Counseling For Trauma
Have you ever had old feelings or memories come back out of nowhere? Maybe you’re just going throughout your day and something reminds you of a hard time in your life. A time when you felt alone, scared, or hurt. You think to yourself “why in the world is this coming back right now” and “how do I get out of this”? Even thinking about this memory throws you off for the rest of your day. You feel sour, angry, and at a loss for how to feel better.
Your feelings don’t have to take you by surprise anymore. Maybe you’ve tried talk therapy and it’s helped but you need something deeper.
I want to paint you a picture. Same scenario. You go throughout your day and a hard feeling or memory shows up. Now instead of feeling thrown for a loop, you feel confident that you know what that part of you needs. You are able to slow down, acknowledge where these feelings are coming from and put that to the side until you are done for the day. You finally feel in control, at ease, assured that you will take care of these feelings later. Wouldn’t that feel better?
Brainspotting is one way I can help you move from feeling lost, angry and defeated to feeling steady and calm.
You don’t have to feel stuck anymore.
I help people achieve this by using my extensive experience working with people who struggle with feeling stuck in their emotions using an attachment-based approach to provide 1:1 sessions virtually and in person so they can gain confidence, improve relationships, and discover their purpose.
FAQs
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Brainspotting is a type of trauma-informed therapy that helps people move through their stuck emotions or memories. We do this by finding a “spot” in your line of sight that brings up these feelings the most, and by your eyes staying on that spot it allows your brain to process all the information it’s holding there related to these feelings or memories.
Brainspotting is based on the theory that “where you look determines how you feel”. Let’s try this together. I want you to do a math problem: 87+25. Did you notice if you had to look somewhere to think about what the answer is? Some people might look up and to the right, or down and to the left. Wherever you look–that’s your brain retrieving that information to help you solve the problem!
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Brainspotting is for anyone looking to move through tough emotions or memories without having to do traditional “talk therapy” to get there. For some people that can look like wanting to work through a major moment of trauma in their life, for others it could look like wanting to work through a mental block that they have in their sport, and even other people it could just be a tough moment that has stuck with you for so long and you want to move past it.
Brainspotting is for people who feel stuck in old feelings and moments that want healing to move through them.
Here are some other areas people use BSP for:
-chronic pain
-performance issues (for actors, athletes, musicians, etc)
-anxiety
-depression
-grief and loss
-phobias
-addiction
-abuse
-attachment issues
-low self-esteem
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In the initial session, I will get to know you and your goals for therapy. I’ll also explain the brainspotting process and what you can expect during these sessions.
During a BSP session we will discuss a certain emotion or event that is distressing. I will get out a pointer and together we will find a spot where you feel the most distress as we talk about this topic
We keep your eyes on that spot so your brain processes the information
We can stop whenever the client wants! Usually my clients and I try to find a point in the process when they are feeling less distressed to stop
At the end of the session or the next session we’ll unpack whatever came up for you during and after the session
Because BSP typically focuses on difficult moments there might be a time where someone wants to pause with one topic to process another. What I love about this approach is that I can be flexible with where my client wants to go and process. I trust their sense of what needs attention in the moment and BSP allows us flexibility to do that!
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You don’t need to have trauma for Brainspotting to be effective or beneficial for you. If you’re still curious how this might help you—please reach out at stephanie@anchorpointcounselingco.com