A Deep Dive Into The World Of Alternative Healing | With Levi SaadaA Deep Dive Into The World Of Alternative Healing | With Levi Saada
BrainStorm with Sony Perlman
Sony Perlman chats with practitioner Levi Saada about breathwork, peak experiences and somatic therapy, questioning how these approaches can genuinely support people in addiction and emotional pain. They focus on ethics, community and what real integration looks like beyond a single powerful workshop or ceremony.
1:15:12•10 May 2026
Peak Experiences, Breathwork and Real Healing with Levi Saada
Episode Overview
- Breathwork and psychedelics are powerful peak experiences but should never replace ongoing therapy, especially for people facing addiction or serious mental health struggles.
- Real integration means everyday change – being less reactive, more patient and kinder to yourself – rather than chasing the next intense workshop or ceremony.
- Ethics in alternative healing are crucial; without oversight, charisma and peak states can slide into manipulation, cult‑like dynamics and harm.
- Inner work is most effective as a way of life, combining body‑based methods, parts work and honest self‑inquiry with ordinary routines like work, family and rest.
- Healing happens strongly in community: being witnessed, held and accepted by others can do what no solo practice or one‑to‑one session can manage on its own.
“We’re here to create a world where hearts and bodies can relax together.”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation between host Sony Perlman and practitioner Levi Saada gives a grounded look at alternative healing without the fluff or hype. Levi works with breathwork, trauma‑informed coaching, Internal Family Systems, attachment theory, Nonviolent Communication and somatic awareness, alongside his own lived experience.
He explains why his breathwork workshops run for around two and a half hours: journaling, movement and interpersonal exercises help peel back emotional defences before the intense breathing starts, followed by tea, fruit and space to process. A key theme is the idea of “peak experiences” – whether through breathwork or psychedelics – and why they’re never a substitute for ongoing therapy.
Levi compares them to a Har Sinai moment: powerful, clarifying, but useless if you go straight back to old habits. Integration, he stresses, has to show up in daily life: fewer angry outbursts, more patience with partners and kids, and a gentler relationship with yourself. Sony presses on the ethical risks of unregulated practitioners, cult dynamics and money, especially around vulnerable people in addiction and mental health crises.
Levi openly shares his own worries about this “wild west”, his commitment to moral training through a four‑year somatic psychotherapy programme, and his fear of ever drifting into guru territory. They also talk about inner child work, the overuse of words like “trauma” and “healing”, and why real inner work should happen alongside ordinary living, not instead of it.
Community comes up as a huge part of recovery and growth – being witnessed, held and accepted by real people, not just seen weekly by a therapist. If you’re sober or sober‑curious and tired of trendy “healing journeys”, this chat offers a refreshingly honest look at what alternative approaches can offer, where they fall short, and how they might genuinely support long‑term recovery. Which parts of your own healing actually show up in how you live?
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