Breath therapy and life coach camps may cause serious psychiatric problems, experts say

ISTANBUL – Demirören News Agency

Medical experts warn against breath therapy and life coach camps, saying that serious psychiatric problems may arise.

While these so-called trainers, who do not have any psychology or psychiatry education, promise to save people from their problems, experts say, these breath therapy and life coach camps can sometimes cause psychological disorders to deepen.

Sibel Çakır, a psychiatrist from the Psychiatric Association of Turkey (TPD), said that people still have reservations about going to a psychiatrist and that they are affected by stigmas surrounding psychiatrists and psychologists, who are seen as “doctors for mad people” in the country.

Çakır emphasized that a false science was created, which caused anxiety among humans.

“There are concerns about some of the medicines and some of those concerns are unrealistic. Nobody wants to wait for a long time. A different environment may be attractive when a camp is offered at the weekend,” she said.

She emphasized that this procedure performed by someone without a medical education is equivalent to starting a surgery and leaving the patient in an operation.

“The pain is exposed and left in such a way that people don’t know what to do with it. After these events, we encounter people whose symptoms and distress increase strongly,” she added.

Fatih Öncü, another psychiatrist and a board member of TPD, said that new occupations that are not related to health, such as breath therapist and life coaching, are emerging and these occupations lead to the exploitation of people.

“These people are bringing new practices that claim that they are treating people, solving their spiritual, physical well-being and relationship problems, and leading to their exploitation,” Öncü said.

“Unfortunately, they cannot be adequately controlled. We are trying to strive for this in the medical chambers, but unfortunately it has become a big market. There are publications claiming that economic size of the market has reached 120 billion dollars,” he noted.

Nilüfer Narlı, head of the department of sociology at Bahçeşehir University, said this has become a trend around the world and has turned into an industry.

“The 20th century was a modern era, an age dominated by rationality, science, and positivist thought, but as we entered the 21st century, we began to face trends such as the desire of people to go out of the alternatives offered by modern science,” Narlı said.

“People go to the bioenergy expert instead of receiving emotional support from their friends or family members. They are trying to find a solution by discussing the problems with them. This is a great industry in Turkey as a result of the new trend,” she added.

A.S., who lives in Istanbul and has two children, paid $6,000 to her life coach, who she met in a camp she attended, with the promise of “cleaning the negative energies on her.”

Later, her mental health deteriorated gradually, and she had to undergo psychiatric treatment in hospital.