Brainspotting, Trauma specialist - you need to do this.

I really implore everyone who has been suffering long-term, which by definition with PTSD is everyone, to do this form of therapy.

I cannot begin to tell you how "different" I feel from the hell I lived in 24/7 the past few years and my entire life for various reasons.

It has been incredibly effective and I feel reborn - no other way to say it.

That's really brilliant, Johnny. I'm so glad for you.

Don't know if it's available for me, but may well investigate after the EMDR if I can.


Bluegrey

Found this - but still not sure what it actually is....EMDR? or similar to ?

A “Brainspot” is the eye position which is related to the energetic/emotional activation of a traumatic or emotionally charged issue within the brain. Located by eye position, paired with externally observed and internally experienced reflexive responses, a Brainspot is actually a physiological subsystem holding emotional experience in memory form.
Brainspotting stimulates and promotes deep processing, integrating, and healing activity within the brain. This appears to take place within the brain’s emotional centers at a reflexive and cellular level. It typically results in a de-conditioning of previously conditioned, maladaptive emotional, psychological, and somatic responses and patterns.
It appears to stimulate, focus, and activate the body’s inherent capacity to heal itself from trauma. It is theorized that this rapid-acting therapy taps into and activates the body’s innate ability to process and release “traumatic capsules” which are frozen in primitive survival modes.
This may also explain the ability of Brainspotting to often reduce and sometimes eliminate the pain, struggle, and tension associated with physical/medical conditions. The technique processes and dismantles the symptom, the underlying trauma, the somatic distress, and the dysfunctional beliefs at the reflexive core.
Brainspotting is also very useful to access and develop internal resource states and experiences. These resources allow the therapist and patient, where necessary, to “pendulate” between resource or positive states and trauma states during Brainspotting to enable more gradual, graded processing and desensitization of intensely traumatic and emotionally charged issues and symptoms.
Brainspotting is a body centered approach. The distress is activated and located in the body which then leads to the locating of the Brainspot based on eye position. Everything is aimed at activating, locating, and processing the Brainspot.

and this ...

so its NOT EMDR...

What is Brainspotting?

Developer and Trainer David Grand, Ph.D.
“Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the amygdala. It isn’t just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis.” -- Robert Scaer, MD, “The Trauma Spectrum”

