What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a relational, brain-body, mindfulness-based therapy developed by David Grand, PhD. It uses specific points in the visual field, called “Brainspots,” that may correspond with areas of emotional or body-based activation. Once a relevant eye position is identified, the client is supported in noticing emotions, memories, thoughts, and body sensations through focused mindfulness. Brainspotting helps clients process experiences that may be difficult to reach through words or conscious thinking alone.
How is Brainspotting Different From Traditional CBT?
CBT often works from the “top down,” helping clients identify thoughts, evaluate beliefs, and practice new ways of thinking and behaving. Brainspotting takes a more experiential and body-focused approach, allowing the client to notice what emerges internally without needing to immediately explain, analyze, or change it. The therapist may track body activation, emotional responses, and eye position while letting the client’s processing unfold. Brainspotting can also be integrated with CBT, play therapy, attachment work, and other clinical approaches rather than replacing them.
What happens during Brainspotting?
The therapist and client first identify an issue, emotion, memory, or body sensation to explore and notice the level and location of activation in the body. The therapist may then identify a Brainspot through the client’s felt sense, subtle reflexive responses observed by the therapist, or a gaze position that naturally emerges. The client maintains attention around that position while mindfully observing whatever thoughts, emotions, memories, or physical sensations arise. The therapist does not direct what the client should experience, but remains present, attuned, and responsive throughout the process.
Regulation and the Resource Model
Brainspotting can focus not only on distress but also on places of calm, safety, or groundedness within the body. The Resource Model is designed to provide greater containment when direct activation may feel overwhelming. Therapists may help clients locate a body resource and corresponding visual position before or while approaching more difficult material. This flexibility allows therapists to adapt the intensity and pace of the work to the individual, rather than using the same process for every client.
The Therapeutic Relationship Matters
Brainspotting emphasizes what the model calls “Dual Attunement,” combining attention to the client’s internal nervous-system experience with a strong therapeutic relationship. The therapist provides an attuned, mindful, compassionate presence while following rather than forcing the client’s process. Brainspotting is intentionally integrative and can be incorporated into a clinician’s existing therapeutic approach. This makes the relationship, felt safety, pacing, and the client’s readiness just as important as the Brainspotting technique itself.
For more information: https://brainspotting.com/