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"Where you look affects how you feel"

Dr. David Grand

A Bit About Brainspotting

Brainspotting is an advanced brain-body-mindfulness-based therapeutic approach, which focuses processing in the parts of the brain where memory and emotion are stored and the parts of the brain involved with regulation, so you actually address the emotions and memories impacting you from a part of the brain that can help you feel better and feel more regulated. The neocortex is not involved with regulation; you can't think your way into feeling better. Rather than trying to use the neocortex to think your way through something, Brainspotting helps us go to the source for a much more efficient and powerful experience. 

Have you ever noticed yourself simply gazing or staring at some spot on the floor or wall or ceiling? Have you noticed yourself looking away or up or somewhere else when really thinking about something you are saying or want to say, particularly when the subject is loaded emotionally? As a therapist, I notice this all the time. Clients often become unnecessarily self-conscious about it and force themselves to make eye contact with me. While their gaze continues to drift back to these spots, they do not allow themselves to hold the spot. What they don’t realize is that rather than avoiding eye contact, they are intuitively helping themselves to process by accessing deep neural connections and memories in the subcortical brain. Where you look affects how you feel. 

 

Brainspotting is a powerful tool for therapy to help process traumas, negative cognitions, difficult emotions, and upsetting events by focusing your visual field on a spot that stimulates processing. It is a “physiological approach with psychological consequences” that allows us to access our self-healing potential via bypassing the thinking of the neocortex and “promotes organization and integration through coalescence of hitherto separated information files”; “a Brainspot is a stored oculomotor orientation to a traumatic experience which has failed to integrate” (Corrigan & Grand 2013).

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Dr. Norman Doidge

Brainspotting is a remarkable, sophisticated, flexible addition to the therapeutic toolkit of any psychotherapist. I know because I use it regularly, and find that, combined with the psychoanalytic approaches I normally practice, the results are astonishingly helpful.

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Dr. Gabor Mate

I have personally experienced the benefit of Brainspotting. Just with one session, I was able to relax the grip of a burdensome perspective and its associated emotions, both of which I had carried for a long time.

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Dr. Robert Scaer

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.

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Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

We know how to treat PTSD... We have great success with methods like EMDR, Brainspotting, Neurofeedback, Internal Family Systems therapy...

Brainspotting can help with:

  • Trauma

  • Developmental Trauma

  • Trichotillomania

  • Flashbacks

  • Relationship Pain

  • Grief and Loss

  • Anxiety and Phobias

  • Improving Performance

  • Anger Management

  • Negative Self-assessment

  • Depression

  • Athletic Improvement

Blog Posts

Upcoming Events

  • Brainspotting Phase 1 Training, in-person
    Brainspotting Phase 1 Training, in-person
    Multiple Dates
    Sun, Jan 28
    The Green House
    Jan 28, 2024, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST
    The Green House, 447 E 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46205, USA
    Jan 28, 2024, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST
    The Green House, 447 E 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46205, USA
    Brainspotting is a powerful brain-body-mindfulness-based relational therapy used for the treatment of trauma as well as personal growth and expansion.This training is open to all mental health counselors, marriage & family therapists, social workers, psychologists, addiction counselors, & students.
    Share
  • So Much More Than 'Setups' + The Hero's Journey
    So Much More Than 'Setups' + The Hero's Journey
    Multiple Dates
    Sun, Feb 04
    webinar
    Feb 04, 2024, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
    webinar
    Feb 04, 2024, 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST
    webinar
    Join Senior INternational Brainspotting Trainer Roby Abeles & Brooke Randolph for a deep dive of the essential aspects of Brainspotting no matter how you set up for Brainspotting. Plus learn how to combine Brainspotting & Narrative therapy to honor your client's heroic journeys.
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  • Setting up Brainspotting with the Adoption Constellation (Hybrid)
    Setting up Brainspotting with the Adoption Constellation (Hybrid)
    Multiple Dates
    Thu, Feb 29
    Hybrid (Zoom + Indianapolis in-person)
    Feb 29, 2024, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
    Hybrid (Zoom + Indianapolis in-person), 447 E 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46205, USA
    Feb 29, 2024, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
    Hybrid (Zoom + Indianapolis in-person), 447 E 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46205, USA
    Hybrid Training | Zoom + Indianapolis in-person This Approved Brainspotting Specialty Training is for Brainspotting therapists who have completed Phase 1. (Phase 2 is strongly recommended.)
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  • Brainspotting Phase 1 Training, in-person
    Brainspotting Phase 1 Training, in-person
    Multiple Dates
    Mon, Apr 15
    The Green House
    Apr 15, 2024, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
    The Green House, 447 E 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46205, USA
    Apr 15, 2024, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
    The Green House, 447 E 38th St, Indianapolis, IN 46205, USA
    Brainspotting is a powerful brain-body-mindfulness-based relational therapy used for the treatment of trauma as well as personal growth and expansion.This training is open to all mental health counselors, marriage & family therapists, social workers, psychologists, addiction counselors, & students.
    Share
  • Brainspotting Phase 2 Training Indianapolis in-person
    Brainspotting Phase 2 Training Indianapolis in-person
    Multiple Dates
    Fri, Jun 07
    MindFit Counseling
    Jun 07, 2024, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
    MindFit Counseling, 755 W Carmel Drive, Suite 206, Carmel, IN 46032
    Jun 07, 2024, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
    MindFit Counseling, 755 W Carmel Drive, Suite 206, Carmel, IN 46032
    Expand your Brainspotting skills and understanding, learning a variety of set-ups and techniques to increase and decrease activation for your clients in Phase 2.
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Meet The Team

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Heather Harris.
Peer Support Lead

Certified Brainspotting Therapist

Approved Brainspotting Consultant

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NaKaisha Tolbert-Banks,
Equity Clinicians of Color Lead

Certified Brainspotting Therapist

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Kristen Swart

Certified Brainspotting Therapist

Approved Brainspotting Consultant

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Brooke Randolph,
Coordinator

Certified Brainspotting Therapist

Approved Brainspotting Consultant
Brainspotting Trainer

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