Ancient breathing techniques are being reimagined for the modern world to help unlock deeper physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Through sold-out events and a global virtual studio, Owaken Breathwork has begun attracting the attention of Hollywood elite.
Founded by Kiwis, Lukis Mac and Hella Omega, Los Angeles-based Owaken guides participants into non-ordinary states of consciousness, creating space to access parts of themselves that sit beyond everyday awareness.
“We both grew up in Auckland and met through mutual friends. Hella and I have been together for over 20 years, and from early on, our relationship was also a shared journey of personal development and healing,” Lukis tells Verve. “We studied a range of modalities together, including coaching, BodyTalk, Mindscape, Hypnotherapy, NLP and eventually became trauma-informed facilitators.”
While living in Bali, the pair attended a breathwork workshop led by visiting US facilitators. The experience was transformative, releasing deep emotions and unlocking an unexpected sense of clarity and inner connection. “That moment changed everything, continues Lukis. “We became obsessed with breathwork because we could feel how powerful it was, not just for us, but for what it could offer others.”
What parts of your Kiwi upbringing still shape how you approach wellness since moving to the US?
“We bring a deep sense of groundedness. We teach practical spirituality for modern living, leading from the heart, staying real, and never trying to be anything we’re not. That authenticity becomes a permission slip for others to do the same, and that’s what we love most: leading by example.
“A lot of people let fear stop them, but fear isn’t a stop sign. It’s an invitation. An invitation to face what scares you and move forward anyway. That’s the path we’ve chosen, and it’s shaped everything we’re building.” Breathwork teaches people to recognise their stress patterns and nervous system responses. With awareness and self-regulation tools, individuals stop losing themselves and redirect their life-force energy into empowered, aligned living, not only supporting people to process stress, emotions, and trauma, “it also helps them access more clarity, joy, creativity, and energy flow”.
“A common misconception about healing is that once you understand something, you should be ‘over it’,” says Lukis. “But intellectual insight doesn’t always mean the body has caught up. The body and nervous system may still hold conditioned stress responses linked to the past. If those responses aren’t processed and regulated through the body, they can continue to influence how we feel, react, and behave even when we know better cognitively.
“This is what makes the work so powerful and sustainable: it’s not about overriding the body; it’s about bringing the body back into balance.”
Why do you think breathwork is having such a major moment, particularly in LA and NYC?
“Because people are overwhelmed, disconnected, and living in a constant state of stress and they’re looking for tools that actually work, not just more information. In places like LA and NYC especially, life moves fast. There’s a lot of ambition, pressure, stimulation, and mental load. People are high performing on the outside but often dysregulated on the inside. Breathwork meets that moment because it’s immediate, experiential, and embodied. You don’t have to believe anything or analyse your way through it you feel the shift in real time.”
Owaken has captured the attention of some serious stars, with the likes of Kourtney Kardashian, Megan Fox Fox, Jake Paul, and Travis Barker of band Blink-182 counted as regular clients.
“A lot of the high-profile people we work with came through referrals, says Lukis. “We’ve grown almost entirely through our social media presence, client referrals, and the real impact the work creates. When people have a genuine experience and feel meaningful change, they talk about it.”
Was there a point when you realised you’d started a movement?
“We didn’t set out to build a movement. There wasn’t one defining moment, but over time we noticed the ripple effect. People weren’t just attending sessions they were sharing the work, bringing friends, integrating it into their lives, and carrying it forward in their own way. That’s when we realised it had become bigger than us.
“At this point, we’ve worked with thousands of people from around the world and have personally trained hundreds of trauma-informed facilitators globally. When something genuinely helps people reconnect with themselves, it naturally grows and that’s exactly what’s happened with Owaken.”
Their recently launched Intuitive Impact Academy offers in-person and online programmes designed to help people understand and regulate stress by working consciously with the nervous system. The aim is to provide safe, embodied experiences of real transformation – practical, personal tools that can be integrated into everyday life, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
“We also have the Owaken Podcast and an app which is essentially a virtual studio,” says Lukis. “It offers shorter breathwork and meditation classes designed to fit into real life. These classes support people to master their mindset, release stress, and access more clarity, joy, peace, creativity, and energy flow from within. There’s a class for whatever someone is navigating – whether they need regulation, activation, grounding, or inspiration, we have you covered.”
Learn more at owaken.com
