by Sallyanne Keevers | Feb 15, 2026 | Therapy Tools & Methods, Women's Lives
Brainspotting vs EMDR is a question I am asked regularly, and it deserves a careful answer. Both are body-based trauma therapies with supporting research. Both work with eye position and the nervous system rather than narrative alone. And both can produce meaningful change for people who have not found that change through talk therapy.
But they are not the same, and for some people the differences matter significantly. This post is an honest comparison – not a sales pitch for one over the other, but a clear account of how they differ and what those differences might mean for you.
I trained in Brainspotting and use it in my practice alongside IFS. I do not offer EMDR. That is a relevant disclosure – and it is also why I want to be genuinely fair in how I describe both approaches here.
What Brainspotting and EMDR Have in Common
Both approaches emerged from the observation that eye position and movement have a relationship with emotional and traumatic activation. EMDR was developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. Brainspotting was developed by David Grand in 2003, partly from his experience as an EMDR practitioner.
Both work at a level beneath language and conscious thought. Neither requires the client to construct a detailed narrative about what happened. Both are used for trauma, anxiety, and a range of presentations where physiological activation from past experience is shaping current responses.
Both have peer-reviewed research supporting their effectiveness. EMDR has a larger and longer-established evidence base – it has been studied extensively since the 1990s and is recommended by major mental health bodies internationally, including the World Health Organisation. Brainspotting’s evidence base is smaller but growing, with a number of comparative studies showing outcomes that are broadly comparable.
How Brainspotting vs EMDR Differ in Practice
The most significant difference is in structure and directiveness. EMDR follows a defined eight-phase protocol. Sessions have a clear structure, specific phases for assessment, preparation, desensitisation, and installation, and the therapist plays an active role in guiding the client through each stage. The bilateral stimulation – typically eye movements following a moving object, or tapping – is applied systematically.
Brainspotting is less structured. Once the brainspot is located, the therapist largely steps back and allows the client’s system to process in its own way, at its own pace, without a protocol directing what should happen next. The therapist holds dual attunement – tracking both the client’s external cues and their own internal experience – but does not direct the content of the processing.
A second difference is in the nature of the eye position work. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation – the eyes move back and forth following a stimulus. Brainspotting uses a fixed position – the eyes hold a single spot while processing occurs. The experience of the two is quite different, and clients who have tried both often describe Brainspotting as feeling more organic and less effortful.
A third difference is in what the approaches ask of the client cognitively. EMDR’s protocol involves active cognitive work alongside the bilateral stimulation – identifying negative cognitions, rating distress, installing positive beliefs. Brainspotting requires less cognitive engagement. The client stays with body sensation and internal experience without needing to simultaneously manage a structured assessment process.
The Evidence Base: An Honest Comparison
EMDR has a substantially larger evidence base than Brainspotting. It has been the subject of hundreds of randomised controlled trials and is endorsed by the World Health Organisation, the American Psychological Association, and the Australian Psychological Society among others. For PTSD in particular, it is considered a gold-standard treatment.
Brainspotting’s evidence base is smaller and more recent. The most rigorous independent comparison study to date – D’Antoni and colleagues (2022) – found Brainspotting and EMDR produced comparable outcomes for distressing memories. Hildebrand, Grand and Stemmler (2017) found both effective for PTSD, with EMDR showing slightly larger effect sizes in that study. The research is promising but not yet at the volume or methodological strength of the EMDR literature.
What this means practically is that EMDR has stronger institutional backing and a more established evidence base. Brainspotting has good and growing evidence and strong clinical outcomes, but a smaller research foundation. For someone who values evidence hierarchy, that distinction matters.
Who Tends to Suit Each Approach
Neither approach is universally better. The right fit depends on the person, the presentation, and sometimes simply on what feels right when they experience it. That said, some patterns emerge in clinical practice.
