Brainspotting Therapy

Approved by the British Psychological Society, Brainspotting® (BSP) is a revolutionary new power therapy which evolved from EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), and it also uses eye movement and bilateral stimulation but is gentler, more attuned and less technical/ protocol-driven than EMDR. 

Brainspotting is deep, direct, highly attuned and powerful body-brain relational therapy, yet it is focused and containing. It works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional /body pain, trauma, dissociation and other challenging symptoms. 

Brainspotting works with the deep brain and body through its direct access to the autonomic and limbic systems within the central nervous system. It offers an opportunity for profound change for many issues such as PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, Physical Pain, Chronic Illness, Complex Grief, Stress, Pain/ Chronic fatigue, ADHD, Phobias, Anger and much more.

Here is the link to the short video that provides an overview of Brainspotting

Brainspotting (BSP) is a revolutionary new therapy which evolved from EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing). It offers rapid and profound change for many issues such as PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, Physical Pain, Chronic Illness, and much more as well as performance blocks. It can also be used to enhance performance, to enter the states of flow and to help you with expansion, creativity and self-actualisation. 

Brainspotting is different from other psychotherapies and healing modalities in a variety of ways. It strategically utilises enhanced relational attunement and the client’s visual field to access their brains self-scanning and self-healing capabilities. 

BSP makes use of this natural phenomenon through its use of relevant eye positions. This helps the BSP therapist to locate, focus, process and release a wide range of emotionally and bodily-based conditions. BSP is also a brain-based tool to support the therapy relationship.

In essence, every emotional, physical, and mental state is mapped in our visual field. When we focus on these “spots” (called brainspots) in our visual field, it allows our system to successfully identify, process, and release core sources of physical/ emotional pain, trauma, and a variety of other challenging symptoms that are out of reach of the conscious mind. The Brainspotting therapist aids you in locating these “spots” in the visual field, allowing your system to successfully process them faster than conventional methods (effectively, by-passing slower, rational neocortical structures of the brain).

To quote David Grand – the founder of Brainspotting (2003):

“Where you look affects how you feel”

Evidence suggests that trauma is stored in the subcortical/ mid-brain (emotional brain), which regulates much of what the body does. As a result, traumatic events can leave a physiological imprint in the body. Brainspotting allows the therapist to access a client’s emotions on a deeper level, processing and releasing the neurophysiological effects of trauma, thus activating the body’s innate ability to heal itself.

Brain-based therapy is fast-growing growing in the field of psychological health because it has proven that it can immediately address issues that talk therapy can take years to heal.

Additional Benefits of BSP:

• Can be used to find and strengthen our natural resources and resilience
• Designed as a therapeutic tool, BSP can be integrated into many of the healing modalities
• Can be used with performance and creativity enhancement as well as any other form of expansion

Brainspotting has been found to be even more powerful when used with the enhancement of BioLateral Sound CD’s

BSP is by one of the most amazing therapies I have learned and used, and I am proud to have been a member of both the British BSP (BSPUK) and Polish training teams. I have translated many of Dr David Grand’s trainings for Polish therapists and I have also translated for and worked with many BSP trainers, consultants and therapists around the globe.

I am also a trained Brainspotting Therapist in Ruth Chiles´s method for resolving Focal Dystonia, which enables musicians, performers and athletes who suffer from this debilitating condition to return to full fluidity in their coordination and fine motor skills.

Below you can find a beautifully simple metaphor explaining how such a complex and deep therapy as Brainspotting works and why it is more effective than talking therapies (credit to a wonderful Australian colleague Roby Abeles – one of the most inspirational Brainspotting therapists and world class experts on addictions)

If you think of your brain like a coconut… 

It has an outer layer and an inner layer. 

The good news is Talk therapy can help the outer layer to understand what is troubling you, so you understand it better. But you still don’t feel better all over.

Like the outside of a coconut, it’s super easy to access understanding your troubles, just by talking. 

The bad news is Talking Therapies can’t get through to the inner layer – that’s where all the emotions and body sensations connected to what is troubling you are located.  

It’s challenging to open a coconut unless you know an easy way to do that. Therapies have struggled with this for decades. How to access the inner parts of the brain and have them process the rest of what troubles us.

Talking is good but it’s not enough.

Brainspotting is this easier way to get to the deeper/inside the brain (inside of the coconut) quickly, simply and easily.

We need to get to the deeper juicier part of the coconut to be able to process where in the brain those troubling thoughts/events are held.

Brainspotting uses a very simple technique of having you first talk briefly about what is troubling you and then your therapist asks you to notice any body sensations you are noticing as you talk.  

You notice that as you talk about the troubling event, your body starts to have sensations (which can also be troubling for you) e.g., tightness in your throat, stomach feels sick, heartbeat quickens etc.) in your body (the inside layer of the coconut).

Then, along with your therapist, you find an eye position that connects to those body sensations/ an eye position – which just means where your eyes are looking (up, down, left, right) which allows you to feel the body sensations fully.   

Astoundingly, there is an eye position that makes the body sensations feel stronger and another eye position which will still connect you to the troubling thought/event but with less sensation.  

This eye position is an easy way to (open the coconut) and easily bypass that outer layer and easily get through to the inner layer which is where the good parts are.  

This eye position is like a key that easily and effortlessly opens, and holds open the troubling event file in your brain, and when that happens it allows your brain’s own ability to heal itself to access the troubling event where it is held in this deeper part of your brain and rewire it, so all the unpleasant thoughts, emotions, and body sensations associated with the troubling event to resolve completely.

Talk therapies only access the cortical region of the brain, (see picture below) and cannot access the sub-cortical region of the brain at all which Brainspotting does. So, as you can see from the picture, talk-therapies are limited in their ability to resolve mental health issues, because they only access neocortex – a small portion of the whole brain.

Brainspotting accesses BOTH, so whole brain recovery is possible.

Brainspotting accesses the sub-cortical brain directly through the eyes and visual field. Towards the end of the Brainspotting session, the cortical brain is also accessed when we debrief the session cognitively and verbally, bringing your whole brain to the healing process and helping your brain integrate the new information.

Click here for more about Brainspotting https://brainspotting.com/