Brainspotting Therapy: A Psychotherapeutic Breakthrough
Brainspotting therapy was developed by David Grand in 2003. Grand defines it as a psychotherapeutic proposal that uses the visible field to find “relevant ocular positions”. These ocular positions (or brainspots) may be related to areas of the brain that are activated due to psychological trauma.
Grand discovered that the field of vision and the location of the eyes gave access to specific areas of the brain where trauma may be located. After reaching these brain spots through mindfulness or full consciousness, he worked on the specific areas until the patient reached a state of solution.
Brainspotting therapy is a complex and profound process. To understand the mechanisms behind, we will go back in time. We go where it all started.
When and how was this therapy discovered?
In 2003, David Grand treated a 16-year-old skater with dissociative problems that affected her performance.
There were times when she could not feel her legs or could not remember a sequence she had practiced many times before. Several hypotheses claiming that these symptoms were purely physical were rejected. Specialists thought this had a dissociative origin and began working with her mind.
Grand worked with her for about a year and believed that what happened could be related to her mother’s rejection, various injuries and mistakes she made in her sport.
While in therapy, the Grand Skater asked the skater to imagine a sequence she thought was impossible to do. She had to find a part of the sequence where she felt she was going to fail and freeze that moment. That was when Grand asked her to follow his fingers with his eyes as he moved them around. Finally, the skater’s eyes flickered and the process began.
Ten minutes later the process ended and the blockage of the eye stopped. The next day, she called David and told her that she had managed to do the seemingly impossible sequence several times.
Grand realized that he could be on to something important and decided to test this hypothesis on other patients with similar problems. He also contacted some of his colleagues who also agreed to try it. In this way, he gathered enough evidence of the effectiveness of brainspotting therapy. This evidence included patients with different diagnoses, clinical histories, and traumas.
How does brainspotting therapy work?
Within the field of vision, brainspotting is located when the person is most connected to his body and tries to achieve full awareness of inner processes such as love, memory, bodily emotions, etc.
As a patient, you must allow yourself to be fully open to what is going on in your head. At some point, the therapist may intervene and talk about the process, but the main goal is to experience your own body. That way, it will be easier to reach a solution.
The therapy continues until the patient can remember or imagine what triggered the trauma without feeling anxious. Finally, the process is repeated until there are hardly any traumas left.
The patient can reach a solution at any time, from the first session and even after many years of treatment. This depends on the diagnosis, how serious the problem is, and the patient’s openness to be treated. Nevertheless, the therapist must really know what they are doing and have the utmost respect for the patient and the process if they are to succeed.
