In my work with trauma survivors, I now offer Brainspotting (BSP), which is a revolutionary new way to efficiently process and resolve deeply rooted traumas, messages about self and the world, somatic (body-based) symptoms, and other issues in a safe, contained format.
BSP is a psychotherapy approach based in the way that the field of vision can be used to locate eye positions that correlate with relevant inner neural paths and emotional experience. After they are located, these eye positions, or ‘Brainspots’, may, through maintaining eye fixation, lead to healing and resolution of issues that are held deeply in the non-verbal, non-cognitive (subcortical) areas of one’s brain.
Brainspotting aims at a full, comprehensive discharge of activation (emotional distress) held in the brain and body. One way to think about this is imagining a capsule in the brain, holding all of the traumatic material, opening up and pouring the contents (e.g. mind/body pain, memories, dissociation and other challenging symptoms) out. The client’s only job during this process is to mindfully observe any and everything that comes up, without pushing any experience away. In this sense it can seem like a rollercoaster ride witnessing all that comes out, but if one holds on, the end of the ride can bring peace and freedom like nothing experienced before.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of BSP (as compared to other modalities of trauma treatment) is that it utilizes the brain and body’s inherent internal resources to contain and cope with the emotional reactions. Other treatment approaches require several sessions of instilling external resources to make the process feel safer; in Brainspotting, the client is empowered to begin processing experiences more directly and efficiently, as soon as the first session if desired.
BSP is especially applicable for treating trauma. People often respond to traumatic experiences through primitive fight, flight or freeze instincts. BSP allows clients to significantly reduce and eliminate the tension and hyper- or hypo-arousal associated with these survival instincts. Clients can look forward to integrating healing on emotional, somatic, psychological, spiritual and even physical levels.
For further information on this modality I am so excited to offer, you can check out some videos here:
https://brainspotting.com/about-bsp/what-is-brainspotting/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FO_udVWkqA&t=136s
https://www.pacifictraumacenter.com/media#
And here is a link to some of the studies that have evaluated this highly promising therapy:
https://brainspotting.com/about-bsp/research-and-case-studies/