Why I got certified in Brainspotting

From the earliest days of my career, I loved working with clients with complex trauma. Partly, I never get bored with my work because trauma recovery is complicated and challenging. Partly, it is personally satisfying to show up for clients in devastation and heartbreak because it honors the parts of me that have known devastation and heartbreak. Mostly, trauma recovery work sparks hope and joy in me. It is life-giving to watch my incredible clients reclaim themselves.

Early in my career, though, I noticed frustration brewing within myself: I wanted more powerful tools to help people, and I didn't know how to help everyone that sought me out as expertly as I wanted to. Most folks don't realize that graduate school only sets therapists up for the minimum required skill set to enter the field. Specialization and true expertise require additional training and practice. Research shows it takes about 5,000 hours to reach advanced skill proficiency, which breaks down to 5 years' experience. I knew that I needed to find a way to help more people, more powerfully, and then I needed to do 5,000 sessions practicing in that modality.

Even so, I'll admit that I was highly skeptical of Brainspotting at first. It was the early days of COVID: I'd just transitioned my private practice to full telehealth, and the pandemic was evoking current and past traumas for people. There was huge demand for therapy services. I needed some CE's (continuing education) to renew my therapist license, and my business coaches spoke highly of Brainspotting, so I figured I'd give it a go. I was convinced that the Brainspotting hype was overblown, but hopeful that I would learn a new intervention or two. I wasn't anticipating what actually happened: I achieved deeper personal healing in four practice sessions over the 3-day training than I'd achieved in six months with my EMDR therapist, and I was so influenced by the model that I've used Brainspotting every day at work since.

What Is Brainspotting and How Does It Work?

Brainspotting is a neuroexperiential model discovered by David Grand, an EMDR trainer, in 2003. Just like EMDR and other somatic therapies, Brainspotting addresses a core problem with the way our field approaches trauma work: trauma is mostly held in the deep parts of the brain and in the body, but traditional talk therapy doesn't go past the prefrontal cortex, so it can take years or even decades for talk therapy to produce meaningful results with trauma clients. Brainspotting uses sensory experience (somatic, visual, auditory) to engage parts of the brain and body directly impacted by trauma, which facilitates organic healing at a significantly faster, deeper results than talk therapy alone.

What's more, most folks who seek therapy have some symptoms in common with trauma clients, even if they haven't experienced trauma themselves: anxiety, depleted mood, poor sleep, intrusive negative thoughts, chronic stress, relationship struggles, agitation, low self-esteem, loneliness, and numbing behaviors are incredibly common. Every single one of these symptoms can be treated effectively with Brainspotting, even in clients without trauma histories.

Brainspotting stands out to me from other somatic approaches for two reasons.

1. Brainspotting centers attachment theory and the client-therapist relationship as a core mechanism for change. Other approaches set the client up to follow a protocol set forth by the therapist. Brainspotting, on the other hand, sets up the therapist and client to collaboratively structure the therapy based on mutual understanding and the therapist's attunement to the client's emotional and physiological experience.

2. Brainspotting works well even with clients who are outside of their window of tolerance, which most other approaches can't do. In simple terms, it's OK if a client is too activated or too shut down to participate in a traditional talk therapy session; they can still be benefit from Brainspotting. Human beings (and most mammals, and some reptiles) are herd animals: when we're threatened, we survive by connecting with our group. Brainspotting harnesses the safety of the client-therapist relationship to co-regulate, which empowers people have enough safety to work through emotional and/or physical stress that they wouldn't be able to handle alone.

Examples of Brainspotting in Therapy

• Trauma Recovery: A client was struggling with current life stress and relationships. Brainspotting helped them identify the root cause of their anxiety (early experiences with emotionally unhealthy caregivers set them up to fear abandonment and rejection if they asked too much of others, so during difficult times now, they had an ingrained habit of metaphorically lighting themselves on fire to keep others warm). After a few sessions, they were learning to recognize and honor their physical and emotional limits; take care of themselves when setting boundaries with others; and balance self-criticism with self-compassion. Their sleep and eating habits improved, and they stopped using alcohol and online shopping as emotional regulation tactics.

• Anxiety and Panic: Another client with chronic panic attacks used Brainspotting to work on the worst aspect of panic attacks: not knowing when they'll happen, how bad they'll get, or how long they'll last. We were able to neurologically and experientially connect the client's worst sensation (panic attack) to their healthiest, strongest sensation (peace, confidence, self-trust). The client could then end a panic attack whenever they wanted because they had built a neural synapse bridging their most stressed part with their healthiest part. Once the client had their control back, they no longer had to fear panic attacks. This led to a noticeable reduction in symptoms, restoration of quality of sleep, and significant reduction in use of anxiety medication.

• Performance Blocks: Artists and athletes typically use Brainspotting in two ways: healing, or expanding the natural flow state. Performance requires a high level of vulnerability, and struggles and failures are visible in a way that most people don't understand unless they've been through it themselves. Struggle, failure, physical injuries, and rejection have a cumulative impact that can cause performance blocks. Leaving those experiences untreated can actually increase the risk of future injuries, failures, and rejections. Artists and athletes can heal performance blocks with Brainspotting to renew creativity, response times, and confidence. A client was struggling after a knee injury took them out of their sport for a season. Brainspotting helped them heal from feelings of humiliation and belief that they'd let their team down; learn how to listen to their body and tell the difference between 'hurts good' and 'hurts bad' when pushing through pain; and actually expand into the flow state of euphoria, power, and connection that they loved about their sport, so they could find ways to get that same feeling through other activity while their knee finished healing.

Moving Forward with Brainspotting

Brainspotting is a powerful method that supports the brain’s natural healing process. Its ability to unlock trauma and emotional blocks can transform therapy outcomes and improve quality of life. Whether you are a client or a therapist, exploring Brainspotting can open new doors to healing and growth.

If you are ready to explore Brainspotting, consider reaching out to a certified practitioner. Healing is possible when the right tools meet the right moment.