Some people hear “trauma therapy” and picture sitting across from someone, being asked to describe the worst thing that ever happened to them in full detail. If that image alone makes you want to cancel the appointment before you’ve booked it, you’re not alone, and you’re also not out of options.
What Brainspotting actually is
Brainspotting is a way of using where your eyes are focused to help your brain locate and process a hard memory or feeling, without needing to put it into words first. The idea, in plain terms, is that certain eye positions connect to where your brain and body are holding onto something unresolved. We find a spot, and your own system does the processing, often with far fewer words than you’d expect.
You don’t have to narrate the story. You don’t have to relive it out loud. You can say as little as “it’s the thing with my mom” and the work can still happen.
What a session actually looks like
We talk briefly about what you want to work on, in whatever amount of detail feels okay, even just a general direction. I help you find a spot to focus on. Then we stay with whatever comes up, feelings, images, body sensations, memories, or sometimes nothing dramatic at all, just a slow settling. There’s no performance required and no right way to do it.
Who tends to find this helpful
People who freeze up when asked to explain themselves. People who’ve already talked about something in therapy for years without it actually feeling different in their body. People who find they over-explain and still feel unheard, or who get stuck looping the same story without relief. If any of that sounds like you, Brainspotting may get you somewhere talking alone hasn’t.
If you’d rather do this work in a few focused days instead of weekly sessions, Brainspotting is also the core of my weekend trauma therapy intensives in Redding.
You’re welcome to ask about it directly on a free consult call. Learn more about Brainspotting in Redding, in person or by secure telehealth anywhere in California.
Yvette Brown is a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee at Attune Center for Healing. Supervised by Christina Whitney, LMFT #111050. Book a free 15-minute consult.
This is education, not therapy. It’s not medical advice and doesn’t create a therapist-client relationship. If you’re in crisis, call or text 988. In Shasta County, the 24-hour mental health line is (530) 225-5252 or (888) 385-5201. For immediate danger, call 911.