Lloyd works as a psychotherapist, academic and researcher. He is the developer of GRMT, a clinical approach to breathwork. He provides individual and group sessions of GRMT. He also provides training in GRMT and supervision for GRMT practitioners and other Breathworkers. Lloyd also provides supervision for counsellors.


History of Breathwork Practice. As a teenager in New Zealand in the mid 1970's Lloyd was on a quest for deeper self-awareness. Meditation, fasting, self-analysis and cognitive change among other explorations, eventually led to breathwork. Lloyd started practicing transformational Breathwork at age 22. "I remember my first taste of Breathwork so clearly, the energy I felt in my body was so powerful, it frightened me at first. But I thought, wow, I just created that with my breathing and it somehow feels very important. I decided from that point this was something I really needed to explore further."

The personally profound and transformational impact of these early breathwork experiences was to have a life-long impact on Lloyd, informing every aspect of his life and work in private practice counseling, academic work and doctoral research. Lloyd now has over 40 years personal experience, with over 30 years using and developing clinically oriented breathwork in private practice as a counsellor and psychotherapist, and through his Doctoral studies.

Lloyd started his journey with Breathwork in the early 1980s when he was introduced to the original form of Rebirthing by Leonard Orr and the Loving Relationships Training (LRT) developed by Sondra Ray. Lloyd worked as an assistant with the LRT.  Additionally, he was influence by the ideas of Phil Laut and Jim Leonard, who later renamed their approach to Breathwork as Vivation. Lloyd's exploration and experience in those early days included practicing conscious breathing while immersed in warm water which can make stored somatic memory of birth trauma more readily available to consciousness and resolution. And in cold water, which can have the effect of bringing fear of death to awareness and integrating it. With all this intense practice, Lloyd quickly became a certified Breathwork practitioner and later Supervisor and Trainer.


The Development of GRMT. As his experience of Breathwork deepened along with his practice of psychotherapy, it became clear to Lloyd early on that changes needed to be made if a reliably transformational and clinically effective form of Breathwork was to be acceptable to mental health practitioners and practiced with integrity and safety in clinical practice environments. While Breathwork practice can produces profound relaxation and transcendent states of consciousness, in the integration process it envokes it can, and often does, produce novel somatic and cognitive effects, including regression. There needed to be a deeper, more coherent understanding of Breathwork, and clear protocols for practice and training.

Lloyd's development of Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy was the result of many years of refinement of the use of Breathwork in clinical practice combined with his ground breaking research into the mechaniisms of change involved, understanding how to train therapists effectively in the use of a clinical Breathwork model, and clinical trial evaluation of its effectiveness in the treatment of depression and anxiety. New research has also demonstrated GRMT to be effective in reducing psychological distress in full-time clinical nurses, along with increases in mindfulness and self-compassion. You can download the related research articles on the research download page.


Interest in GRMT is growing. GRMT is currently being used in the training of therapists participating in research into the use of traditional psychotropic medicine (e.g., Ayahuasca, DMT-harmaloid) to assist in psychotherapy for the treatment of mental health disorders. And, a trial of GRMT for out-patients receiving cancer treatment, is proposed and is pending a funding decision. Lloyd's hope is that the evidence-base for the effectiveness of GRMT as a clinically oriented Breathwork approach will continue to build.


Accademic Background. Lloyd has a PhD from the School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia, a Post Graduate Certificate in Mental Health (Psychotherapy) from the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Queensland (UQ), and a Bachelor of Psychology degree from QUT. He led the Masters and Undergraduate programs in clinical counselling at the Australian Catholic University for a number of years. Lloyd now spends time in Taiwan where he conducts GRMT training and has worked as an Assistant Professor teaching psychology at the Buddhist TzuChi University.


A Balanced Lifestyle. Currently Lloyd, and his partner, May, divide their time between living in Taiwan and New Zealand. In Taiwan they on the mountainous east coast and regularly spends time at surf beaches and in the mountains.

In New Zealand, Lloyd and May spend time in the beautiful Far North with its isolated golden sand beaches and world class surf. Getting there is a 4-hour trip by car or bus, or a 1-hour flight from Auckland. Here, Lloyd owns a 6 acre (2.5 hectare) lifestyle property with amazing views. He has a vision with the help of fellow travellers to develop a spiritual retreat centre. Visitors with a tent or campervan are welcome. Plenty to do making walking paths, building, planting -- all meditation.