Online Breathwork Masterclass with Véronique Gauthier-Simmons

What Living with MS Taught Me About Ageing and Inner Intelligence

An online Breathwork Masterclass on ageing, chronic illness and learning to listen to the body.

For more than twenty-five years, Véronique Gauthier-Simmons has lived with multiple sclerosis (MS). About three months before her official diagnosis, she dreamed of a walrus: large, heavy and impossible to ignore. She came to see the walrus as ‘her MS’ and eventually as her teacher. Taming it never meant making it disappear. It meant learning its rhythms as well as learning to trust the intelligence of her own body.

In this masterclass, Véronique shares what the walrus has taught her about ageing, resilience and the breath as a living thread through body, mind and spirit.

Breath as Facilitator: Conscious breathing won't take a chronic illness away, and it won't stop us ageing. What it can do is change our relationship to what's happening and turn a battle with the body into a conversation with it.

Listening to Inner Intelligence: Beneath the complexity of ageing and illness, the body is constantly sensing, adapting and repairing. Through the breath, we'll explore how to recognise what it's asking for.

Ageing as a Practice: How we move, rest, breathe and connect shapes how we age. Drawing on the science in her book Taming the Walrus, Véronique shares practical tools you can take into your own life, and into your work with others.

"The body is not a problem to fix. It is a relationship to cultivate." 

Who This Is For?

• Anyone in midlife or beyond who feels their body changing, and wants to meet it with curiosity rather than fear

• People living with a chronic condition, looking for a gentler, more trusting relationship with their body

• Breathwork facilitators, yoga teachers and health professionals who want to support clients through ageing and long-term illness

• Anyone curious about the body's inner intelligence, and how the breath helps us hear it

This masterclass includes gentle movement as well as breathwork. Every movement will have a seated option. Please have ready:

• a chair (without wheels, if possible)

• light weights or two water bottles or tins

• a cushion or blanket

• enough space to stand and move your arms

This masterclass is not a substitute for medical care. Participants are encouraged to continue working alongside their existing care team.

Your facilitator:

Véronique Gauthier-Simmons, PhD, is a yoga teacher, breathwork facilitator and the author of Taming the Walrus: Inner Intelligence, Yoga, and the Science of Healthy Ageing.

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2000, she has navigated her health by learning to listen to her body rather than fight it. That journey, and the science behind it, became the foundation of her book, which explores how movement, breath, rest and inner awareness work together to support vitality at any age.

She teaches online and from her home studio in the Algarve, Portugal, drawing on yoga therapy, breathwork and the latest research on healthy ageing to create classes that are grounded in science and shaped by lived experience.

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Our monthly Breathwork Masterclass sessions are facilitated by certified breathwork practitioners and usually happen on the last Saturday of the month from 3.00pm - 5.00pm, South African Standard Time (UTC+2). 

Book online and receive the Zoom link via email. Please use the link sent via email to join the Masterclass session on the day. A reminder will be sent the day before the Masterclass.

All bookings will receive the downloadable recording of the Masterclass a few days later for your reference.

Some housekeeping tips - It is your choice to keep your camera on or off. We request that you mute your microphone unless the space is open for sharing, input, and feedback. Please set up a comfortable space – either on the floor on a yoga mat, on a couch, or even in bed! Have water and an extra blanket near you. Take the hour out for yourself with limited distractions.

Masterclass bookings ZAR 600 (USD 43).