Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): En la terapia practicamos respiración lenta y hablamos de mi rutina diaria. - In therapy we practice slow breathing and talk about my daily routine.

en la terapia = in therapy / in the therapy session. It describes location or context.
a la terapia = to therapy. It implies movement or going somewhere:
- Voy a la terapia los lunes. – I go to therapy on Mondays.
durante la terapia = during therapy. It focuses on the time period:
- Durante la terapia practicamos… – During therapy we practice…

In the original sentence, the idea is “in therapy (sessions), we do these things,” so en la terapia fits best.

Do you have to say la terapia, or could you say en terapia?

Both are possible, but they feel slightly different:

En la terapia practicamos…
Sounds like you’re talking about a specific therapy context or your therapy sessions in general.
En terapia practicamos…
Sounds a bit more general, like “when I’m in therapy” as a situation, without emphasizing “the” sessions.

In everyday speech, en terapia is very common when you mean “(I am) in therapy,” but en la terapia is also perfectly natural and maybe a bit more concrete: “in the session.”

Where is the word for we? Why is there no pronoun like nosotros?

Spanish normally drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

practicamos and hablamos end in -amos, which is the “we” (nosotros) form for most -ar verbs in the present tense.

So:

(Nosotros) practicamos respiración lenta = We practice slow breathing.
(Nosotros) hablamos de mi rutina diaria = We talk about my daily routine.

You can say nosotros practicamos, but in neutral Spanish it often sounds unnecessary unless you want to stress we (as opposed to someone else).

How do I know if practicamos and hablamos are present tense (we practice / we talk) or past tense (we practiced / we talked)?

For -ar verbs, the “we” (nosotros) form of the present and the simple past (preterite) is the same:

Present:
- practicamos – we practice
- hablamos – we talk
Preterite (simple past):
- practicamos – we practiced
- hablamos – we talked

You know which one it is from context or from time expressions:

En la terapia practicamos respiración lenta…
→ Likely present, describing what usually happens in therapy.
Ayer en la terapia practicamos respiración lenta…
→ With ayer (yesterday), it must be past: “we practiced.”

The form is identical; context tells you the tense.

Why is there no article in practicamos respiración lenta? Why not practicamos la respiración lenta?

Both are grammatically correct:

Practicamos respiración lenta.
Feels like “we practice slow breathing” in a general sense, like an activity or technique.
Practicamos la respiración lenta.
Emphasizes it a bit more as a specific technique, “the slow breathing technique” that you already know about.

Spanish often drops the article when talking about an activity in a general way (especially in therapy, sports, or education contexts), so practicamos respiración lenta sounds very natural.

Why is it respiración lenta and not respirar lentamente or respirar despacio?

You can express the idea in several ways, but the structure and nuance change:

respiración lenta
- Noun + adjective: literally “slow breathing.”
- It sounds like a technique, a type of exercise.
- Practicamos respiración lenta. = We practice slow breathing (as an exercise).
respirar lentamente / respirar despacio
- Verb + adverb: literally “to breathe slowly.”
- Focus is more on how you breathe, not on the technique as a “thing.”
- Practicamos respirar lentamente. = We practice breathing slowly.

The original sentence treats it as a technique (“slow-breathing exercises”), so a noun phrase (respiración lenta) fits very well.

Why is it lenta and not lento in respiración lenta?

In Spanish, adjectives agree with the noun in gender and number:

respiración is feminine singular (you can see it from la respiración).
So the adjective must also be feminine singular → lenta.

If the noun were masculine, you’d say:

el ejercicio lento – the slow exercise
el ritmo lento – the slow rhythm

Here: la respiración lenta = the slow breathing / slow breath(ing).

Why is it hablamos de mi rutina diaria and not hablamos sobre mi rutina diaria?

Both hablar de and hablar sobre are correct and common:

hablar de X = to talk about X
hablar sobre X = to talk about X / to talk on the subject of X

In everyday speech:

hablar de is slightly more frequent and neutral.
hablar sobre can sound a bit more formal or emphasize the topic (like a presentation “on the topic of…”), but people use it in casual speech too.

So:

Hablamos de mi rutina diaria. – We talk about my daily routine.
Hablamos sobre mi rutina diaria. – Same translation; nuance is minimal here.

Why is it mi rutina diaria and not mi diaria rutina?

In Spanish, most adjectives (including diario/diaria) usually come after the noun:

rutina diaria = daily routine
clase diaria = daily class
ejercicio diario = daily exercise

Putting the adjective before the noun (diaria rutina) is unusual here and sounds poetic or very marked, e.g., to emphasize the boring, repetitive feeling: “mi diaria rutina” (“my everyday, monotonous routine”). That’s not the neutral way to say my daily routine.

So the normal, everyday phrase is mi rutina diaria.

Why is it diaria and not diario in mi rutina diaria?

Again, it’s agreement:

rutina is feminine singular (la rutina).
The adjective diario must match it:
- Feminine singular → diaria
- Masculine singular → diario

Examples:

mi rutina diaria – my daily routine
mi horario diario – my daily schedule
mis actividades diarias – my daily activities

Could you use other verbs like platicamos or conversamos instead of hablamos?

Yes, especially in Latin America:

Hablamos de mi rutina diaria. – We talk about my daily routine.
Platicamos de mi rutina diaria. – Common in Mexico and parts of Central America; more informal.
Conversamos sobre mi rutina diaria. – Sounds a bit more formal or “we have a conversation about.”

All three are understandable across Latin America, but hablar is the most universal and neutral choice.

Do you need a comma before y in practicamos respiración lenta y hablamos de mi rutina diaria?

No comma is needed here.

In Spanish, you normally don’t put a comma between two verbs joined by y when they share the same subject:

En la terapia practicamos respiración lenta y hablamos de mi rutina diaria.

You would use a comma only if you had a longer list:

En la terapia practicamos respiración lenta, hacemos estiramientos y hablamos de mi rutina diaria.

How is respiración pronounced, and why does it have an accent?

Pronunciation (in Latin American Spanish):

res-pi-ra-ción → [res-pee-rah-SYON] (the ción sounds like “syón”)

The written accent on the ó shows that the stress falls on the last syllable:

Without the accent, respiracion would look like it should be stressed on -cion anyway (because words ending in n, s, or vowel are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable), but the actual form respiración follows the general pattern of -ción words:
- nación, lección, atención, respiración
  All stressed on the last syllable.

So respiración is stressed on ción and pronounced res-pi-ra-cIÓN.