About Simon - The Burnt Out Lawyer
You know you can't keep pushing through when your body finally says enough. I've been there and I know you can train your body to manage stress and avoid burnout.
Simon Fogarty · Wellington, NZ
My story
Like so many professionals, I spent long hours at my desk trying to meet the unrelenting demands of my clients. I was a litigation lawyer. The pressure was constant, the stakes were high, and stopping simply wasn't an option. Or so I believed.
I was constantly tense. My mind was always overloaded. Panic attacks became a regular feature of my life. I was convinced it was all mental, that I could think my way out of it. The truth? My body was keeping me in a constant state of stress that no amount of thinking could fix.
Something had to change. I gave up working as a lawyer and took a break. Not because I wanted to, but because I had no choice. It sounds like a cliche, but I was burnt out.
I took up Iyengar yoga and later became a yoga teacher. I started paying attention to my body in a way I never had before. I worked with my psychologist and took medication. And I kept looking for tools that could support me.
Then, on a yoga retreat, I read James Nestor's book Breath. It changed everything. I discovered that the way I had been breathing had been quietly keeping my nervous system in a state of low-level emergency for years. I hadn't just burned out from overwork. Breathing shallow, fast, and through my mouth meant my physiology working against me.
Learning to breathe properly strengthened my connection with my body, revitalised my health, calmed my mind, and gave me renewed energy. It was the missing piece I hadn't known to look for.
I trained as an Oxygen Advantage Certified Functional Breathing Instructor. I went deeper into the science. And I started helping others because I knew that what I'd found wasn't just useful for me. It was the thing most burnt-out professionals had never been told about.
Why this works
I know what it's like to sit across from someone like a coach, a therapist, or a GP and feel like they understand the concept of burnout but not the reality of it. The way it creeps up on you. The way you minimise it. The way you keep performing long after you should have stopped, because stopping feels like failure.
I've been that person. Which means when you tell me what's happening for you, I'm not just listening with professional empathy. I've lived it.
What I want for you is simple: I want you to feel better in your body in ways you can measure and feel. We use your BOLT score because I want you to have proof that things are changing for the better.
Breathwork is physiology. When you change how you breathe, you fundamentally change how your nervous system functions. That changes how you sleep, how you handle pressure, how quickly you recover from stress. These are real, measurable shifts. And most people start noticing them within the first week, and some after just one session.
If you've tried everything else and nothing has stuck, breathing can be the anchor that gives you stability, enabling those other techniques and strategies to gain traction and become effective.
Here's a common example. Can you meditate if you are struggling to breathe? Poor breathing can lead to CO2 intolerance which can feel like suffocating. Mastering your breathing can reduce CO2 intolerance, improving breathing comfort allowing for deeper and more effective meditation.
Working with me
A lot of people come to me having already tried therapy, medication, meditation apps, and various other interventions. Some of those things have helped. Some haven't. No one treatment works for everyone.
With breathing, you work at the level of the body, not the mind. You're training the nervous system directly through your breathing to function differently. This can be life changing, and at the very least complementary to other treatments helping to improve them so they work more effectively.
Your body finally starts working for you.
Whether you arrive exhausted, sceptical, or somewhere in between, you'll be met with patience and without judgement. There's no right way to show up.
Every session you learn techniques to use every day: evidence-based exercises that work. The real progress happens because of your daily pratice.
The goal is independence. I want you to have a set of tools that you can take with you and use for the rest of your life.
Training & background
Simon Fogarty is a Wellington-based burnout recovery and resilience coach, Oxygen Advantage Functional Breathing Instructor, and former litigation lawyer. Admitted to the bar in 1996 and practising litigation from 1997, he experienced burnout first-hand before retraining as a breathwork coach. He has been teaching yoga since 2017 and breathwork since 2024. His background spans functional breathing science, yoga, psychology, law, and history.
The world's leading evidence-based breathwork methodology, developed by Patrick McKeown. Grounded in physiology, not wellness trends.
Specialist certification in how breathing intersects with hormonal health, perimenopause, and menopause. Issued by the Oxygen Advantage programme.
Issued by the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI). A precision-based tradition with deep roots in breath awareness and nervous system regulation. Teaching since 2017.
Admitted to the bar in 1996 and practising litigation from 1997. Years of high-pressure legal work gave a firsthand understanding of professional burnout and what it costs.
A Graduate Diploma in Psychology and BA in History inform how Simon understands human resilience, behaviour change, and the stories we tell ourselves about our own limits.
Whether you're in the thick of burnout or just starting to notice the warning signs, the best time to reach out is now.