About Alexei

The person who set this going — and, by design, not the reason it works.

---

I'm Alexei. I've worked as a therapist and coach for nearly thirty years — seventeen of them with the Ministry of Defence, and the Royal Marines and special forces in particular — helping people hold themselves together and keep going under about the most arduous physical and mental demands there are.

For the last five years I've taught breathing, and I've been increasingly taken aback by how much can shift through the breath alone — often more than talking, mindset work, or any amount of thinking a problem through. Coming from where I did, that surprised me.

The pattern I kept meeting, in the field and in ordinary life, was the same: we are very well trained at switching on, and barely trained at switching off. A great deal of what gets called burnout, distraction or digital addiction is really a nervous system that was never taught how to come down.

The Practice is my attempt to train that missing skill, plainly and without fuss. No mysticism, no guru, nothing being cured or sold. Breathing, walking, and sitting still — done regularly, mostly on your own, with a little company.

And it matters to me that none of it depends on me. The room runs on the lights and the format, not on my presence or expertise; anyone who understands it should be able to hold it. I am simply the one who started it.