EMDR may be a stronger fit for women who:
- Prefer a clear, structured process they can understand and follow
- Want an approach with the largest possible evidence base
- Have a clearly defined traumatic incident they want to target
- Have found structured protocols helpful in other areas of their life
Brainspotting may be a stronger fit for women who:
- Found EMDR effective but exhausting, or struggled with its structured format
- Are carrying complex or relational trauma without a clearly defined single incident
- Prefer an approach that follows their system’s natural pace rather than a protocol
- Want trauma work integrated with an IFS framework for understanding their inner parts
- Carry a body-based quality to their patterns that has not shifted through cognitive or talk-based approaches
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I switch from EMDR to Brainspotting if EMDR is not working for me?
Yes. The two approaches are compatible and prior EMDR work is not wasted if you move to Brainspotting. Some women find that EMDR takes them a significant way and Brainspotting reaches what remains. Others find the different quality of the process suits them better from the start. It is worth having an honest conversation with any new therapist about what has and has not worked before.
Is one approach faster than the other?
Not in any consistent way. Both can produce rapid shifts for some presentations and require longer-term work for others. The pace depends far more on the complexity of what is being worked on and the readiness of the nervous system than on the modality itself.
Why do you use Brainspotting rather than EMDR in your practice?
Brainspotting integrates particularly well with IFS, which is the primary framework I work within. The two approaches complement each other naturally – IFS providing the relational and psychological scaffolding, Brainspotting providing the somatic processing depth. I also find that the less directive quality of Brainspotting suits the women I work with, many of whom have spent years being told what to do and think and feel. Brainspotting trusts the system to know what it needs.
Should I try both before deciding?
If you have access to skilled practitioners in both, experiencing both is not a bad idea. Many people find that one approach has a quality that immediately feels more right than the other. If you are starting fresh without prior experience of either, the most important factor is usually the quality of the therapeutic relationship – the approach matters less than the skill and attunement of the person delivering it.
If Brainspotting Sounds Right for You
If what you have read here points you toward Brainspotting, I would welcome a conversation. I work exclusively with women, fully online, using Brainspotting alongside IFS to address trauma, anxiety, and emotional patterns at the level where they actually live.
You can read more about how I work on my approach page. When you are ready, get in touch directly to ask a question or enquire about availability. I aim to respond to all enquiries within two business days.
The right therapy is the one that reaches what needs to be reached. I hope this helps you find it – whether that is with me or with someone else.
Further Reading
by Sallyanne Keevers | Feb 14, 2026 | Therapy Tools & Methods, Women's Lives
Brainspotting for trauma is built on a simple but significant observation: some experiences are stored in the body at a level that language cannot reach. Not because the person cannot find the words, but because the experience itself was processed – or not processed – before words were available. In the body. In the nervous system. In parts of the brain that sit beneath conscious thought.
For women carrying trauma – whether a single identifiable event or the more diffuse accumulation of relational and developmental experiences – this means that talking about what happened, however carefully and skillfully, often reaches only part of what needs to be reached.
Brainspotting for trauma offers a way in that does not depend on narrative. It works with the body’s own capacity to process and heal, at the level where the trauma is actually held.
What Trauma Actually Is – and Is Not
Trauma is not the event itself. It is what happens in the nervous system when an experience exceeds the capacity to process it fully in the moment. The experience becomes frozen – held in the body as unresolved activation, shaping the person’s responses long after the event has passed.
This is why trauma responses often feel disproportionate or confusing. The body is not reacting to what is happening now – it is responding to a pattern laid down then, in circumstances that no longer exist. The nervous system has not received the message that things are different.
It is also worth naming that trauma does not require a dramatic single incident. Many women carry the effects of what might be called small-t trauma – the chronic experiences of not being seen, of having emotions dismissed, of learning early that certain feelings were not acceptable, of carrying responsibility that was not theirs to carry. These experiences are no less real in the body for being harder to name.
Why Talking About Trauma Is Not Always Enough
Talk therapy has real value in trauma work – building safety, making meaning, reducing isolation, developing the language to name what happened. These are not small things. But for many people, talking about the trauma does not fully discharge the physiological activation it created. The story can be told fluently, the meaning can be understood, and the body is still braced.