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.
Brainspotting functions as a neurobiological tool to support the clinical healing relationship. There is no replacement for a mature, nurturing therapeutic presence and the ability to engage another suffering human in a safe and trusting relationship where they feel heard, accepted, and understood.
Brainspotting gives us a tool, within this clinical relationship, to neurobiologically locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and language capacity.
Brainspotting works with the deep brain and the body through its direct access to the autonomic and limbic systems within the body’s central nervous system. Brainspotting is accordingly a physiological tool/treatment which has profound psychological, emotional, and physical consequences.
It is theorized that Brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s innate self-scanning capacity to process and release focused areas (systems) which are in a maladaptive homeostasis (frozen primitive survival modes). This may also explain the ability of Brainspotting to often reduce and eliminate body pain and tension associated with physical conditions.
A “Brainspot” is the eye position which is related to the energetic/emotional activation of a traumatic/emotionally charged issue within the brain, most likely in the amygdala, the hippocampus, or the orbitofrontal cortex of the limbic system. Located by eye position, paired with externally observed and internally experienced reflexive responses, a Brainspot is actually a physiological subsystem holding emotional experience in memory form.
When a Brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain reflexively signals the therapist that an area of significance has been located. This typically happens out of the client’s conscious awareness. There are a multitude of reflexive responses, including eye twitches, wobbles, freezes, blinks (hard and double blinks) pupil dilation and constriction, narrowing, facial tics, brow furrowing, sniffs, swallows, yawns, coughs, head nods, hand signals, foot movement and body shifting. Reflexive facial expressions are powerful indicators of Brainspots.
The appearance of a reflexive response as the client attends to the somatosensory experience of the trauma, emotional or somatic problem is an indication that a Brainspot has been located and activated. The Brainspot can then be accessed and stimulated by holding the client’s eye position while the client is focused on the somatic/sensory experience of the symptom or problem being addressed in the therapy.
The maintenance of that eye position/Brainspot within the attentional focus on the body’s “felt sense” of that issue or trauma stimulates a deep integrating and healing process within the brain. This processing, which appears to take place at a reflexive or cellular level within the nervous system, brings about a de-conditioning of previously conditioned, maladaptive emotional and physiological responses. Brainspotting appears to stimulate, focus, and activate the body’s inherent capacity to heal itself from trauma.
In “inside window” Brainspotting the therapist and client participate together to locate Brainspots through the client’s felt sense of the experience of the highest intensity of affect/body distress. Brainspotting can be done with one eye or two. Brainspotting can be directed at distress and Brainspotting can be directed at establishing and strengthening resources.
Brainspotting is also very useful to access and develop internal resource states end experiences. These resources allow the therapist and patient, where necessary, to “pendulate” between resource or positive states and trauma states during Brainspotting to enable more gradual, graded processing and desensitization of intensely traumatic and emotionally charged issues and symptoms.
Brainspotting processes down to the reflexive core. Often when it appears one has reached a zero distress level, a new strata or floor is broken through, probing deeper into the brain. The reflexive core is in the deep, unconscious body brain. It is as out of our awareness as respiration, circulation, and digestion. Brainspotting dismantles the trauma, symptom, somatic distress and dysfunctional beliefs at the reflexive core.
Brainspotting is a “body to body” approach. The distress is activated and located in the body which then leads to the locating of the Brainspot based on eye position. As opposed to EMDR where the traumatic memory is the “target”, in Brainspotting the Brainspot is the target or “focus or activation point”. Everything is aimed at activating, locating, and processing the Brainspot.
Brainspotting is most powerful and effective when done with the enhancement of BioLateral Sound CDs. Biolateral sound enhances the brain’s processing abilities by alternately stimulating each cerebral hemisphere. For highly dissociated or very fragile clients, Brainspotting can be initiated without any bilateral intensification, which can be added later as the client is more integrated and flexible. The healing sound directly enters the brain through the auditory nerves while the eardrums are vibrated bilaterally.
Any life event which causes significant physical and/or emotional injury and distress, in which the person powerfully experiences being overwhelmed, helpless, or trapped, can become a traumatic experience.
There is growing recognition within the healing professions that experiences of physical and/or emotional injury, acute and chronic pain, serious physical illness, dealing with difficult medical interventions, societal turmoil, environmental disaster, as well as many other problematic life events, will contribute to the development of a substantial reservoir of life trauma. That trauma is held in the body.
In most cases, the traumatized individual does not usually have the opportunity or the support to adequately process and integrate these traumatic life events. The traumatic experience then becomes a part of that individual’s trauma reservoir. The body and the psyche cannot remain unaffected by the physical, energetic and emotional costs extracted by this accumulated trauma load. The medical and psychological literature now acknowledges that approximately 75% of requests for medical care are linked to the actions or consequences of this accumulation of stress and/or trauma upon the systems of the human body.
Every health care professional encounters treatment situations in which physical symptoms cannot be separated from their emotional or psychological correlates. Traumatic life experiences, whether physical or emotional, are often significant contributing factors in the development and/or maintenance of most of the symptoms and problems encountered in health care.
Brainspotting is a physiological therapeutic tool which can be integrated into a wide range of healing modalities, including psychological as well as somatic approaches to treatment. Brainspotting can be useful as a complement to various body-based therapies including advanced bodywork, chiropractic, acupuncture, somatic therapies, physical therapy, nursing, medicine, and other specialized approaches to physical healing. It is a valuable resource in the treatment of a wide range of medical, physical, and psycho-emotional issues and symptoms encountered by health professionals.
Brainspotting provides a neurobiological tool for accessing, diagnosing, and treating a wide range of somatic and emotionally-based conditions.

This kind of trauma work sounds incredible. I really wish I could do this. But my therapist has said that its not evidence based. My insurance will only let me do the cbt trauma approach. I guess this is a new approach. But she said she thinks this will eventually be another evidence-based option.

I'm doing trauma focused cbt. We haven't really started that part yet though, just in the getting to know each other stage.

I'm very glad that it's working so well for you motownjohnny.

I've done a few sessions of brainspotting, but had to stop doing it. I am more unstable now than before I started. While I did find brainspotting helpful in that it got me to access some painful memories that I had stuffed, it didn't help me to process them and heal. Perhaps that is further down the road. I don't know and I'm not willing to go further because I am depleted of all my reserves and just trying to function as a human being again. I honestly wonder if I am going to make it or end up locked up somewhere.

My conclusion is that brainspotting is so new that clients who try it are being used as Guinea pigs, of sorts. For some it will work, for others will not, for others it may do damage.

I may try EMDR instead now that I have found an EMDR therapist. She has been doing EMDR for over 10 years. She said I was too unstable now to even start EMDR. We are working on building trust and stabilizing me so that I am sleeping adequately again. Then I can move forward. I'm rather discouraged at this point, but I won't give up.

I'm just sharing my experience. I'm not trying to negate anyone else's experience. We are all different.

Sorry that it just brought up memories you have forgotten.

I did cognitive processing therapy and found the same thing happened to me. That therapist I had just argued a lot with me...long story but I left really unstable. Like I had tore open an old wound and it was left open and bleeding. And she pressured me with how many sessions I could get.

This new therapist is really taking her time and not arguing with me, so it's been much better. She hasn't pressured me with Time, which has been a huge relief, I don't feel so rushed...

I hope you stabilize soon.

In my case therapist very nice and a good listener. Think she had too much confidence that all we needed to do was keep going and everything would get better. Instead I fell apart. Been trying to find psychiatrist who will take medicaid for ages. Will see one who is at my clinic only in February and then he moves on. After that…??? Not sleeping again so hard to figure anything out.

Can you get in with maybe your primary care doctor to get something for sleep? Not sleeping is the worst.

