Brainspotting Therapy
Overthinking, fear, and trauma can derail performers, athletes, and “everyday people”. Brainspotting™ (BSP) is an internationally recognized brain-body therapy for healing from stress, anxiety and trauma naturally, as well as expanding performance and creativity so that you can perform at your best. Brainspotting accesses the deepest regions of the brain where “neuroplasticity” can reawaken neural networks to allow lasting positive change. It is extremely effective for releasing mental and emotional blocks, and maximizing creative potential.
Imagine living a life where you are fully present, peaceful and balanced; where past hurts and painful experiences are no longer impacting your current relationships and circumstances. Jenny is an internationally certified consultant in Brainspotting, a powerful method to release trauma and emotionally charged experiences that are stored in the brain and body. Brainspotting can help you deeply process and fully release the negative thoughts, unhealthy coping, emotional pain, and difficult past experiences that keep you from thriving in the present.
HOW DOES BRAINSPOTTING WORK?
Brainspotting uses specific points in the client’s visual field to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain. Brainspotting uses relevant eye positions, somatic awareness, focused mindfulness and the therapist’s attunement to process and release the stored traumas which underlie a wide range of emotional and physical problems. It is a brain-body based treatment which integrates well with other types of therapies.
Brainspotting Therapy uses the brain’s and body’s natural ability to self-scan and to self-heal, or move back to a state of equilibrium. When a brainspot is activated, the deep brain appears to reflexively signal the therapist that a neural network holding unprocessed trauma has been found.
Trauma can be processed while connecting to either distressed or calm areas within the body. Brainspotting Therapy can allow the client to move quickly through processing of the trauma in a contained and supported way. Because the processing occurs mostly in the subcortical brain, this may happen with less talking than in traditional talk therapy. It is common for clients to experience both rapid relief of distress and profound insights.
Brainspotting is an open, integrative model often interwoven with other treatment modalities. Brainspotting can be used in conjunction with bilateral sound - music or nature sounds which move back and forth between right and left ears, balancing activation of the right and left brain hemispheres and activating the parasympathetic, or calming, part of the nervous system.
HOW IS BRAINSPOTTING DIFFERENT FROM TALK THERAPY?
This powerful form of therapy is grounded in research around the role of the deep brain in storing traumatic experiences. A key difference between Brainspotting and traditional therapies is that talk therapy primarily accesses “mind-based” or “top-down” cognitive processing originating in the front part of the brain known as the cerebral cortex, whereas Brainspotting activates neurological processing in the limbic system where trauma is stored. Based on the idea that “Where you look affects how you feel”, Brainspotting accesses the subcortical brain through the use of a "spot" in the field of vision. It is this “brainspot” that helps focus and process emotional and somatic problems held in parts of the brain and body that may be otherwise inaccessible to the conscious mind, helping you develop a healthier relationship with your body and your emotional reactions to stress. As with EMDR, Brainspotting clients find lasting relief from the physiological effects of trauma, stress and related issues, feeling more grounded, secure, self-confident, and connected.
Brainspotting and performance expansion
Brainspotting is extremely effective in helping to dissolve creative blocks, and to enhance expansive thinking and creative process. As well as feeling more healthy and at peace in life generally, many clients find that creativity and confidence flow more freely once inner obstacles and blocks are removed. Whether you want to improve public speaking, artistic performance, or to expand performance in business or other areas, Brainspotting can balance and enhance your brain’s functioning, resulting in improved mental clarity and new capacities. Read more about my work with creatives here.
BRAINSPOTTING can HELP WITH:
Stress & burnout
Anxiety, grief, rage & other overwhelming emotions
Trauma, painful memories & life experiences
Healing performance blocks (audition anxiety, writer’s block)
Enhancing performance / creative process
Restrictive emotional & mental patterns
Shame & self-esteem (inner critic, imposter syndrome, perfectionism)
Behaviors you have a hard time controlling (over-eating or shopping, binge watching or scrolling, bursts of irritability, lack of focus or procrastination)
Difficulty in relationships (over-extending yourself, frequent arguing, loneliness, feeling misunderstood)
Fears & phobias
Pain & energy blockages
Preparation for & recovery from birth or surgery