Brainspotting
Access what words can’t reach.
Some things can’t be talked through. Not because you haven’t tried, not because you’re not self-aware, but because the part of the brain holding the experience doesn’t speak in language. It speaks in body sensations, in reflexes, in the sudden freeze before a performance, in the emotion that surfaces out of nowhere and doesn’t make sense.
Brainspotting works at that level. It’s a body-based therapeutic approach that uses specific eye positions to locate and process stored trauma, fear, and emotional blocks directly in the subcortical brain, below the reach of thought and reason. It was developed in 2003 by Dr. David Grand, a leading trauma therapist, when he noticed during a session with a figure skater struggling with performance anxiety that her eyes visibly wobbled at a specific point in her visual field and that holding her gaze there produced a significant emotional release.
Brainspotting is not widely known outside therapeutic circles, but for people who have tried everything and still feel stuck, it often becomes the approach that finally moves things.
The Science Behind Brainspotting
The central principle is straightforward: where you look affects how you feel.
Different positions in the visual field correspond to different levels of activation in the brain and nervous system. When a trained therapist guides you to a “Brainspot” — the eye position connected to a specific emotion, memory, or physical sensation — and holds your gaze there, the brain’s natural self-healing process activates.
This is fundamentally different from talk therapy. Talk therapy engages the thinking brain, the neocortex. Brainspotting bypasses that layer and works directly with the midbrain and subcortical structures: the regions that process emotion, regulate survival responses, and store traumatic memory. This is why people can understand their trauma intellectually and still be controlled by it.
During processing, clients typically listen to bilateral sound — music that alternates gently between the left and right ear — which further supports brain integration and deepens access to subcortical processing. Sessions are quiet, internally focused, and guided by Traci’s attunement rather than a rigid protocol.
What a Session Looks Like
Traci begins by helping you identify what you’d like to work on.
You’re invited to notice where you feel that issue in your body and rate its intensity. From there, she locates the Brainspot — the eye position that activates the highest level of body response connected to the issue.
Hold Your Gaze
Once the spot is found, you simply hold your gaze there. You notice what arises — sensations, images, emotions, memories — without needing to direct or control the process. Traci holds the space and stays attuned to you throughout, adjusting as needed.
Session Length
Sessions typically run 50–90 minutes. Brainspotting can be used as a standalone approach or integrated with other modalities.
The Brain Does The Work
Most clients describe the experience as unusual at first, then deeply releasing. Emotions that have been carried for years can surface and resolve within a single session in ways that months of conversation never reached.
Works Well With Other Therapies
Traci often combines it with HeartMath® for nervous system regulation and NET for body-stored stress patterns, making the work faster and more thorough than any single approach alone.
FAQ
Do I have to talk about my trauma in detail?
No — and this is one of the most significant differences between Brainspotting and traditional therapy. You don’t need to reconstruct events, find the right language, or relive experiences in order for processing to happen. You identify what you want to work on and where you feel it in your body, and the brain takes over from there. Many clients find this deeply relieving, especially those who have spent years in talk therapy retelling stories without feeling a real shift.
How is Brainspotting different from EMDR?
Both approaches work with trauma at the neurological level using eye-based techniques, and both show comparable results in research. The key difference is movement vs. stillness: EMDR uses rapid eye movements, while Brainspotting holds the gaze at a fixed point. Brainspotting also follows the client’s internal process more organically, with fewer prescribed steps. Many people who have tried EMDR find Brainspotting feels gentler or more natural, particularly those who experience dissociation or find rapid eye movement activating rather than settling.
How many sessions does it typically take?
It depends on the nature and history of what you’re working on. Some clients experience meaningful resolution of a specific issue in one to three sessions. Longer-standing trauma patterns or accumulated experiences typically benefit from ongoing work over several months. Brainspotting tends to work faster than traditional talk therapy for the issues it’s best suited to, but there’s no universal timeline, and Traci will work with you to calibrate the pace and depth that’s right for your system.
Can Brainspotting be used alongside other therapies or approaches?
Yes — and it’s often most effective that way. Traci regularly integrates Brainspotting with HeartMath® (to stabilize and regulate the nervous system before and after deep processing), NET (to address body-stored stress patterns), and CBT (to support cognitive reframing once emotional material has been processed). This integrated approach tends to produce more durable results than any single modality alone.
Is Brainspotting evidence-based?
Brainspotting is a newer approach and its research base, while growing, is not yet as extensive as longer-established therapies like CBT or EMDR. The existing studies — including direct comparisons with EMDR — show meaningful and comparable reductions in trauma symptoms, anxiety, and emotional distress. Clinical practitioners widely report strong results across a broad range of presentations. Brainspotting has solid and expanding clinical support, and for many people, especially those for whom other approaches have fallen short, it produces results that speak clearly for themselves.
