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Brainspotting is a mindfulness-focused, somatic, brain-based therapy that helps access and process emotional experiences beneath conscious awareness. It uses eye position, body awareness, and mindful attention to connect with experiences held in the brain and body, allowing processing to unfold more fully and naturally.

Many people are drawn to Brainspotting when insight has brought understanding but they are ready for a deeper level of change. This approach works directly with the brain, body, and nervous system, creating space for healing beyond words alone. Article has good introduction explaning core concepts

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A brainspot is an eye position associated with an internal experience, often linked to an emotional pattern, memory, or a response held in the body.

You may have noticed this in everyday life. When you reflect on something meaningful, emotional, or stressful, your eyes often drift to a particular place. That position connects with how your brain and body hold the experience. In Brainspotting, we find and stay with that spot so the brain can begin processing what is ready to come forward.

 

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We begin with something you would like to work on. This may be a feeling, a pattern, a memory, or an area of life that feels stuck, heavy, or unresolved.

As you focus on that issue, we notice what happens internally. This may include thoughts, emotions, body sensations, images, or small changes. From there, we identify an eye position connected to that experience.

Once a brainspot is found, you hold your gaze there while staying present with what is happening inside. The process shifts from explaining to noticing what unfolds naturally.

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You may notice:

• body sensations shifting

• emotions moving or releasing

• images or memories emerging

• subtle internal movement

• an increasing sense of clarity or release

The brain and body move toward processing and integration when given the proper support and enough space.

 

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A Brainspotting session often begins with a short discussion about what feels most important to focus on that day. We identify the issue, notice how it shows up in your body or emotions, and then find an eye position connected to that experience.

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From there, the session becomes more inward and focused. You stay with your gaze and track what is happening internally while I remain attuned and support the process. At times you may share what you notice; at other times there is more quiet internal observation. 

Some sessions bring strong emotional or body shifts. Others feel quieter, with changes unfolding more subtly. Both can be meaningful. We usually leave time near the end to reflect, ground, and notice what feels different.

 

 

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Brainspotting often feels different from traditional talk therapy. The attention shifts from explaining the story to noticing what is happening inside you in real time.

Many experiences are held at a level words only partly reach. Brainspotting creates conditions for deeper layers to come forward through sensation, emotion, and internal awareness so healing can happen where the pattern is held.

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Music is often used in Brainspotting to support focus and deeper processing. In many sessions, bilateral music is played through headphones, with sound moving gently from one ear to the other.

This can help the brain stay engaged, support internal focus, and create a stronger sense of rhythm and containment during processing. Many find that music helps them stay more fully with their experience. Music remains optional and is always chosen based on what feels most supportive for you.

 

 

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Brainspotting can support a wide range of concerns, especially patterns that feel firmly established or hard to shift with insight alone.

It is often used with:

• anxiety and chronic stress

• emotional overwhelm

• earlier experiences that still affect the present

• relationship patterns and emotional reactivity

• burnout and depletion

• self-doubt and harsh inner criticism

• grief and untreated emotional pain

• perfectionism and overthinking

• panic and body-based anxiety

• difficulty feeling grounded or connected

It can also support by using traditional brainspotting and expansion brainspotting:

• performance and focus

• creativity

• confidence

• self-awareness

• resilience

• greater connection with yourself

 

 

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Talk therapy can bring valuable insight, understanding, and perspective. Brainspotting adds another level by working directly with the brain and body, where many experiences are stored.

Instead of staying mainly in conversation, Brainspotting brings attention to what is happening internally in the moment through body sensations, emotions, images, and small changes. This supports change at a deeper level, allowing old patterns to process and loosen where they are held.

 

 

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Brainspotting is still an emerging therapy, so the direct research base remains smaller than longer-established methods. At the same time, the published studies so far are promising, and the model rests on several principles that already have meaningful support in the broader literature, including focused attention, body awareness, nervous system regulation, and the importance of a strong therapeutic relationship.

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The Brainspotting model was developed by David Grand and grew out of trauma treatment work influenced by EMDR. The official Brainspotting materials describe it as a method that uses eye position, focused mindfulness, body awareness, therapist attunement, and often biolateral sound to access deeper neurophysiological sources of emotional and body-based distress.

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What gives this approach added credibility is that its core building blocks overlap with areas that are already well supported in psychotherapy research. Focused mindfulness has a growing evidence base in trauma treatment, body-oriented psychotherapy has shown benefit across a range of psychological symptoms, and therapeutic alliance consistently predicts better PTSD treatment outcomes.

 

In other words, Brainspotting itself is still building its evidence base, while several of the principles it draws from already stand on stronger empirical ground.

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The direct Brainspotting studies published so far include pilot work on PTSD, a comparison study with EMDR for PTSD, a study on distressing memories in a non-clinical sample, and a pilot study showing reduced disturbance along with increased heart rate variability. These studies suggest Brainspotting may help with trauma symptoms, anxiety, emotional distress, and regulation, while also pointing to the need for more large, independent trials.

 

Selected Brainspotting studies

Hildebrand, Grand, & Stemmler (2014). A preliminary study of the efficacy of Brainspotting – a new therapy for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Pilot study of 22 clients from Germany and the U.S.; the paper reported significant reductions in PTSD symptoms and related disturbance over three Brainspotting sessions.

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Hildebrand, Grand, & Stemmler (2017). Brainspotting – the efficacy of a new therapy approach for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in comparison to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
This study followed 76 adults after traumatic events and found significant PTSD symptom reduction in both the Brainspotting and EMDR groups after three 60-minute sessions, with the authors concluding Brainspotting appeared to be an effective alternative approach for trauma treatment.

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D’Antoni et al. (2022). Psychotherapeutic Techniques for Distressing Memories: A Comparative Study between EMDR, Brainspotting, and Body Scan Meditation.
In a non-clinical adult sample, a single session of Brainspotting, EMDR, or body scan meditation showed beneficial effects in processing distressing memories.

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D’Antoni et al. (2021). Brainspotting reduces disturbance and increases Heart Rate Variability linked to distressing memories: A pilot study.
This pilot study reported reduced disturbance associated with distressing memories and increased heart rate variability after Brainspotting in a non-clinical sample.

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Theory that matches BSP 

Corrigan & Grand (2013). Brainspotting: Recruiting the midbrain for accessing and healing sensorimotor memories of traumatic activation.
This paper lays out a neurobiological hypothesis for why a visual field position may connect with sensorimotor trauma activation and processing.

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Corrigan, Grand, & Raju (2015). Brainspotting: Sustained attention, spinothalamic tracts, thalamocortical processing, and the healing of adaptive orientation truncated by traumatic experience.
This article expands the proposed neurological mechanisms behind focused attention, body activation, orientation, and trauma processing in Brainspotting.

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Evidence-informed foundations Brainspotting draws from

Mindfulness / focused attention
A review of mindfulness-based treatments for PTSD describes them as promising adjunctive or alternative approaches for trauma-related symptoms.

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Body awareness / somatic psychotherapy
A systematic review of body psychotherapy found beneficial effects across a broad range of psychological suffering, while also calling for more high-quality studies.

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Interoception and body awareness
A widely cited review describes body awareness as a key mechanism in many mind-body therapies, and a 2024 meta-analysis reported randomized evidence supporting mindfulness-based interventions for trauma-related symptoms and interoception.

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Therapeutic attunement / alliance
A review of PTSD psychotherapy found therapeutic alliance to be a consistent predictor of treatment outcome.