Brainspotting.
“Where you look effects how you feel.” - David Grand, founder of Brainspotting
Have you ever noticed where you tend to look when you feel embarrassed or ashamed? Or maybe you have felt your eyes wander as you tried to recall something. As we reflect on our emotions, thoughts, and memories our eyes naturally move in different directions. Where we look impacts how we feel and is connected to how our brains process and receive information and experiences.
Brainspotting is a therapeutic process that involves the therapist and client working together towards deeper healing in the client’s brain. In traditional talk therapy we tend to stay in the prefrontal cortex, or the front part of the brain, responsible for decision making, regulating thoughts and emotions, and other cognitive processes.
In Brainspotting, we use the visual field to access the deeper, subcortical emotional and body-based parts of the brain. The therapist and client work together to create a space that allows for unprocessed thoughts, emotions, physical sensations to surface in a contained and attuned environment. Often times it is this subconscious material that is contributing to the client’s dysregulation and symptoms they present with in session. When a client has experienced trauma or prolonged stress, this creates a shift in their nervous system which can lead to dysregulation. Signs and symptoms of dysregulation can be irritability, restlessness, difficulty sleeping, feeling checked out, lack of motivation, procrastination, or feeling overwhelmed.
Through the brainspotting process, the therapist helps the client name what is distressing, identifies a physical sensation connected to the feeling, and then locates an eye position that helps shift the client into a meditative state to allow the brain/body to release and reorganize whatever needs to be processed. If this all sounds a little confusing or hard to imagine, I often tell clients you just have to try it and experience it to understand how it really works.
In a very simplistic way, one could imagine the effects of traumatic and distressing experiences to be imprinted in a different language in our bodies. It is a language that is not spoken by the cortex, or logical part of the brain. So we need to find another way to access these parts and brainspotting does just that.
Who might benefit from using Brainspotting in a therapy session?
Brainspotting is effective for a wide variety of emotional and somatic conditions. While Brainspotting can be an especially effective approach for those coming in with trauma-related issues, this technique can be helpful for a broader range of concerns because of how it helps to identify and heal underlying trauma that may be contributing to anxiety, dysregulation, and many other issues. What this means is that through Brainspotting clients can achieve deeper healing and at a faster rate than traditional talk therapy.
Why does Brainspotting work?
Encourages client to notice physical sensations and strengthen the mind/body connection
Allows space for client to process at their own pace
Encourages client to discover their own brain and body’s ability to heal themselves
Creates access to deeper parts in brain where stored memory and trauma are held
Allows for therapist to hold space and join client in their processing
Be kind and curious,
Hollis