A Gentle, Brain-Based Path to Healing
Brainspotting is a powerful therapy that works with the direct pathway between your eyes and your brain. Where we look in space impacts how we feel — and Brainspotting uses that connection to reach traumas and stuck emotional experiences that are otherwise difficult to access with talk therapy alone. At Amy Robbins Counseling, we offer Brainspotting alongside EMDR and trauma therapy as part of our commitment to healing that honors both mind and body.
How Brainspotting Was Discovered
Brainspotting began in the middle of an EMDR session. Dr. David Grand was working with a young figure skater with severe childhood trauma when he noticed her eyes suddenly wobble and lock onto one spot. He stopped his hand, her eyes stayed focused there, and memories and body sensations surfaced that had not come out in eighteen months of previous therapy. That afternoon she landed the jumps that had eluded her on the ice. Dr. Grand’s exploration of that phenomenon became the therapy we now call Brainspotting — a natural extension of what EMDR offers.
What a Brainspotting Session Looks Like
Sessions often begin by locating a spot the body experiences as neutral and calm — a safe “resource” spot you can return to at any time if feelings become overwhelming. When working with a painful memory or experience, you and your therapist identify a spot in space connected to the material, and you keep your eyes focused there while noticing, without judgment, what happens in your mind and body. Brainspotting is, at heart, a mindfulness practice: your therapist guides you back to your body, and what you notice there guides the experience.
You remain in control the entire time. You can choose to talk or not talk — the brain can turn down the intensity of a trauma without you ever sharing the whole story. If anything feels like too much, the processing slows to a pace that is comfortable for you.
Who Can Benefit From Brainspotting?
Brainspotting helps bring the flame of arousal down so that trauma takes its rightful place in the past instead of living in perpetual present-moment awareness. It can be a fit if you are navigating trauma or PTSD, anxiety, or experiences that feel stuck in your body — especially if talking about what happened feels impossible or has not been enough. Because Brainspotting works with the nervous system rather than against it, many clients find it gentler than they expected, and many experience a meaningful shift within the first several sessions.
Brainspotting or EMDR?
Both therapies reach the deep, nonverbal parts of the brain where unprocessed experiences live, and neither requires talking in detail about the distressing event. EMDR follows a structured protocol using bilateral stimulation; Brainspotting tends to proceed with less talking and more flexibility, following your experience moment to moment. You cannot go wrong with either approach — and our practice is proud to offer both. Curious about the differences? Read our posts EMDR vs Brainspotting and What is Brainspotting and why do I love it?
Begin Your Healing Journey in Atlanta
You don’t have to carry what happened to you forever, and you don’t have to retell it to release it. Contact us to talk through whether Brainspotting might be a good approach for your healing.