There are so many untold stories needing to be shared. Healthcare workers are not immune from the same life experiences as their patients. These films allow them to share their humanity. Sharing is healing for the story-teller and the listener. This project is an opportunity to share the inner world of caregivers on a global scale. - Jeannine Acantildo
Our Films
Our Writers
Our Team
Breathe is a storytelling platform helping healthcare workers to thrive.
Healthcare workers are the backbone of our society, yet they face record-high stress and disengagement, often with no space for reflection or recovery. This crisis isn’t just personal—it’s systemic, affecting the quality of care we all depend on. The Breathe Project offers a groundbreaking solution: empowering healthcare workers through emotional intelligence coaching, storytelling, and filmmaking.
Our program helps caregivers unearth and share the powerful stories they carry, transforming them into short films that elevate their voices and their humanity. These films ripple outward, sparking a cultural shift within healthcare by reminding us of the vital role these professionals play and the support they need to thrive.
Your support enables us to create these transformative spaces for healing, self-expression, and advocacy—helping healthcare workers not only recover but inspire the change our system desperately needs. Together, we can turn their stories into a movement for hope, resilience, and progress.
What is emotional intelligence and why does it matter?
Emotional Intelligence does not exist apart from relationship.
We are created, developed and sustained in relationships throughout our lives. Our brain and our emotional competencies develop in relationship. Complex neural pathways are developed early in life and get activated moment-to-moment as we interpret the world around us.
The EQ In Action Profile maps what neural pathways get activated in difficult relationships at work and offers a guide for ongoing development of the self for high-performance, successful relationships, as well as an
overall sense of well being and vitality in living.
What our participants have to say about the Breathe Project
Jade Spencer, writer of Mirror
"The Breathe project was transformative for me as both a healthcare provider and a person. Through coaching, I gained support to grow creatively and reflect on how my professional life is intertwined with my whole self. Sharing this journey with my team fostered trust, vulnerability, and courage. I feel rejuvenated and inspired to keep creating—and I encourage others to take the leap and share their unique perspectives."
Danielle Bates, writer of Turkana
"I would say the biggest takeaway from the writing process for me was that it was therapeutic and healing. It allowed me to work through experiences and emotions that I didn't know I needed to and helped me to recall things that impacted me. Going to Africa was life changing for me and this writing process gave me the opportunity to relearn who I was and what my passions are. I also left the writing process feeling less alone and more connected to others."
Mason Horton, 1st AC; Editor
“After spending well over a month in a hospital, 8 hours a day with my mom as she died from cancer, I got a first hand view as to how truly god-like nurses can be. As lost as I felt at that time I was surrounded by these nurses who knew exactly what to say and how to handle each chaotic speed bump in the process. A few months after my mom passed I was offered a job on the project Breathe. Never had I been so passionate and ready to tell the stories of those who helped families like mine everyday.”
Heather Thomasson, Chief Nursing Officer, Northwest Kidney Center, Renton, WA
Hear from the Executives
Healthcare executives on the significance of emotional intelligence, self-reflection, and the magic of storytelling in reforming the healthcare system.
Watch our video HERE
Our short films bring otherwise unheard stories to those who need to hear them the most - caregivers.
Storyboards from Nine Weeks by Natalie Lanocha
After a routine scan reveals her pregnancy is no longer viable, a health worker must navigate the devastating news in solitude, battling grief and duty as she faces the emotional toll before returning to her hospital shift.
Storyboards from My Mother's Garden by Roxanne Almas
A health worker finds solace in her mother’s garden, where memories of her mother’s life and lessons—woven through delicate lace, sketches, and nature—reveal the nurturing roots that shaped her compassionate work.
Storyboards from Turkana by Danielle Bates
A burned-out health worker travels to Lake Turkana, Kenya, seeking meaning and renewal. Immersed in the vibrant community and moved by a young girl, she finds joy, clarity, and a renewed sense of purpose, leaving with a deeper understanding of what truly matters.
We are working to finish these films and bring them to audiences, as well as cultivating the next batch of stories. Your donation does toward post-production (editing, music, color correction, rendering, etc.) with our current slate of films, and development for the next slate. Help us bring these incredible stories to life!
Do you have a story to tell?
We will be accepting new submissions in Spring 2025. All entries must be 1200 words or less.