Brainspotting is a powerful, brain-based therapy that uses the visual field to locate,
process, and release sources of emotional and physical trauma held deep in the brain and body.
Brainspotting uses the visual field to locate where the trauma and distress is stored in the brain by
observing the body reflexes to certain eye positions. It uses a pointer to locate a specific spot in
the field of vision called a brainspot. When you hold your gaze on these brainspots and bring
awareness to how you are feeling in your body, then you can release these pent-up physical
feelings of stress, tension, and anxiety. At the same time, by releasing these physical symptoms,
you can move through and process the emotional and mental thoughts and feelings that have
been building up over time. As you release all these mental and physical pain points, your brain
then gains the ability to reprocess these emotions, thoughts, and memories like it would any
other normal memory in a more positive way.
Brainspotting is not a tool or a modality, but rather it is the process of attuning to clients, so their brains can go where they need to go to heal. Attunement is the single most important factor in Brainspotting, and it is in the safety of the relationship between therapist and client that healing happens.
I learned about Brainspotting when my former supervisor told me that I needed to sign up for a
cutting-edge training that she coined as the power therapy for adoptees. As an adoptee myself, I
was intrigued, and I completed my first training in June of 2017 at the start of graduate school. I
was among the inaugural group of clinicians trained in Brainspotting in Indiana, and I have completed eight other training courses since then.
I have witnessed profound shifts in clients’ lives using Brainspotting, and clients are amazed at their capacity to heal. I love Brainspotting, because it can be seamlessly integrated with other modalities, and clients can be taught how to do Brainspotting on their own at home. It is built on the premise that deep healing will happen as the clinician follows the lead of the client in knowing best what her system needs, and this increases self-trust in the client.
I have early developmental, attachment, and adoption trauma, so I was interested to see
how Brainspotting would help me. I was withdrawn and shutdown, as a child, and I used avoidance and isolation as my main coping tools. I found it hard to engage with others due to the relational trauma I had endured throughout my life, and I was blessed to work with an amazing Brainspotting therapist for several years. He had suffered through his own childhood traumas, so he was able to provide a space where my younger parts felt safe.
It is amazing how having my pain witnessed for the first time in my life helped to release burdens that I no longer needed to carry. We would do Part Spotting in which I imagined a younger version of myself walking into the room, and I would find the spot where I intuitively knew this part was. It is powerful to engage with these young, hurting parts who were largely ignored and to allow them to know that they are no longer alone in their pain and suffering. I can hold space for these parts and provide the attunement and safety they so desperately needed when I was younger. Brainspotting has helped me to understand myself better, and I can engage much more with people.
I would like to highlight another Brainspotting training that I completed called Expansion Brainspotting, and it is my favorite training that I have done. Some clients are fragile and need a gentler approach to Brainspotting and Expansion is what I love to use with these clients. Expansion works with hope and possibility, and clients can choose to work with a goal or a feeling state that they want more of such as peace or joy. They are encouraged to remember specific moments when they remember feeling this most strongly, and they can discover what their best shot is at connecting to whatever it is they need in that moment. They lean into their felt sense and locate where they feel the positive expansion possibility in their body. Then, the Expansion Brainspot is located with the pointer. It is a privilege to witness clients learn to discover and love themselves.
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