What is Brainspotting? How This Deep Brain–Body Therapy Helps Heal Trauma, Pain & Emotional Overload
by Kasey Meyer | Director of Mental Health | MSW, LICSW
When talk therapy isn’t enough, and when your body seems to “remember” what your mind can’t quite explain, Brainspotting offers a new path forward.
Brainspotting is not just another technique. It’s a powerful way to access deeper layers of emotional and neural processing. This offers healing for trauma, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and long-buried experiences that talk alone can’t always reach.
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting (BSP) is a modality discovered in 2003 by Dr. David Grand. It operates on a simple but profound principle:
Where you look affects how you feel.
By using a specific “gaze spot” in your visual field, the therapist helps you access, process, and release stored trauma, emotional stress, and somatic patterns held deep in the brain—especially in the limbic system and midbrain, where fight-flight-freeze responses live.
Brainspotting integrates neuroscience, eye-positioning, and somatic awareness. It’s considered a deep brain and body therapy, meaning it targets areas below conscious thought. This is where trauma often hides.
Why this offers a deeper dive beyond Traditional Talk Therapy
Talk therapy is powerful, and we offer many evidence-based approaches such as CBT, DBT, ACT, and Somatic Therapy. But some experiences are stored nonverbally. The nervous system — not the thinking mind — holds the imprint. For many people who feel stuck, overwhelmed, or unable to explain what’s happening emotionally, Brainspotting becomes the bridge between understanding and actual transformation.
How Brainspotting Works
Brainspotting sessions usually involve:
Identifying Activation: The therapist helps you locate a physical or emotional point of activation — tension, fear, sadness, overwhelm, numbness, etc.
Finding the “Brainspot”: Using a pointer, the therapist guides your eye gaze across your field of vision until a spot creates a noticeable shift in your internal experience. That spot corresponds to deep-brain neural activation.
Holding the Spot: You focus your gaze on the identified point while the therapist helps you stay regulated, grounded, and connected.
Processing & Release: Your brain begins to naturally process stored memories, sensations, or emotions. Some people feel warmth, tingling, emotional waves, or sudden clarity. Others feel quiet, distant, or reflective.
There is no “right way” to experience a session—your nervous system leads the way.
What Brainspotting Can Help With
Brainspotting is increasingly used in clinical settings for:
Trauma & PTSD
Childhood wounds and attachment trauma
Chronic pain (including migraines, fibromyalgia, and unexplained pain)
Anxiety, angst, and excessive worrying
Depression and emotional numbness
Grief and loss
Performance blocks (sports, music, leadership)
Fear, phobias & panic
Dissociation or “shut-down” responses
Stress from caregiving or burnout
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
These are all core mental health concerns we support within our practice.
Research has shown Brainspotting’s effectiveness aligns closely with other somatic and brain-based therapies such as EMDR, but many clients find BSP to be gentler, more flexible, and more attuned to the body’s natural pace.
The Neuroscience Behind Brainspotting
Brainspotting works through the brain’s innate ability to reorganize itself—called neuroplasticity.
Key components involved:
The Amygdala: Stores emotional memories and fear responses.
The Hippocampus: Processes memory and creates meaning.
The Midbrain: Controls survival responses like fight, flight, freeze, and fawn.
The Cerebellum: Holds implicit, non-verbal memory (the “body memory”).
The Oculomotor System: Eye positioning corresponds directly with internal neural pathways.
By locating and holding a brainspot, the therapist helps your system reprocess unresolved survival energy that has been keeping you stuck — without forcing you to relive trauma or narrate details you don’t want to.
What a Brainspotting Session Feels Like
Many people describe it as:
“Deeply calming”
“Like my brain was reorganizing itself”
“I finally connected the dots”
“A slow-release valve for old pain”
“My body felt lighter”
“I didn’t have to talk — my system just knew what to do”
Others feel emotional shifts — crying, release, relief, or surprising clarity.
What’s important is that you stay in control, guided by a trained therapist who ensures grounding, safety, and support.
How Brainspotting Fits Into Whole-Person Wellness
Our mission is to deliver total health from the inside out, supporting emotional, physical, and preventive wellness for individuals, caregivers, and organizations.
Brainspotting aligns with this mission by addressing not just symptoms — but root causes:
Mind: Reprocessing trauma, anxiety, and negative beliefs.
Body: Releasing chronic tension, pain, or emotional energy stored in the nervous system.
Lifestyle & Prevention: Helping you build calm, resilience, self-awareness, and long-lasting change.
Community & Support: A compassionate, human-centered environment where healing can unfold.
Who Is Brainspotting For?
Brainspotting may be something you might want to explore if:
You feel stuck in the same patterns, despite trying talk therapy.
You have trauma you don’t want to retell in detail.
You carry stress or pain you can’t logically explain.
You feel disconnected from your body or emotions.
You’re navigating caregiver burnout or chronic overwhelm.
You want a deeper, more somatic form of healing.
** Disclaimer: It is essential to closely work with your provider to determine if Brainspotting is right for you.
Is Brainspotting Evidence-Based?
Brainspotting is considered an evidence-informed therapy. Early studies demonstrate its effectiveness for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, and performance challenges.
Ongoing research supports its use as a somatic and neurobiological treatment approach that blends well with traditional mental health modalities — many of which we offer, including CBT, DBT, ACT, and integrative therapies.
What to Expect When Working With Our Team
At AHI Integrative Health + Wellness:
Care is personalized, compassionate, and integrative.
Brainspotting is offered by trained clinicians committed to trauma-informed practice.
Sessions are available via telehealth or in-person (based on provider).
We accept insurance, making brain-based therapies more accessible.
Treatment has the ability to be blended with whole-person wellness — mental, physical, and preventive care.
Your healing unfolds at your pace, with a provider who supports you every step of the way.
If you’re curious about Brainspotting, or if you’ve tried other therapies and still feel stuck, our team is here to help. Healing doesn’t have to be overwhelming — and you don’t have to navigate it alone.
Schedule an appointment or free 15min consultation with our integrative mental health team today. Together, we can help you reconnect, restore balance, and rediscover a healthier, freer version of yourself.