BRAINSPOTTING IS THE NEXT LEVEL ABOVE & BEYOND EMDR
What is stopping you from achieving the results you want (by yourself)?
BRAINSPOTTING IS THE CUTTING EDGE THERAPEUTIC APPROACH
If you believe having an empathetic and compassionate person to walk this journey with would be helpful, let’s talk.
I accept every individual and family where they are, without judgment, because that’s what I would want from a therapist.
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No Therapy, Brainspotting, or Hypnotherapy will work or be successful unless the client wants it to be. As much as they are willing to buy into the process and own their participation in the process is the degree to which they will experience change and a better life. Any coercion or pressure by the therapist will only create resistance, so there must be a strong therapeutic bond of trust and a safe, nonjudgmental environment in which the client can become vulnerable, let down their defenses, and experience something different than what they have always experienced, a new and better way.
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Beyond Brainspotting with David Grand
PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! Do not believe that you can come to counseling for one hour a week or every two weeks… (while having 167 hours a week outside of the session for you to enact and practice faithfully those things you learned in session). If you do not consistently work on change outside of the session you will accomplish nothing and your lifestyle will NOT change. You will simply be deceiving yourself and wasting my time (and your $). I have limited years remaining and want to invest my time and talents in those who do not take it for granted. As you review this website you will discover I am a very unconventional kind of counselor. If you want traditional counseling please go to one of the many cookie-cutter counselors offered in your area. I cannot want a better/healthier life for you than you do.
“I have personally experienced the benefits of brainspotting. Just with one session, I was able to relax the grip of burdensome perspective and it’s associated emotions, both of which I have carried a long time.” — Dr. Gabor Maté
Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk of The Body Keeps Score fame explains, “Attention to inner experience can help [individuals] to reorient themselves to the present…. This can open them up to attending to new, nontraumatic experiences and learning from them, rather than reliving the past over and over again. Via the process of Brainspotting, or focused mindfulness, you learn when you can be vulnerable and when you need to draw better boundaries. Rather than sabotaging, you can learn to dance in the gray area.”
THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS POWER OF BRAINSPOTTING
That people heal is not an accident or even a miracle. (Although it may feel like one!) People who have engaged in talk therapy for years are floored by the results of Brainspotting (BSP). Too, people with unexplained twitches, irrational fears, and random physical ailments find that symptoms clear. It’s not magic or placebo (because, in studies, the results have been proven to endure long term). It is sourced in neuroscience. The stream of conscious process of accessing and releasing the trauma stored the deep brain is so beautifully explained in Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, & Body in the Healing of Trauma.
TWO OF MANY REASONS WHY BRAINSPOTTING HEALS
In this post, I will address a couple key components of Brainspotting that contribute to healing. The first is learning to trust and not judge what’s happening in your thoughts and body, which includes emotions. And, the second is how body-centered therapies update a brain’s sense of time.
WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?
One of my favorite books is The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness by Antonio Damasio. Feelings are “mental experiences of body states,” which arise as the brain interprets emotions. What are emotions then? They are physical states arising from the body’s responses to external stimuli. For instance, if someone is threatened they might experience fear and it will either manifest as feeling angry or afraid or numb (depending on a person’s survival programming). Essentially, emotions originate in the body, outside of language (See emotions on Spirituality page herein).
TRUST WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
A Brainspotting practitioner will often say “trust what happens next.” Even dissociation or numbness or nothingness. Those are often defenses that have been created by the brain to protect an individual.
DISSOCIATION AND TRUST
Accessing emotion isn’t exactly the easiest thing on the planet. We are taught to avoid them at all costs, so suddenly inviting them can feel counterintuitive. If people in your past have felt dangerous then the brain does not differentiate between people who hurt you and this kind, compassionate therapist sitting in front of you. Emotions are vulnerable and the tendency for the brain is to shut them down.
If you trust those defenses, then your body realizes it is safe and will – in time – be more revelatory. Sometimes that takes a couple of sessions and sometimes, just the act of trusting a client’s mode of defense causes the body to tap into emotion almost immediately. You may suddenly start to cry, or you might feel like throwing up. As I said, emotions and physical sensations are both “of the body.” They are equally valid.
