Brainspotting

Less talk. More relief.

What is Brainspotting?

Has anyone said to you, "maybe you should talk to someone."

The truth is: "talk" therapy has very little effect on traumatic memory, emotional reactivity, and long-held behavioral patterns.

Brainspotting turns on your natural ability to recover from distress.

Here's why:

Talk therapy relies on the part of the brain responsible for thinking, reasoning, comprehension, and speaking

But emotions and trapped traumatic response occur deep in the midbrain

Because of a physical connection from the eyes to the midbrain, Brainspotting therapy can use fixed eye positions to achieve deeper (and often faster!) results than talk therapy

No trauma re-telling required!

Your brain has a special feature that knows how to do this. We just need to turn it on!

How does Brainspotting work?

Brainspotting taps into the body's natural ability to recovery from life-threatening events and extended periods of significant distress.

When we experience something life-threatening, the body takes a snapshot of everything around it and everything going on inside of it. We call this "sensory data." Everything that on the outside of you that you see, hear, touch, smell, and taste, as well as what is experienced inside of you, such as changes in heart rate, blood pressure, glucose and insulin, and thoughts and emotions associated with the event. The brain collects all of that information on normal days too, funneling it to the hypocampus where it can be processed by filing it in long term memory or flushing it out. However in a traumatic event or prolonged distress, the brain's Number 1 job is survival, so it closes the door to the hypocampus and nothing gets processed, filed, or flushed.

Through Brainspotting, we shine a 🔦spotlight on the "stuff" that accumulated when the hypocampus was closed. The brain sifts through it--the sensory data, memory, emotions, thoughts, etc--and now it can do its job of deciding what to flush out and what to file away. This is what therapists refer to as trauma re-processing.

This is what makes a person able to say "I experienced something awful. It was really hard, but I got through it and now I'm on the other side. It feels like it's all behind me now." At this point, oftentimes the brain is able to ponder what comes next. It's ready to set you back on the path to continue your journey through life. You may even notice new interests, dreams, or goals emerge as your nervous system is ready to for new paths to emerge up ahead.

This can lead you to post-traumatic growth!

Who does it help?

Brainspotting was developed for use with individuals suffering from severe trauma; but it was first discovered during psychotherapy with a figure skater for performance improvement. Since then it has proven helpful to those seeking help for anxiety, depression, anger, relationship issues, and yes--trauma and athletic or artistic performance enhancement.

Why do we ❤️ Brainspotting?

Many people who have experienced significantly upsetting events don't want to talk about them. Brainspotting is a highly specialized modality with a gentle, client-centered application that does not require you to talk extensively about traumatic experiences. Brainspotting sessions can be silent or they can include verbal witnessing of internal processing.

What will Brainspotting be like for me?

During your first few sessions we'll talk about what brings you in and subsequently how psychotherapy typically works for your areas of concerns. We'll also talk about the Brainspotting process, so you'll have a chance to learn and ask questions, compare and contrast to other modalities. One of the exciting aspects of Brainspotting is that the process in the office starts an engine that keeps working long after your session! Because of this phenomenon, we'll also lay some groundwork to ensure you can carry on as usual while the engine runs in the background.

Although your body may not be moving around during a Brainspotting session, your brain is doing a lot of heavy lifting. During a Brainspotting session, some participants initially notice nothing. Others report experiencing body sensations, thoughts, memories, or emotion. Afterwards, you may sense a need to slow down and rest. We will talk about the various signs that your brain and body signal to you that they are doing the hard work of releasing past pain and what you can do about them. When clients notice they feel lifted, relieved, light, content, or happy after Brainspotting sessions, it is likely that their processing is complete.

What happens during a Brainspotting session?

Set the stage

We may have identified a target in a prior session, or you may have decided on your own. We have the ability to laser-focus on the target, or to expand the aperature to include other related matters. We'll discuss your preference and your therapist's recommendation, if they differ.

Mindfulness moment to connect with your target
As you select your target, you'll be invited to go inward and notice what feelings, images, thoughts, and physical sensations it activates.
Expand or narrow the frame around the feelings and sensations you most want to target. If you're unsure, your therapist can help you. We can also help you locate sensations you don't realize are present, such as something calm or neutral.
Locate the eye position
There are several techniques we can use to identify eye positions that turn on your brain's natural clean-up features. Each technique offers a different experience. We commonly start by using an object (eg retractable pointer) that we move across your visual field from one side to the other, then up and down. When you follow the pointer with your eyes, your body exhibits reflexes--much like your elbows and knees at the doctor's office. Those reflexes tell us that the structure between your eyes and midbrain has found a place where your issue/memory is stored. There are often more than 1 eye position that yields reflexes. You can explore each one and choose your preference. If you prefer, your therapist can choose based on the most reflexes. We also offer double-spotting (enabling you to process the issue from the perspective of the trapped traumatic memory as well as the resilient survival mode that got you through it) and one-eye brainspotting (providing greater focus when needed).
Focused mindfulness
Now you're off to the races! You'll monitor your internal landscape (feelings, sensations, memories, thoughts, etc), as though you're watching a movie. Follow along wherever it goes. Some people like to be silent watchers while others prefer to tell their therapist about it. You're welcome to say as much or as little as you'd like, but we do ask that you let us know if you've finished.
Ending session

You may or may not reach resolution by the end of our time together. If you do, we'll check for any remants and keep working until they're clear. But depending on the length of our session, you might not have a time to reach a fully cleared experience. Your therapist knows how to help you shift out of the brainspotting process and back into the rest of your day.
The engine keeps running
Because this is natural function of the brain, it continues running the program in the background, sort of like "defragging" your computer. It's important to schedule a follow up session in order to report your experiences since the session ended, to ask your follow up questions, and to determine where you go from here.

Why work with an experienced Brainspotting practitioner?

As an approved Brainspotting Consultant, Caroline often emphasizes the skillful aptitude of practioners beginning at the Phase 1 level: most brainspotting therapists can competently apply the model within their own area of expertise. However, the diversity among trauma-spectrum presentations and diagnoses, requires advanced training and practical experience. Caroline has attended a multitude of Brainspotting trainings and workshops, assisted senior trainers including Brainspotting developer David Grand at more trainings than she can count, and served on the training team for the specialized adaptation of Brainspotting for working with highly distressed individuals. These experiences developed a level of expertise, not only within the trauma specialty, but with application of the model to other specialties as well.

How can I participate in Brainspotting?

We love how Brainspotting compliments new and existing therapeutic relationships quite well! Using Brainspotting in conjunction with other psychotherapy modalities can speed up your healing process. In other words, you may not need as many sessions to heal as you would with talk therapy methods alone. We offer Brainspotting in many of our individual therapy sessions, as well as in the intensive format. You can participate as our client or in collaboration with your current therapist.

Local practices wishing to offer their clients adjunctive Brainspotting sessions through our practice may contact us to discuss collaborating on- or off-site.

Brainspotting practitioners seeking certification or who want to enhance their professional development should check out the consultation page.

Where can I learn more?

Here are a few articles about Brainspotting:

Turning the Spotlight on Brainspotting

Efficacy comparison to EMDR

Brainspotting part of multi-treatment study of Sandy Hook victims