Some people come to breathwork as a spiritual practice. Others come with an intention to improve their overall health by, say, by releasing stress. But in my experience, most people come to breathwork for healing. Back in 2005 at my first breath workshop. I wouldn't have said I had anything to be "healed". I was just curious about what the experience would be like, e.g. the "altered state" I had heard about.
Since that first breathwork experience in 2005, I have come to learn that what most people who experience healing in their breath sessions, are healing trauma. Each of us, simply by virtue of being human beings in this culture, will experience traumas great and small. Many times we are unaware of them.
The best book I know of about healing trauma is, "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel van der Kolk. In that book, I learned that there are two kinds of trauma: shock trauma and developmental trauma. Shock trauma is associated with a specific event such as an instance of abuse, an accident, or a natural disaster. Developmental trauma, on the other hand, typically occurs in the first three years of life due to chronic neglect and abuse - at a time when the brain is undergoing rapid development. Changes that occur in the brain due to developmental trauma have life-long implications.
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For more information about Dr. van der Kolk's work on trauma visit: www.traumacenter.org