Brainspotting therapy is a newer method of stimulating and processing emotional pain. It was discovered and developed by David Grand, Ph.D. He is a clinical Social Worker, psychotherapist, writer, and lecturer who maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Long Island, New York. His work is considered ground breaking and he has been interviewed on many national news programs. He is the author of Emotional Healing At Warp Speed (2001) and Brainspotting, The Revolutionary New Therapy For Rapid And Effective Change (2013).
Currently there are about 3000 therapists trained world-wide.
It is believed that distressing situations cause physical disturbances that are stored in the body and nervous system. Brainspotting is an experiential and heavily body-involved technique that facilitates physical release of emotional distress. Distress is normally well-contained, but there are times in our lives when that “pool of pain” is so full that it begins to leak into our lives in unpleasant ways. Distress can manifest, for example, in the presence of anxiety, depression, anger, need to control, illness and/or a need to medicate in some way. It is reasonable to assume that most people come to therapy because they are experiencing such a containment failure; the pain is interfering with their everyday functioning.
Dr. Crow has trained extensively in Brainspotting with Dr. David Grand and others including Robert Weisz, Ph.D. (Brainspotting and Hypnotherapy Clinic and Milton Erickson Institute of New Mexico) and Lisa Schwarz, M.Ed. Dr. Crow runs a Brainspotting Consulting group in Scottsdale, AZ.
WHAT IS BRAINSPOTTING THERAPY?
(Answers from the developer, Dr. Grand)
Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neuro-physiological sources of emotional and physical pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Biolateral sound, which is deep, direct and powerful, yet focused and containing.
Brainspotting is a tool, within the clinical healing relationship, to neuro-biologically locate, focus, process and release experiences and symptoms which are typically out of reach of the conscious mind and it’s cognitive and language capacity.
A “Brainspot” is the eye position which is related to the energetic/emotional activation of a traumatic or emotionally charged issue within the brain. Located by eye position, paired with externally observed and internally experienced reflexive responses, a Brainspot is actually a physiological subsystem holding emotional experience in memory form.
“Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the amygdala. It isn’t just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis.” Robert Scaer, M.D. The Trauma Spectrum
