HSP Breathwork Retreat: Healing Surgery Trauma (Sally's Story, an LPC) - Benita Esposito, M.A.

Sally (a pseudonym) was a respected business leader who felt highly confident at work but deeply empty in her personal relationships. When she joined the HSP Breathwork Retreat, she discovered her relationship struggles were rooted in unresolved trauma. Unlike traditional talk therapy, somatic breathwork rapidly accessed her unconscious memories, initiating fast, profound emotional-spiritual healing. Here’s Sally’s story.

What You Will Discover in This Story:

The Hidden Connection: Sally, an accomplished business leader, discovered that her adult relationship struggles were rooted in a childhood medical crisis.
The Somatic Release: After years of talk therapy fell short, breathwork allowed Sally’s body to physically discharge decades of helplessness and grief.
The Lasting Breakthrough: By releasing cellular trauma from an early open-heart surgery and a forced abortion, Sally finally reclaimed a profound, unshakeable inner peace.

Day One of the HSP Retreat

For a long time, I had been living in my head and keeping my distance from people. I wanted to get in touch with my spiritual heart. My objectives for the HSP Breathwork Retreat were to make a deeper connection with myself and others.

During the first breathwork session, I experienced pain and a tight knot in my pelvic area. It was so painful that I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Benita placed her hand on the spot, applied pressure and coached me to breathe through the pain.

I realized that I was angry and agitated. The experience reminded me of the time when I was 20 when my ex-husband forced me to have an abortion against my will.

I experienced great pain, guilt and grief from this experience. I am very angry with myself for allowing someone to have such control over me.

Day Two of the HSP Retreat

Benita and I decided to have another healing session the second day of the retreat.

We said prayers, played music and everyone sat close to me for support. I started breathing deeply and I felt the painful knot in my stomach. My body started contorting and I had to sit up. People laid their hands on me for support.

I spontaneously shouted, “No, No, No! Leave Me Alone!” And then after a few minutes I screamed, “Help Me, Help Me!” I repeated these words over and over, feeling them deeply. This went on for a long time. Finally, I laid back down and I felt very calm and peaceful.

Benita asked me questions about what happened. I said that I had wanted my daughter here with me in the physical plane. I always knew that this child was a girl. I felt like I was talking to my daughter on a spiritual plane. She explained that she knew that this pregnancy would not reach term, and that we were not going to be together on the physical plane. She said that she is always very close to me and does not blame me in any way. I felt very calm and peaceful after this experience.

Post-Retreat Insights

I had more insights about this experience during the following week. The feelings, sensations and words that I spoke during the healing session reminded me of another traumatic time in my life.

When I was eight years old, I had open-heart surgery and was in the hospital for several months.

It was a terrifying experience. To make matters worse, I was in a training hospital so each morning 10-12 doctors would come into my room. They asked me questions and took blood. I was under an oxygen tent and I would crawl up into the tent and tuck the corners under me. I screamed at them to go away and leave me alone.

It was a very scary feeling of helplessness. It took many years to be able to go to the doctor and get a shot or have them take blood without getting scared and crying.

During the breathwork session, I was curled up like I was in the oxygen tent. I screamed at them to leave me alone. I begged for help like I tried to do when I was eight.

During both of these experiences, I felt great helplessness like I had no control over what was happening to me. But with Benita’s support and the help of the group, I was able to fully process the painful experiences and sensations. I was able to breathe through them and then my body finally released them.

Immediately after the breathwork sessions and now a week later, the physical and emotional pain of these two traumatic experiences no longer haunts me.

I feel a kind of inner peace that I’ve never known before.

Accessing the Body’s Blueprint for Whole-Hearted Healing

Sally’s journey demonstrates that medical events—like the cellular shock of open-heart surgery at eight years old—leave deep physical imprints that traditional talk therapy rarely uncovers. These somatic wounds subtly fueled later life struggles, including not standing her ground while being pressured by her husband to have an abortion.

True emotional liberation requires bypassing the protective, analytical mind to safely process these stuck traumas. If you are a counselor or highly sensitive professional carrying deep physical or emotional trauma, you do not have to navigate this path alone.

About Benita A. Esposito

Healing, Growth & Mastery

“Chief Trail Guide” for Highly Sensitive Introverts on the Hero’s Journey to the Authentic Self.

I’m a licensed psychotherapist, spiritual counselor, life coach, and author of Amazon bestseller, The Gifted Highly Sensitive Introvert: Wisdom for Emotional Healing and Expressing Your Radiant Authentic Self. I specialize in fast-tracking deep emotional healing for high-achieving Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) and introverts. By combining advanced body-based therapies like Brainspotting and Breathwork with a grace-filled Christian perspective, I help you quickly pinpoint limiting patterns so you can experience lasting inner peace without wasting time. When I’m not leading retreats at my home overlooking a lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains, you can find me tending to my flower garden, rowing, or capturing nature through my camera lens.

Watch my book video.

👉 Ready for your breakthrough? Schedule a Discovery Call to see if our upcoming HSP Retreats are the right fit for your journey.

Photo credits: