How Brainspotting helps you heal

Sometimes talk therapy alone isn’t enough. You might understand your story—why you feel anxious, on edge, or shut down—but still feel the weight of it in your body. That’s because trauma, stress, and overwhelming experiences aren’t just stored as memories. They can also leave imprints in the nervous system, creating lingering patterns that talking alone can’t always resolve.

Brainspotting is a powerful, brain-body therapy designed to help uncover and release these deeply held experiences—without having to force them into words. At Thrive, we use Brainspotting to help clients who feel “stuck” despite being self-aware and proactive in their healing.

It’s gentle, focused, and deeply effective—helping you access the places in your brain where trauma and stress live, and heal them from the inside out.

What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting was developed by Dr. David Grand as a way to bypass the thinking mind and access the brain’s natural self-healing ability. It works on the principle that “where you look affects how you feel.”

Through careful attunement, your therapist will guide you to find a specific eye position—a “brainspot”—that connects to the part of your nervous system holding unresolved tension or trauma. This spot acts like a doorway, allowing your brain and body to process what’s been stuck, safely and at your own pace.

Why Brainspotting works

Unlike talk therapy, which engages the thinking, verbal parts of the brain, Brainspotting connects with the subcortical brain—the part responsible for survival, emotions, and body sensations.

When trauma or overwhelming stress occurs, this part of the brain can hold onto the unprocessed fragments of the experience, leading to symptoms like:

• Anxiety or hypervigilance
• Physical tension or pain
• Emotional numbness or shutdown
• Flashbacks or triggers
• Self-sabotage or overwhelm

Brainspotting allows you to gently release these imprints—not by reliving the trauma, but by giving your nervous system the space to finally process and settle.

What a Brainspotting session looks like

A Brainspotting session is calm and collaborative. Your therapist may use a pointer or their hand to help you find the eye position that feels most connected to your current experience. Once the brainspot is found, we pause and let your brain and body naturally process whatever surfaces—whether that’s a physical sensation, a memory, or simply a wave of emotion.

There’s no need to force the story, and you stay fully in control. The therapist’s role is to hold a safe, supportive presence while your brain does the work it already knows how to do—heal.

What Brainspotting helps with

Brainspotting is effective for both “big” traumas and the quieter, chronic stresses of daily life. It can help with:

• PTSD and traumatic memories
• Anxiety and panic
• Chronic pain and body tension
• Emotional regulation challenges
• Performance blocks (creative, athletic, or professional)
• Grief, loss, and life transitions
• Childhood trauma or attachment wounds