What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a        simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.

Brainspotting functions as a neurobiological tool to support the clinical healing relationship. There is no replacement for a mature, nurturing therapeutic presence and the ability to engage another suffering human in a safe and trusting relationship where they feel heard, accepted, and understood.

Brainspotting gives us a tool, within this clinical relationship, to neurobiologically    locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms  that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and language capacity.

Brainspotting works with the deep brain and the body through its direct access to the autonomic and limbic systems within the body’s central nervous system.           Brainspotting is accordingly a physiological tool/treatment which has profound          psychological, emotional, and physical consequences.

“Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the    patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the    amygdala. It isn’t just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis.”              -Robert Scaer, MD, “The Trauma Spectrum”

It is theorized that Brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s innate self-scanning capacity to process and release focused areas (systems) which are in a maladaptive homeostasis (frozen primitive survival modes). This may also explain the ability of Brainspotting to often reduce and eliminate body pain and tension  associated with physical conditions. 

A “Brainspot” is the eye position which is related to the energetic/emotional activation of a traumatic/emotionally charged issue within the brain, most likely in the amygdala, the hippocampus, and/or the orbitofrontal cortex of the limbic system.       Located by eye position, paired with externally observed and internally experienced   reflexive  responses, a Brainspot is actually a physiological subsystem holding emotional experience in memory form. 

When a Brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain reflexively signals the therapist that an area of significance has been located. This typically happens out of  the client’s       conscious awareness. There are a multitude of reflexive responses, including eye twitches, wobbles, freezes, blinks (hard and double blinks) pupil dilation and            constriction, narrowing, facial tics, brow furrowing, sniffs, swallows, yawns, coughs, head nods, hand  signals, foot movement and body shifting. Reflexive facial               expressions are powerful  indicators of Brainspots.

The appearance of a reflexive response as the client attends to the somatosensory    experience of the trauma, emotional or somatic problem is an indication that a Brainspot has been located and activated. The Brainspot can then be accessed and stimulated by holding the client’s eye position while the client is focused on the somatic/sensory experience of the symptom or problem being addressed in the therapy.

The maintenance of  that eye position/Brainspot within the attentional focus on the body’s “felt sense” of that issue or trauma stimulates a deep integrating and healing process within the brain. This processing, which appears to take place at a reflexive or cellular level within the nervous system, brings about a de-conditioning of previously conditioned, maladaptive  emotional and physiological responses. Brainspotting  appears to stimulate, focus, and activate the body’s inherent capacity to heal itself from trauma.

In “inside window” Brainspotting the therapist and client participate together to locate Brainspots through the client’s felt sense of the experience of the highest intensity of affect/body distress. Brainspotting can be done with one eye or two. Brainspotting can be directed at distress and Brainspotting can be directed at establishing and strengthening resources. 

Brainspotting is also very useful to access and develop internal resource states end experiences. These resources allow the therapist and patient, where necessary, to “pendulate” between resource or positive states and trauma states during Brainspotting to enable more gradual, graded processing and desensitization of intensely traumatic and emotionally charged issues and symptoms.

Brainspotting processes down to the reflexive core. Often when it appears one has reached a zero distress level, a new strata or floor is broken through, probing deeper into the brain. The reflexive core is in the deep, unconscious body brain. It is as out of our awareness as  respiration, circulation, and digestion. Brainspotting dismantles the trauma, symptom,somatic distress and  dysfunctional beliefs at the reflexive core. 

Brainspotting is a “body to body” approach. The distress is activated and located in the body which then leads to the locating of the Brainspot based on eye position. As  opposed to EMDR where the traumatic memory is the “target”, in Brainspotting the Brainspot is the target or “focus or activation point”. Everything is aimed at activating, locating, and processing the Brainspot.

Brainspotting is most powerful and effective when done with the enhancement of BioLateral Sound CDs.  Biolateral sound enhances the brain’s processing abilities by alternately stimulating  each cerebral hemisphere. For highly dissociated or very fragile clients, Brainspotting can be initiated without any bilateral intensification, which can be added later as the client is more integrated and flexible. The healing sound directly    enters the brain through the auditory nerves while the eardrums are vibrated bilaterally. 

Any  life event  which causes significant physical  and/or emotional injury and  distress,  in which the person powerfully experiences being  overwhelmed,     helpless, or trapped,  can become a traumatic experience.

There is  growing recognition within the healing professions that experiences of physical and/or emotional injury, acute and chronic pain, serious  physical illness,    dealing with difficult medical interventions, societal turmoil, environmental disaster, as well as many other  problematic life events, will contribute to the development of a    substantial reservoir of life trauma. That trauma is held in the body. 

In most cases, the  traumatized individual does not usually have the opportunity or the support to adequately process and integrate these traumatic life events. The traumatic  experience then becomes a part of that individual’s trauma reservoir. The body and the psyche cannot remain unaffected by the physical, energetic and emotional costs extracted by this accumulated  trauma load. The medical and psychological      literature now  acknowledges that approximately 75% of requests for medical care are linked to the actions or  consequences of this accumulation of stress and/or trauma upon the  systems of the human body.

Every health care professional encounters treatment situations in which physical symptoms cannot be separated from their emotional or psychological correlates.    Traumatic life experiences, whether physical or emotional,  are often significant        contributing factors in the development and/or maintenance of most of the symptoms and problems encountered in health care.   

Brainspotting  is  a physiological therapeutic tool which 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. It is a valuable resource in the  treatment of a wide range of medical, physical, and psycho-emotional issues and symptoms encountered by health            professionals.

Brainspotting provides a neurobiological tool for  accessing, diagnosing, and treating a wide range of somatic and emotionally-based conditions.

Brainspotting can be an effective and efficient treatment tool for:

Physical and emotional trauma 

Recovery from injury and accident trauma

Trauma resulting from medical interventions and treatment

Stress and trauma-related medical illness

Performance issues, including sexual dysfunction

Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain conditions

Addictions (especially cravings)

ADD and ADHD

Perceptual problems

Stuttering

Environmental Illness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Phobias 

Asthma

Preparation and recovery from surgery

Trauma resulting from war and natural disasters

Anger and rage problems

Anxiety and  panic 

Management of major medical illness

David Grand, Ph.D., the developer and trainer of Brainspotting, is an internationally recognized trauma expert. He has devoted his life to advancing, expanding and      communicating about state-of-the-art tools available for healing trauma and enhancing performance.  Dr. Grand trains health care professionals and lectures on trauma healing and enhancing performance around the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and South   America. He is the author of Emotional Healing at Warp Speed: the Power of EMDR. 

Dr. Grand has also been part of a research team using fMRI scans to study the effects of trauma on the brain. Committed to the worldwide use of trauma healing as a tool to ease human suffering, Grand is the former chairman of the EMDR-Humanitarian        Assistance Program. He has coordinated pro bono trainings of trauma therapists in Northern Ireland and inner city Brooklyn, N.Y.

Dr. Grand has been featured on NBC Nightly News, Dateline, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington  Post, Newsday and O Magazine.

 

Robert Weisz, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, life coach, and trainer in private practice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is Director of the Brainspotting and Hypnotherapy Clinic and of the Milton Erickson Institute for Clinical Hypnosis and Behavioral Sciences of New Mexico. Robert has studied extensively with Dr. David Grand and has been authorized to train health care practitioners on the application of Brainspotting in health care settings. Dr. Weisz brings almost 40 years of clinical experience into the practice of Brainspotting and other therapeutic modalities.