About the creator

Giten Tonkov

BBTRS® creator Giten Tonkov shares a mastery of body-oriented therapies that has evolved from decades of learning and work with thousands of clients. A Licensed Massage Therapist and certified Breath & Body Oriented Therapist, he developed BBTRS® on a years-long personal journey of recovering his own body, which carried the impact of a childhood accident. His body “remembered” the accident in ways his mind did not, and the suffering was trapped within him. Throughout many years of working with different bodywork modalities, conscious movement, and meditation techniques, he identified a series of tools that came together into a single practice that he has been sharing with thousands across the world for nearly 20 years. Giten documented this work, and its origins, in FEEL TO HEAL: RELEASING TRAUMA THROUGH BODY AWARENESS AND BREATHWORK PRACTICE.

Since developing BBTRS®, Giten—along with former students who have become leading BBTRS® facilitators, Nisarga Dobosz and Prema McKeever— also began offering body-oriented trainings in Poland. These now include specialized Acute Trauma trainings for Ukrainian refugees impacted by war, as part of the Ukrainian Training Resilience Project (offered in collaboration between BBTRF and IBF).

A native of Ukraine, Giten makes his home in the Santa Cruz mountains in California, USA, and the Greek Island of Lesvos. He previously lived and practiced in New York City for 24 years, as well as India and Bali, Indonesia, for more than ten years.

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Accredited & Trusted Worldwide

Recognised by leading professional bodies in breathwork and trauma-informed care.

What led you to create this work?

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“After working in physical therapy and medical massage, I developed my own bodywork practice in New York City. There, I found it fascinating to integrate different modalities, including Swedish and Thai massage, Shiatsu, lymph drainage, and the five elements in Chinese medicine. At the same time, I traveled each year to other countries to experience trainings in different modalities—especially resonating with the breath therapies and meditations taught at the OSHO International Meditation Center in India. Meditation then became a favorite area of study and eventually a daily practice; I also explored counseling techniques, Holotropic Breathwork, and hallucinogenic plant medicine and psychedelics.

“Releasing tension from deep within the body’s tissues makes organic sense to me, and led me to seek out somatic, or body-based, release modalities. With time, I added elements of breath, touch, meditation, body awareness, conscious movement, sound, and emotional expression to take my work to another level. The resulting modality—BioDynamic Breathwork Trauma Release System® (BBTRS®)—dramatically reduces the time needed for a person to transcend something that was deeply embedded in the body. I hope it changes your life as it has mine.”

About the system

About BioDynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release System

Through Online Breathwork Training and in-person development retreats, BBTRI are here to support your journey in developing your practice working with people.

Accreditations

  • Developer of the Biodynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release System® (BBTRS®)
  • Founder & Director, Biodynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release Institute (BBTRI®), the company that offers BBTRS® and related programming; Lead Facilitator of BBTRI® Trainings
  • Co-Founder & Director of the nonprofit BioDynamic Breathwork & Trauma Release Foundation (BBTRF)
  • Co-Founder & Director of the Integral Body Institute (IBI) in Poland, a sister organization to BBTRI
  • Co-Founder of the nonprofit Integral Body Foundation (IBF)
  • Co-Developer of and the Acute Trauma Online Training and Ukrainian Training Resilience Project, offered collaboratively by sister organizations BBTRF and IBF
  • Author of Feel to Heal, bestselling breathwork book
Buy Feel to Heal on Amazon

Online Sessions with Giten

Giten is pleased to offer individual sessions via Zoom. His mission is to support you to focus your attention and identify:

  • Where and how past trauma (developmental as well as shock trauma) and traumatic stress are being stored in your physical body.
  • How trauma manifests itself in health conditions. This might include chronic tension, pain syndrome, or behaviors that are no longer serving you.
  • The connection between physical tension, pain areas, and trauma-related patterns.
  • How to utilize felt sense, internal and external resources, verbal support, focused breath, and movement exercises.
  • How to mobilize and release trauma and stress-related physical, emotional, and mental tension.
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