What Is Brainspotting?
While the name “Brainspotting” isn’t exactly intuitive, Brainspotting itself is a simple, subtle, yet highly impactful, treatment.
Brainspotting is an advanced mind-body approach for supporting the healing of anxiety, depression, treatment-resistant chronic pain, PTSD, and other symptoms of trauma. It’s one of the few approaches that addresses the root cause, rather than only the symptoms.
The eyes are a window into the brain.
Brainspotting is based on the understanding that when your gaze moves to certain positions, your mind and subconscious connect with deep emotional experiences that are often unreachable with other approaches to healing trauma. Perhaps surprisingly, by gazing at a specific point, it can help you find, focus in on, process, and release experiences and symptoms that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind.
What Is Brainspotting Used For?
Brainspotting can support positive changes with many issues. If you have ever felt stuck in your life, or find yourself repeating an undesired habit, Brainspotting may help you finally move forward. It has been used to help treat PTSD, chronic pain, panic attacks, undesired habits, depression, anxiety, performance challenges, sleeplessness, issues with anger, self-esteem problems, mental trauma, and many other emotional blocks that may be impacting your quality of life. Brainspotting can be used in conjunction with other forms of counselling.
The Science Behind Brainspotting
Studies show the efficacy of Brainspotting therapy for treating anxiety, trauma, and other issues. Many people report that it was the most beneficial therapy given for helping them manage their symptoms following a traumatic event.
Brainspotting focuses on healing from the most primitive parts of your brain first, followed by the emotional centres, then connects with the more cognitive or thinking parts of your mind, to help you understand these deeper feelings. Because pain and trauma are stored in the sensory, nonverbal areas of the brain, this style of therapy is uniquely helpful in the healing process. Brainspotting can help locate the root of where your symptoms are held and can support a deeper release when a connection is made. This is vital, as many trauma survivors may have subconsciously blocked the memories of very painful events, which means that talk therapy often cannot help them fully.
Benefits of Brainspotting May Include:
- Reduction of uncomfortable or painful symptoms
- Ability to put a traumatic event behind you
- Feeling more in control of your life
- Increased confidence
- Embracing feelings and learning how to better self-regulate
- Increased understanding and awareness of your body and emotions
What To Expect In A Brainspotting Session
When we have a Brainspotting session, we will first talk about what specific issue you would like to work on. We will talk about this issue, and the situation surrounding it, and while we do so, you’ll be asked to be mindful of how you feel both physically and mentally.
From here, we will identify the eye position or ‘brainspot’ associated with the experience connected to your particular challenge. A brainspot isn’t actually a little spot in your brain, rather, it is a whole network in your mind that can connect and help you to release an issue. Your focused gaze will assist us to go to the exact spot where the memory or pattern is stored in your subconscious mind and body. When a brainspot is activated, you may experience reflex movements which are a good indicator that you are beginning to go towards a place of healing. These reflexive movements are deep within your brain, and something that will happen automatically.
At the end of the session, we will work together to make sure you feel ready to be out in the world again, and you should leave feeling calmer and more aware. Afterwards, you may find you continue to have fresh realizations and feelings, this is normal and usually is a gentle unfolding. My fee is $175 Canadian, including tax.