Marzanna Moulton

What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting (BSP) is the evidence-based new therapy that is becoming one of the most sought after therapy treatments for anxiety, trauma, relationship issues, professional performance anxiety, accidents, chronic illness, grief and PTSD.

How is Brainspotting different from talk therapy?

Recent findings in neuroscience reveal that painful, traumatic experiences can be stored in subcortical brain (nonverbal, non-cognitive midbrain), and if not directly confronted those memories can negatively affect how we feel and function.

Talk therapy engages the neocortex (part of the brain responsible for organizing our cognition, thought, and executive functioning). From this treatment approach, clients change their thinking (e.g., cognitions) and they can begin to change the feelings and behaviors those thoughts produce.

Brainspotting bridges the gap between mind and body by providing access to sub cortex. The brain’s response to traumatic memory is “reset” so that the emotional response experienced in the body is no longer disturbing.

How does Brainspotting work?

Brainspotting engages our eyes which directly connect to subcortical midbrain. With focus and precision, a therapist can find with eye positions where the trauma, anxiety, depression are held in the brain. By bypassing the conscious (neocortex) and accessing deeper (sub cortex) emotional parts of the brain that carry specific trauma, through deep relational attunement to the client, the therapist creates a powerful frame allowing the brain to heal. With applied mindfulness, the client’s brain can locate and process the issue and eventually release experiences and symptoms that are out of reach of the conscious mind.

"The Eyes are the window to your soul" - William Shakespeare