Brainspotting
Brainspotting is a somatic therapy technique that can provide a powerful tool to assist with processing of emotions and traumas, as well as facilitating personal growth and a greater sense of emotional and physical well-being. It harnesses the brain’s natural ability, and the body’s ever-present drive, to heal itself.
Brainspotting consists of creating a safe and caring environment in which specific eye positions, called “brainspots,” can be identified and focused upon. Brainspotting was developed by David Grand, PhD through the refinement of techniques and research related to eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. “Brainspots” may correspond to areas in the brain where unresolved trauma, unhelpful or outdated patterns of beliefs or emotional distress are stored. Once a brainspot is identified by the client and the skilled therapist, the client is encouraged to maintain focus on a brainspot, while sitting comfortably, to help them access and process often deeply-rooted sensations, feelings, emotions or memories, which can often lead to transformational growth, emotional healing and resolution.
Brainspotting is rooted in the well established connection between the brain and the body, and the possibility of neurobiological healing by the engagement of the brain’s limbic system, using the gateway of the visual field (the eyes). Brainspotting is a somatic therapy that can complement and enhance transformational coaching, offering a powerful tool for processing stored trauma, promoting personal growth, and assisting with emotional well-being.
Resources
Brainspotting Overview - BSPUK
About Brainspotting
How Brainspotting Works (Cleveland Clinic)
Brainspotting Therapy Definition, Techniques and Efficacy - Very Well Mind
Learn About Brainspotting - GoodTherapy
Brainspotting: recruiting the midbrain for accessing and healing sensorimotor memories of traumatic activation - Med Hypotheses
The Game-Changing Benefits of Brainspotting Therapy - Harley Therapy
FAQs
HOW DOES BRAINSPOTTING WORK?
Although a relatively new therapy based on the established EMDR Therapy, Brainspotting is a caring and non-invasive way of releasing long-held traumas, as well as making transformational change of old patterns of thinking, acting and being that no longer serve you. It is available to anyone, including children.
Brainspotting works based on the theory that trauma, as well as old patterns of behaviour and unhelpful mindsets, can get somatically “stuck” - that is trapped physically in your body. This entrapment may then be disrupting your brain’s ability to be fully present in any given moment, and instead remain trapped in repeat over traumas and unhelpful ways of behaving and thinking, as the brain is unable to process and heal from the old event(s). Brainspotting can assist in finding the areas in your body and mind where traumas and old events are “stuck”, and it can then help you to fully process them as in the past, while integrating any meanings from them and making long term changes around them.
WHAT HAPPENS IN A BRAINSPOTTING SESSION?
You will be comfortably seated in my studio, or in a quiet, private place of your choosing if online. We will have a discussion to focus on an issue for the session, often noting the sensations and emotions associated with this issue and how acutely you are feeling them at present. While seated, with your eyes open in most cases, you will follow a pointer held by me to locate a specific brainspot. Brainspots are often associated with heightened bodily sensations and likewise emotions, although this is not always the case. We will often work together to find a brainspot, and you will usually maintain this same spot during the entire session.
By maintaining focus on a brainspot for an extended period of time, you may be more able to release trapped physical manifestations of stress, tension, anxiety and other limited mindsets and behaviour patterns. The brainspot may help to link cognitive, emotional and physical sensations that are all tied-in with a particular traumatic event, memory or stress - eventually allowing the release of these. And as you release these outdated mental and physical stresses and traumas, your brain can then gain its natural ability to reprocess these emotions, thoughts and memories like it would any other “normal” memory of something in the past, often in a more positive way.
WILL I BE ASLEEP?
No. Throughout our session, you will remain awake and completely aware of our session. You may feel a range of emotions, as well as a range of states of energy during a session.
WILL I LOSE CONTROL?
Absolutely not. You are awake and completely in control at all times during a session. I will support you throughout, and you will lead the way throughout the session.
HOW WILL I FEEL?