What is Brainspotting? A Body-Centered Path to Post-Traumatic Growth
You've tried talking through what's bothering you, working hard to understand your patterns and reactions. Yet, you feel stuck. There's a persistent part of your experience-a feeling or response-that talk therapy hasn't been able to fully shift.
That's where Brainspotting comes in.
What Brainspotting Is
Brainspotting is a focused, body-centered approach that helps your brain process experiences that feel unresolved. Developed by Dr. David Grand in 2003, it works with the deep parts of your brain, mind, and nervous system that hold trauma, anxiety, and emotional pain.
My unique approach focuses on Resource-Based Brainspotting. This means we establish a foundation of safety and regulation first. Instead of diving immediately into trauma, we gently anchor your system to what is positive and possible. This ensures you are grounded before we explore the places that need healing, guiding your body to realize you're no longer in that traumatized place.
Healing is a natural process for your brain. In Brainspotting, we simply create the right conditions to let that healing begin.How Brainspotting Actually Works
In a Brainspotting session, we'll work together to find a specific eye position (a "brainspot") that connects to what you're working through. This visual focus helps you gently locate where in your brain-body connection the experience is stuck. Crucially, by starting with resource-based grounding, you are anchored in regulation. We then trust that whatever trauma is ready to come up and heal will emerge in a way that your system can manage, facilitating a process that moves you past what's been keeping you stuck.
What it feels like:
You'll gaze at a fixed point while staying present with whatever arises: sensations in your body, emotions, memories, images, or insights. I'll be right there with you, holding the space and tracking what's happening. You're not alone in this process. Some people describe it as watching their inner world unfold. Others notice physical sensations shifting: tension releasing, breath deepening, a knot in their stomach finally loosening. There's no "right" way to experience it.
What Brainspotting Helps With
Brainspotting is particularly powerful for:
Trauma Processing & Post-Traumatic Growth (including complex trauma and PTSD): Moving beyond survival to thrive.
Releasing anxiety held in your body (the kind that doesn't respond to logic or reassurance)
Working through experiences that feel "stuck" (things you've talked about many times but can't seem to move past)
Performance anxiety (for athletes, performers, therapists, or anyone facing high-pressure situations)
Physical pain with an emotional component
Grief and loss that feels too big to hold
Attachment wounds and relational trauma
Insomnia
Expanding Your Life: Integrating the positive and experiencing more pleasure and joy. We focus on who you are beyond your trauma and pain, broadening your horizon to what's possible.
If you've ever felt like talk therapy got you part of the way there but something still lingers in your body, Brainspotting might be that missing piece.
What Makes Brainspotting Different
Traditional talk therapy happens mostly in the thinking part of your brain: the part that analyzes, explains, and makes sense of things. And that's incredibly valuable.
But trauma and deep emotional pain live deeper, in the parts of your brain that formed before you had language-specifically, in the limbic system. This emotional and survival center holds your fight-flight-freeze responses, your gut reactions, and the way your body braces when it feels unsafe.
Brainspotting bypasses the conscious, thinking brain and goes straight to this deeper area, facilitating change where the healing needs to happen. My approach is deeply trauma-informed and geared towards post-traumatic growth. It's not just about releasing the past; it's about integrating the positive and discovering what's possible now. It's about helping your nervous system process and release what it's been holding, so you can redefine yourself-you are not defined by your trauma.
Who Brainspotting Is For
You might be a good fit for Brainspotting if:
You've gone as far as you can with talk therapy, but you still feel something is stuck.
You notice you carry things in your body (tightness, tension, a sense of dread you can't shake).
You have a hard time putting your experience into words.
You feel things deeply and process internally.
Traditional therapy feels too surface-level or cognitive for what you're experiencing.
You've experienced trauma and want an approach that doesn't require you to retell your story over and over.
You don't need to be "good at" Brainspotting. Your brain already knows what to do. My job is to create the conditions for that natural healing to unfold.
What to Expect in a Brainspotting Session
Before we begin: We'll talk about what brought you here, what feels stuck, and what you're hoping might shift. I'll explain the process and answer any questions.
During the session: I'll help you find the brainspot (the eye position that activates what you're working through). Then we'll stay with whatever arises. Sometimes there's a lot of emotion; sometimes it's quiet. Sometimes memories surface; sometimes it's just physical sensations. All of it is part of the process.
You're in control: You can pause, take breaks, or stop at any time. Some people need to move or shift their body during the process, and that's completely fine. There's no pressure to share everything you're experiencing out loud unless it feels helpful.
After the session: Processing often continues after you leave. You might feel tired, lighter, more grounded, or a bit tender. That's all normal. We'll check in about what you're noticing and adjust as needed.
How Brainspotting Fits Into Your Therapy
Brainspotting isn't an all-or-nothing approach. For many of my clients, it's one tool we use alongside talk therapy, somatic work, and the other modalities I offer. Sessions can look like a combination of talking and Brainspotting for however long your body needs to process the topic.
It's not a quick fix. Healing is rarely linear. But Brainspotting can create significant shifts.
The Science Behind It
While Brainspotting might sound a bit mystical, there's real neuroscience behind it. When you hold a specific eye position, you're accessing the deep brain structures involved in processing trauma and emotional memory, particularly the amygdala, hippocampus, and limbic system.
Research shows that Brainspotting can:
Reduce symptoms of PTSD
Decrease anxiety and depression
Help regulate the nervous system
Create lasting change at a neurological level
But here's what matters most: it works. My clients consistently report feeling lighter, more settled, and finally able to move forward after Brainspotting sessions.
Common Questions About Brainspotting
"Will I have to relive my trauma?" No. You don't need to tell me your full story or relive the details. Brainspotting works with what's present in your system without requiring you to narrate the experience. Since we are focused on resource-based grounding, the emphasis is on establishing safety and trusting what is ready to heal without forcing dysregulation.
"What if nothing happens?" Sometimes processing is subtle. Even if you don't feel a dramatic shift in the moment, your brain is working. Many clients notice changes days or weeks later: patterns that have loosened, reactions that feel different, a sense of more space inside.
"Is it safe?" Yes. I'm trained in Brainspotting and will track with you throughout. We'll go at your pace, and you can stop at any time. The goal is always to work within your window of tolerance, not to overwhelm your system.
"How many sessions will I need?" It varies. While some clients see shifts quickly, I generally recommend committing to 12 sessions of Brainspotting. We will discuss what feels right for your unique journey.
Is Brainspotting Right for You?
If this information is resonating with you and you're curious to see if Brainspotting is a good fit for your healing journey, let’s talk.
Your system knows when it's ready to release what it's been holding.
Brainspotting isn't about pushing or forcing healing. It's about creating the conditions for your brain to do what it already knows how to do: process, integrate, and let go.
Ready to Explore Brainspotting?
If you are in Colorado and looking for a therapist who combines Brainspotting with a holistic, trauma-informed approach, I'd love to talk.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to see if we're a good fit. We'll talk about what you're working through, how Brainspotting might help, and what your path forward could look like.
You don't have to figure this out alone.
Heather Hodge Cordivari (she/they) is a licensed therapist in Boulder, Colorado, specializing in trauma, anxiety, and couples therapy. She offers both in-person sessions in Boulder and virtual therapy throughout Colorado.
