Most people who come to therapy have already tried something. They've journaled. They've talked to friends. Some have been in therapy before. And still something stays stuck: a feeling words haven't been able to touch, a pattern that reasserts itself no matter how much insight they gain. Brainspotting is one of the most powerful tools I know for reaching what talking can't.
“Brainspotting works because trauma isn’t stored as a memory you can think your way out of — it’s stored in the body. What we’re doing is finding where the nervous system is holding it and giving it a way out.”
— Kelli Ruhl, LPC, NCC, LAC, Certified Brainspotting Practitioner
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting was developed in 2003 by Dr. David Grand, growing out of his work with EMDR. The foundational discovery was simple: where you look affects how you feel. More precisely, certain eye positions, which he called "brainspots," line up with unprocessed emotional or traumatic material stored in the subcortical brain.
When you hold your gaze at a brainspot while staying attuned to what's happening in your body, the brain starts to process the stored material on its own. The therapist doesn't direct the content. They hold what's called a "dual attunement frame," staying attuned to both you and the brainspot at once. Your own brain does the healing.
Dr. Grand's original phrase captures it well: "Where you look affects how you feel." The eye position isn't the treatment. It's the key that unlocks the door.
How Brainspotting Differs From EMDR
Both Brainspotting and EMDR are brain-based trauma therapies that work below the level of cognitive processing. Both are significantly more effective than talk therapy alone for trauma, and both draw on the brain's innate capacity to heal.
Here's the key difference. EMDR uses a more structured protocol with deliberate bilateral stimulation, whether eye movements, tapping, or audio tones, moving back and forth across the brain. Brainspotting is more organic. Once we find a brainspot, you hold your gaze there while bilateral stimulation, usually biolateral music through headphones, plays softly underneath. The processing often goes deeper and unfolds more naturally, without the structured sets that define EMDR.
Some clients respond better to the structure of EMDR. Others find that Brainspotting's more open quality lets them reach places EMDR alone couldn't. Neither is superior. They're different tools for different nervous systems and different kinds of material.
What Brainspotting Can Help With
Brainspotting is highly effective for:
Trauma and PTSD including both single-incident trauma and complex, developmental trauma. Because it bypasses the need for verbal processing, it's particularly valuable for clients who freeze or dissociate when asked to narrate what happened.
Anxiety and panic especially anxiety that seems to have no clear cognitive cause, or that returns reliably despite the client understanding its origins. Brainspotting can access and process the subcortical fear structures driving the anxiety in a way that insight alone cannot.
Addiction and substance use the subcortical brain is also where cravings and compulsive patterns live. Brainspotting can address the underlying emotional material that drives addictive behavior more directly than most approaches.
Performance anxiety Brainspotting was originally developed partly in the context of sports performance. Athletes, performers, and anyone whose nervous system gets in the way of their actual capabilities can benefit significantly.
Somatic complaints without clear medical cause chronic pain, tension, fatigue, and physical symptoms that track alongside emotional states often respond to Brainspotting when other approaches haven't moved them.
What a Brainspotting Session Actually Looks Like
We begin with bilateral music, a gentle alternating audio that activates both hemispheres, playing softly in the background throughout. Then we identify what you want to work on and find where you feel it in your body: its location, its quality, its intensity.
From there, I slowly move a pointer across your visual field while you track both the pointer and your internal felt sense. When we land on a spot where something activates, whether a shift in sensation, emotion, or expression, we've found a brainspot. You hold your gaze there and stay with whatever arises.
I won't direct what comes up. My job is to hold the frame, staying present with you and with the spot, while your brain does the processing it's been waiting to do.
Sessions feel different for different people. Some get vivid imagery or emotion. Some feel physical sensations moving through the body. Some notice a gradual quieting. Most describe feeling noticeably different in the days after a session: lighter, clearer, more settled.
Brainspotting in Denver
I'm a Certified Brainspotting Practitioner offering individual therapy at Full Bloom Counseling in Denver. I work with adults navigating trauma, anxiety, addiction, and the particular exhaustion that comes from having tried other things without finding what you needed.
If Brainspotting sounds like something worth exploring, reach out for a free consultation. No commitment, just a conversation.
