What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that accesses the natural healing abilities of the brain and the body. When we have an experience that is overwhelming, the brain automatically separates it from our consciousness. It’s like putting this experience into a time capsule. Brainspotting can allow you to open these time capsules and more completely process and integrate what was locked away. Doing so can offer healing and clarity.
Brainspotting can also help us connect to our strengths and resilience. It can reinforce neural pathways that enable us to be our best selves. The possibilities are limitless!
Brainspotting can be helpful for:
- Reducing emotional overwhelm
- Feeling in your body what you already know in your head
- Loving yourself and feeling worthy just as you are
- Healing trauma, even without knowing, remembering, or talking about what happened
- Reconnecting with your creativity, joy, peace, or confidence
- Strengthening spiritual connection
- Managing chronic pain
- Enhancing performance in sports, music, art, public speaking, and more
The creator of Brainspotting gives an overview of trauma and brain-based therapy:
Where we look affects
how we feel.
When people talk passionately about something, they tend to look in a particular direction. Our eyes are directly connected to our brains. Different eye positions access different parts of the brain. A “Brainspot” is an eye position that connects to parts of the brain that are holding particular memories, thoughts, emotions, or body sensations. By mindfully focusing on these Brainspots, we enable the brain and body to heal more completely or enhance our strengths.
What a Brainspotting session feels like and the importance of a supportive therapist:
A journey of healing from complex PTSD with Brainspotting:
Frequently asked questions
Does Brainspotting work online?
Yes, Brainspotting is effective in online sessions! Your therapist will guide you through the process.
Can Brainspotting work with dissociation?
Dissociation is one of the coping strategies the brain uses to take care of us. It can be too overwhelming to feel all our emotions all the time. The brain sometimes puts experiences or emotions behind dissociative barriers to keep it at bay. These barriers can be like a dam keeping the flood back. The brain does this to enable us to keep doing the things we need to do to live.
It might take a few Brainspotting sessions to access the material behind a dissociative barrier. It can feel like “nothing’s happening” and eventually with patience, the brain offers an opening in the dissociative barriers to allow more information to be processed.