Brainspotting
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a focused, body-based therapy that helps clients process trauma, emotional pain, and deeply rooted patterns by accessing the brain-body connection. By identifying “brainspots”—eye positions that correlate with stored distress—this method allows your brain to access and release trauma at the subcortical level, where language and logic often can’t reach.
How Brainspotting Can Help
Brainspotting is especially effective for issues that may feel stuck or difficult to access through talk therapy alone. It can help with:
- Trauma and PTSD
- Chronic stress or anxiety
- Somatic symptoms or body tension
- Grief, loss, or emotional overwhelm
- Performance blocks or creative inhibition
- Dissociation and emotional numbing
Because Brainspotting works at the neurological level, it allows your body and mind to integrate experiences at a deep, lasting level—even those that are difficult to name.
What to Expect in Brainspotting Therapy
A Brainspotting session is typically quiet, gentle, and client-led. Here’s what the experience often includes:
- We’ll begin by identifying an issue or feeling you want to work on.
- Using a pointer, we’ll help you find a specific eye position (“brainspot”) that connects to the area of activation in your body.
- You’ll be invited to focus inward while holding that gaze, allowing your brain and body to process what comes up naturally.
- Sessions are often supported by bilateral sound to enhance regulation and integration.
You don’t need to “talk it all out” or relive trauma for Brainspotting to be effective. Your system leads the way, and the therapist holds space throughout.
Our Approach to Brainspotting
At Maribel Ayala Psychotherapy and Consulting, Brainspotting is one of the many specialized tools we offer to help clients access healing beyond traditional talk therapy. Maribel has received advanced training in Brainspotting, including protocols for working with emergency responders, military personnel, and individuals coping with complex trauma.
Our approach to Brainspotting is grounded in safety, consent, and respect for your nervous system’s natural rhythm. We integrate Brainspotting into a broader therapeutic framework that includes somatic therapies, and attachment work—so your care is always holistic and tailored to what your body and story need most.
