Testimonials

Comments from a General Practitioner whose patients have made significant positive changes with Core Connection Breathwork

I have found your therapy very helpful as you focus on healing the emotional wounds rather than people's behaviours. Many of my patients (I discover more and more) were wounded by their past experience and never had a chance to process the unfinished emotions which form a type of pathological coping mechanism that carries on into the present life.

This mechanism can be in the way of physical recovery unless undone at the root. Many of my patients who see you have huge breakthroughs in their ability to function emotionally and hence progress in their physical healing.
Patients I would send to see you mostly fall in to these categories:

• Adrenal maladaptation syndrome (Hyperthalamus-pituitory-adrenal axis dysfunction)
• Eating disorder or inability to adhere to dietary intervention
• Chronic illnesses that do not respond to maximum nutritional and medical support
• Anxiety and depression resistant to treatment

"As a small business owner I was having trouble pulling my team together, balancing my workload with family commitments and I my stress levels were through the roof. My GP suggested a particular type of counselling and I went along very sceptical about how it could make a difference for me. I was surprised that something so simple and a few key questions could have me get back my focus …  It was pretty easy actually."

Dave M.

"My wife and I have benefited a great deal from doing  counselling for our relationship and attending the Create Loving Relataionships workshop.  Our communication skills were just not ok and the constant struggle generated so much resentment.  Being supported to make agreements around the issues we constantly argued over made our lives a lot more pleasant.."

Anthony and Gene S.

"I am very thankful for having found Jonine Lee two years ago at an Innerchild/Core Connection Workshop Weekend.  My life has changed dramatically since that weekend, I remember clearly thinking; ‘there is so much to learn from this woman’.

During the past 20 years, I have studied and tried many techniques and a variety of counseling and health modalities, but Core Connection Breathwork is definitely the modality that has assisted most in me gaining a much clearer understanding of myself, my life and my soul’s purpose.

My life was going fine prior to meeting Jonine, however the huge changes and discoveries I experienced for myself with Jonine’s unique style of Breathwork and personal development weekends, got me wanting to study it further, since then my life just keeps getting better and better. I have done the training with her over the past 2 years and now incorporate Core Connection Breathwork in my own practice, as it just works so well. It is such a pleasure to love the work I do, express my passion around it and a real bonus to get paid for it!

I have attended her workshop weekends on Family Constellations as well as Creating Loving Relationships, which has definitely made all the difference to my relationships. My partner and I have also seen Jonine together for relationship counselling and we are much closer and real about our love for each other, this having a really positive effect on our quality of life with the kids, friends and life in general.
Having experienced Breathwork with other practitioners no one even comes close to what Jonine has to offer, this includes the good value with the amount of information and care received for money.

What I find very unique with Jonines style of teaching is her level of deep knowledge and wisdom as well as the way she holds the group energy together allowing and supporting each individual to go as deep as the person wants to go, in a safe and very effective way. She offers a completely different kind of support to anything I have seen, embracing ones own sense of responsibility, always giving me the support to step up to making the most out of life for myself.  If you want more out of life I highly recommend any of her courses and sessions, it is so worth it!"

Lotte Schultz
Core Connection Breathwork Practitioner, Counselling, Innerchild and co facillitator Core
M: 0422989551
E: lotteschultz@optusnet.com.au

"I have been working with Jonine for over two years, initially in individual counselling and Breathwork sessions, moving on to doing all three of her workshops, Core Connection to Self, Creating Love and Family Constellations and eventually training to be a practitioner with her too.   It was hard work to begin with but I loved Jonine’s no-nonsense approach to self-responsibility and with her loving support solidly behind me I made some amazing progress, making changes in my life that I would never have dreamed possible.

Never having done any group work before, it was quite a challenge to participate in workshops but in every one I have been a part of there has been an environment of safety created by Jonine that made me feel I was not alone, and that it was okay for me to put myself ‘out there’ and as a result the learning’s were just incredible!

In the Innerchild work I learned that it was okay to like and even love myself and how to take care of the wounded little girl hidden deep inside of me, in Creating Love I learned about soulful love and how to make that work in relationships, with my husband and children and mother, and in Family Constellations I learned about the dynamics in my family of origin and saw more clearly how it was affecting my life now …Through them all I have also learnt so much about parenting our teenagers, about expectations and boundaries in family life.  The weekends are full on but with plenty of time for sharing and connecting with others … they really set me on my way, giving me much-needed tools for life and also a network of like-minded people for support.

