title: Just breathe: Dynamic breathwork as interoceptive exposure for veterans and police

authors: Pointer, Ben

subjects: breathwork

abstract: Military veterans and police officers experience high rates of trauma-related symptoms alongside autonomic dysregulation, yet many do not engage with or complete conventional therapies. Breathing-based interventions may provide a low-cost, acceptable alternative. I used a single-subject, multiple-baseline-across-participants design with eight veterans and police officers to evaluate a 10-session online dynamic breathwork protocol. I hypothesised that this intervention would (H1) increase resting heart rate variability (HRV) and reduce resting heart rate, (H2) improve self-reported psychological symptoms commonly associated with PTSD, and (H3) be rated as acceptable and feasible for home-based use. Participants practised cyclic hyperventilation, extended breath-holds, and a Valsalva-type manoeuvre in 10 sessions across a 20-day period. Resting heart rate variability (RMSSD) and heart rate were recorded daily with Polar® H10 sensors. Self-reported psychological measures of depression, anxiety, affect, mindfulness, and psychological flexibility were completed at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Physiological outcomes did not show meaningful change. However, large effect sizes were observed across all psychological measures, with reductions in self-reported scores of depression, anxiety, and negative affect, and increases in mindful awareness and psychological flexibility. Social validity ratings indicated that the protocol was highly acceptable and feasible for home use. In contrast to traditional exposure therapies that target external trauma cues, this intervention employed breath-based interoceptive exposure to engage conditioned internal responses, offering a novel pathway for inhibitory learning. My results suggest that while short-term autonomic adaptation was not evident, structured online breathwork may offer a promising and scalable means of reducing psychological distress for trauma-exposed operational personnel.

text: Just breathe: Dynamic breathwork as interoceptive exposure for veterans and police Military veterans and police officers experience high rates of trauma-related symptoms alongside autonomic dysregulation, yet many do not engage with or complete conventional therapies. Breathing-based interventions may provide a low-cost, acceptable alternative. I used a single-subject, multiple-baseline-across-participants design with eight veterans and police officers to evaluate a 10-session online dynamic breathwork protocol. I hypothesised that this intervention would (H1) increase resting heart rate variability (HRV) and reduce resting heart rate, (H2) improve self-reported psychological symptoms commonly associated with PTSD, and (H3) be rated as acceptable and feasible for home-based use. Participants practised cyclic hyperventilation, extended breath-holds, and a Valsalva-type manoeuvre in 10 sessions across a 20-day period. Resting heart rate variability (RMSSD) and heart rate were recorded daily with Polar® H10 sensors. Self-reported psychological measures of depression, anxiety, affect, mindfulness, and psychological flexibility were completed at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Physiological outcomes did not show meaningful change. However, large effect sizes were observed across all psychological measures, with reductions in self-reported scores of depression, anxiety, and negative affect, and increases in mindful awareness and psychological flexibility. Social validity ratings indicated that the protocol was highly acceptable and feasible for home use. In contrast to traditional exposure therapies that target external trauma cues, this intervention employed breath-based interoceptive exposure to engage conditioned internal responses, offering a novel pathway for inhibitory learning. My results suggest that while short-term autonomic adaptation was not evident, structured online breathwork may offer a promising and scalable means of reducing psychological distress for trauma-exposed operational personnel.

year: 2025

title: Chief Amongst The Angels?  International Prosecutors And The Modernist Project

authors: Rogers, Damien Robert

subjects: International Criminal Law

abstract: This thesis argues that three successive generations of prosecutors—each of whom at some moment in time belong to a major institution designed specifically to enforce international criminal law—are best understood as agents of the law, politics and war.  By examining the relevant institutional arrangements, including formal prosecutorial mandates, the thesis recognises that these prosecutors play vital roles in the enforcement of international criminal law.  By critically examining prosecutorial performance during the pre-trial and trial phases this thesis contends, firstly, that these prosecutors are also political actors serving, unwittingly or otherwise, in the interests of economic liberalisation, expressed as neo-capitalism during the middle of the twentieth century or as neoliberalism in the late twentieth century.  By foregrounding the material and ideational conditions giving rise to those major enforcement institutions this thesis contends, secondly, that international prosecutors also help wage a mostly silent and largely unacknowledged war fought by proponents of various utopian movements.  In order to support these two main contentions the thesis situates the development of international criminal law and its major institutions as a significant temporality of a discourse against politico-cruelty, a term used here to refer to cruel acts committed as a means of achieving some substantive end.  It also contextualises the collective prosecutorial efforts within the project of modernity and, more specifically, what is described here as a politico-cultural civil war fought for control over that project.  Using international criminal law as a means of confronting humanity’s worst excesses and curbing modernity’s most violent pathologies, international prosecutors of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide and crimes of aggression might represent the vanguard in the quest for international criminal justice and be regarded by many as featuring among humanity’s better angels.  Indeed, they might well be characterised in world affairs as chief amongst the angels.  But, at the same time, these politico-legal actors, whose mandates are derived from, and re-inscribe, particular configurations of power emerging in the aftermath of global conflict, need to be recognised as the auxiliary combatants of those seeking to maintain their control over the modernist project.

