Today we’d like to introduce you to Linda Vazin.
Hi Linda, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My journey into healing began back in 1988 during graduate school and massage training, where I earned my Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology. For years, I worked with athletes, Navy SEALs, children, and adults with injuries, helping them strengthen, recover, and feel at home in their bodies through bodywork, yoga therapy, and Pilates.
Over time, I began to notice something powerful: the body carries our emotional stories. As the saying goes, “your issues are in your tissues.” Physical pain was often tied to unresolved emotions, and when we released tension in the body, deep emotional would come up and shifts would follow.
Thirteen years ago, during one of my own rock-bottom moments, I had my first dynamic activating breathwork session and it completely changed the course of my life. In that session, memories surfaced of when I was 11 years old and my grandmother, who was like a mother to me, was in the hospital passing away. I remembered standing in the hallway with a nosebleed, overwhelmed and unable to process what was happening. As those memories came up during breathwork, my body began to shake. With the guidance and support of my facilitator, I was finally able to release emotions that had been buried for decades. Since that session, the weight of that trauma has never affected me in the same way again.
That experience showed me how profoundly breathwork can unlock and heal what talk therapy alone cannot reach. With so much energy moving through the body, emotions like sadness, grief, or anger can finally move through, and the nervous system relaxes in ways that allow protective walls to come down.
Today, my sessions are mind-body integration. During breathwork, I support clients physically with cranial sacral therapy, fascia release, and gentle touch on areas like the jaw, shoulders, gut, and solar plexus; places where we carry so much stress. At the same time, I bring in coaching and cognitive tools to uncover patterns, limiting beliefs, and blind spots. This is where real change happens; in the gap between knowing and embodying a new way of being.
I also integrate modalities such as NLP, hypnosis, and sound therapy to help rewire both the mind and the nervous system. It’s not just about talking through your past; it’s about aligning body and mind so clarity feels natural, decisions become easier, and life flows with more resilience.
My work has taken me into retreat centers, burnout recovery programs, and one-on-one sessions at my studio in Cardiff. I’ve spent my whole life devoted to helping people heal the past so they can fully live in the present. Currently, I focus on guiding people through life’s toughest transitions like divorce, burnout, or simply feeling lost, by using a combination of life coaching tools to bring awareness and somatic practices to create lasting shifts.
Breathwork often brings up insights and memories no one could have predicted. It becomes a mind-body knowing that only happens when you let go at a deeper level. Watching someone move from overwhelm to empowerment, often when they thought it wasn’t possible, is why I love this work so deeply.
For me, this isn’t just a career, it’s a calling. Helping people feel good in their bodies, calm in their minds, and resilient in this chaotic world is what lights me up.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. But what I call a “struggle” now is very different from what it used to mean to me.
From my very first breath, I was fighting to survive. I was born a “blue baby” with a heart defect that limited my ability to breathe properly, and I carried a fight-or-flight pattern from birth that followed me for decades. It showed up as a constant struggle to “catch my breath,” both literally and emotionally. That energy carried into many areas of my life; I was accident-prone, often in physical pain, and seemed to keep attracting circumstances that mirrored that same survival mode.
Some of the greatest challenges I’ve faced include losing the most important figure in my life, my grandmother, when I was just 11, and being sent away to boarding school shortly after. I also witnessed my parents lose everything they owned during war. Later in life, I walked through the pain of divorce while raising my child as a single mother. Each of these moments brought heartbreak, uncertainty, and lessons I couldn’t see at the time.
What shifted everything was learning to calm my nervous system. Through yoga, meditation, and breathwork, I began to quiet the constant fight-or-flight response. And through coaching training and years of practice, I started rewiring my thoughts and behaviors; learning to see the world through a different lens.
Instead of blaming others or the world when things didn’t go as expected, I began to take responsibility. That shift allowed me to meet challenges with curiosity and resilience, rather than fear. Today, while of course struggles still come up, I don’t see them as punishments but as opportunities to grow, to pause, and to return to balance.
As you know, we’re big fans of Breath Body Connection. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My business is called Breath Body Connection, and the name reflects my deepest belief: you cannot fully heal unless the body is involved. True transformation goes beyond words; it requires aligning the body and mind so that healing can happen on every level.
What sets my work apart is that I specialize in healing beyond talk therapy. Many of my clients come to me because they still feel stuck and they can feel the tension in their throat, back, etc. My sessions integrate breathwork, nervous system regulation, and mind–body modalities like NLP, hypnosis, meditation, and sound healing. These approaches connect to the unconscious mind and help release stored trauma, old patterns, and limiting beliefs in a way that talk alone cannot.
Currently, I offer single breathwork sessions where clients begin with a breath analysis. The way we breathe tells an incredible story about our life; shallow chest breathing often creates anxiety, while not breathing into the heart can limit one’s ability to feel compassion. After identifying a client’s breath pattern, I teach them how to breathe more effectively, and we practice 2–3 different techniques. These sessions include about 40 minutes of breathwork, followed by 20 minutes of sound healing with bowls and gongs, and then time for sharing and integration.
For those going through more intense transitions, such as divorce, relationship challenges, negative thought spirals, or trauma from the past, I offer 6–12 week coaching programs. These go much deeper, combining cognitive coaching with somatic practices to uncover patterns, rewire the nervous system, and create lasting transformation. If someone comes in with burnout, for example, we don’t just treat the symptoms, we uncover what’s behind the burnout. Is it perfectionism? Fear-based thinking? Money patterns? If someone comes after a divorce, we look at patterns that attracted that type of partner to them. Together, we explore when and why these patterns developed and then learn to create a healthier relationship with them. That’s where real freedom begins.
I believe my background is what makes my work truly unique. Having worked with the physical body for decades, I have the ability to calm the nervous system and release stored tension while guiding clients through breathwork. The combination of bodywork, coaching, meditation, and somatic healing is a recipe for profound transformation and I’ve witnessed incredible shifts, even miracles, in people who thought change wasn’t possible.
What I’m most proud of, brand-wise, is that Breath Body Connection represents a safe, supportive space where people come not only to heal their past but to reclaim joy, clarity, and inner peace in the present. I want readers to know that whether you’re struggling with trauma, burnout, or simply feeling disconnected, there is a way back to yourself. And it begins with the breath.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is witnessing transformation. Connecting with people from the heart; deeper than surface level talk. Seeing someone move from pain, confusion, or self-doubt into peace, clarity, and a sense of wholeness. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure why it fills me with so much joy, but I think it’s because I’ve walked that road myself. I spent years feeling depressed, disconnected, and weighed down by the perspective I grew up with. Finding my own inner peace and learning to see life from a completely different lens, changed everything.
I’ve always had a holistic outlook, a tendency to reflect deeply, and a desire to help others. Healing work has been my own path back to myself, and now it’s the path I feel called to share. Watching others awaken to their own strength, release old pain, and come home to who they truly are; there’s nothing more meaningful to me than that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.breathbodyconnection.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breathbodyconnection/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breathbodyconnection
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-vazin-15b085168/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiGQbA8yPnDOFQXlYkpjPKA
- Other: https://share.google/fKubHQdVtKa4BuH9z
