Looking for a deeper dive into Brainspotting? Let’s satisfy all the other brain
nerds out there with what Brainspotting is, how it impacts our nervous system and
general brain function. If you aren’t interested in the science- I have a TLDR just
for you.
What in the world is Brainspotting?
When we as humans experience a scary, stressful or traumatic event we might feel
overwhelmed, stressed, scared etc. Sometimes if those feelings linger than can
become “stuck” and stored in our bodies nervous system. Brainspotting is a
treatment that harnesses the mind and body’s natural self-scanning, self-healing
ability to process the trauma, distress and beliefs and help release and reorganize
them in our brains and body. Brainspotting is a body centered therapy and helps
people move away from their cognitive processing brain. Brainspotting is based on
the premise of “Where you look affects how you feel” and was discovered in 2003
by David Grand.
How Does it work?
Okay brain geeks, here you go!
We as therapists have learned that trauma truly is stored and lives in the body.
Brainspotting is one therapy that is often used to target those traumatic memories
in the body and help release them. I’ll explain a little how it works.
When we focus our eyes on a fixed spot in our visual field, our conscious mind
connects to our subconscious thoughts. Here is a quick example:
Imagine that room or closet in your house that is a COMPLETE DISASTER. You
know it is a disaster and it keeps becoming worse as time goes on, but you feel
overwhelmed with no knowing where to start. You finally just start shutting the
door and pretending it doesn’t exist because….it really seems easier! Hey nobody
goes in there anyway!
But even if we shut the door and can forget about it…it does not disappear or
leave. On the contrary, it is as if when you look near the door, or at similar rooms,
that discomfort comes right back, leaving you feeling tense, stressed or a number
of feelings. But often this only happens for a second and we move on with our days
and those big feelings might not even fully register. It does not often want to make
us clean this room, it tends to make us run from it because it might be too
complicated, or our body remembers those feelings we don’t like.
Processing on a brainspot simplifies all of that chaos of the room we mentioned
above. It allows you to organize all those events that are stored in your brain a neat
and tidy filing system where we can manage the bigger emotions and events that
have happened to us. HOW!? Finding our brainspot taps us into the fight-flight
freeze part of our brains. This is known as our lymbic system or reptilian brain.
Trauma can overtake this part of the brain and it’s processing ability. This leaves
unprocessed emotions left kind of frozen in our brains. It often leaves our brains
very disorganized and sometimes fragmented. Brainspotting finds us a door for us
to tap into the memory and the associated emotions with it.
What might a session look like?
As you talk with your Brainspotting therapist, you will identify what it is that you
want to focus on. The therapist will then help you get a sense of where you might
feel the stress/anxiety/tension in your body and rate how distressing it might be.
The therapist will then help you to identify a visual focal point that resonates with
the issue at hand and the associated body sensations and emotional experience.
You will sometimes use bilateral sound to stimulate your brain and body to begin to
organize and reorganize itself, releasing the material that is bringing about the
disturbance or blocking performance.
You may feel confused about what to “DO” once you find the spot. The key here is
to honestly just be curious! There is no wrong way to brainspot. You might see
images, feel body sensations, cry, hear words or feel that what you are thinking
about is completely unrelated to the issue you brought. ALL of this is great, and we
encourage you to just go where your body and mind go, and your therapist will be
attuned to you the entire session. Sometimes people report feeling lighter after a
session and often will have a gentle release of energy. Sometimes sessions might
feel more intense than others and we encourage you to not judge what you may be experiencing, but to remain curious.
Finally….
I know this sounds like it is VERY different from the talk therapy you are used to.
That’s because IT IS! I invite you to experience the journey your mind and body
might take in a session and give it a shot. There are no right answers and no right
way to experience this model of therapy. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions
about what this is or how it might be able to help you!
Happy Brainspotting
Bee Thomas, MSW, LICSW
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