What to look for in a teacher

by Christopher Drake

The Buteyko Practitioner is not just a health professional selling another form of medicine. A great practitioner can help transform their students’ lives – enabling people to reverse their chronic diseases, clear their minds and even realise their true nature.

The developed Buteyko Practitioner is not engaged in building a business empire to rival that of modern medicine. They are independent of such coarse intentions. In truth, the mature Buteyko Practitioner is aware that their activities are deeply transcendental and that within their practice is an approach that ameliorates suffering on many levels.

Laser-sharp diagnostic skills

Practically-speaking  to reverse the diseases of civilization, the Buteyko Practitioner should be able to diagnose and predict outcomes with laser accuracy. They should be just as plain, direct and confident of their capabilities as any master tradesman. It is the hallmark of anyone who actually knows what they are doing.

Naturally, in complex and unusual cases practitioners are less sure about results. And in such cases they should consult with their teachers for support and discuss the boundaries of their knowledge with their students.

The proliferation of Buteyko practitioners is a testament to the authenticity of the method and the many people it has helped. But naturally, the capabilities of Buteyko Practitioners vary.

Authentic ability will not arise because a practitioner is conveniently located, appears professional, speaks well or has a diploma or membership to a professional body. All these things are designed to gain credibility and can be manufactured – they are not proof of authenticity.

When my teacher and I started to teach the first generation of Western Buteyko Practitioners they came from mixed backgrounds. Some were

• ex-patients that wanted to devote their time and energy to teaching it.
• health professionals that saw the results and logic of the idea and wanted to incorporate it into their practices. 
• people who simply believed it was a valuable idea with sound employment prospects.

All these motivations are good enough – but they don’t make for an authentic Buteyko Practitioner.

Great Buteyko teachers have advanced breath control

Firstly an aspiring Buteyko Practitioner must develop their own breathing skills. This is critical. Otherwise they will be trying to teach something which they have not mastered themselves. So they become bewildered when they can’t get the best results. Or worse, they will run into problems.

As far as I can tell, only a very small percentage of Buteyko practitioners have done advanced training. It is a tragic irony that so many who promote the method with such enthusiasm have never experienced the sublime and peerless rewards of its practice.

I will never forget how my teacher brought me to levels of such calm, clarity and physical wellbeing through intensive training, fasting and cleansings. I had no idea that such enhanced states even existed. More importantly those states gave me insights into the workings of the organism and how the method affects them. Such experiences sharpen the instincts and allow the practitioner to delineate and perceive the student’s true situation  and give the appropriate advice. Common sense is no match for an intimate grasp of the situation.

They keep learning from their own teacher

The relationship between student and teacher is a sacred thing. It is real help that transcends dry information.

The process is known as fructification. The student places themselves below the teacher so they can receive. This releases the capabilities of the teacher to take care of their students. But in reality one is not above or below the other. When the student place themselves below the teacher, they tap into something. It is some kind of flow in which perspectives, nuances and deep understanding are transmitted effectively.

Most misapprehensions around the Buteyko Method have been spawned by dry intellectualization, the lack of practice and the breaking of lineages. We are now seeing increasingly poor results, practitioners giving up, and dilution of the method. This trend needs to be reversed.

Lau Tzu underlined the importance of the student teacher relationship; in fact he called it an “essential mystery” and went on to claim:

“He who does not value the teacher, Or greatly care for the material,
Is greatly deluded although he may be learned. Such is the essential mystery.”

Western mentality undermines the teacher-student relationship and corrodes the process of fructification. Many practitioners have broken their relationship with their teachers and are now left seeking answers from others who don’t know what to do. Debates in practitioner internet forums rage on about what is the true Buteyko Method and which techniques are the best for certain situations.

Fortunately some  practitioners push ahead with their own practice and preserve their authentic lineage. But my guess is that they represent a small percentage. This is the nature of things, especially when information displaces knowledge. And knowledge has replaced wisdom.

Practitioners who have yet to personally master the method can have the very best of intentions –  to help people and promote the method. But they will invariably misapprehend important nuances of the method. Often they believe the method is a set of breathing exercises which can be taught systematically to all students. Nothing could be further from the truth.

5 guidelines that Buteyko set for teachers

Professor Buteyko laid out guidelines for what qualifies a person to teach the Buteyko Method.
1.) They must be proficient in the method personally. They must be able to exhibit a greatly improved – at least by 3 times, or a solid “Control Pause”, in the region of 40 seconds or more.
2.) They must have a strong technical understanding of the method
3.)  Their training must be heavily weighted to practical experience, wherein they initially practice under the supervision of a Senior Practitioner. They must have taught at least several hundred students successfully, before even attempting to teach students unsupervised.
4.) They must only treat those conditions in which they have had supervised experience in treating. This means they must not for example, teach a patient with emphysema, if they have only be trained to teach asthmatics.
5.) A practitioner can charge what he likes, but must guarantee the results in any public workshop.

I once spoke to Professor Buteyko about a certain technical problem – he listened intently and then said “Go to your teacher. Talk to Sasha”. The Eastern tradition of lineage has a practical purpose – it preserves the depth of understanding.

Complex conditions test a practitioner’s mettle

Unlike medical doctors and lawyers there are no restrictions on who can hold themselves out as a Buteyko practitioner.

Some Western practitioners have been trained over years and seen thousands of students under supervision. Others visited Professor Buteyko for a few days, had their photograph taken with him, and then claim to have been trained by him. Despite the fact that he hardly spoke English. And they have gone on to train other practitioners! They are essentially business people that appreciate the importance of projected credibility. That is not to say that they cannot be of great help to many – but they have decapitated themselves from the essential flow of understanding that is required.

Most practitioners regardless of ability can help mild asthmatics and allergy sufferers. That’s because the basic training for practitioners starts with mild asthma, as it is the easiest to reverse. But for more complex conditions, especially when a low Control Pause and or medication are involved, the skill and experience of the practitioner will critically influence results.

I don’t aim to undermine the good intentions of  inexperienced  Buteyko Practitioners – instead to encourage both beginners and even practitioners to correctly perceive the method, to strive for excellent results and to exercise discernment. Question your Buteyko Practitioner thoroughly; ask about their lineage, their experience with your condition and to precisely outline what and when results can be expected.

Before meeting Professor Buteyko, my teacher learnt the method from an inexperienced practitioner – the results were less than optimal, but it did create a spark of improvement. And this spark was enough for my teacher to pursue the method.

So, from this we can see that a less than optimal beginning can still lead to tremendous outcomes. Even so, it was not until he found his teacher that he was able to excel, reverse his diseases and become Professor Buteyko’s first ambassador to the West.

Read more articles by Chris

• Practitioner training  – from Learn Buteyko.org – why practical experience beats theory every time
• Stalmatski collection - view video snippets of Buteyko’s protege Sasha Stalmatski talking about the method
• Breath and mind - from Learn Buteyko.org. Breath control calms anger, stress, anxiety and paranoia