BRAINSPOTTING

A therapy for the release of emotional wounds, the development of inner resources and performance expansion

Brainspotting is one of the most researched new forms of therapy today, an international phenomenon with more than 13,000 therapists across 60 countries in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Africa.

BSP is rapidly becoming one of the most widely used approaches for trauma healing, releasing blocks, enhancing performance, and many other professional and personal applications. Since its discovery, BSP has spread quickly thanks to its immediate and effective results.

The first international BSP conference was held in Rio, with therapists from 22 countries in attendance. The second international conference took place in Denver, Colorado, in 2021. There is a BSP Institute in Brazil, several across Europe, and three in the United States.

“Where you look affects how you feel. It is brain activity—particularly in the subcortical brain—that organizes itself around an eye position.”

— David Grand, PhD, Discoverer and Developer of Brainspotting

“Brainspotting represents a significant leap forward in helping to resolve trauma. It is a remarkable, sophisticated, and flexible addition to a therapist’s toolbox.

I have found the results to be astonishing. By applying this methodology, one is struck by its capacity to detect traumatic responses in the everyday reflexes of the face and eyes and how, through these windows into internal mental states, many traumas and symptoms can be rapidly relieved.”

— Norman Doidge, MD, FRCPC, Author of The Brain That Changes Itself, Penguin Books

¿What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a body-based therapeutic methodology.

The term Brainspotting comes from the English word brainspot (“brain point”). It is an innovative therapeutic approach that facilitates deep processing of emotional wounds in an integrative, transformative, and natural way.

This methodology was discovered by renowned psychotherapist and trauma specialist David Grand, PhD, in 2003.

Grand first observed Brainspotting during an EMDR session with a figure skater. He noticed that clients reflexively directed their gaze to very specific points whenever they focused on recalling a memory, image, sensation, emotion, or thought related to a painful—or even pleasurable—experience.

He eventually confirmed that eye gaze is not only involved in retrieving explicit memories, but that countless eye positions can also provide access to implicit (non-conscious) memories. In other words, different ocular positions can facilitate the activation of neural networks linked to the issue being addressed, while at the same time offering emotional containment and focused processing of that material.

Brainspotting is a methodology centered on brainspots and the associated activation.
In practice, it involves the identification, processing, and release of the neurophysiological “capsules” of emotional and physical pain (Robert Scaer, MD), as well as the reprocessing of rigid coping mechanisms that may have developed in response to traumatic experiences—whether past or present, personal or professional.

If we have experienced negative events in the past without receiving adequate support and understanding, those experiences are often difficult to integrate and process. Such experiences remain “undigested” within neural circuits that can be triggered automatically—like a faulty fire alarm—making us particularly sensitive to certain stimuli and affecting our emotional and physical balance.

This methodology helps individuals relieve pain and suffering. It facilitates the release of emotions connected to past, present, or future experiences that have become blocked or are causing ongoing blockages. Additionally, it allows a reconnection with the “healthy parts” of oneself, supporting the transformation of limiting memories and negative beliefs related to life events.

Brainspotting is a different, inclusive, and complementary methodology. In Brainspotting, there is no fixed “plan” or “treatment”; it is not a psychological or psychotherapeutic approach. Instead, it is neuroexperiential and neuroplastic.

Our brain: a genius with a quadrillion connections.

There is something that happens in relationships that goes beyond what our rational mind (the neocortical brain) can grasp.

The complexity of the quadrillion synapses (Daniel Amen) in a person’s brain reaches into the infinite—something the rational mind cannot possibly conceptualize.

The brain, therefore, is a genius containing this quadrillion connections and possesses a self-healing capacity through neurogenesis and neuroplasticity (Norman Doidge). The deep brain (subcortical) governs all bodily functions and is the seat of instinct, thought, creativity, and spirituality.

In Brainspotting, we choose to let go of «the limiting certainty» that restricts both ourselves and our clients.

Instead, we open the process with curiosity to the uncertainty of this quadrillion synapses and the flow of this immense complexity. This is part of what we call dual attunement: an empathetic and process-focused attunement in two dimensions—relational and neurobiological.

Brainspotting is not a pathologizing methodology.

We do not seek certainties, “evidence,” or diagnoses, nor do we rely on the “wisdom” of the therapist—only on our professional competencies.

In Brainspotting, the process is invited to reach its own depth, unique to each client, based on the belief in the brain-body’s self-healing capacity—just as the body naturally repairs a physical wound. In Brainspotting, we trust the client’s internal process more than the therapist’s interpretations, which are inevitably limited.

An example...

Whether we are talking about stage fright or compulsive eating, the focus is not on the anxiety of public speaking or on the anxiety associated with eating. We focus on a person experiencing anxiety—you—and understanding anxiety as a bodily experience.

Anxiety is an anticipatory, bodily response: a limbic-subcortical reaction to a perceived threat, whether from the external environment or from the internal world. Often, this fear is not about the present moment (though present triggers can activate it); it might be a fear rooted in a person’s developmental history, igniting internally before conscious awareness or decision-making. It functions like a highly sensitive smoke detector.

