How Does Brainspotting Work? A Revolutionary Therapy For Healing Trauma
Discovering Brainspotting
Ironically, even before the pandemic started to force therapists and coaches and healers online, I felt the urge to branch out in a way that would allow me to help people beyond the fifteen mile or so radius around my physical office in Louisville, Colorado.
I discovered something called Brainspotting.
It turns out that many of the principles of Brainspotting are the same as the work I’ve been developing over the years, something I call BioSoul Integration.
In the following blog post I’m going to be talking about how brainspotting works and some of the charactersistics about brainspotting that make it a perfect fit for integrating with my work and adding a version of BioSoul Integration that I can use to help people online, far and wide, or face to face in my office.
What Is Brainspotting Therapy?
Here’s a video I made on how Brainspotting works:
If you get your edification in the form of audio podcasts listen below or look for the BioSoul Integration Podcast and this episode wherever you listen to your podcasts:
Brainspotting was developed by David Grand, an EMDR therapist, in 2003.
It is somatically oriented therapy that uses eye positions to access and process emotional and physical experiences stored in the brain and body.
The theory is that the brain sequesters energy and tucks it away as “packets” of undigested, unprocessed information in response to traumas and stresses that have overwhelmed the system at some point.
Because the retina of our eye developed alongside the primitive part of the brain that’s responsible for making these survival decisions in response to trauma, certain eye positions can help access, process and release the bound up energy in these “packets.”
The goal of Brainspotting is to help clients gain insight into the mind-body connection and to clarify and untangle the complex relationship between the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the parts of themselves that were fragmented due to trauma.
Brainspotting helps to create a safe space for the client to explore these traumatic experiences and unravel the knot of conflict that is created in their bodies and being as a result of trauma.
How Does Brainspotting Work?
Brainspotting works by utilizing a process called “resonance” which is based on the idea that when a person experiences a traumatic event, they are left with an imprint in the brain.
In brainspotting, the therapist uses eye positions to find the areas of the brain where the imprint of the trauma is stored.
Then the therapist works with the client to access and process the trauma.
When a therapist uses brainspotting, they usually start by helping the client come into relationship with the feelings around the issue that they want to work on.
They can then, either find a spot in the visual field that seems connected with the issue and the feelings, or notice where the client is naturally looking when they’re speaking about the issue and the feelings.
This spot, called a “brainspot,” is an area in the brain where the traumatic experience is stored.
The therapist then uses various techniques to help the client access and process the trauma.
These techniques may include guided imagery, body-centered awareness, mindfulness techniques or talk therapy depending on the client’s needs.
The goal of brainspotting isn’t to relive the trauma, but to allow the intelligence of the clients own body to process the energy associated with the trauma.
The therapist might help the client to clarify the emotions, sensations, and thoughts associated with the trauma as the energy of the trauma is being processed.
Or the therapist might simply guide the client to a relationship with the sensations of their body.
The idea is one of giving the body-mind a safe space and then trusting that its response is the one that will ultimately lead to healing.
The Benefits Of Brainspotting
Brainspotting is a powerful and effective technique for resolving emotional and physical issues quickly and efficiently.
It can be used to reduce symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other stress-related conditions, as well as to process trauma-related memories and experiences.
It can also help to increase focus and concentration and provide a safe and secure environment for emotional healing.
Additionally, it has the potential to improve overall mental and emotional wellbeing, is non-invasive and drug-free, and can help to release physical and emotional tension.
Brainspotting can also restore balance and harmony to the body, mind, and spirit, as well as improve communication and relationships.
Core Principles Of Brainspotting
There are a few core principles of Brainspotting that match what I’ve learned during the course of fine-tuning my own work over the last twenty years:
- The Problem Is A Portal To Soul – Bound up energy is potential energy, that is energy poised to do work. The energy bound up in the problem/pain/tension/challenge/symptom can be transformed into a resource if perceived from a more expansive part of ourselves.
