What is Brainspotting and are you up to a little experiment?
I am not a neurologist, so I will give you my input from my clinical experiences as a therapist with a little bit of science. When clients come to me with some issue or crisis, most of the time they already feel very strong about it. They are, as we call it in Brainspotting, “activated”. The activation is coming from the “capsule” of the memory or emotion stored in the deep primitive brain (the limbic system) and from the connected body. With Brainspotting we can not only access this memory better but also process it and in a relatively short time resolve and release the issue from mind and the body.
Make it stand out
How do we do that, how do we access this capsule and activate healing? With our eyes, body awareness and a point in the field of our vision. Eyes are the second most intriguing complex in our body after the brain and they are directly connected to our various parts of the brain. They can communicate with the brain by changing position, by stretching, movement, reflexes etc. There are several reflexes in ocular systems that can regulate our body and mind, for example by zooming in and out on a spot we can activate our Vagus nerve that can regulate many functions in our body. So the body, brain and eyes are really so intermittent, it’s one complex entity. With the activation in your eyes, and your brain, there is also a place in the body (or places) that are activated too. For example when somebody gets anxious, it doesn’t only fire up the brain but also might send some sensation to the chest or create a stomach pain.
Nothing is more powerful than experiencing such phenomena on our own. Let’s try a little experiment right now. Are you bothered with anything today? It could be anything such as somebody cutting you off on the highway and you are upset about it, or it could be a deep emotion or some unwanted memory that keeps coming up with lots of anxiety. Please think of that memory or a feeling and try to locate that feeling in your body as well. Maybe it’s a pressure in your stomach, maybe your neck is stiff, maybe your eyes are itchy. Once you have that feeling or memory in your mind and body, slowly gaze with your eyes on your left, and linger there for 30 seconds, then gaze to the middle for 30 second and lastly move with your eyes to your right for a bit. Please try it now without reading further and resume reading after the little experiment is done.
Most likely you experienced a different reaction to your memory or feeling at the different positions of your eyes. Some eye position felt more intense, maybe your eyes watered a bit, your body experienced some other sensations, your emotion deepened. On the other hand some spot felt calmer or at some eye position you felt nothing. This is a simple example of how Brainspotting works; position of your eyes can make a difference in penetrating the deep brain and aid with the brain heeling. The brain and body find the spot and the process of healing can start. We already have a scientific proof that the brain is capable of neuroplasticity and neurogenesis, in other words in repairing itself with growing new neurons and new pathways. As a Brainspotter I can testify to that. I have seen clinically how it helped my clients heal trauma, body pain, anxious thoughts, and deep loss, it helped with their sport injury trauma or art performance and many more. Brainspotting is one of the brain therapies that is “jumpstarting” this neurogenesis process with a therapist’s assistance at first but could be learned and practiced at home as well.