What is Brainspotting and How Can it Help You Heal in Ways Talk Therapy Can't:

A Guide to Brain-Body Healing

Aug 04, 2025

persons eye in close up photography — Photo by Eva Wilcock on Unsplash

Your Trauma Therapist by Lauren Auer, LCPC is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. For more content follow me on Instagram.

As a Brainspotting (BSP) practitioner I often find myself in the complex situation where I am trying to explain Brainspotting to a new client. As much as I try to reach for the right words, I usually end up comparing it to my experience of teaching my son to ride a bike No matter how precisely I explained the mechanics of balancing or pedaling, the real understanding came when he actually got on the bike.

This is the beauty and challenge of Brainspotting - it's a therapy that works with parts of our brain that don't communicate in words. While I can explain the process, the true understanding comes through experience.

As a trauma therapist already trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), I thought I had all the tools I needed. When my mother's best friend, a fellow therapist, first mentioned Brainspotting, I remember thinking, "Another eye movement therapy? How different could it be?"

She would tell me about the profound shifts she was seeing in her clients, and I nodded politely, mentally filing it away as "probably just another variation of EMDR." But her belief in this approach was unwavering. So much so that she offered to pay for my training - something I now recognize as a gift that transformed not only my practice but my understanding of how healing happens.

The moment I witnessed my first Brainspotting demonstration during training, everything shifted. Watching the process unfold - seeing the subtle eye movements, the deep processing, the profound body-based shifts - I understood this was something entirely different. When I experienced it myself later that day, the intellectual understanding I'd been seeking melted away into direct knowing. I was hooked.

The Birth of Brainspotting: An Accidental Discovery

Sometimes the most profound discoveries happen when we pay attention to the unexpected. This was certainly true in 2003, when Dr. David Grand was working with a young figure skater whose abilities far exceeded her competitive performance. Despite being technically capable, she would arrive at competitions only to find herself unable to feel her legs or recall her routine - a disconnection that kept her from achieving her potential.

Dr. Grand had been working with this athlete for a year using various approaches, including EMDR and Somatic Experiencing. They had made progress with many aspects of her performance anxiety, which stemmed from experiences including early family challenges, sports injuries, and competition-related setbacks. But one particular move - a triple loop jump - remained stubbornly out of reach.

During what seemed like a routine session, Dr. Grand noticed something unusual. As the skater visualized her troubled jump and followed his moving finger, her eyes suddenly began to wobble and then locked in place. Instead of continuing the movement, he followed his clinical instinct and held his finger steady at that spot.

What happened next would change the landscape of trauma therapy. For ten minutes, the skater processed not only new material but also reached deeper levels of healing in previously addressed traumas. The next morning's phone call confirmed something remarkable had occurred - she was landing triple loops effortlessly, as if the block had never existed.

This discovery led Dr. Grand to look for similar eye patterns in other clients. Each time he found these spots, clients reported experiences that felt "different," "deeper," and more fully felt in their bodies than traditional therapy approaches.

Understanding the Brain's Hidden Language

Our brain is remarkably complex, but think of it like a busy city with different neighborhoods, each with its own character and purpose. When we're dealing with trauma, anxiety, or deep emotional experiences, we're working with all these neighborhoods at once, not just the modern downtown district where logical thinking happens.

Imagine your brain as a city that grew over time, with three main districts:

The Old Town (Brainstem): Like a city's historic district, this is the oldest part of our brain. Just as old town contains essential infrastructure - water lines, power stations, ancient roads - our brainstem manages vital functions like breathing and heart rate. This district runs on autopilot, keeping everything functioning without our conscious input. When we're stressed, this is where our survival responses (fight/flight/freeze) originate, like an ancient emergency response system.

The Cultural District (Limbic System): Think of this as the city's vibrant cultural center, where art galleries, music venues, and community spaces create and hold emotional experiences. The amygdala acts like the neighborhood watch, constantly scanning for trouble. Meanwhile, the hippocampus works like the district's library, organizing and storing memories of everything that happens. This is where our emotional experiences live and breathe.

The Business District (Cortex): This is like downtown with its office buildings and planning departments. Here, in the prefrontal cortex, we do our logical thinking and planning - it's where traditional talk therapy typically focuses. But just as a city isn't only its downtown, we aren't only our thinking brains.

Why Eye Position Matters:

Here's where Brainspotting gets interesting - imagine your eye positions as subway lines that connect all these districts directly. The superior colliculus (a part of your midbrain) works like a central transit hub, connecting what your eyes see with these deeper brain regions. When we find a brainspot, it's like discovering an express route between districts that usually don't have direct connections.