Thank you for your inspirational post! If you don't mind explaining, exactly how is Brainspotting performed, i.e., specifically, what do the patient and therapist do physically? Thanks.

Thanks, Stargazer. She and I have been working on that for a long time without much success. She thinks a psychiatrist may be able to help.

I love EMDR. It has literally saved my life. Sessions can vary - like sometimes afterwards all I want to do is sleep, sometimes I feel worse than I did before the session, and sometimes I come out of it feeling like I can fly. It's different for everyone, and for some people it doesn't help at all, but it can't hurt to try it.

WW

Hi everyone!

I know that this thread hasn't been touched in months, but I also noticed that no one ever answered Rose's question about how brainspotting is performed.

I am prone to panic attacks and recently realized that some experiences from my childhood were sexual abuse. My therapist is trained in brainspotting and explained the process to me very clearly before we ever began. I've since had a handful of sessions and luckily, I am person for whom this treatment does wonders.

We dim the lights in the room and then I put on headphones to listen to soft relaxing sounds (babbling brook, ocean waves, that kind of stuff) quietly enough so that i can still hear my therapist's voice. Then a general session can start a few ways...

1. If I have been experiencing anxiety leading up to a session or am feeling anxious at that point my therapist invites me to scan my body and figure out where I am feeling that anxiety (in my stomach, my throat, tense shoulders, feet, etc) and then she invites me to focus on that feeling. At that point she gets out a pointer (maybe 2 feet long with a red tip) and begins to slowly move it back and forth across my field of vision. I follow the tip with my eyes back and forth. She changes the height of the pointer so sometimes we eyes have to look up, sometimes they look down. At this point all I do is continue to think about where i feel the anxiety in my body and follow the pointer.

A brainspotting therapist is trained to recognize reactions (twitch, double blink, pupil changing, etc.) When i do something like that my therapist stops the pointer there. Sometimes she says something, sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes I talk, sometimes I don't. If she does say anything it's often something like "what is there" but she is asking rhetorically. Then i sort of focus in on that spot. Generally I continue to stare at the pointer until I realize what is there and then I close my eyes. Sometimes its a memory that comes to mind, sometimes its a new realization, sometimes it's a fluke and there isn't anything there after all. I can either talk about what is happening in my brain, or just let it happen in my head. A completely silent brainspotting session is not weird at all. My therapist and I debrief afterward and then i talk about what i was seeing or thinking.

2. the second way we start is if i'm not feeling any anxiety or tension in my body at all. When that happens we just begin with scanning to see what's going on. Sometimes i'll notice that while scanning in a different area i feel afraid or tension sets in. My therapist recognizes those spots based on my physical reaction and asks if i want to explore that area or if i want to pass it and come back another time.

3. Sometimes we start with a question or a goal, in which case I am invited to ponder on that while scanning.

4. I was very grateful for my first ever session. My therapist invited me to think of good things, and feeling safe. Then, while focusing on that we scanned and I found a spot that was just this amazing peaceful safe area. She and I call that my God spot. If I ever get overwhelmed in a session or start to freak out we can leave the spot i'm at and go toward my God spot. I've found that I can turn to this spot at any time... even when i'm not brainspotting. If i start to feel overwhelmed i can look to the right slightly and look up just a bit till i feel at peace.

This therapy has really helped me cope with ****** times in my life. I stumbled on to inner-child work once while doing this. I was at a memory of a time i was being sexually abused and i imagined myself as I am now opening the door, going into the room and picking up myself as a child. I hugged her and told her she was safe and then i took her to room filled with toys and stuffed animals and told her that it was over now and that she could stay here and play. I laid her down in a big comfy bed with all the animals and told her to go to sleep and then I prayed over her and imagined angels standing around her to keep her safe.

That was a really intense session and when my therapist gently brought me back out by softly saying my name I realized that I was crying and she was wiping tears from her eyes as well.

Ending a brainspotting session is a delicate process. Generally I can sort of feel when it's done and my therapist notices that. she invites me to close my eyes and then we pray (we're both people of faith and I chose to bring that into the relationship) after that we breath together and then I open my eyes again.

Then we debrief about the session. She asks how I am feeling... which is generally very calm and peaceful. This is an amazing tool and i'm glad that my therapist uses it so well. She does not force me to explore places till i am ready and does not pry into what is happening. She has told me that generally she is watching me to make sure i'm okay and praying.

I am so thankful for this therapy. Although i've only done it a handful of times it has helped me immeasurably.

"Brain Spotting" reads like Scientology revisited.

Trigger Warning.....

Being on top, feeling the spot simulated, wow will I near orga*m this time inside. This sounds like an abusive technique, for those who claim they will help with memory retrieval....We'll help you were you are. A fluke in my opinion cult like....

a cult ...doesnt sound like that to me - sounds interesting - but then i am open to new techniques and have tried a lot of them

ty brainzaps that sounds like an amazing session and very helpful to you

remember what helps one may not help another - just dont see the need to knock it if i havnt tried it ...yet :-) to get out of this hell - i would try most things ...maybe even a cult if it worked!