Practitioner Training and Consulting

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by Christopher Drake

I am very pleased to offer Buteyko Practitioner Training and consulting. However, before considering training as a Buteyko Practitioner there are a number of things one should be aware of.

Teaching Buteyko Practitioners is an unregulated activity. All too often it is undertaken by practitioners who themselves have little experience in the method. It would appear that some practitioners have been unable to attract sufficient patients to their own practices and have turned to training practitioners instead. Often they have created professional looking organizations, manuals, websites, videos and a comprehensive sounding curriculum. But essential practitioner skills cannot be attained in courses – they are cultivated in practical experience and distilled with the support and training of an experienced teacher.

Before teaching others
Before embarking on practitioner training, the aspiring Buteyko Practitioner should master their own personal skills around the method. This is the only way to develop the sensitivity and first hand experience that is required to cultivate authentic results.

Practitioners who have not developed their own personal skills will easily become bewildered and confused because theory and practice are two different things – without perspective, theory is almost irrelevant.

We are now beginning to see the results of people being trained by those who themselves have not attained high levels of personal practice and practical experience. They cannot support their students when confronted by difficult and complex circumstances – leaving these orphaned practitioners to fend for themselves – looking high and low for authentic help – even resorting to chat rooms, wherein they meet others who are in a similar situation. As they grasp for help and advice, their own practice and students slip through their fingers – until they become lost in opinions, views and endless intellectual permutations. There is nothing to do about this phenomenon – it is the nature of things and indicative of how every profound and most excellent practical technique atrophies.

Virtual expertise
Another phenomenon is the proliferation of “virtual” experts. This group leaves me perplexed – I cannot imagine their intentions to be anything but honourable. Their apparent aim is to make the method as widely known as possible and provide support to everyone. Unfortunately their good intentions are somewhat decapitated as they have little or no actual experience.

The Buteyko Method is a practical thing – a technical matter in which understanding comes almost viscerally through devoted application. My fervent hope is that they personally and deeply engage in the method – that they practice it diligently and attain its rich rewards – then their good intentions will be on target, their skills will be put to good use and we shall see real cohesion and enlightening advice come for their quarters.  But they will need real teachers – and as they have chosen to hold themselves out as experts and even pass judgement on the most experienced of practitioners, they may find it difficult to submit to being properly trained.

A Common Mistake
The misapprehension that the Buteyko Method is a set of breathing exercises is at the heart of a great deal of confusion. The basic exercises and ideas are like a set of tools – knowing how to manage a screw driver and a wrench does not make you a capable mechanic. The authentic Buteyko Method is about managing the patient and bringing them through, using various tools and advice on an as required basis. It is often a complex process, not a one size fits all method.

The method is simple – it’s the patients that are complicated.

For simple conditions like mild asthma and allergies etc – the formula is quite simple. In fact just about anyone could learn the entire process within a few weeks. There is just not much to learn. However, simple asthma and allergies are only a fraction of what is involved with the Buteyko Method. Treating sleep apnoea, obesity, depression and diabetes etc require significant practical modifications and experience.

Buteyko Practitioner training has often been sold on the basis of support and belonging to an accredited organization with lots of formality, paperwork and all the accoutrements of a professional therapeutic organization. The ironic tragedy is that all this outward validation for most is an empty shell. It is more packaging than substance.

Be realistic
The simplicity of the idea behind the Buteyko Method is extremely deceptive when contrasted with the practical issues of getting results with patients. The later can only arise when the aspiring Buteyko Practitioner is apprenticed to a teacher who takes care of them, supervises them and is their mentor on an ongoing basis.

The Buteyko Method can be utilized to reverse over 200 chronic diseases – do you think you will master it in less time than it takes to master accounting, carpentry or stone masonry? What is the value of an accreditation that was acquired faster than a license to drive a forklift truck?

It is very much a Western perception that one can intellectually grasp and then apply an understanding practically and obtain results. We have seen this in contemporary yoga. A master who has spent half a lifetime under the auspices of his teacher, gingerly takes on students, only to find that within a few months some of them hold themselves out as masters and attempt to make a business out of the little they know. As a result most yoga that is taught in the West is utterly impotent. One of the greatest transcendental sciences has become stretching classes for bored housewives! And the Buteyko Method is going in a similar direction.

