Brainspotting

 

Brainspotting is a relatively new brain-body alternative therapy that uses eye positioning to process difficult emotions and unresolved traumatic experiences. This therapy was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, PhD, while Dr. Grand was working with eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. EMDR involves side-to-side eye movements in combination with talk therapy to reprocess traumatic events and replace negative feelings or thoughts with more positive ones.

Although there’s limited research on exactly how brainspotting works and the extent to which it’s effective, Dr. Grand’s studies from 2013 and 2015 have suggested that brainspotting works as a brain-body therapy by “resetting” traumatic events so people can fully process them as they would any other normal experience. Then, they can heal from them and move past them.

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Benefits of Brainspotting

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In a small study from 2017, Dr. Grand found that brainspotting showed a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms after three 60-minute brainspotting sessions. A different comparative study from 2022 showed that single sessions of EMDR, body scan meditation, or brainspotting all showed beneficial effects in processing distressing memories, suggesting brainspotting is as successful as other reputable brain-body therapies.

Brainspotting seems to benefit:

• Anxiety.

• Depression.

• PTSD.

• Chronic pain.

• Sleep.

• Creativity.

That said, some people may experience discomfort during brainspotting sessions, particularly when trauma is involved. And it’s common to feel fatigued or experience brain fog after a brainspotting session because of the physical exhaustion that accompanies the release of extreme tension and emotional stress.

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​​​The Theory behind brainspotting therapy?

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Brainspotting works based on the theory that trauma can get “stuck” in your body and disrupt your brain’s ability to register what’s happening, process the event and heal from the trauma.

When you experience something traumatic, the details and memories of the event can get suppressed or “buried” in the back of your mind, along with all the associated feelings. When this happens, especially if something traumatic from your childhood resurfaces or is triggered at other points later in life. When you have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for example, you can re-experience or re-live some of those traumatic moments through flashbacks, feelings and memories that resurface, likely because your brain never fully processed or healed from the original traumatic event.

“As the therapist moves the pointer, the therapist would ask you to notice where your physical body sensations are, where your thoughts and emotions are becoming the hottest or the most intense for you,” explains Duke. “And then, they would move the pointer up and down from there in order to locate the brainspot, which is the area of focus that causes the most hot spots of hot emotions and hot spots of physical body feeling.”

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By activating brain spots, being mindful of what’s occurring in your body, and focusing on mindfulness around the events or situations you want to work on in general, the therapy is believed to allow your brain to process these experiences completely rather than leaving them unfinished.

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“The idea is that we store trauma in our midbrain and brainstem regions, and sometimes, these distressing memories, traumas, thoughts and feelings can kind of get stuck there,” reiterates Duke. “Using certain eye movements and gazes in EMDR and brainspotting, we can help our bodies reprocess these traumas or distressing emotions.”

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Brainspotting sessions can last 30 to 90 minutes, depending on what you need from the experience and where you are in your treatment process with your therapist.

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Unlike EMDR, which is very structured and follows a series of phases, brainspotting is fluid and consists of some general steps. Brainspotting therapy will be different for everyone, sometimes, from one session to the next.

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But in general, here are some things you might expect from a brainspotting session:

• Information gathering. Your therapist will describe the technique and the process of brainspotting and address any questions or concerns you have. If they don’t have a previous history or relationship with you, they’ll ask you questions about what led you to make an appointment for brainspotting, as well as questions related to your medical and mental health history.

• What to focus on. When gathering information, your therapist will likely ask you about your intentions for brainspotting and if there’s any specific focus or goal you hope to get out of the therapy. Sometimes, people come to brainspotting knowing what they want to work on, but this isn’t always true. “A person might want to process something around their childhood or an event that happened that was very distracting to them, or they may come to brainspotting for help with a conflict, anxiety or depression,” says Duke. “If you’re not sure what you want to focus on, you’re focusing more on the feelings in your body and where you feel those feelings. Is it in your stomach? In your lower back? What do those feelings feel like? What do they remind you of? Remember, with brainspotting, there’s a focus on mindful awareness and holding space and the therapist’s attunement to your needs.”

• The pointer. When the session begins, your therapist will use a pointer and ask you to follow it with your eyes as it slowly moves within your field of vision. As they move it, they’ll ask you to pay attention to any thoughts or feelings (physical, emotional or mental) that come up for you. You can communicate that with your therapist when you feel them at their strongest. Your therapist will also watch for physical signs and facial expressions that indicate a natural reflexive response to mindful awareness, like eye twitches, excessive blinking, pupil dilation, brow furrowing, sniffs, swallows, coughs, foot movements and body shifting.

• The brainspot. Once you and your therapist have identified the location of your brain's spot, you’ll hold the gaze on the pointer for as long as needed. While you hold your gaze, you’re simply processing your thoughts, feelings and emotions, as well as any physical symptoms that come and go, the way you would if you were meditating. “With brainspotting, the therapist is like a gentle witness to it as opposed to an active participant. You’re not going to get many questions,” notes Duke. “If a therapist hasn’t heard from you in a while, or if you start to express some physical symptoms, they might check in and make sure everything is OK or if there’s anything you want to share.”

• Physical discomfort. In brain-body therapy, you might experience some physical symptoms associated with anxiety, stress, tension or discomfort as you allow yourself to experience these pain points and process these thoughts and emotions completely. Allow yourself to feel these things, acknowledge that they exist and sit in your awareness for as long as you feel comfortable. Some physical symptoms are expected and normal. But if you need to take a break at any point or need to stop, you can always communicate that with your therapist at any point for any reason. “When you’re anxious, you know the areas in your body where you feel it. You might feel it in your stomach. You might feel tension in your shoulders or your chest. And similar to meditation, when we’re silent, these feelings can intensify and then come down or ebb and flow,” explains Duke. “The therapist will hold space for you as you confront those difficult emotions and experiences, and they will check in with you from time to time and ask you if you need a moment or a break if it gets too much. That’s important, especially for trauma treatment.”

• Closing out. At the session's close, your therapist will likely go over how you feel about your experience. They may ask if there’s anything you want to discuss regarding what you felt during the session, what thoughts came up and how they were associated with the physical symptoms you experienced. They’ll likely also talk through the next steps of your treatment plan and what you can expect from future sessions.

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Is brainspotting right for you?

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“With these kinds of therapies, you do them because you’re often feeling stuck, you’re having trouble accessing these feelings, and you’re not making other progress in these areas,” clarifies Duke. “EMDR and brainspotting may be able to help get you unstuck.”

Talk to a healthcare provider before starting any brain-body therapy, especially if you have a diagnosed mental health condition like:

• Bipolar disorder.

• Schizophrenia.

• Major depressive disorder.

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If you’re considering brain-body therapy, be prepared to tackle whatever comes up. Brainspotting can be taxing and sometimes difficult physically, emotionally, and mentally, especially if you have other things going on or have left unfinished in other areas of your life.

“You want to be ready at a point in your life where you feel you’re ready for brain-body therapy like brainspotting because stuff is going to come up,” advises Duke.

“I wouldn’t necessarily recommend doing this when you’re in a stressful phase of your life, like changing jobs or having a new baby, because a lot could come up. So, you want to be emotionally available for yourself, and you want to create a space to process whatever comes up while you’re having this treatment.”