text: Chief Amongst The Angels?  International Prosecutors And The Modernist Project This thesis argues that three successive generations of prosecutors—each of whom at some moment in time belong to a major institution designed specifically to enforce international criminal law—are best understood as agents of the law, politics and war.  By examining the relevant institutional arrangements, including formal prosecutorial mandates, the thesis recognises that these prosecutors play vital roles in the enforcement of international criminal law.  By critically examining prosecutorial performance during the pre-trial and trial phases this thesis contends, firstly, that these prosecutors are also political actors serving, unwittingly or otherwise, in the interests of economic liberalisation, expressed as neo-capitalism during the middle of the twentieth century or as neoliberalism in the late twentieth century.  By foregrounding the material and ideational conditions giving rise to those major enforcement institutions this thesis contends, secondly, that international prosecutors also help wage a mostly silent and largely unacknowledged war fought by proponents of various utopian movements.  In order to support these two main contentions the thesis situates the development of international criminal law and its major institutions as a significant temporality of a discourse against politico-cruelty, a term used here to refer to cruel acts committed as a means of achieving some substantive end.  It also contextualises the collective prosecutorial efforts within the project of modernity and, more specifically, what is described here as a politico-cultural civil war fought for control over that project.  Using international criminal law as a means of confronting humanity’s worst excesses and curbing modernity’s most violent pathologies, international prosecutors of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of genocide and crimes of aggression might represent the vanguard in the quest for international criminal justice and be regarded by many as featuring among humanity’s better angels.  Indeed, they might well be characterised in world affairs as chief amongst the angels.  But, at the same time, these politico-legal actors, whose mandates are derived from, and re-inscribe, particular configurations of power emerging in the aftermath of global conflict, need to be recognised as the auxiliary combatants of those seeking to maintain their control over the modernist project.

year: 2016

title: Ethnicity and deliberate self-injury: A review of the literature

authors: Wilson, Cate

subjects: Maori

abstract: Deliberate self-injury is a significant social problem affecting youth in New Zealand. Rates of
hospitalisation for youth (aged 15 to 19) from deliberate self-injury approximate 225 per
100,000. It appears that the rates for Maori and women are significantly higher. From 1987 to
1993, an average of 488 Maori women per 100 000 population have been hospitalised each
year (Ministry of Health: Manatu Hauora, 1996). This paper draws upon both local and
international literature to examine factors underlying this ethnic disparity.
There is a wealth of literature examining risk factors underlying suicidal behaviour as a whole.
Deliberate self-injury is usually assumed to be an adjunct of youth suicide; prevention
strategies are conflated. This paper argues that this assumption is untenable, and in particular,
that prevention strategies designed for youth suicide are problematic in terms of deliberate selfinjury.
While prevention strategies are based upon studies that do not differentiate between
these groups, results will be compromised.

text: Ethnicity and deliberate self-injury: A review of the literature Deliberate self-injury is a significant social problem affecting youth in New Zealand. Rates of
hospitalisation for youth (aged 15 to 19) from deliberate self-injury approximate 225 per
100,000. It appears that the rates for Maori and women are significantly higher. From 1987 to
1993, an average of 488 Maori women per 100 000 population have been hospitalised each
year (Ministry of Health: Manatu Hauora, 1996). This paper draws upon both local and
international literature to examine factors underlying this ethnic disparity.
There is a wealth of literature examining risk factors underlying suicidal behaviour as a whole.
Deliberate self-injury is usually assumed to be an adjunct of youth suicide; prevention
strategies are conflated. This paper argues that this assumption is untenable, and in particular,
that prevention strategies designed for youth suicide are problematic in terms of deliberate selfinjury.
While prevention strategies are based upon studies that do not differentiate between
these groups, results will be compromised.

year: 1999