At The Pursuit Counseling, we believe effective therapy is not about using one approach for every person. It is about understanding the individual sitting in front of us and identifying therapeutic approaches that can help that person move toward healing, growth, and a healthier life.
We are excited to share that Julia Akins, APC, has recently completed training in Brainspotting, a brain-body focused therapeutic technique that can be used to help clients explore and process difficult emotional experiences.
But what exactly is Brainspotting? How does Brainspotting therapy work? And who might benefit from it?
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a psychotherapy technique that uses a client’s visual field, body awareness, focused attention, and the therapeutic relationship to help access and process emotionally significant experiences.
Brainspotting was developed by psychotherapist David Grand, Ph.D., in 2003. The approach grew from his clinical work with trauma and EMDR and is built around a simple idea often summarized as:
“Where you look affects how you feel.”
During Brainspotting, a therapist helps a client identify a particular point in their visual field—sometimes called a “brainspot”—that appears connected with emotional or physical activation surrounding an issue the client wants to address.
Rather than relying entirely on conversation or intellectual understanding, the client maintains attention on that visual position while noticing thoughts, emotions, memories, and sensations that emerge.
The goal is to create an opportunity for deeper emotional processing within a safe and attuned therapeutic relationship.
How Does Brainspotting Therapy Work?
A Brainspotting session may begin similarly to other counseling sessions.
The therapist and client identify an issue, memory, emotion, physical sensation, or experience they would like to explore. The therapist may then ask the client to notice where they experience activation in their body and how intense that activation feels.
Next, the therapist helps the client locate an eye position associated with that emotional or physical response.
The client may maintain their gaze around that position while paying attention to what happens internally.
This might include:
- emotions
- physical sensations
- memories
- images
- thoughts
- changes in breathing
- shifts in emotional intensity
- feelings that are difficult to describe verbally
Importantly, the therapist isn’t necessarily directing every moment of the experience.
Brainspotting places considerable emphasis on attunement—the therapist’s ability to remain present with the client while allowing the client’s own processing to unfold.
Why Can Trauma Be Difficult to Talk About?
People sometimes enter counseling knowing that something is bothering them but struggling to explain exactly why.
A client might say:
“I know what happened, but I still react to it.”
Or:
“I’ve talked about this before. I understand it logically. But my body still responds like something is wrong.”
This distinction can be especially important when working with trauma and highly stressful experiences.
Emotional experiences can involve much more than the story we consciously remember. They may also involve physiological responses, sensations, triggers, emotions, and learned patterns of reacting.
This is one reason body-aware and trauma-focused therapeutic approaches have become an important area of psychotherapy.
Brainspotting attempts to work with both the psychological and physical experience of emotional distress, rather than depending exclusively on a client’s ability to explain everything through words.
What Can Brainspotting Be Used For?
Brainspotting is most commonly associated with trauma and stressful experiences, although practitioners may integrate it into therapy for other emotional and performance-related concerns.
Depending on the individual client and their overall treatment plan, a trained therapist may consider Brainspotting when working with concerns involving:
- traumatic experiences
- anxiety and overwhelming emotional responses
- difficult or painful memories
- grief and loss
- emotional triggers
- stress
- relationship experiences
- negative beliefs connected with past experiences
- performance anxiety or performance blocks
- emotional regulation
- experiences that feel difficult to process through conversation alone
Brainspotting should not be viewed as a guaranteed solution or as the right therapeutic approach for every client. Treatment should always be based on the client’s individual circumstances, needs, clinical assessment, and goals.
What Are the Potential Benefits of Brainspotting?
1. It Provides Another Way to Approach Trauma
Talking about a traumatic experience can be valuable, but some people find that words alone do not fully capture what they are experiencing.
Brainspotting provides therapists with another way to approach the emotional and bodily components of difficult experiences.
2. It Encourages Awareness of the Body
A person experiencing anxiety or trauma may notice tightness in their chest, tension in their shoulders, changes in breathing, nausea, restlessness, or other physical reactions.
Brainspotting encourages clients to notice these sensations instead of immediately trying to ignore or eliminate them.
Developing this awareness can become an important part of understanding how someone responds to stress and emotion.
3. Clients Don’t Always Have to Explain Everything
Some experiences are difficult to put into words.
Clients may understand that something happened but struggle to describe exactly what they feel about it. Others may have discussed an experience many times but continue to experience an emotional or physical reaction.
Because Brainspotting incorporates focused attention and body awareness, the therapeutic process does not depend entirely on having the perfect words to describe an experience.
4. It Can Be Integrated With Other Forms of Counseling
Brainspotting does not necessarily replace traditional psychotherapy.
A therapist may integrate Brainspotting into a broader treatment plan that also includes conversation, emotional regulation skills, insight-oriented therapy, behavioral strategies, or other appropriate therapeutic approaches.
The technique becomes one more tool available to the therapist and client.
5. It May Help Clients Explore Experiences That Feel “Stuck”
Many people enter counseling because they recognize a frustrating disconnect:
“I understand it intellectually, but I still feel it emotionally.”
Someone may know that a situation is over, for example, while their body continues responding to reminders of the experience with anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, or tension.
Brainspotting may provide another avenue for exploring those responses.
Is There Research Supporting Brainspotting?
Research into Brainspotting is developing.
Early studies and clinical literature have reported promising findings related particularly to trauma and PTSD symptoms. However, Brainspotting has a smaller evidence base than longer-established trauma treatments, and additional high-quality randomized controlled research is needed.
