It remains surprising to me that there are clinicians who currently think that assessing and addressing the breath has no significant value in rehab except only when related to rehab for cardio-respiratory conditions.
There can be tremendous value in using the breath as an assessment and treatment tool in all areas of rehab, including neuro, ortho, sport performance and especially in pain care —
as growing research suggests and supports (1).
My chapter on breathing in pain care and corresponding webinar thoroughly outlines what the science is saying, not saying, gaps in literature, and the various ways we can approach assessing and addressing breath for improved patient functional outcomes, including pain outcomes.
A free blogpost is available on Embodia by Vidhya Gopalakrishnan, PhD in bio-organic chemistry and who is also a yoga therapist!
Dr. Gopalakrishnan shares her takeaways of the chapter I wrote on Breathing and Pranayama in Pain Care in our book Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain.
Have a read of Dr. Gopalakrishnan’s informative and engaging free blogpost and explore the question ‘can we breathe our pain away?‘,
and watch the webinar replay from our book club to dive deeper and enjoy some guided practices that contain principles and concepts that you can then use as a template to creatively share with your clients.
1.  Prosko, S. (2019). Breathing and Pranayama in Pain Care. In: Pearson N, Prosko S, Sullivan M. (Eds). Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain. London, UK: Singing Dragon Publishers; pp.140-156.