Sometimes traumatic or stressful situations overwhelm our brains. For whatever reason, we’re not able to properly process the experience and the stress gets stuck in us.

This unprocessed stress and trauma gets stuck in the middle (subcortical) part of our brain and it impacts our emotions and our physical health. We may experience a range of symptoms including anxiety, feeling on-edge, trouble concentrating, irritability, sleep trouble, depression, negative self-talk, feeling disconnected, guilt/shame, and feeling unsafe.

All day long, our eyes naturally move around when we’re thinking and talking. Our eyes are part of our nervous system and send signals to our brain. Our brain tells our eyes where to look from moment to moment. The position of our eyes can connect us to information and memories stored in our brains.

Intuitively, we know what eye position can access the information in our brain that we need, but unprocessed stress and trauma is much harder to reach due to where it’s stored.

Brainspotting helps us find the eye position that can unlock the unprocessed stress and trauma in our brains. Once we find the eye position and the unprocessed stress and trauma is unlocked, we quietly sit and allow our thoughts to flow while we hold the eye position. We give our brain the time it needs to process the stuck stress and let it go. Brainspotting helps us access deeper parts of the brain that traditional talk therapy can’t reach.

After a Brainspotting session, we can still remember the stressful or traumatic experience but how we feel about it has changed and our body responds to the memory differently. Instead of becoming overwhelmed or upset by the situation, it feels like something that happened in the past and it doesn’t bother us as much as it used to.

Brainspotting is different from traditional talk therapies. In a Brainspotting session, I’ll ask you to focus on a specific issue that you want to address. Then we’ll check to see if you feel any activation (body sensations or emotions) around the issue in your body. After that, I’ll help you find a Brainspot (fixed eye position) that feels connected to the issue.

After we find the Brainspot, I’ll ask you to notice the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations that arise. This is called focused mindfulness. It’s not unusual for people to remember old memories, feel waves of emotions and body sensations, or to see images. Discomfort is a normal part of the process because we are dealing with painful experiences that were not able to be properly processed by your brain. I’ll be there to guide you through it safely.

Because Brainspotting is different from talk therapy, I will encourage you to keep noticing what comes up but I try to say as little as possible so that I don’t interrupt your deep processing. Your brain is amazing and can heal on its own if it’s given the time and space to. After you’ve finished Brainspotting, we’ll debrief what the experience was like for you.

Brainspotting and EMDR are brain-body based treatments that utilize the eyes, but they are different.

Brainspotting uses fixed eye positions to process issues and BioLateral music (sound that gently pans from one ear to the other) can be used to aid with processing.

EMDR uses bilateral eye movements (rapidly moving your eyes from side to side) to process issues. Other kinds of bilateral stimulation can be used if someone cannot tolerate eye movements, like tapping or sounds (sound that jumps from one ear to the other without being panned).

Some people find EMDR to be overstimulating, while Brainspotting can be a gentler experience. I have noticed that if someone has a bad experience with EMDR, they often have a better experience using Brainspotting.