Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that uses your visual field to help you focus on emotions, memories, and physical responses connected to what you’re working through. We use a pointer to help identify a specific eye position, or “brainspot,” and then stay with what comes up. We may also incorporate bilateral stimulation as part of the process.

Talk therapy can help you understand your experiences, recognize patterns, and put words to what you’re feeling. Brainspotting offers another way to work with experiences that may be harder to access through conversation alone. It can be used alongside talk therapy, especially when you have insight into what’s going on but still feel stuck.

Brainspotting may help when anxiety, stress, difficult experiences, or old patterns continue to affect how you feel and respond day to day. The goal is to help you feel more settled in your body, less overwhelmed by triggers, and better able to move through your day without anxiety or past experiences taking up so much space.

For some people, that might look like waking up with less dread, feeling calmer in situations that used to set them off, recovering more quickly when something is upsetting, or simply feeling more present and at ease in their everyday life.

Because Brainspotting is part of a larger therapeutic process, we typically begin by establishing care with one of our clinicians for talk therapy. From there, Brainspotting can be incorporated when it makes sense for your needs and goals. This allows you to have ongoing support before, during, and after the deeper work we may do in Brainspotting.

Not necessarily. It is certainly more process oriented. One reason some people are drawn to Brainspotting is that you don’t always have to explain every detail of what happened in order to work with what you’re experiencing. We’ll talk enough to understand what you want to focus on, but you can decide how much you want to share.

During Brainspotting, a lot of the work involves noticing what comes up, this can be thoughts, emotions, memories, or sensations—without having to put everything into words.

Yes. Brainspotting can be incorporated into virtual therapy sessions when telehealth is appropriate for you. We can adapt the process so that you can follow the pointer and engage in the work from your own space.

Before beginning, we’ll talk about whether virtual Brainspotting is a good fit for what you’re working on and make sure you have a private, comfortable environment for the session.

Our office is in Falls Church, Virginia. We are licensed across DMV and Ohio.

If you’re interested in Brainspotting at Oak Tree, we typically begin by establishing care with one of our clinicians for ongoing talk therapy rather than offering Brainspotting as a stand-alone service alongside therapy somewhere else. This helps us tailor the care on an individual basis.

It helps us establish your nervous system set point for the brain spotting sessions.

This gives us time to understand what you’re experiencing, build a therapeutic foundation, and determine when Brainspotting may be helpful as part of your overall treatment.

When appropriate, Brainspotting can then be incorporated into the work you’re already doing with us.

At Oak Tree Counseling and wellness, we generally recommend beginning with talk therapy and building a relationship with your clinician before moving into Brainspotting. That foundation gives us a better understanding of what you’re working through and helps us decide together when a deeper approach may be useful.

Brainspotting isn’t meant to replace the value of talking and understanding your experiences. It’s another tool we can add when the time is right.

I generally do not recommend brain spotting if you have had no previous therapeutic experiences.