Anxiety is essentially the body’s attempt to manage the sense of uncertainty and not feeling safe.

In Brainspotting, the approach does not begin with a conversation about stage fright, eating, or a behavioral plan. Instead, the work begins with focused attention on the bodily sensations of anxiety.

Sessions maintain concentrated awareness on these activations, allowing the brain–body to process naturally while we observe and stay present with what is occurring internally.

Although scientific evidence for Brainspotting continues to grow, research consistently shows that profound transformation requires working at the subcortical level, where new neural connections (through neuroplasticity and neurogenesis) can be formed, providing a new balance and regulatory capacity for the emotional system.

«Neurons that fire together wire together.»,

Donald Hebb (1949)

What is a session like?

This is an example of the main steps we follow during a session, although each session is usually completely unique:

1) Framing:

If you decide to work with Brainspotting, we will spend a brief moment at the start of the session to identify and frame the issue you want to focus on. We will also assess the level of bodily activation it generates (from 0 to 10). This phase is important because it helps us set the session in the most effective way possible. Throughout the session, we maintain this frame, which guides the process like a river—moving from one emotion to another, from one sensation to a memory, and from one memory to the next.

2) Locating the Brainspot:

Next, we will search together for the brainspot—the eye position in your visual field that generates the strongest activation of the identified sensation. To do this, we scan the visual field while observing unconscious reflexive reactions (muscle tension, blinking, an involuntary sigh…), bodily sensations (blockage, trembling, stiffness…), or conscious emotions (anxiety, anger, fear).

This allows us to focus on the neural network in the brain that stores sensory information, images, and emotions related to the core issue. Research shows there is a correlation between what we feel, the areas of the brain that are activated, and the position of our gaze. The way we locate the brainspot can vary—working with one eye, both eyes, and different processing modalities, exploring together where each path leads.

3) Processing:

You will then be invited to focus on the brainspot while observing what arises within you (thoughts, emotions, sensations, images, memories…) with curiosity, without judgment, letting the mind and process go wherever they want. In Brainspotting, we follow the process wherever it goes, like tracing the tail of a comet. We support a bottom-up processing approach—from subcortical brain levels upward—releasing what is stored outside of conscious awareness until it reaches consciousness for integration.

To support the process, we may use bilateral music, which helps interhemispheric stimulation and provides containment and focus for the natural flow of the session.

The natural flow

For some clients, the challenge is learning to flow while embracing the Principle of Uncertainty (W. Heisenberg), which experientially conflicts with the desire to measure, to have certainties, to know the path and the destination, and to obtain evidence.

In Brainspotting, however, we work in accordance with the principle of uncertainty, which states that we cannot observe anything without altering it. What we do in the session is simply observe what is happening inside the person while maintaining the frame. We can never see things exactly as they are; we can only see them as we choose to perceive them.

For this reason, in Brainspotting, we suspend judgments and any expectations about what arises during the session, focusing instead on observing the transformation as it occurs internally and is experienced bodily.

Christine Ranck, PhD, LCSW, author of Ignite the Genius Within, explains it like this:

“Reality” is what we accept as true.
What we accept as true is what we believe.
What we believe is based on our perceptions.
What we perceive depends on where we place our attention.
We place our attention on what we think about.
What we think about depends on what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we accept as true.
What we accept as true is our reality.

In therapy, assumptions can limit what we truly see. When we focus on what we think we know about a client, we can miss vital information—because our observation changes what we observe. Brainspotting takes a different approach, based on the Principle of Uncertainty, creating space for the client’s authentic experience to emerge naturally.

For the rational brain, this process can feel unusual at first. Internal experiences and neural associations don’t always follow logical patterns. Brainspotting encourages the therapist to assume nothing, focusing instead on the brain’s natural neuroplasticity and allowing the client’s process to unfold organically.

As clients follow this approach, they learn to trust their internal experience, observing thoughts, sensations, and emotions without judgment. Over time, this practice not only enhances their therapeutic journey but also strengthens resilience and clarity in other areas of life.

In my own experience

In many sessions, clients notice a feeling but cannot put it into words or understand why it arises. Often, these sensations are rooted in past experiences—rejection, overexertion, loss, or feeling invisible.

Brainspotting provides a space to explore these sensations deeply, both in the body and emotionally, without judgment. As a therapist, my role is to hold this safe, attuned space—what Brainspotting trainer Mario Salvador calls the “healing bubble.” I do not guide, interpret, or analyze; I simply observe the transformation that unfolds within the client.

With curiosity and presence, vague feelings gradually gain clarity, allowing clients to discover their own insights and responses. Many experience breakthroughs in just one or two sessions, though each journey is unique.

Brainspotting is non-pathologizing, inclusive, and flexible, suitable for both new clients and those already engaged in therapy. Its depth and humility allow each person’s emotional process to emerge naturally.