Brainspotting Therapy in Los Angeles
A brain-body approach to processing trauma, reducing overwhelm, and helping your system move through what feels stuck.
In-person in West LA & Beverly Hills • Telehealth Across California
What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a brain-body based therapy that focuses on how experiences are held not only in the mind, but also in the nervous system.
It uses focused attention and eye position to help access areas of the brain that are involved in processing emotion and memory. This can allow for deeper processing that may not always be available through talking alone.
Rather than trying to analyze or change an experience directly, Brainspotting creates the conditions for your system to process it at its own pace. Brainspotting brings forth your brain and system’s inherent wisdom to heal.
“Where you look affects how you feel”
When Brainspotting Can Be Helpful
Brainspotting may be helpful if you notice that certain experiences or responses continue to show up, even after you have tried to work through them.
This can include:
trauma or past experiences that still feel activated
anxiety or overwhelm that feels hard to regulate
emotional reactions that feel out of proportion or difficult to explain
patterns that repeat despite insight or effort
difficulty accessing or staying with certain emotions
It can also be a good fit for people who are looking for a more body-based approach to therapy, especially if traditional talk therapy has only gone so far.
How I Integrate Brainspotting into Therapy
One of the advantages of Brainspotting is its ability to be integrated well with other therapeutic modalities. I use Brainspotting as part of a broader, depth-oriented approach that includes Internal Family Systems (IFS) and somatic work.
This means we are not only focusing on processing an experience, but also staying aware of different parts of you that may have their own responses to what is coming up.
Some parts may feel ready to move toward something. Others may feel protective, hesitant, or unsure about going deeper. We move at a pace that respects both.
At times, Brainspotting becomes the most helpful way to stay with a specific area of activation. At other times, we may shift into parts work or somatic exploration depending on what your system needs.
What a Brainspotting Session Can Look Like
We usually begin by getting a sense of what you would like to focus on, whether that is a specific experience, feeling, or something that feels unresolved.
Staying with that, you might begin to notice where it shows up in your body or emotional state. At times, I may guide you in finding a point of focus connected to that activation, often using eye position.
As the particular experience or activation begins to feel more clear or relevant, the process becomes less about directing or analyzing, and more about staying with what starts to unfold.
There may be moments of quiet as you track internal sensations, emotions, or thoughts. At other times, we may pause to reflect, check in, or shift the pace. Nothing is fixed or expected to happen in a certain way.
Throughout the process, my role is to stay attuned to how your system is responding and to support you in staying within a range that feels manageable.
There is an option to listen to bilateral music on a low volume using headphones during the Brainspotting process . The bilateral music provides auditory stimulation that gently activates and integrates the brain's two hemispheres, creating a calm state that aids with processing.
We can slow down, pause, or change direction at any point. If something feels like too much or not enough, we adjust.
Brainspotting FAQ
-
Both are brain-based therapies that work with how the brain processes experience, though they use different methods. Brainspotting tends to be more open and less structured, allowing the process to unfold at your own pace.
Brainspotting developed out of EMDR, which is why they share some underlying ideas, but the experience in session can feel quite different.
-
Not necessarily. Some sessions may involve more talking, while others are more internally focused. We adjust based on what feels most helpful for you.
A common question people have is whether they are “doing it right,” especially since it can feel different from more traditional talk therapy. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do it. The focus is simply on staying present with what comes up and bringing curiosity to the experience.
-
Talk therapy often engages the thinking and reasoning parts of the brain, which can help you make sense of your experience. At times, though, you may find yourself understanding something clearly while your emotional or physical responses remain the same.
This is because some experiences are stored outside of conscious awareness, in deeper parts of the brain and nervous system.
Brainspotting works more directly with those deeper processes. Using focused attention and eye position, it can help access and process what is held there, allowing for shifts that may not happen through thinking alone.
-
In addition to trauma and anxiety, Brainspotting can support working through experiences such as performance anxiety, creative blocks, relationship patterns, and moments where you feel stuck or disconnected from yourself.
It can also be helpful for processing stress that has built up over time, even when there is not a single clear event tied to it.
Let’s Connect
If you’re curious whether Brainspotting might be helpful, you’re welcome to schedule a free consultation.
We can talk through what you’ve been experiencing and explore what kind of support might feel most helpful.