This is not a failure of therapy or of the person. It reflects the nature of how trauma is stored. The parts of the brain most involved in threat response and emotional memory are not primarily language-based. They respond to different kinds of intervention – ones that work at the level of the body and the nervous system rather than the narrative.
Brainspotting for trauma works at exactly this level. It does not ask the person to recount what happened, construct a coherent account, or find the right words. It works with the physiological activation directly, allowing the body to process what it has been holding.
How Brainspotting for Trauma Works in Practice
A Brainspotting session focused on trauma begins with establishing safety and stabilisation. Before any processing work begins, the therapist ensures the client has sufficient internal resources and that the nervous system is regulated enough to approach the material without being overwhelmed.
From there, the client is asked to bring the trauma material to mind – not necessarily in detail, but enough to notice where the activation shows up in the body. That body sensation becomes the anchor for finding the brainspot: the eye position that most activates the stored material.
Once the brainspot is located, the client holds that gaze position while staying with whatever arises internally. The therapist holds the relational container throughout – present, attuned, tracking external cues while the client follows the internal process. There is no scripted protocol for what should happen next. The processing unfolds in its own way, at its own pace.
The theoretical framework proposes that this process accesses deeper brain structures involved in the storage of traumatic memory and threat response. This mechanism is a working hypothesis rather than established neuroscience – but the clinical outcomes for trauma presentations are consistently encouraging, and the approach has a growing body of peer-reviewed research behind it.
Brainspotting for Complex and Relational Trauma
Complex trauma – the kind that develops over time in relational contexts rather than from a single event – presents particular challenges for treatment. It is often less clearly bounded, harder to name, and more deeply woven into a person’s sense of self and their way of relating to others.
Brainspotting is well-suited to this presentation because it does not require the trauma to be clearly defined or narrated. The body holds what it holds, regardless of whether the person can articulate it in words. The work follows the physiological activation rather than the story.
For women who carry complex or developmental trauma, the pace of Brainspotting work tends to be slower and more titrated – building safety, working with stabilisation, and approaching deeper material gradually as the system becomes more capable of tolerating and processing it.
Brainspotting and IFS: Working with Trauma at Two Levels
In practice, Brainspotting for trauma is most powerful when used alongside Internal Family Systems therapy. IFS provides the relational and psychological framework – helping the person understand and build relationship with the parts that formed in response to the trauma, what they are protecting, and what they need. This work creates the conditions for deeper processing to be safe.
Brainspotting then processes what those parts are holding in the body – the stored activation, the frozen responses, the physiological residue of experiences the system never had the chance to fully digest. Where IFS works with the meaning and relationship of trauma, Brainspotting works with the body’s held experience of it.
For many women, this combination produces a depth of change that reflects the true complexity of what trauma is – not just an event or a memory, but an experience held across the mind, the emotions, and the body simultaneously.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a PTSD diagnosis to access Brainspotting for trauma?
No. Many women who benefit from Brainspotting for trauma do not meet the clinical criteria for PTSD. The approach works with any presentation where physiological activation from past experience is shaping current responses – regardless of whether it meets a diagnostic threshold.
Is it safe to do Brainspotting for trauma online?
Yes, with appropriate care and clinical skill. Online trauma work requires attention to stabilisation, pacing, and the establishment of sufficient safety before processing begins – all of which are central to how I work. The online format does not diminish the depth or safety of the work in my clinical experience.
What if I cannot remember my trauma clearly?
Brainspotting does not require clear memory or a detailed narrative. The work follows the body’s activation rather than the story. Many clients find this a significant relief – they do not have to reconstruct or recount something they may only have fragmented access to. The body holds what it holds, and that is what the work engages with.
How is Brainspotting different from EMDR for trauma?
Both approaches work with trauma at a body-brain level and both have supporting research. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation and a structured protocol. Brainspotting uses a fixed eye position and is less directive, allowing the client’s system to process in its own way without a scripted procedure. Some clients find Brainspotting less effortful and easier to settle into, particularly those who found EMDR’s structure difficult to work within.
