Brainspotting

One of our core beliefs at RISE is that mind-body approaches provide promising mental health benefits. One such approach is called Brainspotting (BSP).

David Grand, PhD., developed Brainspotting in 2003. In his words, BSP is a new psychotherapy approach that theorizes that the field of vision can be used to locate eye positions that correlate with relevance to inner neural and emotional experience. After they are located, these eye positions, or Brainspots, may, through maintaining eye fixation, lead to healing and resolution of issues that are held deeply in the non-verbal, non-cognitive areas of one’s neurophysiology. BSP utilizes both focused activation and focused mindfulness as its mode of operation. It aims at a full, comprehensive discharge of activation (emotional distress) held in the brain and body.

Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional mind/body pain, trauma, dissociation, and other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment. It uses bilateral sound and fixed eye positions to enhance deep, direct and powerful healing. The therapist helps the client locate internal resources to contain emotional reactions.

BSP is especially applicable for treating trauma. Approximately 75% of requests for medical care are linked to the consequences of overwhelming trauma and stress. People typically respond to traumatic experiences through primitive fight, flight or freeze instincts. BSP allows clients to significantly reduce and eliminate the tension and hyper-arousal associated with these survival instincts. Clients can look forward to integrating healing on emotional, somatic, psychological, spiritual and even physical levels.