Brainspotting for trauma: what happens in a Brainspotting intensive
In Brainspotting for trauma, the therapist helps you find an eye position linked to what you feel in your body when a difficult experience comes to mind, and you hold your gaze there while the therapist stays closely attuned and the experience is processed. In a Brainspotting intensive, the same work happens over several hours a day, so processing can run its course instead of stopping on the hour. Research on Brainspotting is limited: there are theoretical papers and very few clinical studies, and none of Brainspotting as an intensive.
Why Brainspotting is used for trauma
Brainspotting works through the body, which is where many people feel trauma most. Its founding organisation describes it as a focused treatment that identifies, processes and releases the neurophysiological sources of emotional and body pain, trauma and dissociation. It also stresses that Brainspotting is a tool within a safe, attuned relationship, not a replacement for one.
For trauma, this has a practical consequence. People do not need to put what happened into words, or tell the story in order. Many people who have talked about their trauma for years find that this is a different way in.
The general method is described in how Brainspotting works in a therapy intensive.
Two directions: activation and resource
Brainspotting can go in two directions, and trauma work uses both.
| Working with activation | Working with resource | |
|---|---|---|
| What you focus on | The distress you feel in your body when the difficult experience comes to mind | A place in your body that feels calmer, steadier or more grounded |
| What the eye position connects to | The activation | The steadier feeling |
| What it is for | Processing what the trauma left behind | Building steadiness, and having somewhere safe to return to |
| When it is used | When the person has enough steadiness to approach the material | At the start, when processing becomes too intense, and at the end of a day |
In a trauma intensive, moving between the two is what keeps the work within what the person can manage. A day that only ever goes towards activation is not a careful day.
What happens across a Brainspotting intensive
The details vary, but a Brainspotting trauma intensive usually has a recognisable shape.
- Before the first day. Assessment covers history, stability, risk, dissociation and support. The focus of the intensive is agreed, and some therapists use a preparatory session to find a resource spot in advance.
- The first morning. The day starts by settling, checking the focus and often finding or confirming a resource. Processing usually begins once the person feels steady enough.
- Processing blocks. You bring the agreed focus to mind, notice where it sits in your body and how strong it is, and the therapist helps you find the eye position that seems most connected to it. You hold your gaze there and notice whatever comes. The therapist follows closely, mostly in silence, and checks in when needed.
- Breaks and resourcing. Between blocks there is time to rest, eat and come back to the present. If activation rises too high, the work moves to the resource spot until the person settles.
- End of each day. The therapist helps you check back on the original focus and come fully back to the room. The aim is to leave each day steady enough for an ordinary evening.
- The last day and after. The final hours check back on what has changed and plan the weeks ahead. A follow-up session is arranged before the intensive ends.
Some therapists use music or sounds that alternate between the left and right ears, which Brainspotting calls biolateral sound.
Why the intensive format suits Brainspotting
Brainspotting processing does not keep to the clock. Once something starts to move, it may take time to settle. In weekly therapy, a session can end before processing reaches a natural resting point, and the next session may start some way back.
In an intensive, processing can run its course, with breaks taken when they are needed. Related brainspots can be worked with across the days, each picking up from the last. The extra time also leaves room to slow down. It should not be used to push harder.
What the research shows
Research on Brainspotting is limited, and claims about it should be modest.
- Theory. Corrigan and Grand have published papers proposing how Brainspotting might work, focusing on the midbrain and on attention to a fixed point in the visual field. These are hypotheses to test, not findings.
- One small experimental study. In 2022, 40 psychologists and doctors each tried single 40-minute sessions of several techniques on different distressing memories. Distress fell after Brainspotting, more than after a body scan meditation or a reading control. The participants were not seeking treatment, and single sessions are not a course of therapy.
- No intensive studies. We have not found any published study of Brainspotting as an intensive.
For comparison, a 2020 systematic review found that established trauma therapies delivered intensively had large effects and low dropout. That evidence belongs to those therapies, not to Brainspotting. Choosing Brainspotting for trauma is a reasonable clinical decision, but it is not backed by a strong evidence base.
Who a Brainspotting trauma intensive may suit
A Brainspotting trauma intensive may suit someone who feels their trauma more in the body than in thoughts, who has talked about what happened without it changing how it feels, or who finds words hard to reach when distressed. Lucy Orton writes about why this matters for some neurodivergent clients in Why Brainspotting intensives can help ADHD brains.
It may need more preparation, or a different starting point, for someone with significant dissociation, no reliable way to steady themselves, or current danger at home. Those questions belong to assessment. The article on whether a trauma intensive is safe covers them.
Common questions
Will I have to describe the trauma in detail?
No. Brainspotting relies on what you notice in your body more than on the story. You can say as much or as little as you like, and many people say very little during processing.
How many hours of Brainspotting can someone do in a day?
It varies. Brainspotting processing can be tiring, so a trauma intensive day usually alternates processing with breaks, resourcing and time to settle. The amount of active processing is adjusted to how the person responds, not set in advance.
What if I feel nothing?
That happens, and it is information too. Sometimes a protective numbness is the first thing to work with. Sometimes a different spot, or a steadier starting point, is needed. A Brainspotting therapist does not need you to feel something dramatic for the work to be useful.
Can Brainspotting help with trauma from childhood?
Brainspotting is used with people who have childhood trauma, often alongside other methods. There is no research yet that tests it specifically for childhood trauma, so it is a clinical choice rather than a researched one.
Lucy Orton is Brainspotting trained, to Phase 5 and a Master Class with David Grand, and offers trauma intensives combining Brainspotting with Internal Family Systems, online worldwide.
References
- Brainspotting. What is Brainspotting? brainspotting.com/about-bsp/what-is-brainspotting
- Corrigan, F., & Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: Recruiting the midbrain for accessing and healing sensorimotor memories of traumatic activation. Medical Hypotheses, 80(6), 759-766. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2013.03.005
- D'Antoni, F., Matiz, A., Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2022). Psychotherapeutic techniques for distressing memories: A comparative study between EMDR, Brainspotting, and Body Scan Meditation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1142. doi:10.3390/ijerph19031142
- Sciarrino, N. A., Warnecke, A. J., & Teng, E. J. (2020). A systematic review of intensive empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33(4), 443-454. doi:10.1002/jts.22556
This page is general information about intensive therapy. It is not a substitute for individual assessment or advice, and reading it does not create a therapeutic relationship. If you are in crisis or at risk of harm, contact local emergency services or a crisis line now. How these articles are written and checked: our editorial standards.