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Has anyone heard of brainspotting? It is supposed to be a way to do EMDR that is less activating and more body focused and stuff. My T suggested it as a possibility to look into. I started EMDR once and then life happened... Trauma happened, and after, I was too much of a mess to go back to it. Now I'm trying and thinking of doing the EMDR again, but I'm getting stuck. My T thinks maybe brainspotting style of EMDR might be a better fit. Has anyone heard of this or had any experience?

I'm going to talk with her about it more, she just mentioned it as a possibility. I could look into it or not, do it or not... I'm curious. EMDR was helpful before, and now, maybe this might be a way to get past where I'm getting stuck with trying EMDR again, but I'm not sure and have never heard of anything like Brainspotting. I don't want to do anything to quackish... but I trust my T she would recommend something that was totally unfounded...

I just dunno...

Any thoughts or experiences? Does this seem weird? Does it seem like a good idea to try? Does it seem hokey? Has anyone tried anything like this?

I've googled it and below is one article I have found that my T confirmed describes it well. It is found at: http://www.brainspotting.pro/page/what-brainspotting
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Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the amygdala. It isn’t just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis.” -- Robert Scaer, MD, “The Trauma Spectrum”



Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing.

Brainspotting functions as a neurobiological tool to support the clinical healing relationship. There is no replacement for a mature, nurturing therapeutic presence and the ability to engage another suffering human in a safe and trusting relationship where they feel heard, accepted, and understood.

Brainspotting gives us a tool, within this clinical relationship, to neurobiologically locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms that are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and its cognitive and language capacity.

Brainspotting works with the deep brain and the body through its direct access to the autonomic and limbic systems within the body’s central nervous system. Brainspotting is accordingly a physiological tool/treatment which has profound psychological, emotional, and physical consequences.

It is theorized that Brainspotting taps into and harnesses the body’s innate self-scanning capacity to process and release focused areas (systems) which are in a maladaptive homeostasis (frozen primitive survival modes). This may also explain the ability of Brainspotting to often reduce and eliminate body pain and tension associated with physical conditions.

A “Brainspot” is the eye position which is related to the energetic/emotional activation of a traumatic/emotionally charged issue within the brain, most likely in the amygdala, the hippocampus, or the orbitofrontal cortex of the limbic system. Located by eye position, paired with externally observed and internally experienced reflexive responses, a Brainspot is actually a physiological subsystem holding emotional experience in memory form.

When a Brainspot is stimulated, the deep brain reflexively signals the therapist that an area of significance has been located. This typically happens out of the client’s conscious awareness. There are a multitude of reflexive responses, including eye twitches, wobbles, freezes, blinks (hard and double blinks) pupil dilation and constriction, narrowing, facial tics, brow furrowing, sniffs, swallows, yawns, coughs, head nods, hand signals, foot movement and body shifting. Reflexive facial expressions are powerful indicators of Brainspots.

The appearance of a reflexive response as the client attends to the somatosensory experience of the trauma, emotional or somatic problem is an indication that a Brainspot has been located and activated. The Brainspot can then be accessed and stimulated by holding the client’s eye position while the client is focused on the somatic/sensory experience of the symptom or problem being addressed in the therapy.

The maintenance of that eye position/Brainspot within the attentional focus on the body’s “felt sense” of that issue or trauma stimulates a deep integrating and healing process within the brain. This processing, which appears to take place at a reflexive or cellular level within the nervous system, brings about a de-conditioning of previously conditioned, maladaptive emotional and physiological responses. Brainspotting appears to stimulate, focus, and activate the body’s inherent capacity to heal itself from trauma.

In “inside window” Brainspotting the therapist and client participate together to locate Brainspots through the client’s felt sense of the experience of the highest intensity of affect/body distress. Brainspotting can be done with one eye or two. Brainspotting can be directed at distress and Brainspotting can be directed at establishing and strengthening resources.

Brainspotting is also very useful to access and develop internal resource states end experiences. These resources allow the therapist and patient, where necessary, to “pendulate” between resource or positive states and trauma states during Brainspotting to enable more gradual, graded processing and desensitization of intensely traumatic and emotionally charged issues and symptoms.

Brainspotting processes down to the reflexive core. Often when it appears one has reached a zero distress level, a new strata or floor is broken through, probing deeper into the brain. The reflexive core is in the deep, unconscious body brain. It is as out of our awareness as respiration, circulation, and digestion. Brainspotting dismantles the trauma, symptom, somatic distress and dysfunctional beliefs at the reflexive core.

Brainspotting is a “body to body” approach. The distress is activated and located in the body which then leads to the locating of the Brainspot based on eye position. As opposed to EMDR where the traumatic memory is the “target”, in Brainspotting the Brainspot is the target or “focus or activation point”. Everything is aimed at activating, locating, and processing the Brainspot.