- Conflict Between Unreconciled Parts Of Ourselves Keeps Us Stuck – Similar to the work of Dr. Richard Schwartz and Internal Family Systems I discovered that we are a combination of fragmented parts all unaware of each other and clamouring for control. Clarifying, sorting out those parts and letting them each be heard can free up a lot of resources in a person’s body and life.
- Trying To Understand Limits Our Ability To Heal – The patterns that are unconsciously running our lives now are the result of programs that got installed while we were in the womb and while we were little children, long before we could even think. So we can’t think our way through these problems now, we can only feel our way through them. Therapy methods that engage only our mental intelligence are severly limited when compared to therapy methods that ask the client to engage their felt sense of their body.
- The Sequencing Of Bound Up Energy Always Follows The Same Pattern – When we bring enough heart-centered attention to the sensations associated with the problem/pain/tension/challenge/symptom, the same thing always happens, the energy bound up in the problem sequences itself through and leaves us in a state of expanded awareness from which we can view the problem and it’s parts from a more inclusive perspective. It’s then that we become aware of and able to choose options that we were blind to before.
- Entrainment And Resonance – The unproductive survival patterns got stored in our systems when our sensitive nervous systems entrained to the energetic back-office of those around us while we were in the womb and when we were young children. But the principles of entrainment or resonance can be used to heal those patterns , too. By bringing our attention to the sensations in our body we are connecting with the enegy body there, which is connected to the force that animates everything to life. So by connecting to that higher intelligence the system reorganizes itself based on that resource and more expanded and inclusive perspective.
Brainspotting Certification
I want to give a shout out to Pacific Training Center where I took my Brainspotting training and where I got certified to practice Brainspotting.
Lisa Larson was the head trainer.
She’s got years of clinic experience applying Brainspotting to a wide variety of clients, from children to adults, from those trying to set new goals to those trying to heal addiction.
To get certified we completed a three day intensive program which included lectures on history, theory and research behind the technique, an introduction to the practical application of the therapy and an analysis of the different techniques and protocols used in the practice.
We practiced our new on ourselves and on other participants during the training in order to learn how to use the process effectively.
I highly recommend that anyone interested in Brainspotting on any level check out Pacific Training Center and Lisa Larson.
Experience BioSoul Integration Coaching / Brainspotting
As I’ve said, Brainspotting is something that I’ve integrated into the work that I’ve been doing with people for the past twenty years.
My mission is to help individuals create an ever-deepening connection to their bodies, their lives and their World; to help those who have felt the strong calling to embody their Soul’s purpose and to give their unique gifts on this planet.
People from Boulder, Lafayette, Erie, Superior, Broomfield and Westminster come to my office in Louisville, CO to receive hands-on BioSoul Integration.
I also do online work with people who are not local to my area.
If you’re interested and you’re local to the Boulder/Denver area? Click here.
If you’re interested and you live somewhere else in the world? Click here.
More Resources…
If you’re interested in a direct experience of the transformation I’ve talked about, you can check out my book If It Didn’t Hurt: How To Resolve Your Pain And Discover Your Life Purpose.
It is filled with examples from my twenty years in private practice along with tools you can use to embody and integrate the energy that is bound up in the pain/problem/challenge/tension/symptom that all humans deal with to some degree.
Click the link to buy the book, or if you’re not ready for that, you can also get the first chapter for FREE.
I look forward to helping you express more life,
Jay
About the Author Dr. Jay Uecker
Dr. Jay is the founder and owner of BioSoul Integration Center in Louisville, Colorado. He’s a chiropractor, a hands-on healer, an in-person and online soul integration coach and the author of If It Didn't Hurt: How To Resolve Your Pain And Discover Your Life Purpose. For two decades Dr. Jay has been helping people navigate their healing journeys. Over the course of that time he’s worked intimately with thousands of people. Those who are most drawn to Dr. Jay's work are those who are seeking to integrate and embody their soul's essence and their soul's gifts so they can share them with others. Life will keep nudging us in that direction, anyway. BioSoul Integration helps to speed up the process and smooth out the rough spots created by the innocent and unconscious resistance that lives in our primal brain and nervous system. Click the link to get your Personalized BioSoul Integration Guide.
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