Stream of Consciousness
You might start a Brainspotting session by feeling angry about something that happened to you at work. Maybe your boss criticized you. The practitioner would have you check in with your body. You might notice heat rising up your legs, arms or torso. Or you might feel a sudden, sharp headache.
Trust what happens next. You might suddenly feel hip pain, and then be consumed by sudden grief that overtakes you like an ocean wave. You might have a memory of being 5 and an older cousin berating you. All of this is coming to you in stream of conscious form. It is not linear.
The Brain has no Sense of Time
The boss became the cousin who berated you 20 years ago. As an adult, we have the ability to advocate for ourselves, but sometimes we freeze up… just the way we did as a kid. The brain is 5 years old again. This isn’t conscious. But as you allow the body to feel the heat and aches and shakes, it is releasing all of the emotions and physical sensations that you repressed and shut down.
As you feel compassion for the 5-year old who was scared and intimidated, this creates an update in the brain.
Maybe the boss’ actions or words deserved a 5/10 on the anger scale, but you felt 10/10. When you process past transgressions, you will feel the 5/10 it deserves and take action to advocate for yourself. As the brain heals, it develops as stronger observer self who watches what is occurring. This can help you to hold an awareness of what happened before and differentiate it from what is happening now. The brain is able to sustain more activity and blood flow in the creative thinking part of the brain, so that you don’t get hijacked by the primal parts of the brain.
As you separate the past from the present, you are able to respond calmly to heated situations and advocate not only for your current self, but also for the confused and traumatized child self.
Brainspotting unpacks deep traumas. If you’ve felt stuck with your progress in other therapies, brainspotting can dig deeper. You may find other issues you’ve never confronted before. We’ll guide you on the role of brainspotting in recovery care. Along the way, we will cover important questions like:
What is brainspotting?
Is brainspotting the same as EMDR?
Is brainspotting hypnosis?
How does brainspotting help in addiction recovery?
In what ways does brainspotting relate to the continuum of addiction care?
What should I know before starting brainspotting for addiction?
What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting (BSP) is a therapy that reveals a client’s unprocessed traumas through fixed eye positions. Specific eye positions each link to their own “brainspot,” an area of the mind that retains thoughts and emotions. Clients fixate on troubling brainspots to uncover hidden mental challenges.
Brainspotting a relatively new way to treat many traumas and mental challenges. In addictions, brainspotting is used to expose hidden wounds that trigger the habit. For this article, we’ll highlight the role of brainspotting in addiction recovery. Brainspotting might be a good fit to work in tandem with your other therapies. In some programs, you might find yourself in BSP as you engage in CBT or DBT.
Brainspotting can help you if:
Had trouble reaching a significant breakthrough in previous therapies.
Are entering addiction therapy for the first time.
Feel intense anxiety, depression, or other emotions that don’t improve.
Have relapsed on multiple occasions due to overwhelming situations.
Difference Between Brainspotting, EMDR, Hypnosis, and SE
Brainspotting, EMDR, SE, and hypnosis cause similar brain states in clients. However, each method specializes differently for each client’s unique needs. Brainspotting (BSP) allows clients to guide themselves through their own subconscious. They choose what issue they’d like to start with. Then, they explore in and around it with only light guidance by their therapist. This method uses fixated, steady eye positions. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) also tackles client’s deep traumas. The therapist over stimulates the client’s senses to reduce the emotional weight of the chosen issue. EMDR usually uses rapid, repetitive eye motions. Hypnosis is different than Brainspotting (BSP) in that it takes on the powerful issues stored in a client’s mind. However, the therapist has a more active role by creating the hypnotic state for the client. They tell the client what to focus on, acting as the main direction for sessions. This is not true with BSP, the Client is always in control and awake during the process. Somatic experiencing (SE) uses small doses of trauma-related triggers to guide the client’s journey. The therapist guides the client by alternating between comforting and triggering experiences. This process trains a healthier mind-body response. EMDR, SE, and hypnosis each tend to be more structured types of mind-body therapy. These are great for clients who feel comfort from using very specific steps. BSP programs are ideal in addiction treatment when a client needs more freedom to confront their traumas. You may find that with more control over your own therapy, you’ll have a more meaningful and rewarding experience.
