What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a powerful brain/body-based, somatic healing modality used to treat many different problems that people bring to therapy. In Brainspotting, the client and therapist locate points in a client’s visual field (“Brainspots”), which help the client better access unprocessed trauma (or other issues) held in the subcortical brain.
Trauma (and other difficult, charged experiences) often overwhelms a person’s nervous system. Brainspotting helps ease this “nervous system overload,” enabling the individual to release neurophysiological and emotional pain and trauma held in the deepest parts of the brain.
Brainspotting gives the therapist access to both brain and body (somatic) processes. Its goal is to bypass the conscious, neocortical, “thinking brain” in order to access the deeper, subcortical emotional and body-based (somatic) parts of the brain.
So….What is a “Brainspot?”
A Brainspot is a point in a person’s visual field that greatly enhances access to memories held in the limbic brain. Trauma and other charged experiences can become “encapsulated” in areas not accessible to the neocortex (the logical part of our brain that helps us organize and problem-solve). Brainspots are located in various ways, either by the client, the therapist–or both in collaboration.
“Where you look affects how you feel.”
When you think or talk about an emotionally-charged issue, certain body sensations or emotions may spontaneously increase when looking at a particular place in your visual environment. Other times, the therapist may notice reflexive responses in the client (facial expressions, blinking, swallowing, changes in their breathing, etc.) when they gaze in a particular direction.
Brainspots may also be identified which correlate with pleasant memories or body sensations. These “Resource Spots” are used in Brainspotting to help clients connect with and increase more positive feelings. Resource Spots and other “Self-Brainspotting” techniques can be used by clients in their daily life for grounding, calming anxiety, or further enhancing work done in Brainspotting therapy sessions.
What Types of Issues Does Brainspotting Work For?
Brainspotting is used for a wide variety of emotional, somatic and behavioral conditions. Brainspotting is particularly effective for people who experience dysregulation caused by trauma. It is also helpful for people experiencing anxiety, depression, substance use issues, insomnia, and physical pain. Brainspotting is also used to enhance one’s performance in sports, music, the arts, creativity, becoming more organized–or any area where a person desires to grow.