What is Brainspotting and How is it used to Treat PTSD and Complex PTSD?

“Where you look affects how you feel.”

Have you ever been deep in thought about something- what was making you anxious or the abuse you endured at the hands of an unpredictable caretaker- and noticed your eyes fixed in a certain spot? You just engaged in brainspotting, an evidenced-based approach that helps tap into both the brain and the body for healing.

Brainspotting for PTSD and Complex PTSD

Clients who have experienced trauma typically avoid any reminders of the trauma, dissociated at the time of trauma, or the trauma occurred in the pre-verbal stage of development. Because trauma overwhelms the brain, the contents of the trauma are not processed appropriately and the trauma leaves clients with powerful lessons about themselves that shape their lives. (Ex. I’m unlovable and worthless, I can’t trust anyone and need to be vigilant, being perfect and always in control keeps me safe, etc).

If you bring up an issue in therapy, there are places in your field of vision that are connected to the neural networks that hold information about that particular issue. That’s exactly what a brainspot is. Clusters of neural networks holding information. Because our eyes are directly connected to the brain, we use their orienting reflex (aka it’s not about what you’re looking at, it’s about WHERE, which means you can even keep your eyes closed) to find brainspots.

How Brainspotting Works:

When clients find the brainspot with my guidance, the brain engages in it’s natural process. Because Brainspotting is not your typical talk therapy, the quiet moments allow clients to activate the regions in the brain associated with survival responses and emotional regulation. This is something traditional talk therapy struggles to do.

What brainspotting helps clients to do is to access the traumatic material and process the material to low distress levels or no distress at all. Once the neural networks have been opened through finding the brainspot, I use my grounding presence to guide the client to mindfully focus on whatever the brain is bringing up. Think body sensations, flashes of memories, or thoughts.

Brainspotting is powerful because it helps unlock traumatic content that may have been completely out of awareness. It allows clients to make space for and genuinely process emotions, body sensations, and memories associated with trauma instead of feeling ruled by them or running from them.

What Does A Typical Brainspotting Session Look Like:

First, I ask clients to pick an issue. That might be a broad feeling of worthlessness or a very specific distressing memory. I then ask clients to notice where in their body they’re noticing sensations. I often ask them to rate their distress from 0-10 with 10 being the highest level of distress. I then guide clients to find a brainspot either with a pointer or via a gazespot.

With my support, clients remain mindfully focused on the content that their brain brings up. I help clients stay with painful material in a way that makes it safe to do so. Clients no longer feel that deep sense of aloneness that they likely did at the time the trauma occurred. I invite my clients to be curious about what their brain is bringing up because it all has a purpose.

At the end of a brainspotting session, we check on the level of distress tied to the issue brought up at the beginning. We spend time talking about what felt really important. This is where new meaning can be made and those powerful lessons described above can be altered or dissolved. Because of this and because of the long lasting effects of Brainspotting even six months after sessions, people find that they don’t have to work nearly as hard to live their lives, handle previously avoided situations, and connect to themselves.

It’s a beautiful thing to witness.

Why Choose Brainspotting Over Traditional Talk Therapy?

If you’ve given traditional talk therapy a try and it just hasn’t changed anything or alleviated your suffering, Brainspotting may be worth the try. You don’t have to talk about your entire life timeline and you don’t necessarily need to talk during a session.

I love this modality because it’s collaborative. There are no strict protocols or scripts. It lends itself to clients with not only single incident trauma but complex trauma that was endured early on in life and for a prolonged period of time. While it is great for treating trauma, it is also just as useful for treating things like anxiety, depression, grief, pain, and low self-worth.

If you’re interested in exploring how Brainspotting may be a fit for you, schedule a free 15-minute consult here.