ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is intended for the training of professionals in health care and psychotherapy in particular. Its main target group is people helping patients with functional breathing problems, anxiety, and tension or stress symptoms. The book is suitable for school and kindergarten teachers, pastoral care workers, and others engaged in social or educational tasks or nursing. The influence of non-Western medical practices that have already to some extent become integrated in Western medicine, such as mindfulness and yoga, can be seen particularly in the psychophysical breathing therapy exercises. The book presents some old and new information that is based on clinical experience and research and associated with the psychophysiology and psychology of breathing. The mindsets and treatment methods described in the book developed through many decades of cooperation between the movement therapist Maila Seppa and the special psychologist Paivi Lehtinen.
