3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Next Brainspotting Session
Are you curious about how Brainspotting might enhance your therapy journey? If you’re reading this blog post on my website or from my newsletter, chances are good that you’ve been interested or are already incorporating this cutting-edge trauma treatment method into your healing process.
Whether you’re new to the concept of Brainspotting or you’ve been doing it in therapy for a while, here are 3 tips you can use to set yourself up for success.
1. Plan to be in a quiet, private space.
This might seem like a no-brainer, but please plan out in advance where you’ll have your session. Make sure you have plenty of time to get home, take care of business, and settle in to a comfortable and private space for our session. Without a plan, it can be easy to find yourself having to pull over on the side of the road — not the most calm or healing environment! (Sometimes life happens anyway — don’t sweat it.) Give yourself enough privacy to feel free to talk about tender subjects. If you don’t have a lot of flexibility in your space, see if you can shift the intention of the space by lighting a candle or wrapping a cozy shawl around your shoulders. Something to signify to your body that this is time for you to soften, open, heal, integrate, and grow.
2. Figure out technology beforehand.
If you’re working with me, your sessions are online via Zoom. If we’re Brainspotting, you’ll likely want to make use of the bilateral music in headphones — these specially-engineered music tracks help your subcortical brain to reprocess traumatic material effectively.
That’s already a lot of technology! I recommend playing the music through headphones from a separate device than the one you’re using for Zoom. This makes it easier for you to control different volume levels.
So first, get on Zoom with the device that gives you the biggest possible screen. In order of preference, use a desktop or laptop computer, iPad, or phone. A bigger screen simply allows you to feel my presence with you more fully. One aspect of Brainspotting’s effectiveness is that even at a distance, your nervous system and my nervous system communicate through verbal and nonverbal cues, and my calm nervous system can help your nervous system to also feel calm, even when you’re dealing with stressful memories or feelings. This can still work if you can’t see me, but I prefer for you to be able to see me as well as you can.
Next, set up your bilateral music on a separate device. I use my phone, and turn off Bluetooth on all other devices so my AirPods will sync only to my phone. Click here to find a list of ways to stream bilateral music.
Finally, go ahead and start your music before logging on to our session. Turn down the volume so that the music is in the background, and make sure that you’ll be able to hear me even with the music playing. I encourage my clients to play music throughout our session unless you find it highly distracting. This allows your subcortical brain to come online from the start. It also allows us to move seamlessly from talking to Brainspotting once we identify the issue we want to address.
Which brings me to my next tip.
3. Where would you like to start?
If you’ve been working with me for any length of time, you’ve heard this question. You might already know what you want to talk about today. Some idea has been nagging at you, or you had a tough talk with your boss yesterday that’s still irking you. Maybe you’re reading a book that’s sending up flares that you want to bring in to session. Notice what’s here that wants your attention.
But even if you don’t have any idea what you want to address in your next session, you can tune in and just see what’s here. Before logging on, take a moment to tune in to your body. Take a couple of breaths, and see what is arising that wants to be addressed. Even if it doesn’t make sense to your conscious mind, make a quick note and be willing to bring it up in our session. After many years of doing this work, I trust that your system innately moves toward healing and can point the way.
The more intentionally you enter the space of therapy, the more you set yourself up for a fulfilling and effective session. I encourage you to take a few moments to think about how you would like your next session to go, and set the conditions. Use your creativity and enjoy the process!