, the nervous system and the patterns that shape how we feel, respond and relate.
What matters is not only what arises through the breath, but how it is met.
For this reason, the training goes beyond learning a breathwork technique.
You learn to recognise nervous system responses, read the breath and body, work with emotional processes, and respond with clarity and care.
We place strong emphasis on pacing, consent, discernment and the ability to recognise when more is not necessarily better.
Your own process is part of this learning.
Because the way you meet another person is deeply connected to your own capacity to stay present with emotion, uncertainty, silence and intensity.
The aim is not simply to create an experience in a session.
It is to support something that can actually be integrated into the person’s life.
OUR VISION
We want to contribute to a culture of breathwork where depth is not measured by intensity, and good facilitation is not measured by how much happens in a session.
We believe breathwork can be a powerful way of working with people. But the breath alone does not make someone a skilled facilitator.
Our vision is to train facilitators who can think, feel and respond for themselves. Who understand the nervous system and trauma informed practice, but don’t reduce a person to a nervous system state. Who can work with structure without becoming rigid, and with intuition without losing discernment.
We want facilitators who can stay present with intensity, but also with silence, uncertainty and the moments where nothing seems to happen.
Nature, ritual and the elements remain part of this work because we don’t see human beings as separate from the wider living world.
Ultimately, we want to contribute to a field where breathwork is practised with more maturity, responsibility and respect for the individual person.
I’m Mela Mariposa, founder of SVARA.
My work with people began more than 20 years ago, long before SVARA existed. In 2018, people who had experienced my breathwork began asking me to teach them. I hadn’t planned to create a training, but those requests became the beginning of what eventually grew into SVARA.
The training has never stayed exactly the same.
As my own practice and understanding deepened, so did the way I taught. My studies in nervous system work and Somatic Experiencing, my own personal process, and years of working with people have changed the way I understand breathwork. I became less interested in intensity for the sake of intensity, and much more interested in pacing, capacity, the body and what can actually be received and integrated.
Katrin has been an important part of this evolution. Her experience in bodywork and her understanding of the nervous system have brought another perspective into the training, and over the years our work has increasingly grown together.
Today, SVARA brings these different threads together: breathwork, the nervous system, bodywork, personal process, nature and ritual.
We are not interested in producing facilitators as quickly as possible or in handing out certificates after a few days of learning techniques.
We want people to understand the power and responsibility of this work. And that requires more than learning how to guide someone else. It asks for practice, curiosity, self reflection and a willingness to enter the work yourself.
ABOUT SVARA
The word svara (Sanskrit: स्वर) is rooted in sound.
It appears in ancient Indian texts in relation to rhythm, tone and the movement of life. The Sanskrit root svar has also been associated with “to shine.”
For us, the name speaks to listening.
To the breath, to the body, to what is happening within us and around us. It reflects the relationship between breath, sound, awareness and the natural world that has always been part of the SVARA training.