What is Brainspotting? Part 1 of the Brainspotting Series

Sometimes we understand why we feel the way we do, but that understanding doesn’t result in change. We see our patterns and beliefs, trace them back, intellectualise and attempt to make sense of them. But then we still react the same way, still struggle in certain situations, still don’t believe in ourselves enough; the understanding doesn’t seem to actually fix anything. We can’t think our way to the outcome we want. We just circle around the same patterns.

For many of us, this goes on for years. Sometimes decades. We do ‘the work’, try different self-help tools, therapies, try new supplements, mind-set work, breath-work, positive affirmations, meditating. The behaviours, feelings and stories keep showing up, in the same or different forms. Something deeper still hasn’t been reached.

What I came to realise is that our conditioned patterns don’t change through thinking, analysing and understanding.

Brainspotting is a way of working with the parts of the brain, body and nervous system where our patterns are actually held. It allows us to access and process what sits beneath the surface.

You don’t need to have words or explanations. You don’t even need to know exactly what the problem is. You only need to know how you feel now. And then we hand it all over to the brain to work it out.

This is where we begin to experience changes — not through more insight, but through reprocessing our experiences in the deeper brain. This is called neuroplasticity.

When I discovered Brainspotting, I realised this was the part of the healing puzzle that had been missing.

So, What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a cutting-edge brain, body and neuroscience-based approach to healing. It works with the brain and nervous system to locate and release stored emotional distress. It was developed in 2003 by American psychotherapist Dr David Grand, who noticed something remarkable during a session: the position of a person's eyes seemed to correspond directly to neural networks where negative experiences are stored.

The core idea is simple: where you look affects how you feel. By finding a specific eye position - a "brainspot" - that connects to a held experience in the nervous system, the brain is able to do something it can't manage through talking: process and release what's stored there.

There is no need to re-live difficult experiences. You don’t need to know the ‘story’ behind what you are experiencing in the present. You don’t have to have experienced ‘trauma’.

Why does it work?

I think of the brain like a computer. Most of our daily experiences get processed and filed away. But sometimes - especially during periods of overwhelm, stress, or intense emotion - an experience doesn't get fully processed. This is common when we are growing up, but also happens when we are adults. These experiences are held in the deeper brain, outside the reach of conscious thought.

The brain’s main job is our survival, so this is an attempt to protect us in some way. If a negative experience can be held in a present-moment loop, instead of being filed away, it will prevent us from repeating those experiences. This is why something that happened in the past can still feel be felt in the present.

Brainspotting works by accessing the subcortical brain — the deeper part that governs our nervous system, and where memories, emotions and survival responses live. Our eyes connect directly into this part of the brain. It is like a lightning-fast super-computer, making decisions way in advance of the thinking, talking, conscious part of the brain.

Our eyes bypass the analytical, thinking mind and direct us to where the experience is actually held. Given the right conditions, the brain knows how to heal itself. And Brainspotting has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to create those conditions.

How is it different from talking therapies?

Talking therapies are very beneficial. They help us understand our patterns, reframe our thinking, and give us tools for navigating life. We can share things in a non-judgmental setting that we may have been withholding or do not wish to share with others; we can learn how to verbalise our inner feelings. But this only goes so far.

There are drivers behind how we feel and act that live below the level of language. Responses, feelings and behaviours that activate before conscious thought has a chance to intervene.

Rather than talking about an experience, Brainspotting enables the brain to process, integrate, and remove the emotional charge from an experience – allowing it to be filed away in ‘past experiences’, so that it no longer leaves a residue on our present experiences.

A note from me

I trained in Brainspotting because I realised that analysing my past, having deep awareness and insight, only served my conscious understanding. I tried traditional therapies, hypnotherapy, EFT, shamanic and spiritual practices, plant medicines and more. I benefitted in some way from all of these approaches. However, my brain was still functioning on deeply imbedded old software. I needed to reprogram myself. When I discovered Brainspotting, I realised that there is a way to address the root causes of what manifests in our current lives, without even having to know what they are. A way for my nervous system to settle and my brain to rewire itself.

If you're curious whether Brainspotting could help you, I offer a free 15 min consult call. [Get in touch here.]

Next in the series: What happens in a Brainspotting session? →

Louisa Collyns is a certified Brainspotting practitioner working with clients in person and online.