That distinction matters.
At The Pursuit Counseling, we believe clients deserve accurate information about therapeutic approaches rather than exaggerated promises about what any particular technique can accomplish.
Brainspotting is an emerging therapeutic approach that can be incorporated into clinical practice by appropriately trained mental health professionals. Whether it is appropriate for a particular client depends on that person’s needs, history, symptoms, goals, and overall treatment plan.
Brainspotting vs. EMDR: Are They the Same?
No. Brainspotting and EMDR are different therapeutic approaches, although Brainspotting developed in connection with David Grand’s work involving EMDR.
Both may incorporate visual attention and can be used in trauma-focused therapy, but their procedures and therapeutic frameworks differ.
In Brainspotting, the therapist may help the client identify and maintain attention around a particular visual position associated with emotional or bodily activation. EMDR typically uses a more structured protocol that includes bilateral stimulation and specific phases of treatment.
A therapist trained in trauma treatment can help determine which approach may be appropriate based on the individual client.
What Does Brainspotting Feel Like?
There isn’t one universal Brainspotting experience.
One person may notice strong emotions. Another may remember something they had not thought about recently. Someone else might notice physical sensations changing throughout the session.
Some clients may experience quieter processing—simply noticing thoughts, feelings, or physical responses come and go.
The goal isn’t to force a particular reaction.
The therapist’s role is to help create an environment in which the client can remain connected to the experience without unnecessarily directing or controlling what emerges.
Do You Have to Have PTSD to Try Brainspotting?
No.
Although Brainspotting is frequently discussed in the context of trauma and PTSD, therapists may use elements of the approach when working with other concerns, including emotional distress, anxiety, stress, performance issues, and difficult life experiences.
Having experienced something painful also does not automatically mean someone has PTSD.
A licensed mental health professional can assess a person’s symptoms and determine which therapeutic approaches may be appropriate.
What If I’ve Already Talked About My Trauma in Therapy?
Talking about an experience and emotionally processing an experience are not always the same thing.
Some clients arrive at The Pursuit Counseling after doing significant work in therapy.
They might be able to explain exactly what happened.
They understand the patterns.
They understand their triggers.
They may even understand why they respond the way they do.
And yet something still feels unresolved.
Brainspotting may offer another way of approaching that experience by paying attention to the connection between visual focus, emotion, memory, and bodily activation.
Sometimes the next step in therapy isn’t finding another way to explain the past.
It is finding a different way to experience and process what remains.
Expanding Our Therapeutic Tools at The Pursuit Counseling
Julia Akins, APC’s completion of Brainspotting training represents something we value deeply at The Pursuit Counseling: continued professional growth.
Therapists should continue learning.
Not because every new therapeutic approach will be appropriate for every client, but because every client brings a different story, nervous system, personality, history, and set of needs into the counseling room.
Having additional training gives our clinicians more options for approaching those needs thoughtfully.
Brainspotting provides Julia with another therapeutic tool that may be incorporated into her work with appropriate clients.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brainspotting
What is Brainspotting therapy?
Brainspotting is a psychotherapy technique that combines focused visual attention, awareness of bodily sensations, emotional processing, and therapist attunement. A therapist helps the client identify a visual position associated with emotional or physical activation and uses that point as part of the therapeutic process.
What is a brainspot?
A brainspot is a location within a person’s visual field that appears to correspond with increased emotional or bodily activation related to the issue being explored in therapy.
Is Brainspotting only for trauma?
No. Brainspotting is frequently used in trauma-focused therapy, but practitioners may also incorporate it when addressing anxiety, emotional regulation, stressful experiences, grief, and performance-related concerns.
Is Brainspotting the same as EMDR?
No. They are distinct approaches. Brainspotting developed from observations made during David Grand’s work involving EMDR, but Brainspotting uses its own therapeutic framework and techniques.
Do I have to talk about everything during Brainspotting?
Not necessarily. Brainspotting can involve conversation, but the process also emphasizes internal awareness of emotions, thoughts, memories, and bodily sensations. This can be helpful for people who have difficulty putting certain experiences into words.
Is Brainspotting evidence-based?
Brainspotting has a growing body of research, including studies reporting encouraging results for trauma-related symptoms. However, its research base remains more limited than several established trauma therapies, and additional rigorous studies are needed.
How do I know whether Brainspotting is right for me?
The best place to start is a conversation with a mental health professional trained in the approach. Your therapist can consider your symptoms, history, treatment goals, preferences, and overall clinical needs before deciding whether Brainspotting should be incorporated into therapy.
The Pursuit Is More Than Understanding What Happened
Therapy can help us understand our experiences.
But sometimes understanding is only one part of healing.
We may intellectually know that something is over while still experiencing anxiety when something reminds us of it. We may understand why a relationship affected us while still carrying anger, sadness, or fear. We may know that we are safe today while noticing that our bodies continue responding as though the past is still happening.
That is part of what makes trauma and emotional healing complicated.
Approaches like Brainspotting give therapists another way to help clients explore the connection between the mind, body, emotions, and past experiences.
At The Pursuit Counseling, our goal isn’t simply to help people understand where they have been.
It is to help them continue their pursuit of where they want to go.
If you are interested in learning more about Brainspotting therapy with Julia Akins, APC, or want to explore whether Brainspotting may be appropriate for you, contact The Pursuit Counseling to schedule a consultation.