Brainspotting: The Therapy Method That Helps You Spot Relief

Have you ever found yourself staring off into space when thinking about something important or stressful? Or maybe you've noticed your eyes darting back and forth when you're anxious? 

There's actually some fascinating science behind why our eyes behave this way and how it can be used to help process trauma and anxiety. Enter brainspotting therapy - the totally trippy therapeutic technique that can help you process deep-seated pain and emotions.

Understanding Brainspotting and the Science Behind It

Your mind is like a complex ecosystem, such as a coral reef. When things are balanced, there is harmony - fish swim happily, coral polyps sway with the current, and water flows cleanly around the reef.

But stress, anxiety, and trauma are like pollution dumped into the waters. Strong emotions stir up sediment, disrupting the balance. Algae blooms, water turns murky, and the reef creatures become distressed. The ecosystem is now in a state of dysregulation.

Brainspotting is cleaning up the ecosystem and removing those stuck elements, bringing your mental environment back into harmony. A brainspotting therapist carefully observes where pollution has gathered and employs proven techniques to remove it. Bit by bit, the water clears, and life flourishes once again.

Brainspotting Therapy is a brain-body-focused therapy developed in 2003 by Dr. David Grand, PhD. He discovered during EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy that eye movements and focused attention impact trauma and emotional processing.

It's not entirely clear why this works, but Dr. Grand found immense relief came to clients who gazed at different spots in their vision, especially those with trauma or performance issues. He discovered that eye positions correlate to emotional and bodily experiences stored deep in the brain, where traumatic memories hide away from language or conscious thought. You can access and release stress from trauma or distress by identifying and processing these associated "brain spots" in your visual field.

While eye position provides a portal to emotional release, brainspotting also uses mindfulness to process arising emotions and bodily sensations.

What Happens During a Brainspotting Therapy Session?

While brainspotting may sound out there, the process is gentle, intuitive, and surprisingly efficient—no need for hours of prep or guided imagery. The focused mind-body nature of brainspotting allows quick access to core hurts that may take longer to reach with other methods, like conventional therapy. Brainspotting goes right to the belly of the beast, using eye gazing to tap into the brain's emotional hotspots.

Here's a rundown of what to expect:

- You'll spend time building rapport with your therapist and sharing what issue you want to focus on. This can be a traumatic experience, relationship problem, performance anxiety, etc.  

- Your therapist may use some relaxation techniques to get you settled in. Ambient music played through headphones is also common.

- Next, you'll be asked to hone in on the specific problem or event, describe any emotions that arise, and track associated bodily sensations. 

- Brainspotting operates on the premise that where you look affects how you feel. Using a pointer object, your therapist will have you follow its movement to find a spot that accesses the feelings you want to process. They may say "stop" when you hit on something significant. 

- Once you fixate on the "brain spot," you'll likely feel some distress, discomfort, or other intense sensations. Don't worry, this is normal! Your therapist will guide you through fully experiencing them, which is believed to be the key to releasing trauma.

- Over time, the difficult emotions tend to shift, lighten, or dissipate completely as your brain integrates the experience. Your therapist will help you process any thoughts that come up along the way. See, not too weird!

Just settle in, find those eye spots, and let your mind and body do the healing work.

Easing Anxiety with Brainspotting

Many people seek out brainspotting to find relief from anxiety. Since anxiety often involves worrying about hypothetical future events, brainspotting can help "turn down the volume" of anxious thoughts and emotions. 

Focusing on your body, thoughts, and eye movements can lessen the intensity of anxious feelings. Brainspotting can also help uncover those sneaky subconscious worries that fuel your anxiety.

Studies have found brainspotting effective for reducing symptoms of PTSD, generalized anxiety, phobias, and more. So, if you're feeling stressed about an upcoming work presentation or first date, brainspotting may help you find your calm.

Performance Enhancement through Brainspotting Therapy

Brainspotting isn't just about addressing the troubles of the past - it can also be used proactively to enhance future performance.

Athletes, musicians, actors, public speakers, and professionals of all kinds can benefit from "Resource Spotting" - a brainspotting technique tailored to boost confidence, creativity, and peak performance.  

Your therapist will guide you to identify areas in your visual field that induce feelings of peace, strength, and resilience and activate helpful brain spots by focusing on past successes, envisioning your goals, or accessing your latent talents. You can override old fears and negative self-talk by rehearsing mentally from an optimal brain state. 

Brainspotting helps reinforce the neural pathways for calm, focused, and empowered performances. So spotlight those winning brain spots before your next big game, recital, or work pitch!

Brainspotting Therapy for Working Through Trauma

Did you know that trauma has the power to change how our brains work? Brain imaging studies have revealed that traumatic experiences can disrupt the communication between important regions of our brain that help us process and make sense of difficult situations. But brainspotting can help turn the lights in darkened areas where traumatic memories lurk.

Finding just the right eye positions gives access to memories walled off from conscious awareness. As clients activate and mindfully engage traumatic emotions while visually "inside" the experience, it allows for catharsis, insight, and integration.

Brainspotting also helps identify and shift unconscious triggers, reactions, perceptions, and beliefs entangled with past trauma. This enables clients to reprocess their experiences from an empowered mindset.

While reliving trauma can be painful, brainspotting provides containment and control. With the right support, clients are often amazed at how much lighter they feel after releasing emotional burdens carried for decades.

EMDR vs. Brainspotting Therapy: What's the Difference?

Since brainspotting therapy emerged out of EMDR therapy, they share some similarities but have key differences:

- Both use eye positions to access subconscious emotions. However, EMDR employs bilateral stimulation through eye movements, while brainspotting focuses on one fixed eye position at a time.

- EMDR aims to transfer traumatic memories from the subconscious emotional brain into conscious awareness for processing. Brainspotting assumes traumatic memories are best processed directly within the subcortical brain.

- EMDR utilizes standardized protocols. Brainspotting is more free-form and flexible in its approach, following the client's innate physiology and experience.

- With EMDR, therapists direct clients' eye movements. Brainspotting has clients find and focus on intuitive eye positions themselves.

While EMDR and brainspotting take different approaches, they can both provide powerful relief from trauma and other issues. Many therapists even incorporate techniques from both modalities.

So there you have it - the inside scoop on brainspotting! This innovative therapy leverages our eye positions for emotional healing and growth. At Reimagine Her Therapy, I now offer brainspotting therapy with EMDR.

By combining both highly focused and specialized modalities into 1-3 days of intensive treatment, I can provide focused, personalized, accelerated support for professional women and clients overcoming trauma, anxiety, and blocks to future performance—in-person or online. Feel free to reach out if you're ready to learn more about how brainspotting can help you spot and process longstanding pain points!