Due to the coronavirus, like so many other businesses, Rousso couldn’t work for the last 12 weeks.
By PEGGY CIDORErela Rousso(photo credit: Courtesy)
Erela Rousso teaches people how to breathe, but moreover, she trains people who have undergone various traumatic experiences how to be aware of their breathing, how to improve it and how to acquire the most quality breathing. In other words: how to be healthier.Her method is called Transformational Breath.“We change in fact our awareness. Through this training we bring people to move from fear to become courageous, and believe me, this is not an easy thing to achieve. But when you’re there, everything changes. In fact, it’s about healing oneself through correct breathing.”Due to the coronavirus, like so many other businesses, Rousso couldn’t work for the last 12 weeks. Her courses were put on hold, she couldn’t accept new people looking to improve their health, and the level of frustration was high. But after a short while, she says, she was able to make the best of the situation.“It was so difficult for me not to give the help and support I give in my [training], and especially now – but on the other hand it was helpful because for the first time in a long time I could take care of myself, I could take care of my own breathing, I could read about all of these things that I care about. I could read more. In fact, I could breathe.”Rousso says she couldn’t work because part of her training involves being close to the people she trains in order to help them breathe. It was just impossible.“I always try to be adaptable to any unexpected situation – it is very important. I always work with a mask. Patients come to me when they are sick, with the flu or things like that. This is exactly the moment they need me.“But the coronavirus is of course much more difficult. It’s not just a flu, so I had to, like so many others, stop working, and it was not easy.”Rousso does a lot of work with those suffering from cancer, who are trauma or post-trauma patients, and she says that now that she has opened her classes back up and is training again, she believes patients with such conditions will come back with the same symptoms and needs.Regarding eventual new patients who might have developed post-traumatic symptoms because of the coronavirus, Rousso hesitates a bit but says she believes there will be more people with anxiety, besides all the regular problems she dealt with before the pandemic.“I guess there will be more people with anxiety. Anxiety that comes from different reasons, whether it is because of cancer or because of what we have been living with during the coronavirus [pandemic].”Rousso says though that people haven’t yet come to seek help because of the trauma of COVID-19.“There were people who had to stop in the middle of their treatment because of the coronavirus. I am eager to see how they have gone through this and how they feel today after what we have been through.”As for her, Rousso notes that despite fears arising from the pandemic, she maintains a state of continual relaxation because she controls her breathing.“It takes between six to eight meetings to teach people to take responsibility on their life and health and to learn how to breathe in a way that will heal them for good. I only teach them how to do it, but it’s in their hands – I can’t do it for them. But now that I am working again, I am here to provide help.“My hope is that I will awaken awareness among others and equip them to cope on their own.”
