Brainspotting therapy is a type of alternative therapy that aims to help clients process through difficult emotions or traumatic experiences. It was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, Ph.D. and over 13,000 therapists have been trained in it. Brainspotting locates points in the client’s visual field that help to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain. It is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment that can be integrated into a wide range of healing modalities, including psychological as well as somatic approaches to treatment. Brainspotting can be useful as a complement to various body-based therapies including advanced bodywork, chiropractic, acupuncture, somatic therapies, physical therapy, nursing, medicine, and other specialized approaches to physical healing.
Brainspotting is effective for a wide variety of emotional and somatic conditions, particularly trauma-based situations, helping to identify and heal underlying trauma that contributes to anxiety, depression, and other behavioral conditions. It can also be used with performance and creativity enhancement. Brainspotting gives the therapist access to both brain and body processes, bypassing the conscious, neocortical thinking to access the deeper, more emotional and body-based processes from the subcortex part of the brain.
In brainspotting, different eye positions are used to help identify “brainspots” linked to certain experiences, emotions, or sources of distress. Once identified, brainspotting therapists use mindfulness techniques to help the client access, experience, and process through the thoughts and feelings stored in this brainspot. Brainspotting can be the primary mode of treatment or it can be integrated with the expertise that is already being provided.
