For Individuals or Couples

What happens during a Brainspotting session?

It’s going to feel different than talk therapy.

We will begin with you choosing the issue you want to work on. Next, we’ll talk about this issue. Then I will work with you to find a Brainspot. Once we find a Brainspot, you will focus on that issue and notice what comes up. 

While you focus on your brainspot, it ceases to look like talk therapy anymore.

You will be mindfully processing whatever comes up as you concentrate on this issue. So I will watch and witness you, but I won’t speak much to you. This frees you to tune into the images, sensations, thoughts, feelings and memories that are connected to this issue.

What’s ‘normal’ for a Brainspotting session?

Sometimes during Brainspotting clients will ask ‘Is this normal?’

The good news is that you can’t do it wrong, but you should keep in mind that this is going to look different from talk therapy. Everyone responds differently, and individuals can respond differently from session to session. Some possible responses during Brainspotting:

  • Not wanting to talk

  • Wanting to talk a lot (even if this isn’t your normal MO)

  • Shaking and tremoring

  • Laughing

  • Crying

  • Burping

  • Farting

  • Yawning

  • Hiccuping 

  • Feeling physical sensations

If any of these things happen during a session, remember that it is your body releasing what it no longer needs. (I may remind you too.)

Brainspotting feels weird. Are you sure I’m not doing it wrong? 

Brainspotting feels different. David Grand, who discovered brainspotting, calls the processing your ‘conscious thinking brain observing your unconscious brain’. So when you experience images, thoughts and feelings during brainspotting that you can’t logically string together, just know that that is the brain healing its neural pathways, and you get to watch.

What is Brainspotting good for?

  • Trauma from one-time events (car accidents, etc)

  • Complex trauma (trauma over time)

  • Outgrown beliefs

  • Physical pain

  • Addiction

  • Cultivating expansion and possibility

  • Cultivating creativity

Is Brainspotting just for individuals?

I offer Brainspotting to individuals and to couples, both in-person, and online.

With couples, devoting time and attention to each individuals’ traumas through Brainspotting can result in relief for both the individual and the couple. The partner that witnesses the Brainspotting gains insight into their partner’s trauma, and the partner that receives it is also benefitting from the supportive co-regulation of their partner as they process and heal this trauma.

I also offer adjunct Brainspotting, which is targeted sessions of 50-80 minutes of Brainspotting for individuals that already see an invidividual therapist.