The Breathwork Practitioner Training has been amazing to say the least, deepening my connection to self and also increasing my passion for Breathwork because of the results I have seen it bring, not only for myself but in others too.  Jonine is a wonderful mentor and teacher, naturally and soulfully able to pass on her wealth of knowledge and experience, not withholding anything that she perceives to be beneficial for another.  Jonine is the most ‘present’ person I have ever known and that reflects in her ability to connect and be totally present … one-on-one, in a workshop setting and as a teacher and friend."                                                       
Contact Caroline for Core Connection Breathwork in Auckland
E: caroline@satoribreath.co.nz
W: www.satoribreath.co.nz

"My first experience of the magical Innerchild/Core Connection Workshops that Jonine Lee facilitates was in September 2001. My participation in the workshop on that spring day changed my life forever and bought me amazing insights, beautiful healing and a greater sense of peace and connection to myself than I had experienced for many years.

The transformation became possible for me as I had an overwhelming sense of being safe in Jonine’s presence.   For me this was extremely important as I was anxious about sharing my deepest feelings and was afraid of being judged. I needed to feel that the Facilitator was professional, caring and respectful and Jonine had my complete confidence within a very short time of the workshop commencing.  With my courage in one-hand and Jonine’s continual encouragement and love I was able to fully experience the magic of my inner child. I thoroughly enjoyed the excursions to the beach for sand play, the creative writing and drawing, the sharing of tears, hugs and many belly laughs with group members.

The workshop was such a powerful experience for me I was inspired to create a new direction in my life.  Now, 7 years after my inner child work, I am a fully qualified Counsellor and find great joy in assisting others to reconnect with the beauty and magic of their Inner Self.

In February 2007 I was honoured to attend Jonine’s Core Connection to Self workshop as an Assistant.  I found the magic, joy, love and abundance of learning to be ever present. I continue to be inspired by the awesome ability Jonine has to facilitate this enlightening work and am grateful for the continuing enrichment I experience in my life after these workshops."

Suzanne Johnstone
Dip. Relationship Counselling
M: 0413 384 680 (Central Coast)

My First Breathwork session - Sally G
My First Breatwork session, I knew nothing about Breathwork as I attended my first session, only that my Doctor who had been treating me for the past 3 years for a debilitating sickness (which had caused me to drop out of my whole life and had forced me to lie on my bed all day), had referred me. She had indicated that it was a different way of counselling which previous patients of hers had found successful, thus she used no other counsellor for her patients.

I felt, at the time, that counselling could help me, but only marginally: I felt that it was only useful and relevant for any of my few and well defined fears or stresses. Thus, in light of this, I attended the Breathwork session with the sole intention of eliminating some stress which, I theorised, had naturally accrued over the years of being sick. I believed, at the time, that my stress had come entirely as a result of my health.  The specific stress I hoped to eliminate in the session was my stress of being perceived as false or a hypochondriac and also to address my inability to properly articulate my suffering and sickness.
To describe what happened in my first Breathwork session, I’ve divided it into four parts (it actually wasn’t divided into parts, it flowed naturally) but I’ll divide it now for ease of reading:

a) Setting an intention
I liked the counsellor, Jonine, instantly, based on her body language, tone of voice and warmth. After outlining my health and stress issues I was asked to set an intention: That is, I was asked what I hoped to walk away from the session having achieved. During this first session of Breathwork my intention was limited and small. Thus my intention was, specifically, to let go of my fear of being perceived as a hypochondriac in order that I could articulate my ill health to my Doctors, family and friends with confidence and not be ashamed or fearful that I’d be judged, disbelieved or invalidated by others.

b) Breathing
I lay down and commenced the actual process, which involves a particular type of breathing and questions about what is happening for me. Here I was asked to take connected breaths, breathing right down into my belly. I continued to do this for perhaps 15 minutes, I became frustrated with myself and with the realisation of my lack of ability to focus (it takes much less time now, with practice). When I was able to focus solely on my breathing the third part of the session began.

c) Focusing on symptoms/ body sensations
This part of the session surprised me: I did, however, feel completely safe with this new practitioner who I’d just met, and I believed that she could help me, albeit in a limited capacity. Jonine asked me where in the body I was feeling the most energy; that is, to locate and feel for the most tightness, discomfort, pain or warmth etc. I identified that it was a spot in my back. She asked me to focus on this spot, to breathe as if into it, as I breathed, I was to focus on what I was feeling.  I was also asked to describe that spot. I said that it felt like a knife was jabbing a hot spot into my back creating the colour red.

d) Ascertaining the origin of the symptom
This constituted the fourth part of the session, the looking at my past to look at the ‘why’ of the pain, to try and work out what was it’s origin/cause. (She didn’t explain this ideology to me at the time: I just followed her questions, quite oblivious to the process, slightly surprised, but just trusting and feeling that it was all ok and safe.)