Your Body Has Been Holding This Long Enough
If you are carrying something that talking has not been able to fully reach, I would welcome a conversation. I work exclusively with women, fully online, using Brainspotting alongside IFS to work with trauma at the level where it actually lives – in the body, in the nervous system, below language.
You can read more about how I work on my approach page. When you are ready, get in touch directly to ask a question or enquire about availability. I aim to respond to all enquiries within two business days.
Healing does not always begin with words. Sometimes it begins with the body finally being allowed to finish what it started.
Further Reading
by Sallyanne Keevers | Feb 12, 2026 | Therapy Tools & Methods, Women's Lives
Brainspotting for anxiety is not another technique for managing anxious thoughts. It is not a breathing protocol or a cognitive reframe. It works at a different level entirely – below the thinking mind, in the nervous system, where chronic anxiety is actually stored.
For women with high-functioning anxiety, this distinction matters. They have usually tried the cognitive approaches. They understand their anxiety, they know the thoughts are distorted, they have the tools. And still the anxiety is there – in the body, in the background, in the bracing that never quite switches off.
Brainspotting for anxiety offers a way to access and process the physiological activation underneath the pattern – not by thinking it through differently, but by allowing the brain and body to process it directly.
Why Anxiety Lives in the Body, Not Just the Mind
Anxiety is not purely a thinking problem. While anxious thoughts are the most visible symptom, they are often the surface expression of something deeper – a nervous system that has learned to stay on alert, a body that is carrying activation it has not been able to discharge.
This is why cognitive approaches work up to a point for many women and then plateau. Changing the thought does not necessarily change the underlying physiological state. You can know your anxiety is irrational and still feel it in your chest. You can understand exactly where it came from and still wake at three in the morning with your heart already racing.
The body is not responding to the present moment. It is responding to a learned pattern – one that was shaped by past experience and held in the nervous system long after the circumstances that created it have changed.
How Brainspotting for Anxiety Works
In a Brainspotting session focused on anxiety, the work begins with the body. The therapist will ask the client to notice where they feel the anxiety physically – the tightness in the throat, the constriction in the chest, the low hum of dread in the belly. That body sensation becomes the anchor.
From there, the therapist slowly moves a pointer across the visual field while the client stays connected to the body sensation. At certain eye positions, there is a response – a deepening of the sensation, a shift in breathing, a reflexive blink. That is the brainspot: the eye position that most activates the material.
Once the brainspot is located, the client holds that gaze position while staying with whatever arises. The therapist holds the space – present and attuned, but not directing what happens. The processing is the client’s own. What unfolds from there varies: sensation moving through the body, emotion arising and passing, a gradual settling of the activation.
The theoretical framework proposes that this process accesses brain structures involved in emotional memory and threat response that sit beneath conscious thought. As with all aspects of the Brainspotting model, this remains a working hypothesis rather than established neuroscience – but the clinical outcomes for anxiety are consistently encouraging.
What Makes Brainspotting Different from Other Anxiety Treatments
Most anxiety treatments work top-down – starting with thoughts and behaviour, and working toward the body. CBT identifies distorted thinking and offers alternative frames. Mindfulness builds the capacity to observe anxiety without being overwhelmed by it. These are valuable and well-evidenced approaches.
Brainspotting works bottom-up – starting with the body and the nervous system, and allowing processing to move upward from there. It does not require the client to find the right words, make cognitive sense of the experience, or construct a narrative about what happened. The processing occurs at a level beneath language.
For women who have done significant cognitive work and still carry anxiety in the body, this shift in direction is often exactly what has been missing. The head has done its work. The body needs something different.
High-Functioning Anxiety and Brainspotting
High-functioning anxiety has a particular quality that makes it both hard to treat and hard to name. Everything looks fine from the outside. The woman is achieving, managing, holding things together. But internally there is a constant vigilance, a bracing, a difficulty ever truly resting – even in the absence of any actual threat.
