Meet Richard

I'm Dr. Richard L. Blake, a British psychology PhD, breathworker and author based in Austin, Texas. My work sits at the edges of mental health, where mainstream narratives break down and better questions need asking.

My PhD produced the first randomised controlled trial of online Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB) for anxiety, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, the highest-impact journal to publish a study on CCB to date. Six weekly online CCB sessions produced a statistically significant reduction in anxiety symptoms with a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.44), the first rigorous evidence that CCB can work as an accessible, scalable intervention. The study was later summarised by Examine.com and covered in Yoga Jala.

I serve as Vice President of the Ethical Standards for Mental Health (ESMH) Coalition and chair its research subgroup. The coalition is a network of mental health professionals working to restore clarity, accountability and ethical standards in how clinical concepts are defined, taught and applied.

My research has since expanded into family estrangement and the broader problems of therapy culture, subjects the mental health field has largely avoided taking seriously. My book, Cut Off: How Therapy Culture Is Fueling the Parental Estrangement Epidemic, examines how therapeutic language and professional ideology are reshaping how families interpret ordinary conflict, and what that costs us.

Before the research, I was a Men's Health fitness model, and the interest in the body never really left. These days that shows up as a serious biohacking practice. I reduced my biological age by ten years over two years and compete in the Rejuvenation Olympics. I speak on longevity and human performance, and that work has been featured in Longevity Today.

The thread connecting these projects, clinical research, family estrangement and longevity, is a simple conviction: people deserve accurate information about their own bodies and minds, even, and especially, when it challenges professional orthodoxy. I share that work with a community of over 140,000 people on Instagram, where I break down research, challenge myths and offer practical tools for regulation, resilience and long-term health.

Alongside the research, I continue to teach: training new facilitators through the Breath Guru Teacher Training and delivering continuing education for psychotherapists through PESI.