Brainspotting for Trauma: What Makes It So Effective (and Why I Use It)
If you’ve ever felt like talk therapy just scratches the surface, especially when it comes to deep emotional pain or trauma, you’re not alone. Many women I work with have spent years trying to feel better, only to sense that something still isn’t fully healed. That’s what led me to Brainspotting.
Brainspotting therapy offers a powerful, brain-body approach to trauma treatment. It’s become one of my most trusted tools for helping clients access and reprocess trauma stored deep within the nervous system, especially when traditional talk therapy isn’t enough.
In this article, I’ll walk you through:
What is Brainspotting therapy for trauma recovery
Why Brainspotting works when other approaches may fall short
Who might benefit from Brainspotting therapy
Why I use it in my practice
If you're curious about how this form of therapy could help you gently overcome trauma and reconnect with yourself, keep reading.
What Is Brainspotting for Trauma?
Brainspotting is a powerful, gentle type of therapy designed to help you access and process trauma stored in the body, especially the kind of emotional trauma or psychological trauma that can feel stuck or overwhelming.
This form of therapy was discovered in 2003 by Dr. David Grand, a psychotherapist who had been using EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) with clients struggling with PTSD, anxiety, and unresolved traumatic experiences. During a session, he noticed that when a client held their eye position at a certain point in their visual field, something shifted. They connected with deep, previously unprocessed trauma, and the healing process began to unfold in a whole new way.
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Brainspotting works by using relevant eye positions to help access unprocessed trauma stored in the brain and body, allowing for deeper recovery than traditional talk therapy.
Today, Brainspotting therapy is used by trained brainspotting therapists to help people heal from:
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Chronic pain and physical symptoms with no clear medical cause
Anxiety, overwhelm, and stress linked to past traumatic events
Deep grief or lingering negative emotions
Creative blocks, performance anxiety, or dissociation
In short, Brainspotting gives us a way to go beyond words and reach the deeper layers of pain that often stay hidden, even after years of trying to feel better. By working with the brain and body together, this gentle but effective therapy helps people process what once felt too overwhelming.
Additional Reading: You might also find this interesting - What If It’s Not Failure—Just a Response You Learned Long Ago?
How Brainspotting Therapy for Trauma Recovery Works
Rather than focusing on talking through a traumatic event, Brainspotting helps us access brainspots: eye positions that connect to parts of the subcortical brain where trauma is stored.
Here’s how this treatment process supports healing trauma:
It connects eye movement with brain activity to locate where trauma is stored in the body
It allows us to gently access and reprocess traumatic memories in a safe therapeutic environment
It works with the autonomic and limbic systems, where much of our emotional and physical trauma is held
It encourages attunement between client and therapist, creating a felt sense of safety
It helps the brain and body become able to process and heal what was once too much to hold
Unlike traditional talk therapy, Brainspotting invites the body to lead—and in doing so, offers a powerful pathway to true recovery.
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In a brainspotting session, we create a calm, safe space to process trauma gently, using your gaze to find brainspots linked to stuck emotions or memories.
What Makes Brainspotting Therapy So Effective for Healing Trauma?
So often, my clients come to me saying, “I’ve done the work. I’ve talked it through. But I still feel stuck.” That’s where Brainspotting offers something different, a way to go deeper than words and gently access the stored trauma that talk therapy alone may not reach.
Brainspotting therapy works by accessing the brain's subcortical areas - those parts within the brain responsible for emotion, survival, and body regulation. This is where much of our trauma “lives,” especially when the nervous system has been overwhelmed.
Rather than asking you to relive anything, Brainspotting helps you deal with the trauma in a safe, contained way. As a therapist, I use Brainspotting to support healing through a process of attuned presence, somatic awareness, and deep trust in your body’s ability to recover.
In a typical therapy session, we locate a brainspot, a specific eye position in your field of vision that correlates with a spot of activation or discomfort, and we stay with it, allowing your body sensations to guide the process.
Why It’s Not About “Fixing” but About Releasing
Brainspotting isn’t about fixing you. It’s about helping your brain and body finally release what’s been stuck, so you can feel clearer, lighter, and more connected to yourself.
Here’s what that might look like:
Supporting the parasympathetic nervous system to shift from stress to calm
Gently unwinding physical and emotional symptoms from past experiences
Creating space for your body to process trauma in a safe therapeutic environment
Working with the areas of trauma without needing to retell every detail
Allowing your system to move toward recovery, not retraumatization
While Brainspotting is still considered a new form of therapy, studies like this 2022 review published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health are showing real promise, especially for clients who’ve experienced trauma and haven’t found relief through more traditional approaches.
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Brainspotting and EMDR both work with trauma and the nervous system, but Brainspotting is more flexible and somatic, giving your body space to lead the healing process.
Who Might Benefit from Brainspotting?
If you’ve ever felt like something inside you just won’t shift, no matter how much you’ve talked about it, Brainspotting might help. Many of my clients come to Brainspotting after years of traditional therapy that helped some, but didn’t fully bring the relief they were hoping for.
Brainspotting can be especially helpful if you’re experiencing:
Chronic stress or anxiety that feels stuck in the body
Symptoms of PTSD or emotional flooding
Perfectionism or self-criticism that feels hard to shake
Triggers that don’t seem to make logical sense
A sense of numbness, disconnection, or emotional shutdown
Feeling overwhelmed or like you’ve lost touch with yourself
Whether you’re healing from a single traumatic event or years of emotional layering, Brainspotting offers a path forward.
While Brainspotting was developed from the principles of EMDR, it allows for a more organic, client-led process grounded in therapeutic presence and deep attunement. This article from the Journal for Psychotraumatology, Psychotherapy Science, and Psychological Medicine explores how Brainspotting supports trauma healing in ways similar to EMDR, but with greater flexibility.
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Yes. A trained brainspotting therapist can support you in processing PTSD, emotional trauma, and even physical symptoms in a safe, attuned environment.
Why I Use Brainspotting Therapy in My Practice
For many of the women I work with, trauma doesn’t always stem from one defining moment. It’s often layered—a mix of emotional overwhelm, perfectionism, anxiety, or years of feeling disconnected from themselves.
What I love about Brainspotting is that it meets you where you are, gently, without pressure to explain or retell everything. It helps access and process trauma stored in the body, often in ways that feel more intuitive than intellectual. Brainspotting goes deeper than words, allowing space for relief, reconnection, and healing.
This form of trauma therapy supports recovery in a way that feels safe and embodied. It complements the other tools I use in my practice, like EMDR, parts work, and mindfulness. Together, we create a treatment plan that’s grounded in attunement and adapted to your needs, not a one-size-fits-all approach.
Ultimately, I use Brainspotting because I’ve seen how powerfully it helps women reconnect with themselves after trauma. It supports the kind of lasting change that talk therapy alone doesn’t always reach—and I’m honored to offer that possibility in the work we do together.
If you want to give it a try or just want to learn more about Brainspotting, reach out!