BRAINSPOTTING

Brainspotting is a type of therapy which works directly with the unconscious mind, the body and particularly the nervous system through the use of the eyes. It emerged from EMDR, which is a trauma therapy known for quickly clearing material from the amygdala, which is where trauma is stored.

You will listen to music through headphones which puts your brain in a processing mode like REM sleep. The eye position is used to focus what exactly the brain is processing. By finding an eye position associated with a feeling, memory or trigger, the brain is literally pointed at the topic to work on. Then, while you look at the eye position, your brain starts quickly processing the whole network of memories, body sensations, feelings and insights to clear that issue. This is based on the concept that “neurons that fire together wire together.” Awareness of the body, deep breathing and the normal process of communication, support and direction that you expect in therapy will allow your system to clear issues to the core. Along with triggers and traumas we can find eye positions for positive, expansive and spiritual states of consciousness which can be quickly and deeply accessed both in sessions and whenever else you may want that support. The positive eye positions, which also remain in the same location, so you know where to find them, allow you to freely and quickly move out of anything that feels too painful and organically reconnect with the parts of your world which support and nourish you. What was once a trigger eye position is now a resource to connect you with aspects of your Self, such as unconditional love, compassion, essential value, clarity, etc. With Brainspotting, we have essentially found the “search” and “clear” functions of our brains. Because Brainspotting is so effective, I integrate it into most of my sessions. For example when I am doing parts work, such as Internal Family Systems or Gestalt, the eye positions support an easy movement between different parts or states of consciousness, and allow us to go deep quickly and easily into the roots of the part we are exploring. The centered, connected and compassionate Self is the key to Internal Family systems work, allowing all the parts to be worked with with love and leadership. Having an eye position for the Self is very helpful in doing that work.