Areas of Focus:

Children | Teens | Emerging Adults | First-Generation Experiences

Clinical Specialties:

Social Anxiety | School-Based Anxiety | Separation Anxiety |

Self-Esteem | Social Skills | Friendship Navigation |

Big Emotions | Anger | Depression | Trauma | Life Transitions

Modalities:

CBT | Mindfulness-Based | Client-Centered | Solution-Focused | Trauma-Informed | Brainspotting

Diagram comparing brainspotting and talk therapy with a focus on brain anatomy. Highlights include the cerebral cortex for talk therapy, trauma stored deep in the brain, and brainspotting healing trauma through all brain layers. Illustration features labeled sections and arrows pointing to different brain regions.

In Brainspotting, it is suggested that the direction in which people look or gaze can affect the way they feel. During a typical BSP session, the therapist guides, through a pointer, the eyes of the client across the field of vision to find an appropriate eye position (“Brainspot”) to “activate” the psychophysiological response to a traumatic memory. In BSP, the target is the visual point of activation. The purpose is thus to identify the BSP as this visual point that appears to promote the client’s processing of the distressing or traumatic experience, and of, as in the EMDR approach, the memories, thoughts, or sensations connected to it. Unlike processing with EMDR, in BSP, the distressing memory is processed without following specific series of steps or verbal reports.

References:

D’Antoni, F., Matiz, A., Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2022). Psychotherapeutic Techniques for Distressing Memories: A Comparative Study between EMDR, Brainspotting, and Body Scan Meditation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1142. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031142

Grand, D. Brainspotting: The Revolutionary New Therapy for Rapid and Effective Change; Sounds True: Boulder, CO, USA, 2013.

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