Brainspotting (BSP) is a revolutionary brain and body-based therapy approach developed by David Grand, Ph.D. in 2003. It is a powerful and effective method of identifying, processing, and releasing various types of trauma. It can be utilized in combination with talk therapy or as a singular healing modality.
Traumatic or stressful events can overwhelm the brain and body, leaving behind unprocessed traumatic imprints that manifest as psychological or emotional problems in a person’s life. This results in an overwhelmed and imbalanced nervous system. Brainspotting works on easing this emotional and physical pain by accessing, processing and releasing neurophysiological sources of pain and trauma held in the subcortical brain. Brainspotting is able to get around the neocortex, our thinking brain, and deeply access painful feelings or memories we have locked away.
How does it work?
Brainspotting allows a trained therapist to utilize a client’s field of vision to discover specific spots in the brain where trauma is being held, called a “brainspot”. Often, the individual can identify a brainspot by noticing an increase of emotions or body sensations in a particular visual position. The therapist may help identify brainspots by observing reflexive responses in the client such as changes in the eyes, facial expression, breathing patterns or body position. Once these are located, deep processing releases and heals the unprocessed traumatic impression.
Importantly, Brainspotting does not remove memories of traumatic life events. Rather, it safely diminishes the negative feelings associated with the events. Minor traumas can often be addressed and healed in a couple of sessions, whereas more complex traumas may require several sessions to heal. In a way, Brainspotting allows a person to have more understanding and control over one’s emotions and experiences.
Who does Brainspotting work with?
The healing power of this technique comes from the combination of the relationship between the therapist and client in dual-attunement, and the strength of the brain/body connection. This gentle process is suitable for anyone and can be helpful in treating a wide variety of concerns such as:
- Anxiety and Panic Attacks
- Grief and Loss
- Attention and Focus-related Issues
- Post-partum and Pre-natal Traumas
- Recovery From Injury & Accident Trauma
- Depression
- Physical and Emotional Trauma
- Phobias and Fears
- Performance Anxiety
- Sexual Abuse and Trauma
- Relationship Difficulties
- Chronic Pain Conditions
- Negative Self Talk and Poor Self-image
How can Brainspotting help me?
Many individuals have shared in therapy about the difficulties in their lives that keep resurfacing, no matter how much they work to unravel them. This occurs often because trauma hides in the part of our brain that is outside of the ability to cognitively reframe our pain. Brainspotting is so effective because it bypasses the thinking brain and goes directly to the feeling brain that holds the most tender parts of us. It also accesses the body through the nervous system, healing things we may not have known were there. It is one of the most effective ways to use the body’s resources for healing.
Who does Brainspotting work with? from VidPros on Vimeo.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a proprietary mental health modality developed by Laney Rosenzweig, MS, LMFT in 2008, over the course of more than a decade of clinical development and ongoing improvements and adaptions. Early research results showed that veterans resolved all clinical PTSD in 1-5 sessions with an average of 3.5 sessions. A single trauma can often be resolved in one ART session.
How does it work?
When your brain experiences trauma, the traumatic images bypass the logical part of the brain (the pre-frontal cortex) and go right into the part of the brain responsible for emergency reactions (the limbic system). Therefore, trauma events are stored in a problematically persistent way that causes flashbacks and uncomfortable sensations. It is these images and sensations that cause triggers, not the actual facts of the event(s).
ART is distinguished by its focus on erasing negative traumatic images and associated sensations from the client’s mental view with its “Voluntary Image Replacement.” We utilize eye movements shown by research to be connected to a relaxation response in the brain.
The therapist uses hand gestures to calm down the sympathetic nervous system which quickly removes hypervigilance.
Many people think that when you imagine something from your past, it stays in one place in your brain and is remembered the same way. However, when you recall a memory, you are actually recreating it, pulling together elements from different parts of your brain and reconstructing it entirely. This allows for a window of opportunity to make conscious changes during ART’s eye movements — changing images and their accompanying sensations and creating new solutions and perspectives. A memory can, at will, be altered, strengthened or weakened.
To view Laney’s TEDx talk on ART, or for more information, go to: www.ARTworksNOW.com
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