EXPANSION BRAINSPOTTING AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT FOR ACTORS
Character development in acting terms involves opening up to the creating of new states of possibility, holding a new «Other» in me.
Character Access
For a regular person working on expansion might mean building and integrating resourceful inner states of self-esteem, empowerment, connection and capacity.
For actors and actresses the expansion technique includes the access to states such as the emotional states of a Character and all it’s inner system of memories, thoughts, sensations, emotional patterns of connection to other character, to places, to objects, to memories and to every aspect of the screenplay or text.
When we use Brainspotting for Character Access we create a full dimensional world inside the actor that can be experienced and that guides your performance organically and effortlessly.
In order to host the activation states of the character your nervous system needs to be centered in the Self, in safety mode and stabilized, so your inner activations don’t interfere with that of the character.
This process takes the performance of any actor to a greater level of truth, grit and expressive quality.
Brainspotting for Character development. The rational brain meets the emotional brain
You lead
One thing that is great about Brainspotting is that YOU lead the process.
We refer here to the deep brain, the experiential and emotional base from where YOU experience the felt sense of who YOU are, your intuition. This base is the subcortical brain. Because it is located under the neocortical brain, the thinking logical brain.
For the work we’re going to do together we will trust the subcortical brain’s processes, not the rational mind’s assumptions of what a Character is and what you need to develop it and how.
This might confuse at first because the «rational» mind might struggle understanding the non-linear flow of the «emotional» brain. The rational brain might want to do it right, to analyze too much, try-to-understand, push too hard, to expect measurable results, to have some control, certainty and predictability over the process.
Brainspotting is not a psychological technique, it is neuroexperiential.
We take a leap away from «the narrative» the analysis and talking about the Character (domains of the rational mind) and we focus on the experiential, the visual and metaphoric, the felt sense (domains of the subcortical brain).
Remember: Everytime you get analytical, in your brain, you disconnect from the experiential process.
In our sessions we choose to limit the analysis just to setup the issues and frame for the basic elements you feel that are connected to the Character: a place in the screenplay, an impression of his or her tone of voice, an emotion felt while reading the script, an image that came to mind while reading the text… anything is a doorway to the Character.
Brainspotting is not psychological, it is not pathological, it is neuro-experiential and physiological, with a psychological impact.
We just follow the natural and organic process of the brain.
We assume WE DON’T KNOW what is right or wrong in the Character discovery. If you read the script or the play and you had a felt sense of engagemement, you saw images, places, relationships etc… then your subcortical brain has already a sense of all that is not in the text. Our work here is to unravel it! And your subcortical brain has that natural capacity if you use from your thinking brain just the attentional skills.
We work in an always evolving process
Brainspotting is an open model, which means that every time we work together and you dive deep into the Character the brain is creating new neural connections that keep building during the week, in-between sessions and during performances. It is a process, and is always evolving… in the session, but also and specially in between sessions. That’s how your emotional subcortical brain works. So your Character will get from the process the time for exploration you put into it.
Click on the band above, or reach me for a first free meeting at: carles@carlesvila.com
Here’s why I can help you.
I have successfully been doing this work since 2011. I’m both an experienced therapist and film director, as well as an acting-on-camera coach. I have directed actors in film and television primetime national shows for 20 years, have helped more than 1000 performers to work emotionally and creatively on stage and on camera, and have offered therapy for hundreds of professional actors and artists: dancers, singers, tv hosts, musicians, film directors, screenwriters etc.
This program is a space of dedication to the help of performers. The sharing of my joy to help others as I have been helped so lovingly by others in my own creative journey.
I am not excited about helping you become a great actor only by pumping up your ego…
It is about connecting to who you truly are, as an artist and as a human being.
I am commited to help you experience acting in a way you haven’t ever imagined it.
Disclaimer: This is a brain-body based performance coaching work focused on physiological blocks that get in the way of your work, it is not a psychological therapy, neither we work to resolve medically framed pathologies. Clients affected by severe trauma or clinically diagnosed pathologies should refer to specialists. So if you have been diagnosed with any kind of psychiatric or psychological disorder you should let me know in advance so we can evaluate what might a best approach for you.