It sounds like a serious problem, or maybe even a disease, but it’s actually a highly effective, research-based treatment solution for many people in psychological and physiological pain.

Brainspotting is a relatively new treatment and one of the fastest growing mental health developments of its kind. After serving his clients with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy for some time, Dr. David Grand, brainspotting pioneer, noticed a deeper connection between the places his clients’ eyes focused while talking or thinking about an issue and the neurological processes happening out of sight. Since 2003, Grand has been developing the versatility of his brain-based therapy and helping therapists broaden its application.

On the whole, the treatment has been shown to help reestablish the body’s natural desire and ability to heal itself for optimal recovery. Specifically, this technique subscribes to the idea that what is happening in our brains is reflected by where our eyes focus.

Especially for those suffering from addictions and out-of-control cravings.

Brainspotting basics

A “brain spot” is an eye position that causes a traumatic memory or a painful emotion to be triggered. During a therapy session, a client will be assisted in intentionally positioning the eyes so that the focus on the sources of negative emotions is possible.

Brainspotting exercises the brain’s limbic system. This brain region plays a significant part in motivation and impulse control, which are key factors in addiction, emotion, cognitive thinking skills, and long-term memory. By combining talk therapy, bilateral stimulation, and visual focus, the brainspotting  technique can offer relief.

Brainspotting addresses the mind and the body

This therapy is particularly beneficial for addiction treatment because it is necessary to fight for survival on two fronts. An addict’s mind is traumatized and stuck and his or her body holds on to that trauma, learning dependence on a behavior or substance to cope and feeling unmotivated to stop.

The goal is to eliminate the physiological distress, negativity, and unresolved trauma that feeds the need to self-medicate. With brainspotting’s distinctive procedure, linking very specific eye positions and bilateral auditory stimulation helps locate the mental trauma and successfully “rewire” the response.

This process is vital. Trauma experts assert that when something deeply disturbing happens, a deep and emotionally charged memory lives on, long after the event is over, and the brain is altered.

Brainspotting steers our natural tendency to visually scan our environment for information and our brains for related memories, thoughts, and feelings toward a more positive result. The technique safely, and relatively quickly, helps reveal, disrupt, and release the negative energy that drives addictive behavior, suppressing motivation and self-control.

Dr. Grand’s primary assertion in his popular book, Brainspotting, is that “where we look reveals critical information about what’s going on in our brains.” Giving addicts access to that information in a treatment setting could be life changing in three fundamental ways:

• Desensitization – This therapy helps participants learn to temper automatic, irrational reactions to physical or emotional triggers. In other words, brainspotting helps a person no longer react (emotionally or physically) to triggers.

• Identification — Determining causes of craving and addictive behavior is possible through brainspotting. Addiction is often an overreaction to something unresolved, unhealed, and wounded inside. Limiting thinking and beliefs about oneself may have taken over. Several brain spots may exist that create stuck places in an addicted person’s brain. Brainspotting helps locate the overreactions that exacerbate suffering.

• Reprocessing — Brainspotting affords those suffering from addiction to reprocess the past. Addicted people can find freedom and relief from both the trauma and the cravings because the brain is no longer stuck or hindered by the old way of correlating painful emotions to destructive behaviors or unproductive automatic responses.

Through brainspotting, you and your therapist will learn to observe and process the pain trapped in your mind and body. You’ll start to experience healing and real recovery from deep within. Finally, you’ll begin to feel better as you engage your brain spots and continue the process until the relief you seek is achieved.