What Is a Brainspot?
Brainspotting Therapy (BSP) is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional and body pain. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with bilateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.
New brain science shows that even minor trauma, such as hurt feelings, can leave tiny splinter-like spots in your brain. A Brainspot corresponds to an eye position that indicates energetic activation of an emotionally-charged issue in the subcortical limbic part of the brain. Some people mistakenly believe that Brainspots only locate trauma in the brain. Actually, there are countless points in our field of vision that allow us to reach any aspect of ourselves. Brainspots are access points for creativity and wounds. Brainspotting can strengthen our natural resources and resilience. Brainspots are revealed to me by your eye position paired with your reflexive responses.
There is a finding in neuroscience that where you look affects how you feel. Clients are helped to find a “spot” that either increases their “felt sense” of an experience (known as an activation spot), or a “spot” that corresponds to the “felt sense” of being calm and grounded (known as a resource spot). The client then processes the experiences by observing changes in sensations and any thoughts or images that come. A brain-body connection is made that eventually reduces the intensity of an experience until it can be recalled as a factual instead of a triggering emotional event.
How Does It Work?
The Brainspot can be accessed and stimulated by holding the client’s eye position while the client is focused on the somatic (body-sensory) experience of the issue addressed in therapy. Brainspotting is aimed at activating, locating, and processing the Brainspot. Bilateral sounds can be used to enhance the brain’s processing abilities by alternately stimulating right and left cerebral hemispheres.
Like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Brainspotting addresses the physical manifestations of trauma in the brain and makes the healing process much faster and gentler.
Brainspotting is created to help you process feelings and memories down to where you feel calm and at ease. Your brain and body know everything about you and exactly what you need to heal. As your Brainspotting therapist I act as a grounding force to guide you through to your deepest healing.
What Conditions Does Brainspotting Treat
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- All forms of trauma
- Anxiety
- ADHD
- Anger issues
- Phobias
- Substance Abuse
- Chronic pain
- Impulse control issues
- Sports performance issues
- Helps to remove blocks and many other issues.
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Who Discovered It?
Dr. David Grand, a well-known and published EMDR practitioner and psychotherapist discovered Brainspotting in 2003. Brainspotting is a brain-body based therapy that includes aspects of EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, and relational psychotherapy. Brainspotting was found to be the most effective mode of therapy used to help the general community of Newtown-Sandy Hook, CT, after the December, 2014, school shooting.