Breath, in a tantra session, is the measure of pace: the rhythm the session slows to and follows, and the one thing a client is asked to notice.
Every technique on the menu involves touch; tantra is the one organised around breathing. The therapist uses the breath, hers and the client's, as a clock. When breathing is quick and high in the chest, the session waits. As breathing lengthens and drops lower, the session is allowed to move on. The tempo is read rather than decided in advance.
Very little. No technique needs to be learned, no count held, no pattern memorised. At most, a client may be invited now and then to let an exhale run a little longer than it would on its own, or to notice where breath has become shallow. Clients who arrive expecting instruction in breathwork are often surprised by how light the guidance is. The work of pacing belongs to the therapist.
A body arriving from a day of meetings, flights or streets tends to breathe fast, and it does not slow on command. Following the breath rather than a fixed schedule means a session adapts to the evening the client has actually had. On a tired night the opening is longer. On a calm one, less so. That flexibility is a large part of why tantra is booked at ninety minutes or more.
Breathing slows more readily when the room is warm, the stomach not full, and without alcohol or with very little. A few minutes of sitting still before she arrives, the phone face down, makes a difference out of proportion to the effort.
The breath and pacing guide goes further into this, the ritual entry covers the small ordered steps around the session, and the tantra entry explains where the emphasis on breathing comes from.