Brainspotting is most powerful and effective when done with the enhancement of BioLateral Sound CDs. Biolateral sound enhances the brain’s processing abilities by alternately stimulating each cerebral hemisphere. For highly dissociated or very fragile clients, Brainspotting can be initiated without any bilateral intensification, which can be added later as the client is more integrated and flexible. The healing sound directly enters the brain through the auditory nerves while the eardrums are vibrated bilaterally.

Any life event which causes significant physical and/or emotional injury and distress, in which the person powerfully experiences being overwhelmed, helpless, or trapped, can become a traumatic experience.

There is growing recognition within the healing professions that experiences of physical and/or emotional injury, acute and chronic pain, serious physical illness, dealing with difficult medical interventions, societal turmoil, environmental disaster, as well as many other problematic life events, will contribute to the development of a substantial reservoir of life trauma. That trauma is held in the body.

In most cases, the traumatized individual does not usually have the opportunity or the support to adequately process and integrate these traumatic life events. The traumatic experience then becomes a part of that individual’s trauma reservoir. The body and the psyche cannot remain unaffected by the physical, energetic and emotional costs extracted by this accumulated trauma load. The medical and psychological literature now acknowledges that approximately 75% of requests for medical care are linked to the actions or consequences of this accumulation of stress and/or trauma upon the systems of the human body.

Every health care professional encounters treatment situations in which physical symptoms cannot be separated from their emotional or psychological correlates. Traumatic life experiences, whether physical or emotional, are often significant contributing factors in the development and/or maintenance of most of the symptoms and problems encountered in health care.

Brainspotting is a physiological therapeutic tool which can be integrated into a wide range of healing modalities, including psychological as well as somatic approaches to treatment. Brainspotting can be useful as a complement to various body-based therapies including advanced bodywork, chiropractic, acupuncture, somatic therapies, physical therapy, nursing, medicine, and other specialized approaches to physical healing. It is a valuable resource in the treatment of a wide range of medical, physical, and psycho-emotional issues and symptoms encountered by health professionals.

Brainspotting provides a neurobiological tool for accessing, diagnosing, and treating a wide range of somatic and emotionally-based conditions.
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Stoppers ~ when I have done EMDR before, 5 years ago, my T once did the tapping with her hands on my hands. She also would sit nearby if I needed. It helped. It also made it more intense for me if the tapping was via her hands on mine. I was able to access and talk more, and feel more... it was on the edge of being too much, but it did help. It also helped when she was willling to sit close.


STRM ~

That is so good to hear. There are a couple of things you have said about your therapy that my T does and had been wondering if anyone else did and it's helped to know that my T isn't the only one trying things like this. It’s reassuring to know other T’s do EMDR in different ways.

I’m very curious and wondering about this. I think I’m going to ask my T more and look into it.

I’ve found the “most common way” of doing EMDR just doesn’t work for me. But it does help when I can just go with a body sensation or a thought and go from there… and not have to always stay with it until it’s at it’s worst. Not yet.

I have a lot of stuff coming up for me lately, and the stuff I feel physically, feels stuck. Often I can’t attach any words to it…

I have done EMDR before, but it was before a very traumatic event happened in my adult life. It really helped when I did it 5 years ago. Body stuff shifted and I could talk easier about family of orgin stuff.

Then a terrible thing happened, and I went through a really rough year. I was a mess. The trauma is complicated and freaks out most Ts to be honest. Ok, maybe it doesn't freak them out, they just feel like they wouldn't be able to help someone who went through what I did.

I want to do EMDR again, I struggle to talk about what happened. I have two great T's now. (one regular T and one equie T) They both are super supportive of me finding sometone to do EMDR, but it's been hard.

One T said she was thinking of actualy learning EMDR so then she could try it with me. I am overwhelemed that she would be so interested just to help me. She is frustrated that the EDMR folks I have tried to connect with all are very rigid in how they did it. She wishes they would be willing to try things I want to try to ease into it - and the things that works for me sound a little bit simillar to how brainspotting is done. My T said she just trusts that my instinct is right and that all the boxes the EMDR T's are trying to fit me into just don't work.

My other T said she knows someone who does brain spotting.

I feel so grateful and really astonished by how much my T's care and see what works for me and are willing to go with it and try out different things.

I hope maybe I can try this “brainspotting” way of doing EMDR. Or just try different ways of doing EMDR. I’m scared to try, but maybe…

I looked online and there are a couple of T’s in my areas that say they do EMDR *and* brainspotting. My T brought it up because she knows of someone who does it and said I might be able to try it with her. My T was concerned that when I have tried to connect with a T that does EMDR only, it hasn’t worked… I don’t fit the “typical” protocol well enough. If I imagine the worst event, I’m numb and can’t feel anything and the Ts say my trauma is too complex and they are too concerned making me worse so they don’t so it. Then I feel like crap… my T said it’s not me, it’s just them… and I know… they are stating what they can and can’t do… and my T said there might be another way that would fit me better.

I hope, maybe…

Thanks for the feedback!

~jane

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