In-Person Certification · San Diego
Five days in person with Summer Valentino. Learn to guide breathwork safely, understand what the breath is doing in your client's nervous system, and leave certified to lead your own 1:1 and group sessions.
Why this training
One breathwork session can bring up grief, fear, anger, or a release someone has carried in their body for years. Guiding that well takes more than a script. You need to understand what the breath is doing to the nervous system, tell the difference between a client moving through something and a client who is overwhelmed, and know what to do in either case.
This certification gives you that foundation. Over five days you'll learn the science, practise facilitating with Summer giving you feedback in real time, and experience the work yourself, both as the person breathing and as the person holding the room.
You leave ready to lead. Not with a binder of notes you'll never open, but with sessions you've already facilitated and a framework you can use the following week.
What we cover
Not one breath technique, but the whole craft: the physiology underneath, the two directions the breath can move a nervous system, the facilitation itself, and the trauma-informed safety that has to hold all of it. You breathe through the practices yourself as you learn them, because you cannot guide someone through a state you have never moved through.
How the breath drives autonomic state, the roles of carbon dioxide and oxygen, chemoreceptors, vagal tone, and the window of tolerance seen through a breath lens.
Up-regulating versus down-regulating breath, how each one works, and what conscious connected breathing does to the body compared with extended-exhale work.
The physiological sigh, coherent and resonance breathing, box breath, extended exhale, and humming, and why each one settles the system.
The arc of an activating session: the rounds, the breath holds, the role of music, and the restorative close, taught through a full protocol.
Voice, pacing, cueing, presence, the use of silence, and reading the room so you guide without controlling.
Staying regulated when a client floods, how your nervous system co-regulates theirs, managing your energy across a long session, and how transference shows up in somatic work.
Who should not do activating breath, how to screen, informed consent, and where this work ends and clinical care begins.
Consent, choice, titration, and predictability, and why catharsis is not the goal and can do harm when it is chased.
Tetany, tremoring, emotional flooding, abreaction, freeze, and dissociation: what is a normal release, what needs your intervention, and how to meet each one.
Integration and closing, down-regulating after activation, and grounding and orienting, so no one leaves activated or dissociated.
Designing and running an individual session from intake to integration, tailored to one person and their state.
The collective field, several people releasing at once, spotting who needs support, sound and logistics, and closing a group as one.
Setting the intent, sequencing the breath, choosing music, pacing, and adapting live, for both 1:1 and group.
Real reps facilitating one to one and in small groups, with feedback, so the craft becomes something you can do with someone breathing in front of you.
Your final facilitated session and competency review, how you build breathwork into your own offers, and your certificate.
The five days
Respiratory physiology and the nervous system, the two directions of breath, and the functional toolkit, practised in your own body as you learn them.
The anatomy of an activating journey, which you breathe through as a participant, then holding the room and staying regulated as the facilitator.
Screening, contraindications, consent, and scope, trauma-informed principles, and working with what arises, from tetany and tremoring to flooding and dissociation.
Bringing clients back and closing cleanly, facilitating one to one and in groups, and designing a session from scratch, with real-time feedback from Summer.
Supervised practice facilitating your peers, your final facilitated session and review, and how you build breathwork into your own offers. Certificate awarded.
What's included
Your tuition covers all five days of live training with Summer and your certification. You'll practise every part of a session in the room, so by the time you leave you've already facilitated more than once.
Who this is for
You already work with clients on change. Breathwork gives your sessions a body-based tool that reaches what conversation alone can't.
Yoga teachers, massage therapists, energy workers, and movement facilitators who want to add breathwork with a trauma-informed foundation.
You've felt what breathwork did for you and want to learn to hold that space for other people, safely and with real skill.
Licensed professionals ready to bring nervous system and breath-based work into their practice alongside what they already do.
All five days of training and your certification. Accommodation and travel not included.
Jan 20–24, 2027
San Diego, CA
Limited to 50
How to enroll
Talk with Summer about where you are in your practice and whether this training is the right fit. Book your call.
Fill in the short application with a brief health screen, then pay in full or in 4 payments of $875 every 2 weeks. Your seat is held once your first payment is made.
You'll receive your confirmation and pre-training details by email, so all that's left is to book your stay.
Your teacher
Summer came to breathwork through her own unraveling, not a textbook. Her first session shifted something in her body that years of trying to think her way through things never could, and it changed the direction of her life.
She became obsessed with understanding why: the nervous system science behind what she felt, why the body holds what the mind tries to release, and how to create change that lasts. Today she leads The SYSTM, training nervous system, somatic, and breathwork practitioners to do this work with depth and care.
Questions
Wednesday, January 20 through Sunday, January 24, 2027, in San Diego, California. The venue address and daily schedule are sent to you by email once you've enrolled.
All five days of in-person training with Summer, the full curriculum, live practice and feedback, and your certification on completion. Accommodation and travel are not included, so you're free to stay wherever suits you.
No license is required. The application asks about your background and your experience with breathwork so we know who's in the room.
Breathwork is a powerful practice, and some health conditions make it unsafe, including heart conditions, high blood pressure, pregnancy, epilepsy, glaucoma, and some mental health conditions. If anything in your screen needs a closer look, Summer will review your application and email you before you pay.
Yes, until December 2, 2026. Pay in 4 payments of $875: your first payment holds your seat, and the other 3 are charged automatically every 2 weeks, so your tuition is complete before the training begins. After December 2, enrollment is pay in full only.
Yes. The breathwork certification is also offered online and self-paced. You can see it on the certifications page.
Because seats are limited and the venue is booked around the group, refunds depend on when you cancel. All cancellations must be sent in writing to hello@the-systm.com.
On or before December 1, 2026: full refund, minus a $250 administration fee.
December 2 to December 15, 2026: 50% refund.
From December 16, 2026: no refund. Your full tuition can instead be transferred as a credit toward a future in-person training or the online certification, within 12 months.
If The SYSTM cancels or reschedules the training, you'll receive a full refund or a transfer to the new dates, your choice. If your health screen review shows breathwork isn't safe for you, or your health changes before the training so that you can't take part in the breathwork, you'll receive a full refund.
Payment plan: the dates above apply to your full $3,500 tuition. Cancelling does not stop your remaining payments, and they are still owed under the refund schedule. If a payment fails and isn't completed within 7 days, your seat may be released.
The SYSTM is not responsible for travel or accommodation costs, so we recommend booking refundable options or travel insurance.
Book a discovery call with Summer. You can talk through your background, what you want to build, and whether this training fits. Book a discovery call.
Email hello@the-systm.com and you'll get an answer.
Apply & Enroll
Complete the application, then continue straight to checkout to pay your tuition. Seats are limited to 50 and are confirmed once tuition is paid.
Want to talk it through first? Book a discovery call with Summer.
Taking you to secure checkout to pay your tuition and confirm your seat.
Continue to Payment →Taking you to secure checkout for your first payment of $875. Your seat is held once it's paid, and the remaining 3 payments are charged every 2 weeks.
Continue to Payment →Thank you for being honest in your health screen. Summer will review your application and email you before you pay, so we can make sure this training is safe for you.