Brainspotting

Offering Individual Online Therapy in Oregon & Limited In-Person Therapy in SE Portland, OR

What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a body-based, focused therapy that helps your brain and nervous system find and release stuck emotional and physical pain. Through gentle eye-positioning and close attention to what you feel in your body, we locate where distress is held and create a safe pathway for it to resolve often with fewer words and less re-telling than traditional talk therapy.

Brainspotting was developed in 2003 by Dr. David Grand, a psychotherapist and EMDR trainer who noticed that certain eye positions during therapy seemed to unlock deeply held emotional and somatic material. Drawing on EMDR, somatic experiencing, and psychodynamic work, Brainspotting became a focused, body-informed method for accessing and processing trauma.

What can Brainspotting help heal or change in life?

  • Reduce anxiety and panic attacks

  • Can help stop flashbacks and intrusive memories

  • Reduce depression, numbness, and dissociation by rebuilding connection between mind and body.

  • Release chronic somatic symptoms and body-held tension tied to past events.

  • Interrupt the emotional loop so repeating feelings can soften and move through you.

  • Transform the grip of shame and relentless self-criticism that keep you from enjoying life.

  • Soften the hold of painful memories

  • Cultivate a deeper sense of self that’s rooted in calm, presence, and ease.

    If you’d like, I can briefly explain what a Brainspotting session looks like or offer a short demo during a consultation.

Brainspotting & Internal Family Systems

I combine Brainspotting (a focused, body-informed method that helps the nervous system release stuck emotional and physical pain) with Internal Family Systems (IFS), a compassionate parts-work model that cultivates Self-leadership. Together these methods make it possible to safely access and process deep wounds from racial, intergenerational, and identity-based hurt while honoring the cultural and historical context of your experience.

How this can support you

  • Release and heal racial, intergenerational, and developmental trauma held in the nervous system and body.

  • Calm constant alertness, panic attacks, and long-running nervous-system stress.

  • Heal shame, challenge internalized oppression, and come back into your body.

  • Recover a sense of bodily safety, want, and choice in relationships and life.

  • Grow the Self that notices every part — so clarity, not confusion, guides your choices

  • Weave daily practices and culturally grounded resources into your life so care feels familiar and sustaining.

  • Restore connection, define your edges, and everyday communication in your relationships.

 FAQs

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