I left this session feeling empowered about the ownership and solid articulation of my sickness. Emotionally, the issue I’d specifically attended with had improved. Furthermore, the acute spot of pain in my back which had featured in the Breathwork session, and which often pained me, had gone; I thought, however, that this decreased pain in the spot in my back was a fortunate by-product, a coincidence perhaps, and not integral to the therapy. Having achieved the intention I entered with, to reduce my fear of being perceived as a hypochondriac, I left thinking I was finished, and had received all that Jonine’s therapy could offer me.

At the time I had no understanding of the extent to which Breathwork could help my body and rid it of pain and disease. While Jonine had mentioned to me in the session her personal perspective, that sickness can at times have links to unresolved and suppressed emotions, specifically, unhelpful emotions accrued during childhood; I was internally dismissive of this theory, quietly passively resistant, even.

A year later
A year later my health continued downhill, becoming more and more debilitating until I could not get off my bed, nor move my head, nor move my eyes without having intense pain and numbness down the left side of my body. I also had so little energy that I needed to be fed every three hours, day and night, by my mum. My brain became fuzzy, so I could no longer compute the radio programs that I listened to all-day to pass the dull hours.  Thus I lay uncomfortably all day long, drifting in and out of sleep and feeling like I was drifting out of consciousness.

My symptoms included:

During this time I had intense internal heat and began noticing that it, perhaps, had a connection to my moods. I was beginning to appreciate that maybe my emotions, my psychology, was in fact influencing my health, something I’d not wanted to consider before. I had strongly felt that, to consider that psychology was influencing my health was invalidating, that it belittled and made redundant my suffering. I thought that I’d then perceive myself, and others would perceive me, as a weakling, and that, if my psychology was deemed to be contributing or causing the sickness I thought that others would then not believe that I consciously did NOT want to be sick.

When absolutely nothing would abate the heat I remembered Jonine who I’d been to a year or so prior. I just suddenly knew, 100% confidently, that she’d be able to fix the heat, and I thought she’d also be able to help some other symptoms. Being hospitalised during this period also influenced my decision to see Jonine again; given not even the top specialist in the country could reduce my suffering or symptoms. I was told that on my neurology ward in hospital 1/3- 1/5 of the patients were unable to be diagnosed, given the complexity and enigmatic quality of the human body. Furthermore, in hospital I’d noticed some phenomena unconsciously, including that I felt safer than I normally did at home: I think I unconsciously began to realise the potency of people and their unconscious affect on my health. (Well, I can see this in retrospect). I also had to come face-to-face with my low level of self-worth which I previously been able to deny by attributing it to my sickness. In hospital, however, where everyone was sick and in the same boat I realised that I still felt worthless, and felt that I wasn’t worth being visited despite me feeling that all other patients were worthy of it. I also felt that, if I was diagnosed with a terminal disease from which I’d shortly die, it wouldn’t matter: I couldn’t feel anything for myself nor value my life.

Thus I returned to Jonine, my health at a crisis point. As I’d expected my heat definitively reduced after that very appointment. Since I’ve continued over the next 4 months to see Jonine my heat and ALL of my other symptoms have continued to rapidly improve, even symptoms and feelings and behaviours that I’d been previously totally unaware that I was suffering from, have reduced remarkably.

Furthermore, rather than having my physical suffering being invalidated by exploring the strong impact of my psychology on my health, I felt, for the first time, totally validated both physically and emotionally by someone.

"I first met Jonine in 2000 as my personal life was in disarray. I'd been in an unsatisfactory and destructive relationship for 3 years, most of which I spent partying and using recreational drugs to ignore the fact that things weren't right. You know - if a friend asked me advice on an identical situation I'd tell them they deserved to be with someone who loved them and treated them with respect and to 'get out now', but I couldn't quite see that about myself and ignored the thoughts that told me I deserved better.

Through one on one sessions with Jonine and the amazing experience at an Inner Child Workshop I was able to first recognise, and later gain the strength to address my fears about 'not deserving any better' and recognise the negative feelings about myself that were being reinforced in my relationship. 8 years on, Jonine is still an amazing inspiration and counsel who supports me to be the best I can be.

I have since attended another Core Connection to Self (thro the Innerchild) Workshop and continue to learn more about myself and am so much better at 'not settling' for things, both in my personal life and at work. I am so much more content with myself and whilst not perfect, I am able to draw on the knowledge I have gained to give me the strength to strive for what I want without being afraid.

