“Where you look affects how you feel.”
Brainspotting™ is a therapeutic process, developed by American psychologist Dr. David Grand, that uses specific points in your visual field to access unprocessed trauma in subcortical brain networks. It uses fixed eye positions (‘brain spots’), focused mindfulness, somatic awareness, and therapist attunement (the ability of the therapist to pick up on the nuances of the client’s responses and to respond in a way that accurately captures the sense of how the client is feeling in that moment) to process and release deeply entrenched traumas and create new neural pathways for healing. These stored traumas underlie a wide range of physical and emotional problems (headaches, irritability, anxiety, depression, gut issues, etc.). It’s a process of memory reconsolidation: using focused attention, a memory is activated, enhanced by specific eye position(s), and processed while attending to the accompanying physiological and emotional changes, which allow new information to be integrated.
A body-based therapy, Brainspotting frequently utilizes bilateral music or nature sounds that oscillate between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The music and sounds decrease activation levels and activate the parasympathetic nervous system (the calming part of the nervous system). Click here and here to listen to samples of bilateral music.
Brainspotting allows you to move through the trauma in a contained and supportive manner, by accessing and then processing trauma in the subcortical brain, with the support of relevant eye position(s). This allows you to move more quickly and more deeply through trauma processing compared to traditional talk therapy.
How I Use Brainspotting to Heal Trauma and Emotional Dysregulation
I am a Certified Brainspotting Therapist and use the technique with many of my clients. I love — and am still in awe of — the healing power of Brainspotting and have had (and continue to have) the honour of using it with first responders, second responders, Canadian Armed Forces members, and veterans.
During Brainspotting, I often witness my clients crying, yawning, laughing, coughing, shaking, or staring off into space and blinking. These are examples of ways in which the body processes and releases the memories associated with traumas that are found in the subcortical areas of the brain. All such responses are welcome. I never judge anyone for how they react to Brainspotting. The client is the one who guides the processing. I simply follow their lead, while providing them with emotional safety and face-to-face attunement (whether in-person or via videoconferencing), which is critical for healing, especially in trauma work. Brainspotting is just as effective through videoconferencing as in-person.
If you’ve had Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy before, then the best way for me to describe Brainspotting is that it’s EMDR on crack.
Brainspotting is rapidly becoming sought after by therapists and clients in Canada and internationally. For more information about Brainspotting, please visit the Brainspotting Canada Association, research and case studies, and an article that I wrote for the Canadian Psychological Association’s Counselling Psychology newsletter.
If you’re interested in discovering the deep healing and transformation that Brainspotting therapy can provide, contact me today to schedule an appointment.