Brainspotting Therapy Online
Significant Differences:
Similarities
Brainspotting is a guided therapy process that focuses on helping you process trauma, intense emotions, or other issues that are holding you back. The feelings and experiences associated with trauma can often get stuck or buried. Because your brain is still holding onto the trauma, it can continue to interfere with your life. With this therapy, you revisit or unbury those details so your brain can finish processing them, allowing you to move on.
Brainspotting is similar to eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and is based on the idea that the direction you’re looking affects how you feel. You might be calm looking in one direction while feeling more stressed looking in another.
Using that observation, brainspotting has the patient focus on a particular spot with their eyes. Called brainspots, these particular positions are connected to areas in your brain where you store trauma or intense emotions. This eye positioning helps unlock deeply stored details that are key to your healing. The mental health professional guiding the session provides support throughout the session.
The idea is that holding these particular eye positions as you process your trauma will initiate healing processes. As that healing begins, you can work toward deeper processing related to that specific issue, which can encourage even more healing.
Benefits of Brainspotting Therapy
This type of therapy offers several benefits, including:
- Availability of online sessions. You can receive guidance for a brainspotting session through online therapy services. Using remote therapy gives you access to a licensed therapist who is highly experienced in the therapy method. You can also go through the session in the comfort of your home without the inconvenience of traveling to an in-person visit.
- Improving personal growth. The strategies help you remove the blocks that are keeping you from personal growth and success. By engaging in this type of therapy, you may be able to move forward in life as you heal from your past trauma. For some people, brainspotting helps unlock greater creativity.
- Quick effect. For many people, brainspotting is effective quickly, allowing them to heal quickly and make positive changes that help them move forward.
- Increased emotional regulation. This therapy method can help improve your emotional regulation by helping you work through the hidden trauma. It can also increase your resilience and help you balance your emotions while increasing your self-awareness.
What Does Brainspotting Therapy Typically Involve?
A brainspotting session typically starts by identifying a particular topic, trauma, or goal you want to work on. Your mental health professional works with you to find an eye position related to this issue. To find the right brainspots, the therapist might have you focus on different spots and pay attention to how your emotions and physical sensations change. Spots that cause the most intense physical stress or tension are often identified for the process. The position might cause intense feelings surrounding the issue, or it may allow you to take a calmer approach. While the therapist guides you through these positions, you remain in control.
During a session, your therapist will typically have you focus on the particular spot that they identify as relevant. As you hold the gaze, you process the trauma or idea, focusing on how the body feels and eventually releasing the physical signs of tension. However, your therapist might recommend exploring other eye positions as well.
Sometimes, you might be talking, while you’ll be silent at other times. You decide how you want to work through it and how much you want to talk. While your therapist is there to guide you, they won’t usually ask you many questions like they would in a traditional talk therapy session.
Brainspotting can be used separately, or it might be used along with other forms of therapy. A typical brainspotting session can last between 30 and 90 minutes. At the end, the therapist may help you reflect on what you felt and how your physical symptoms changed.
How to Prepare for a Brainspotting Session
Going into the session with a specific issue you want to focus on can help you make the time more productive. It’s also important to realize that you will likely feel the physical effects of your emotions and trauma. You may feel tension or even some pain in your body. After the session, you might feel emotionally or physically drained. Be prepared to experience a wide range of physical and emotional sensations, and prepare for those effects to linger after the session.
Issues or Stressors Brainspotting Therapy Can Be Used to Address
This type of therapy is often used for trauma or intense emotions, particularly if you feel like the issues are unprocessed and holding you back. It could help you deal with a variety of issues, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Chronic pain
- Bipolar disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Dissociation
- Barriers to your performance
Contact Regional Psychiatry for Brainspotting Therapy Online
Regional Psychiatry offers a wide range of therapy types online, allowing you to access high-quality therapy services from home. Our therapists have extensive training in brainspotting, guiding you through the different positions to settle on the ideal brainspots in your session. They know how to offer gentle guidance and when to step back and allow you to process your thoughts.
When you work with Regional Psychiatry, you receive a customized treatment plan based on your needs. Your mental health professional will evaluate you and recommend the best types of therapy, whether that’s brainspotting, acceptance and commitment therapy, EMDR therapy, or another type of therapy. To learn more about brainspotting or other types of therapy offered by Regional Psychiatry, contact us to schedule a consultation.
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We work with each patient to customize a personalized treatment plan. Our practice has the experience and training to improve your overall health and wellness.