This kind of anxiety tends to be held in the body as a chronic state of readiness. The nervous system has learned that relaxing is not safe, that something might go wrong if the guard comes down. Cognitive approaches can provide relief and coping strategies, but they often cannot reach the physiological state itself.
Brainspotting for anxiety works well for this presentation because it does not ask the anxious system to think differently. It meets the body where it is and allows processing to happen at the level where the anxiety actually lives.
Combining Brainspotting and IFS for Anxiety
In practice, Brainspotting for anxiety often works alongside Internal Family Systems therapy. IFS helps identify and build relationship with the parts driving the anxiety – the part that is always scanning for danger, the inner critic, the part that cannot stop anticipating what might go wrong. It provides the psychological understanding of what the anxiety is protecting.
Brainspotting then processes what those parts are holding in the body. The two approaches work at different levels and complement each other well – IFS addressing the inner relational landscape, Brainspotting processing the stored physiological activation underneath it.
For many women with high-functioning anxiety, this combination produces a quality of change that neither approach delivers alone – an easing of the internal pressure that feels genuinely different from anxiety management.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Brainspotting help with anxiety that is not related to a specific trauma?
Yes. Brainspotting is not only for identifiable traumatic events. Chronic anxiety, generalised anxiety, and high-functioning anxiety all involve stored physiological activation that Brainspotting can reach, regardless of whether there is a specific incident at the root. Many women find it effective for diffuse anxiety that has no clear single cause.
How many sessions of Brainspotting does it take to help with anxiety?
This varies. Some women notice a meaningful shift within a few sessions. For chronic or complex anxiety with a long history, the work tends to unfold over a longer period. Brainspotting is typically used as part of an ongoing therapeutic relationship rather than a brief standalone intervention.
Will Brainspotting make my anxiety worse before it gets better?
It is possible to feel stirred up after a session, particularly in the early stages of the work. This is why pacing is important – Brainspotting is always titrated to what the nervous system can tolerate, and stabilisation is prioritised before deeper processing begins. If something feels like too much, sessions can be slowed or redirected.
Is Brainspotting for anxiety available online in Australia?
Yes. Brainspotting works well online and is accessible to women across Australia via secure video call. The pointer work is adapted for screen use, and the depth of the work is not diminished by the online format.
If Your Anxiety Lives in the Body, There Is Work for That
If you recognise the anxiety described here – the kind that cognitive tools have not been able to fully reach – I would welcome a conversation. I work exclusively with women, fully online, using Brainspotting alongside IFS to work with anxiety at the level where it actually lives.
You can read more about how I work on my approach page. When you are ready, get in touch directly to ask a question or enquire about availability. I aim to respond to all enquiries within two business days.
Understanding your anxiety was never going to be enough on its own. The body needs something more than an explanation.
Further Reading
by Sallyanne Keevers | Feb 9, 2026 | Working with Me, Therapy Tools & Methods
Brainspotting therapy in Australia is still relatively unknown – which is surprising given how effective it is, and how many women it is quietly changing things for. If you have heard the term and are trying to understand what it actually involves, this guide is a thorough and honest introduction.
Brainspotting is a brain-body based therapy developed by Dr David Grand in 2003. It is guided by the observation that where you look affects how you feel – and that specific eye positions, or brainspots, appear to correlate with trauma and emotional activation that talk therapy alone cannot always reach.
For women carrying the residue of difficult experiences – trauma, chronic stress, anxiety that will not shift, emotional patterns that persist despite good self-awareness – Brainspotting therapy offers a genuinely different kind of access. Not through talking about what happened, but through the body and the brain’s own capacity to process and heal.
What Is Brainspotting Therapy?
Brainspotting was developed by Dr David Grand, a psychotherapist who noticed during EMDR sessions that a client’s eye position appeared to correlate with the activation of specific trauma material. He began to investigate this systematically, and Brainspotting emerged as a distinct therapeutic approach from that observation.