And what's next for me? I can't wait to experience the Family Constellations for myself after participating in a Constellation at the last Core Connection to Self Workshop"

Marie K.

"The Core Connection training I did with Jonine Lee gave me so much on so many levels. I was stuck in a career that I hated and that did not suit who I was, living somewhere I didn’t love and in a relationship that made me unhappy. It was honestly life changing for me.

Working out what I really wanted in my work with Jonine, I now have 2 businesses that I absolutely love, and that totally suit who I am. I know what I want/need and am able to honour myself enough to ask for it. I am living in a home that I visioned in the training and have a space open for the right relationship to come in. The time with Jonine really taught me that I am ok, and I deserve to go for what I really want now.

I cannot recommend Jonine’s work highly enough. The training comes from a place of great love and nurturing, a depth of knowledge that is amazing, and Jonine has a gift of insight and understanding that creates safety and permission for all involved. It will change your life too"

LJ Williams
Transformational Life Coaching
M: 0411 052 435

"Breathwork – my life has changed radically and Breathwork has been an integral part of that. From self-doubting, outwardly confident and inwardly such low self-esteem, to IN LOVE WITH LIFE, knowing I’m not perfect, and that’s okay. I love my foibles and my strengths, and my friends accept me as I am. The Breathwork training was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself – participating for my own benefit only, not to become a practitioner and yet along the way realised I have skills I can share with others.

Family Constellations – words elude me as I try to describe this amazing work. It ‘s confronting and exhausting, and yet powerful, energising and incredibly healing. Magical and yet very simple, this process is best tried rather than talked about - the magic has to be experienced to be believed. I’ve gained a greater sense of acceptance for my family of origin and my place within that system. Family Constellations has empowered me as an individual and as a parent. My kids are confident, well-adjusted individuals despite a split family system and I know that working through my own personal limitations and negative beliefs has been a positive contribution to that.
In the moments between parenting, working and seeing clients, I’m also conducting research for a book about mothering – a book for all of us as we’ve all had a mother. Please contact me if you’d like to know more and maybe participate."

Doreen Jones
Member and Secretary Australian Breathwork Association
Breathwork and Massage, Castle Hill.
P: (02) 9680 2504
M: 0414 873 441
E:  breathworks@optusnet.com.au

"Hi Jonine, am going to write the testimony info for your website that you asked for... not sure that any of this is useful, but feel free to cut and paste anything that is. I would have done this for you, but I am not only being lazy, but am really struggling with this. That doesn’t sound to good does it? No. I am not struggling to think of something positive to say, there is a lot, but for some reason it all sounds stupid when it is written down!

My experience with Breathwork –the process is not challenging in and of itself, however the uncovery process for me was and still is very difficult – however Breathwork has helped me with this on so many levels, physical, spiritual, intellectual and emotional.

I think the first time I met Jonine (at the Inner Child Workshop) I was completely overwhelmed by such passion for life, such big love in this one body – I actually hid. I did, I ran into a bedroom, sat under a bunk bed and desperately thought of all the ways I could leave without looking like a complete idiot! I thought it was too much for me. My little girl thought, ‘no way, life should not be that big….. run away now.. You will never ever be able to hide around her’. And this was true, I didn’t leave but I couldn’t hide either. I tried many times and over many months – and I really did give it a good go too, but in the end whom was I hiding from? I learnt it was ME! I wasn’t just afraid of what others would see, but what I would learn about myself and deep down I felt that I, my fuller self, wasn’t okay.

It is this gradual feeling of trust and safety in discovering more of my fuller self – ‘ME’ - which I find to be a most wonderful part of the Breathwork process. Yet, I also feel that this is something that Jonine personally brings to every breath session and the Core Connection training. It is Jonine’s very soulful passion for life, her deep and unwavering confidence that ‘I am already okay’, and the respect and trust in me (as an individual) that I really connect with.

With Jonine I always feel respected to go slowly and discover gently, yet also at times to be nudged and challenged, when this is appropriate and even uncomfortable. I also love that my growth and choices are always absolutely and unconditionally handed back to me, with a few more ideas and growing strength, but with a very clear sense of self-responsibility.

I can’t say I love the Breathwork process all the time. I have hated it many times; particularly when I am faced with difficult truths, emotions or when faced with choices. However, through Breathwork I have learnt that I am always in choice, and I find this both liberating and frightening. Jonine’s support knowledge and honesty has helped me to navigate these feelings and choices, and I now feel both clearer and stronger in me. That is, to feel safe to explore, to make healthy life choices and to start to build upon, rather than hide from, my fuller self.

Love R