Brainspotting therapy for trauma healing
Brainspotting was created in 2003 by a man named David Grand as an advancement in his work with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.) It's a form of psychotherapy that utilizes the field of vision, the therapist/client relationship, and often music to process and release deeply rooted emotional and physical pain.
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Brainspotting is a merging of the brain and body. It utilizes the eyes for identifying and accessing "brainspots." During brainspotting, therapists help their clients to position their eyes in ways that help them to target sources of undesirable emotion. Brainspotting therapists utilize this modality to access client emotions on a deeper level than "talk therapy" can reach and target the physical as well as the emotional effects of trauma.
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Brainspotting often allows for healing to take place at a rapid speed, and a miraculous depth. It allows for Brainspotting therapists to locate, focus, process, and release a range of bodily and emotionally-based conditions with their clients, that more traditional therapies simply cannot reach.
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What is a Brainspotting Session Like?
You and your therapist may start out by targeting a certain experience that creates some level of emotion within you. Often this can even be a physical sensation. It can be something seemingly small such as, "my best friend won't respond to any of my messages and has left me on read for a week straight." Brainspotting is effective for more complex issues as well, such as the impacts of childhood trauma.
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A therapist may incorporate music into the session called bilateral stimulation. Brainspotting can be done with or without a pointer, and the therapist will work with you to find a specific place to look at during the session while you focus in on the emotion or physical sensation.
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Clients often wonder if Brainspotting is similar to hypnosis and while impacts may be similar, It is not the same modality. Clients are not unconscious during a Brainspotting session and they are in control of their bodies throughout. It's also common for clients to wonder or even ask out loud, "am I doing this right?" The answer is that there is no right or wrong way for a client to do Brainspotting. We often tell our clients to "let their bodies do whatever they need to do" as the goal of the Brainspotting therapist is to create an environment where intensive healing can unfold without a list of checkboxes and to-do's, where the client can be free of judgement and the feeling of needing to have all the answers. This space is about giving the brain and the body a chance to "trust the process" and go exactly where it needs to go.
Read more about what Brainpotting is and how it works to treat trauma here
What else can Brainspotting be used for?
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Systemic and episodic trauma - PTSD, C-PTSD, developmental trauma and childhood trauma, intergenerational wounds, nightmares, flashbacks, etc.
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Chronic pain
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Anxiety and Depression
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Substance related issues
Sometimes, clients seek Brainspotting Intensives as a shorter-term experience intended to bring rapid relief. Brainspotting is folded into the therapeutic work naturally with most clients at Woven Wholeness, however intensives are an option for current clients, new clients, or individuals who are working with their own outside therapist already and simply looking for a radical healing experience.
At this time, all services are private pay and facilitated virtually or via phone, with the exception of our in-person intensives.
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All services begin with a free, 15 minute consultation. During the consultation, we’ll discuss the basics behind what is going on for you and talk about how I can help.
Fees: Session (50 minutes) $240- $270 | Initial Intake (55-60 minutes) $295
Insurances Accepted: I’m not in-network with insurance companies, but can provide an invoice for possible out-of-network provider reimbursement through your insurance company.
Common Methods Used: Brainspotting (Phase 1 & 2), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF - CBT), Expressive Arts Therapy, Experiential Therapy, Inner-wisdom tools, HeartMath, Internal Family Systems