The Body's Communication Network:

During a Brainspotting session, we're working with your autonomic nervous system - think of it as the city's communication network:

· The sympathetic branch is like the emergency broadcast system (fight/flight response)

· The parasympathetic branch works like the "all clear" signal (rest/digest response)

· The ventral vagal system is similar to the community bulletin board, helping us feel safe and connected

Why Bilateral Sound Works:

The bilateral sound we use is like having crossing guards helping traffic flow smoothly between the left and right sides of the brain. It helps:

· Bridge the emotional and logical districts of your brain

· Keep the whole system in a smooth flow

· Support your nervous system's natural rhythm

Processing Beyond Words

When we experience trauma, it's like having a power outage that disrupts communication between different parts of the city. That's why we might logically know we're safe (downtown gets the message) but still feel afraid (old town is still on high alert).

Brainspotting helps restore these connections, letting all parts of your brain's city work together again. It's like finding hidden passageways that bypass the traffic and construction of our usual thought patterns. Brainspotting allows us to access these deeper brain regions directly, bypassing the logical brain's tendency to analyze or control. This explains why clients often report experiences like:

· Processing happening without needing to talk about it

· Physical sensations of release

· Memories or emotions surfacing spontaneously

· Shifts that feel deeper than intellectual understanding

What Makes Brainspotting Different?

While both Brainspotting and EMDR work with eye positions, they differ fundamentally in their approach. EMDR uses structured bilateral stimulation with specific protocols, while Brainspotting follows the brain's natural ability to find its healing points. Think of it this way: if EMDR is like following a detailed map with specific routes, Brainspotting is more like having a skilled guide who helps you find your own path through the terrain.

The Science Behind the Spots

Brainspotting operates on a fundamental principle: "Where you look affects how you feel." Recent neuroscience research using fMRI scans has shown that maintaining fixed eye positions can activate and regulate the subcortical brain regions where trauma and emotional experiences are stored.

When we find a brainspot - a relevant eye position connected to an emotional or body sensation - we're essentially accessing a portal into the subcortical brain. This allows for processing that bypasses our usual cognitive defenses and accesses material that might be inaccessible through talk therapy alone.

What Happens in a Brainspotting Session

A Brainspotting session has a gentle structure that guides the process while remaining flexible to each person's unique needs. Here's what you might expect:

Creating Safety and Presence: We begin by settling into a space of safety and presence. This often includes relaxing breaths and bilateral sound - specially designed music that moves between your ears through headphones. This sound isn't just for relaxation; it helps engage both hemispheres of your brain, creating optimal conditions for processing.

Finding Your Starting Point: Once settled, we identify where in your body you're feeling the issue you want to work on. This might be anxiety showing up as chest tightness, or grief as a heaviness in your throat. We use a simple 1-10 scale to track this sensation, not because numbers tell the whole story, but because they give us a way to notice shifts as they happen.

Following Your Focus: Just as your body naturally finds its balance point on a bike, your eyes will naturally find positions that connect with your internal experience. Sometimes I'll guide this process (the "Outside Window" approach), and sometimes you'll lead the way (the "Inside Window" approach). Using a pointer or my finger, we'll find the exact spot where your eyes naturally want to focus when that body sensation is strongest.

The Journey of Processing: From here, we enter a phase that can feel both simple and profound. While maintaining your gaze on that spot, we allow your brain to do what it naturally knows how to do - process. Sometimes this brings up memories, sometimes sensations, sometimes emotions. Sometimes it simply feels like gentle waves of experience moving through your body.

After the Session and Beyond: At the end of our time together, we'll check back in with that initial body sensation and its intensity. Most people notice a significant decrease in their distress level, often accompanied by a sense of relief or release. Some describe it as a gentle tingling or a mild shiver - like your body letting go of something it's been holding.

It's important to note that the processing doesn't necessarily end when our session does. You might feel more emotional or tired afterward - this is natural and part of your brain continuing its processing work. Some people also notice dreams, memories, or insights emerging in the days following a session.

Finding a Qualified Brainspotting Therapist

A vital note about Brainspotting - it requires specific training and experience to facilitate effectively. Certified Brainspotting therapists complete rigorous training that includes two intensive courses and a minimum of 50 hours of supervised practice. This ensures they understand not just the theory, but the nuanced practice of guiding clients through this deep neurobiological work.

If you're interested in exploring Brainspotting, I encourage you to use the official Brainspotting Directory to find a certified therapist in your area. While other therapy directories might list practitioners who use Brainspotting, the official directory ensures you're connecting with someone who has completed the full certification process.

Questions to Consider:

What parts of your experience feel beyond words?
Where do you notice activation in your body as you read this?
What draws you to explore this approach?

As both a practitioner and someone who has experienced Brainspotting personally, I continue to be amazed by its elegant simplicity and profound impact. While I hope these words have helped convey what Brainspotting is and how it works, I know that true understanding often comes through experience. Sometimes the most powerful healing happens beyond words, in the quiet spaces where our brain's natural wisdom can emerge.

Your Trauma Therapist

What is Brainspotting and How Can it Help You Heal in Ways Talk Therapy Can't:

A Guide to Brain-Body Healing

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