Lloyd Lalande — Psychotherapist, Researcher and Developer of GRMT
I am a psychotherapist, researcher and developer of Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy (GRMT). My professional work has brought together more than four decades of experience with breathwork, psychology, psychotherapy, teaching and clinical research. My interest in breathwork began during my teens through breathing-focused meditation and tantric yoga practices. At 22, I was introduced to Rebirthing through Loving Relationships Training (LRT), associated with Sondra Ray and closely aligned with the work of Leonard Orr. Over time, I became a workshop assistant, practitioner and supervisor, and in 1998 completed a four-month Rebirthing training in Australia before developing a practice combining breathwork with counselling.
As my clinical experience developed, I became increasingly interested in what would be required for breathwork to be an accepted, therapist friendly intervention within conventional mental-health practice. Having my own private practice with breathwork and counselling spanning decades gave me the opportunity to answer questions like how breathwork could be structured for clinicians and clients, how its purpose could be clearly explained, and how its therapeutic rationale could be articulated. My initial clinical understanding was that breathing could provide access to unconscious material underlying psychological symptoms while also providing a means through which that material could be experienced and integrated.
These questions led me into formal postgraduate training and research. I undertook a Master’s degree in psychotherapy through the University of Queensland School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, under Professor Robert King. During this period, Robert King encouraged me to consider formally developing a clinical model of breathwork and suggested that I move into doctoral research. I subsequently commenced a PhD with Dr Matthew Bambling as my primary supervisor, following him to Queensland University of Technology when he moved there. GRMT emerged from this continuing interaction between practical experience, psychotherapy, psychology, academic teaching and research.
Professional and Academic Path
My professional development has continued across clinical practice, university teaching and research. Alongside developing GRMT, I have worked in psychology and psychotherapy education, including coordinating undergraduate and Master’s-level clinical counselling programs at Australian Catholic University and teaching within its Master’s program in Clinical Psychology. I have also taught psychology as an Assistant Professor at Tzu Chi Buddhist University in Hualien, Taiwan, where GRMT was explored as an intervention for clinical nurses through research and clinical collaboration at Tzu Chi Buddhist General Hospital.
My academic training includes a Bachelor of Psychology from Queensland University of Technology, postgraduate training in mental-health psychotherapy through the University of Queensland’s School of Medicine and Department of Psychiatry, and a PhD through Queensland University of Technology. This combination of clinical, educational and research experience has shaped the way I approach breathwork—not simply as a personal or experiential practice, but as an area requiring clear concepts, professional education, clinical responsibility and systematic investigation.
Research has become an important part of the continuing development of GRMT. Research and training projects have examined practitioner development and the application of GRMT in different clinical contexts, including work involving nurses, mental health, chronic pain and group-based applications. International academic and clinical collaborations have also provided opportunities to examine how the approach can be taught and applied across different professional and cultural settings.
Continuing Development and Stewardship of GRMT
GRMT remains closely associated with my work because I continue to have responsibility for its development, professional standards and clinical integrity. As the founder-developer of GRMT, my role is not simply to represent an approach that I created in the past. I remain actively involved in examining its development, clarifying its principles, supporting research and considering how it can be taught and practiced without losing the features that distinguish the model.
I place particular importance on professional stewardship. A clinical model can change substantially as it passes from one practitioner to another, particularly when elements are added, removed or interpreted through the assumptions of another approach. For GRMT, maintaining clinical fidelity is therefore an important part of professional development. Training, supervision, research and ongoing professional standards are intended to support practitioners in understanding not only what they do, but the rationale underlying the approach.
My connection with GRMT is therefore best understood in terms of both development and stewardship. The approach grew from my long-term engagement with breathwork and psychotherapy, but its continuing development depends on careful professional practice, research and appropriate governance. My aim is to support GRMT as a coherent clinical system that can develop over time while maintaining the clinical fidelity, professional standards and underlying principles on which it was established.