Authentic Buteyko Training firstly emphasises on the aspirant developing their own skills. They should firstly attain a high CP, reverse their own chronic diseases, clear their mind and grasp the nuances of the method on a personal level. No amount of theoretical lectures, diplomas and promotion will compensate for a low level of personal practice. But for many Westerners this principle is an anathema – they would prefer to teach than learn; they would prefer to lecture than practice. We are now seeing the proliferation of obese, confused, depressed and chronically ill Buteyko Practitioners!

Test Your Teacher
Before embarking on any training – test your teacher. After all, how can they teach you to do something they themselves have not achieved? Enquire about their lineage. If they claim to have learnt from Professor Buteyko directly – ensure they are not referring to a ten minute meeting and a photo opportunity at a seminar. This is not training – especially given the fact that Professor Buteyko did not speak English.

On choosing a teacher I would recommend disregarding memberships of organizations, certificates, diplomas, complex sounding curriculum’s and published testimonies of results which they had nothing to do with. Especially disregard so called successful business models and practice management plans – the Buteyko Method is not a business – that is why so many have turned to training practitioners and selling DIY kits.

Perhaps more than 70% of Buteyko Practitioners who are affiliated with official sounding organizations struggle to make a living and those who are not affiliated with any organization are often kept very busy. The skilful management of students is the key – not impressive titles or organizations.

If you judge your teacher on how professional their website is, how professional their presentation is or how apparently credible their organization is, you a vulnerable to being dreadfully disappointed.

Training
I do not promise students a diploma – nor will they will be automatically admitted to an organization, they will not be advised on business matters or marketing. I train practitioners the only way I know how, the way that I was trained. And if they are diligent, if they put their practice first, then I will stand behind them and do everything in my power to ensure that they become mature and capable practitioners.

On a practical level they will be able to train patients within a few months – however this will only initially occur under direct supervision, until they are proficient with particular kinds of conditions and types of students. Then they will be free to teach under their own authority and as they see fit.

Practitioner Training Costs
I do not charge a specific fee for practitioner training, instead we would agree to an arrangement whereby instalments are made according to progress and can often be derived as a share of income from patients. The student is free to be released from my auspices whenever they wish, as

I am free to discontinue my support if and when I see fit. These arrangements are an attempt to cultivate an ongoing relationship based on value, not promises.

Practitioner Consultations
From time to time even experienced practitioners come across circumstances that are beyond their own knowledge and experience. I am happy to offer my services to assist in such cases and charge a modest negotiated fee – but only when I am reasonably confident that I can offer a service of value.

Mentoring
I relied on my teacher to help and advise me on an ongoing basis. Without his generous support and on going commitment to my development personally and in my practice I can’t see how it would have ever developed. This mentoring was not over weeks or months – it was over a decade!

To a small degree the mentoring tradition has continued. My teachers mentor was Professor Buteyko and they were always in regular contact, and that was back in the days when long distance phone calls where prohibitively expensive. Professor Buteyko was keenly interested in my teacher both personally and work wise. And I was in contact with my teacher Sasha for years. And now I take great pleasure in supporting some of my students like Jac Vidgen.  And now Jac is also providing ongoing support to his practitioner students.

The mentoring system works – it enabled my teacher, it enabled me and if one closely looks at the work of Jac Vidgen for example, it is abundantly clear his practice in Hong Kong and Manila thrives because of the excellent results he achieves.

“For me, this kind of ongoing mentorship is an essential part of my growth and development as a Buteyko practitioner – and provides a structure of support which seems to be missing for many practitioners of this method.  This is obvious from the number of practitioners asking internet support groups for advice.  The problem with reliance on such groups is that some of the few who are offering advice are relatively inexperienced themselves.”

Jac Vidgen, Senior Buteyko Practitioner, Dip. BM. (Moscow), I.A.O.B.P (London), founding and former member of the BIBH. www.buteykoasia.com

Let’s talk
If you are interested in becoming a Buteyko Practitioner, you are most welcome to be in contact. I will be more than happy to relate my own experience around the method and share perspectives that you may find of interest.