EMDR and Brainspotting
A blast from the past…
Even though you know the past is in the past… whoosh! There you are again.
Too quickly, you feel transported back in time in your body. It’s sudden and unpredictable.
The rush of fear overtakes you. Anger. Rage. Loneliness. Guilt. Shame.
Reminders are rough.
Your dog’s incessant barking reminds you of your dad barking at you when you were a teen.
You drive past the semi-truck with white knuckles, just like the one that drove you off the road years ago. Images flash. Your stomach is in your throat.
A nagging boss filters in those nasty messages from your childhood that you weren’t good enough.
Sometimes, you know why you were triggered, and sometimes you have no clue what set you off.
Life is harder than it should be.
Focus and energy are abysmal. You vacillate between brain fog and looping in fear of making a mistake.
You keep missing the mark with parenting. You either make the same mistakes your parents did or overcompensate to the other extreme.
Relationships are suffering. You cover up your emotions or avoid connecting altogether. Showing up as who you are is clouded by all you’ve been through.
If only you could sleep, it would take the edge off everything else.
Move toward the light.
Deep inside, there’s always been a light that lets you know things can be better.
A kernel of truth that all the bad memories could be just that – bad experiences, without all the rest of the crap that comes with them.
You can see yourself walking through life with a sense of ease and calm, astounded at how your days feel easier, bolder, and brighter.
EMDR and Brainspotting are effective methods that can pull you out of the dark.
EMDR
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an approach used to treat symptoms associated with distressing and overwhelming experiences (traumas). Completion of EMDR occurs in phases that are fluid and flexible.
How is EMDR helpful?
When given the right support and guidance, brains can recover from traumatic events. Stress responses are part of all nervous systems’ natural defensive instincts.
Sometimes, distress remains after the events pass. EMDR can assist in helping the brain process and let go of these experiences to allow healing to resume. Although an individual will remember the events, intense sensations and emotions can resolve.
The phases of EMDR include:
Phase 1: Resourcing – Strengthen and practice internal resources and coping strategies, including grounding and imagery. Time to develop resources allows the brain to have predictable calming anchors to support memory reprocessing.
Phase 2: Reprocessing – Through mindfulness, clients focus on only one aspect of their experience at a time (emotion, sensation, image, etc.). At the same time, bilateral stimulation (handheld tappers, light bar, etc) helps calm the brain to further processing. The trauma centers of the brain can then work through and let go of the memories from a calm state.
Phase 3: Maintenance – In this phase, positive beliefs are integrated and savored to build them into everyday life.
Brainspotting
What is Brainspotting?
David Grand, PhD, discovered the method in 2003 when working with a 16-year-old figure skater. While using EMDR with material that had yet to resolve, David noticed her eyes wobble at a particular spot. He became curious and asked if she was open to holding her gaze in that direction.
New and meaningful processing emerged and resolved that had not previously been accessed. This is when the Brainspotting model began to develop and has been used across the world over the past 20+ years.
Emotions, stress, and trauma live behind the eyes where fight/flight/freeze responses occur, in the amygdala, midbrain, and brainstem. The eyes are highly involved in storage of information that is either resourcing or activating. Holding the gaze in a particular direction, allows the information to process and let go.
A Brainspotting session is guided by the client’s nervous system, while the therapist deeply attunes to the client’s experience as the processing unfolds. Focused mindfulness allows for curious observing of shifts in the body and mind accessed through the relevant eye position, that is collaboratively discovered in each session.
There is a natural releasing all nervous systems are designed to do, with the right ingredients. The brain is given the invitation in a new supportive, safe environment, to do what it didn’t get a chance to do back when the information needed to get tucked away due to overwhelm and lack of support.
Brainspotting allows trauma and anxiety to finally release, leading to a reduction of the initial activation and healing from the original wounds.
Gentle guidance to release chronic anxiety and trauma.
Trauma processing methods have the power to give you your life back, or to live fully for the first time.
Build a sense of peace with new understanding and meaning in a space that supports your healing.
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