Brainspotting
Brain-Based Psychotherapy
"A Revolutionary Therapy for
rapid and effective change"
Events and episodes occur all the time, even ones that are seemingly rather ordinary can cause people to develop symptoms that give rise to clinical features. The brain can protect and guard us from experiencing emotions by putting us into shut-down mode, which keeps us completely cut off from our emotions or body feelings. Or it can also put one into a hyperarousal state such as flight or fight state of being. Such states are deeply unconscious survival mechanisms. Thus the goal of brainspotting is to help people move out of these states and back into balance and a state of equilibrium.
When the brain is developing, especially in the case of a child, it is not equipped to deal with and process all emotional input. So this can mean that some events, episodes, and occurrences in our lives are not integrated, but become suppressed because of the inability to process them at the time. Often as children, we do not know how to deal with our emotions, so we likely turn them inward and create beliefs about ourselves that later limit us. Such beliefs and thoughts can create maladaptive habits and patterns in our lives that keep us “stuck” and unfulfilled.
What does brainspotting treat?
Brainspotting is a useful technique for you, if you have worked on yourself for awhile and feel that you still can't shift something that is holding you stuck.
Brainspotting can be applied to: Physical and Emotional Trauma, Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Eating Disorders, Recovery from injury or accident Trauma, Trauma from medical interventions and treatment, Sports Performance, Creativity Enhancement, Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions, Addictions, Phobias, Trauma resulting from War and natural disasters, and much, much more.
Any life event which causes a person to feel very overwhelmed, helpless, or trapped, can become a “stuck” traumatic experience in the mind/body.
A brainspot is the eye position that is found and held that holds the activation of a stuck traumatic experience. The goal of brainspotting is to activate, locate and process the brainspot until there is a release and thus a reduction in symptoms.
Brainspotting stimulates the brain’s inherent capacity to heal itself from trauma. The therapist works with the client to locate the brainspot, then attunes to the client. Therapist and client observe together with curiosity and mindfulness the traumatic event that is buried deep within memory. Finding a brainspot enables the “processing of the experience”. The goal of this therapeutic process, or “focused mindfulness,” is the entire release of the blocked activation in the body and brain.
This release stimulates a spontaneous healing process that starts in the deeper brain, or the unconscious. After a certain time of processing, the client can experience deep relief from the distress that has been held deep in the mind and body from past “stuck” experiences.
We believe that brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s natural self-scanning, self-healing ability. When a brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain appears to reflexively signal the therapist that the source of the problem has been found. Brainspotting can also be used to find and strengthen our natural resources and resilience. Brainspotting is designed as a therapeutic tool that can be integrated into a many of healing modalities.”
–From David Grand’s Web site, http://www.brainspotting.pro