Brainspotting Therapy Explained
Brainspotting treatment lets clients dive into their deeper burdens. BSP therapy is based largely on modified methods from two other therapies:
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
Together, these work to diagnose and treat potential roots of your trauma or maladaptive thoughts, emotions and behaviors. The basic process of brainspotting distills down to: Revealing repressed traumas via guided brainspotting sessions. Physical & mental healing by allowing unprocessed trauma to be released.
In some programs, additional methods might also be applied to assist your healing. You might reform your thoughts and behaviors via CBT-based therapy methods. All clients in brainspotting therapy programs receive a similar core treatment system. Format is based in psychotherapy, aka talk therapy. The therapist primes the client to explore their subconscious, then guides them to sort and mend any baggage. Structure is led by the client. While the client’s vision is directed into a challenging brainspot, they are allowed to fixate and dive into this mental area as much as they choose to. Length can sometimes range from 2 or 3 sessions to many more. This depends on the severity of one’s mental trauma. Resolving issues with CBT-based methods may extend the program length. As with any therapy, the skills you learn will determine much of your success. Skills Learned in Brainspotting: Few direct skills are learned from brainspotting alone. Its focus is primarily revealing hard-to-access feelings and thoughts. True processing may involve other therapies. However, some skills learned in BSP might include:
Overcoming fears of vulnerability
Embracing change to thoughts and feelings
Becoming more self-aware and confident
Familiarity with the power of emotional release
Becoming mindful of how you hold stress in your body
Beyond brainspotting, you as a client might also engage in traditional therapy. Skills gained from CBT methods can include:
Identifying and discussing problem areas in a goal-oriented way.
Targeting and breaking down unhealthy beliefs and their triggers.
Embracing the permanence of your past to focus on bettering your “present.”
Getting down to the roots of your reactive behaviors to change them.
As the discoveries in brainspotting tap into your problem areas, you begin to understand yourself better. This is the ideal foundation for change in recovery. Repeated engagement in brainspotting sessions is the key to honest progress.
Brainspotting Sessions Explained
Brainspotting sessions familiarize clients with the mind-body relationship to trauma. You, as a client, are given a safe space to explore overwhelming experiences. Your therapist gives you a simple toolset to start the journey, then helps process what you discover. An initial session usually takes place, then the true work begins shortly after. Brainspotting is driven by the saying, “where you look affects how you feel.” Steps of the brainspotting process usually are:
Client brings up a troubling issue they’d like to explore.
Therapist helps them pinpoint physical feelings attached to the issue.
Client locates the negative feelings in their body.
Therapist guides the client’s vision into different areas with a pointing rod.
Client notes increased or decreased negative feelings in eye positions.
Therapist notes unsteady eye movements in specific eye positions.
Client is allowed to fixate their vision in the most troubling, unsteady spots.
Client shares related thoughts, feelings, and memories that can be recalled.
Therapist helps the client process and sift through the information.
While the client guides much of this exploration, the therapist has an important role. The therapist sets up a session around a dual attunement. This helps the client:
Be in-tune with their own mind-body connection.
Be in-tune with their connection to the therapist.
This awareness helps you—as a client—to be open with yourself and your therapist.
How Brainspotting Works
Client focuses vision on a physical point that is moved by the therapist. This might be the end of a pointer rod or the therapist’s finger. The therapist moves this point-of-focus to lead the client into “brainspots.” Once the therapist recognizes a spot that causes an irregularity in the client’s eye movement, the therapist allows the client to stay in that spot. It’s up to the client to explore any feelings or thoughts attached to this mental space. They are free to go as deeply or as shallow as they’d like. However, the emotions in these affected brainspots tend to take hold and spontaneously get the client to speak freely. As a client, you may uncover truths that you may not realize you had within yourself. By nature, some of these thoughts might be intense and difficult to face. You should feel you are in a safe space to confide any burden as you move towards recovery. Signs of progress might be changes that are felt both physically and mentally. As you release and process, you may feel various shifts in your thoughts or emotions. Post-session processing still continues long after emotional discoveries are made. In fact, brainspotting can cause healing in other parts of your life beyond addiction.
