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Breathcraft · Lisbon

Take charge of your nervous system.

Nervous system regulation and embodiment for high-performance individuals. In person in Lisbon. Online worldwide.

The practice space
The High-Performer Paradox

You've built something real.
Your body hasn't caught up.

You're hitting the numbers. Building the company, leading the team, making the work. By every visible measure, you're succeeding.

And underneath that, you're carrying things most people around you cannot see:

You have tried what's available. Therapy, meditation, maybe a retreat. Some of it helped. None of it touched the underlying problem.

The underlying problem isn't mindset related. It is your body and nervous system, running a pattern it set down long before you noticed. You cannot think your way out of it. The body has to physically hold itself differently.

That is the work I do.
The dojo
What changes

What changes when the nervous system actually changes.

Anxiety stops sitting in your chest. The jaw unclenches and stays unclenched. Sleep starts restoring you. Meetings stop costing you the way they used to. You can think clearly without an undercurrent of static running underneath.

You start operating from somewhere underneath the performance — not less ambitious, less braced. The mind gets sharper. The body feels at ease. Decisions feel cleaner. Relationships open up. Creative range comes back.

"
I don't believe in any of this, but this works.
"
I've never felt my mind so quiet.
"
I'd forgotten my face could relax.
The Method

How it works.

Generative Breathwork

A somatic method that works with breath, precise movement, vocalization, and focused attention to release chronic tension patterns held in the body.

It's systematic — sessions move through the body's seven bands of habitual tension in a deliberate sequence. Not freeform. Not dramatic. Aimed at durable change, not peak experiences.

What a session feels like

Ninety minutes. A short conversation about what you're noticing, then guided breath patterns, targeted movement, vocalization, and moments of deep stillness.

Most people leave visibly softer — slower speech, relaxed shoulders, a body that stopped fighting itself. You leave with a daily practice that holds the thread.

What changes

  • A nervous-system baseline that holds itself
  • A body and mind that stop fighting each other
  • Faster cooldown after stress — minutes, not hours
  • Anxiety that drops out of the background
  • Decisions made from clarity, not contracted urgency
  • Creativity and vitality that return as a baseline

These are not peak-experience reports. They are baseline shifts.

What makes this different
The Transformation

Contraction, Regulation, or Expansion?

Three zones. Most high-performers live at −1 and call it normal. Most interventions aim to bring you to 0. We work toward +1.

−1
Contraction
Stuck in stress loops. Chronic tension. Restricted feeling. Running on held breath and held muscles. Most high-performers live here and call it normal.
Where most begin
0
Regulation
A nervous system that knows how to finish a stress response and come back to baseline. Grounded. Clear. Present. Most therapies aim here.
Where most therapies stop
+1
Expansion
Living from ease, not pressure. Creativity, vitality, embodied aliveness. The baseline becomes generative rather than merely calm.
Where this work goes

Most therapies stop at 0. This work keeps going — until you're living at +1.

The dojo
What clients say
Jonathan Coxon
"I came in a sceptic. I left having had one of the most unexpectedly powerful experiences of my adult life. The change in my baseline over the following weeks was real, measurable, and lasting."
Jonathan CoxonFounder, Angel Investor
Tiago Santos
"For the first time in decades I felt normal, and chronic jaw pain just disappeared. What surprised me most was the immediate effect after the first session. It saved my life."
Tiago SantosSenior Marketer
Malek Ghaleb
"His guidance was soft yet precise, rooted in a deep presence. After just one session, I felt less in my head, more in my body. It's clear that João is genuinely a gifted guide."
Malek GhalebInterior Designer
Alex Ray
"He creates a container of gentle, kind safety while dissolving ingrained nervous-system patterns. His presence is powerfully comforting and capable of guiding through the most powerful moments of change."
Alex RayWriter
Who this is for
This works for you if
  • High performers — founders, executives, senior creatives — running heavy mental and emotional load
  • Dealing with anxiety, burnout, overthinking, chronic tension, or the sense of being one step removed from your own life
  • You've tried things that almost worked, and want something that actually does
  • Willing to commit to change. There are no one-off sessions
This is not for you if
  • Anyone in acute mental-health crisis or active psychosis — this is not a substitute for clinical care
  • Anyone looking for a quick fix or a single transformative session
  • People who want a passive process — the work depends on you showing up
  • People with specific physiological contraindications. Tell me on the call; we will be honest about fit

If you want durable change and you're ready to commit to it, this work is for you.

About
Portrait of João

I'm João.

I trained in Generative Breathwork directly with Andrew Bishop, who helped develop its modern form. The method has its origins in Wilhelm Reich's work and has kept evolving since. Alongside it, I draw on embodiment practices, attachment-repair techniques like the Ideal Parent Figure protocol, and breath and presence work rooted in Zen, Yoga, Taoist, and Kashmir Shaivite traditions — studied directly with teachers in those lineages over the last ten years.

I came to this work the way most serious practitioners do: with the sense that something inside me was tight, contracted, and running me in ways I could not reason with. Breath, body, and precise attention — over time — moved the part neither therapy nor meditation reached.

What I do in a session is hold the container and meet whatever shows up. The work happens between us, not through force — through creativity, flexibility, and a measure of enjoyment. I keep the ground; you do the moving.

João Tomé · Founder, Breathcraft · Lisbon, Portugal
Ways to work together
1:1 Work
Who it's for
Serious about durable change. Wants the fastest path.
Weekly 90-minute private sessions at the Lisbon space or online. Between-session voice-note support. A daily practice calibrated to your system. Monthly, six-month, and twelve-month containers.
Available in person in Lisbon + online worldwide.
Six-Week Cohort
Who it's for
Founders, executives, senior operators, and senior creatives who want to do this work in focused company. Six seats.
Six weekly 2-hour group sessions. Two private 1:1 sessions with João (Week 3 and Week 6). Weekly homework. A closing integration session. Designed for people running hard things.
Next cohort: TBA
Weekend Workshop
Who it's for
High performers who want a low-stakes way to try the work. No prior experience needed.
A weekend workshop at the Lisbon space. Six seats. Breathwork, embodiment work, and meditation — across Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday. You leave with a toolkit of practices and a 10–15-minute daily practice.
Next date: TBA
FAQ
Therapy works primarily with thought, memory, and interpretation. This works primarily with the body. Both can be valuable. People in therapy often find this deepens what they're already doing; people new to any inner work often find this gives them faster traction than they expected.
Yoga and meditation are wonderful; both appear inside what I teach. The difference is that this work is not silent. Throughout the session — and during the breathwork itself — we engage with each other to facilitate the change.
Thirty minutes. We talk about what is going on for you, what you have tried, and whether the work is a fit. No script, no upsell. If it is a fit, the next step is a free first session — a full ninety minutes, in person or online — before any commitment.
Some people do release emotion in sessions. That's neither the goal nor the obstacle. The work is calibrated to your system — nothing happens that you don't have capacity for. You always have veto power. Most people leave a session feeling steadier, not undone.
Both. 1:1 sessions are available in person at my Lisbon space or online. The workshop and cohort are in person only.
Most 1:1 clients report sleep, reactivity, and morning-anxiety changes within 4–6 weeks of weekly sessions plus daily practice. The cohort produces similar shifts across the six weeks.
No. This work is not a substitute for clinical mental-health care. If you are in acute crisis, please reach out to a clinician first; this work is well-suited to returning to durable regulation or expansion afterward.
Get started

Ready to take charge of your nervous system?

The first step is a 30-minute discovery call. No script, no upsell. We talk about what's going on, what you have tried, and whether the work is a fit. If it is, we move to a free first session — a full ninety minutes — before any commitment.