Accelerated healing and relief, Brainspotting therapy in Washington and Oregon
“Immediately address issues that talk therapy can take years to heal.” David Grand
Is therapy just not working?
You’ve been to talk therapy before and aren’t making the progress that you want to make. Maybe you’ve tried different types of therapy and find yourself feeling better right away but struggling to stay in that place long term.
You’ve read all the self-help books, listened to all the podcasts, and understand all the concepts but struggle to implement them into your daily life in the way you’d like to.
You wish you could remove the blocks that are keeping you from taking your own advice and finally go deeper with therapy in order to get that lasting change you’ve been seeking.
This is where Brainspotting therapy can help.
Brainspotting Basics
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Brainspotting is a powerful and focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing, and releasing core sources of emotional and physical pain, trauma, dissociation, and many other symptoms that have been stored in the mid and hind brain.
Brainspotting is highly adaptable to each client’s needs, schedule, and range of issues, and because of this it offers the quickest and most efficient healing potential of all non-medical treatments available.
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Brainspotting works by using something people naturally do already. Most of us when we are trying to collect our thoughts or are having strong emotions, we tend to look off in a certain direction. Our eyes are directly connected to our central nervous system, which means they are literally connected to our brain, our lungs, and our heart. So when we engage in this “looking off” process we are naturally helping our brains and bodies to process information and to regulate breath and heart rate.
Now, the mid brain is the command center for emotions, hormones, the fight or flight response, spirituality, creativity, and other things. However talk therapy utilizes a process deeply reliant on thinking, which comes out of the new brain, aka the prefrontal cortex. Often for people with a trauma history, this can cause a delay in healing that can be years or decades long!
Brainspotting side steps the delay of talk therapy by using eye position to access stored memories and emotion by simply harnessing the brain and body’s natural healing process of eye position and how it is connected to the midbrain command center of these deeper things like emotion, fear, and belonging.
This allows Brainspotting to speed up access to stored experiences and memories in order to accelerate their release and facilitate healing much quicker.
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If you have been suffering with:
shame, abandonment, and/or disconnection
difficult childhood or trauma history (single incident or ongoing) and don’t want to talk through it but still want healing
difficulty in relationships with friends, family, partner, or professional life
or simply want to break old patterns, have higher self esteem, and end your negative self talk
Brainspotting clients report many common benefits, including:
improved sense of calm in the body and mind overall
improved sleep, increased energy, reduced pain, and greater self confidence
traumatic events re-rooted in the past, meaning less triggers and painful memories
decreased sense of heaviness, like a weight has been lifted off them
improved performance satisfaction in work, academics, or athletics
able to “let go” of bothersome issues and emotions
less rumination and anxious worry
improved relationships
Finally go deeper in therapy for the lasting changes you’ve been seeking.
Common Brainspotting Questions
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Brainspotting uses a fixed eye position where EMDR uses constant eye movement throughout treatmen. Brainspotting is also reported by many as being less intense as EMDR.
Brainspotting is also highly relational and therapists are trained to deeply attune to their clients. This can create a relational warmth to the treatment where EMDR can be more disconnected and distanced.
Brainspotting and EMDR both use evidence based techniques but Brainspotting is less regimented, which allows it to be more adaptable an individualized for each client and each session. -
Absolutely, whether in person or online, the effectiveness is not impacted.
However, the size of your screen will make a difference since we are dealing with eye position. The larger the screen, the wider range you have access to. So it is recommended to use a computer rather than a phone.
It is also useful to have headphones available and potentially other items, like a pen or spoon, and a piece of cloth like a scarf or tie to help enhance or minimize eye stimulation. -
Brainspotting can be used for any topic, by any client but is uniquely beneficial if:
- you’ve been struggling with certain issues despite prior or current involvement in therapy
- you are seeking a gentler way to get to the heart of what has been bothering you
- you struggle to integrate what you know and how you feel ( -
We can start by having a 20 minute consultation to see if we a a good fit to work together.
If either one of us decides not to work together, I will provide you with referrals to other therapist.
If we do decide to work together, we will schedule an intake session and start with a 50 minute session after that.