Other Conditions Treatable by Brainspotting
As you explore brainspots, you might see addiction as a symptom of other problems. Troubling thoughts and behaviors can have similar root traumas and triggers. Especially in dual diagnosis, you may find progress across multiple conditions. In addition to addiction, these conditions are treatable by BSP:
Brainspotting
What is brainspotting?
Brainspotting (BSP) is a type of therapy that helps people access, process and overcome challenges such as trauma, difficult emotions, grief, anxiety and feeling stuck.
BSP incorporates the mind, body, mindfulness tools and eye position to assist in creating change. Through BSP we can reprocess negative events and retrain emotional reactions.
What types of problems can brainspotting help with?
All types of Trauma
Grief
Anxiety
Anger
Impulsive behaviors
Substance use
Alcoholism
Phobias or fears
Performance (including creative and physical)Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Abuse
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Chronic pain
Persistent fatigue
Phobias
Depression
Revealing underlying traumas may just be the beginning of long-term care. Brainspotting can serve as an initiation into a greater care plan for you.
How Brainspotting relates to the Continuum of Addictions Care
When you begin recovery, you are entering a lifelong commitment to sobriety. The continuum of addiction care (CoC) serves as connective tissue for lasting recovery. This continuous system of treatment programs prevents gaps in care that could result in relapse. Starting with detoxification, you would be “stepped-down” through addiction care. This chain of treatment programs move all the way into fully independent sobriety. NCBI says that the stages of the continuum of addiction care are:
Level 0.5: early intervention services
Level 1: outpatient services
Level 2: intensive outpatient or partial hospitalization services
Level 3: residential or inpatient treatment services
Level 4: medically managed intensive inpatient treatment services
Brainspotting therapy fits as an intensive intervention. Clients might need protective care and stabilizing first, but can engage in BSP at many points along the continuum. Treatments before therapy almost always include detox. BSP treatments can begin once you are in sobriety. You might also partake in sessions that complement BSP, like cognitive-behavioral therapy. Most clients in BSP are already on the road to sobriety and stable enough for therapy. They may return to it if they run into struggles or relapse.
What to Know before starting Brainspotting Therapy
Brainspotting treatment may not be ideal for everyone, so take care in your decision. You might consider the following before starting: Painful revelations can be essential to progress. Sometimes, you have to be willing to go to places of hurt to see yourself recover. Be sure that you are prepared to embrace the full therapy experience, even if it gets a bit rough. Repressed experiences can overwhelm you.
If you have any deep emotional instability, you should be sure that your therapist is aware. BSP discoveries may rapidly trigger mental disorders, so these should be considered for everyone’s safety. For deep trauma, do not practice brainspotting alone. This type of therapy requires a safe, controlled space for you to unpack your emotions. Stimulating deeply painful areas may make your condition worse if you cannot process it safely. Since brainspotting is a fairly new practice, your local area may not offer a program.
Takeaways on Brainspotting
In summary, you’ll find that brainspotting tackles many issues linked to addiction. You’ve already taken the first step towards getting the most out of your BSP sessions. To recap, you’ve learned:
Brainspotting is a mind-body talk therapy used to process deep mental challenges.
BSP puts clients in a similar state, but is more fluid and client-driven than EMDR and hypnosis.
BSP helps addiction clients release repressed and unprocessed traumas that feed their habit.
Brainspotting can serve as a core therapy in your continuum of addiction care.
Your therapist should be certified, experienced, and make you comfortable.
Ultimately, brainspotting can be the change you need to avoid relapse and achieve lasting sobriety. Know someone who could benefit from learning about brainspotting? Please like and share this post with them. Or, leave your questions or comments about this relatively new therapy below! We’re always looking for ways to keep the conversation about recovery going. Education is one of the most powerful tools we have to fight addiction.
John 17:21 - I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you.
