NEW CCEU EVENT: Nervous System Regulation for Coaches: Using Breath Assessment to Unlock Performance and Resilience
ICFWA Newsletter
15 Jun 2026
Source: Register Now
What Every Coach Should Know About the Connection between Breathing and the Nervous System Regulation
Your client has the right goals. They've identified the behaviors they want to change. They understand what success looks like. Yet they continue to struggle with stress, emotional reactivity, focus, or sustaining meaningful change.
Why?
Increasingly, research points to the nervous system as a critical factor influencing performance, resilience, emotional regulation, and decision-making under pressure. While coaches are highly skilled at exploring mindset, beliefs, and behaviors, many have never been taught how to recognize the physiological patterns that may be affecting a client's ability to perform at their best.
One of the clearest windows into nervous system regulation is breathing.
Join the ICF Washington State Chapter on Thursday July 9, 2026, from 12:00–1:30 PM PDT for a highly practical and experiential session with breathing physiology expert Kevin Connelly, where you'll learn how breath assessment can provide valuable insights into client performance, stress regulation, and emotional well-being.
Why Now:
Today's leaders, professionals, and teams are navigating enormous complexity, uncertainty, and change. Coaches are increasingly helping clients address challenges such as:
- Burnout and chronic stress
- Emotional reactivity
- Leadership under pressure
- Reduced focus and cognitive performance
- Difficulty sustaining behavioral change
- Building resilience in demanding environments
While these challenges often appear psychological, they frequently have a physiological component. Understanding how the nervous system influences performance gives coaches an additional lens through which to support sustainable growth and lasting change.
You'll Learn:
In this interactive session, Kevin will introduce participants to Reconnect's signature breath assessment process, helping coaches better understand how clients are actually breathing—not simply how they think they are breathing.
You'll learn how to:
- Recognize common breathing dysfunction patterns
- Understand the connection between breathing and nervous system regulation
- Identify physiological factors that may influence stress management, emotional regulation, and performance
- Use breath assessment as an additional source of coaching insight
- Experience practical breathing and mindfulness techniques firsthand
The session includes a guided 30-minute breathwork and mindfulness experience, allowing participants to explore the tools directly and better understand their potential application within a coaching context.
Leave with:
- A practical breath assessment framework
- Greater awareness of nervous system regulation
- New insights into client resilience and performance
- Firsthand experience of evidence-informed breathing practices
- Techniques you can begin integrating into your coaching practice immediately
Meet the Speaker
Kevin Connelly is an author, speaker, and researcher specializing in breathing physiology and nervous system regulation. He is the founder and CEO of Reconnect, a training organization that teaches professionals how to apply breathing techniques to help clients regulate stress, improve emotional stability, and perform under pressure.
His work explores how breathing influences the brain, heart, and nervous system, including research into breathing patterns and addiction recovery. Through Reconnect, Kevin has trained addiction associations, first responder organizations, coaches, therapists, physicians, and other professionals worldwide.
Drawing on both scientific research and practical application, Kevin helps practitioners better understand the role breathing plays in human performance, resilience, and emotional well-being.
Event Details
Breathe Better. Coach Better: A Practical Breath Assessment Tool for Coaches
As coaches, we are increasingly called upon to help clients navigate pressure, uncertainty, and change. Understanding nervous system regulation may be one of the most valuable—and overlooked—capabilities in the modern coach's toolkit.
Join us to discover how a deeper understanding of breathing physiology can strengthen your coaching impact and help your clients build greater resilience, emotional regulation, and sustainable performance.
Shelley Prosise & Christa Lyons
ICF WA Programming Team