The theoretical framework behind Brainspotting proposes that trauma and emotional experience are held not just in memory and narrative, but in deeper brain structures that sit beneath conscious thought and language – areas less accessible through talking alone. The precise neurological mechanism is still the subject of ongoing research and is not yet fully established. What is clear from clinical experience and the growing evidence base is that the approach produces meaningful outcomes for many people, particularly where cognitive and language-based therapies have not gone far enough.
In a Brainspotting session, the therapist helps the client locate a brainspot – an eye position that activates the material being worked on. The client then holds that gaze position while staying with the body sensations and internal experience that arise. The therapist holds a dual attunement – tracking both the client’s external cues and the internal processing unfolding beneath the surface.
What happens in that held space is the brain’s own processing – not directed by the therapist, not guided by narrative, but allowed to move at its own pace toward resolution. The experience is often quiet, sometimes surprising, and frequently produces a quality of shift that clients describe as unlike anything they have encountered in more cognitive approaches.
What Brainspotting Therapy in Australia Is Particularly Effective For
Brainspotting has encouraging clinical results for trauma, but its applications are broader than that. In practice it is used effectively for:
- Post-traumatic stress and complex trauma
- Anxiety – including high-functioning anxiety where the activation is chronic and diffuse
- Emotional patterns that persist despite good cognitive understanding
- Physical symptoms with a psychological or trauma component
- Burnout and chronic stress where the nervous system is dysregulated
- Performance anxiety and blocks
- Grief and loss
For women who have tried talk-based therapy and found it helpful but incomplete – who understand their patterns intellectually but still feel the activation in their body – Brainspotting often provides the missing piece.
What the Research Says About Brainspotting
Brainspotting is a relatively young modality and its peer-reviewed research base is still developing. It is worth being transparent about the limitations: several studies were conducted by or alongside David Grand, the developer of Brainspotting, which introduces a potential bias that any informed reader should know about. With that caveat clearly stated, here is what the research shows. The strongest independent study to date is D’Antoni and colleagues (2022), published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, which compared single sessions of Brainspotting, EMDR, and body scan meditation across 40 participants and found all three produced significant reductions in distress, with Brainspotting and EMDR performing comparably and both outperforming the control condition at follow-up. Hildebrand, Grand and Stemmler published two studies – a 2014 pilot study in the Journal of Psychotraumatology (22 clients, significant PTSD reduction within three sessions) and a 2017 study in the Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology (76 adults, Brainspotting vs EMDR for PTSD, both effective). Grand’s involvement as co-author in both warrants noting, though the 2017 study involved independent university researchers at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany. A 2022 study by Palsimon, published in Archives of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, examined preliminary efficacy with Filipino women experiencing severe PTSD and found encouraging results. A 2023-24 study by Horton, Schwartzberg, Goldberg, Grieve and Brdecka, published in the International Body Psychotherapy Journal, adds to the PTSD evidence base with no developer involvement. Anderegg (2015) compared Brainspotting, CBT, and EMDR for generalised anxiety disorder across 59 patients and found Brainspotting and EMDR both outperformed CBT. This study is worth noting for anxiety presentations specifically, though it has not been published in a major indexed journal and should be held with some caution.
The overall picture is this: the evidence base is genuinely promising and growing, the mechanism of action remains theoretical, and the research does not yet match the volume behind longer-established modalities like EMDR or CBT. For many practitioners and clients, the combination of emerging evidence, strong clinical outcomes, and the nature of what Brainspotting offers is sufficient reason to engage seriously with it. Links to the studies referenced above are included at the foot of this post.
How Brainspotting Differs from Other Trauma Therapies
The most common comparison is between Brainspotting and EMDR, since both are eye-position-based trauma therapies developed from related observations. The key difference is in how directive the process is. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation and a structured protocol. Brainspotting is more open – the therapist locates the brainspot and then largely steps back, allowing the brain to process in its own way without a scripted procedure directing it.
Many clients who have tried both describe Brainspotting as feeling more organic – less effortful, less cognitively demanding, more like something is happening rather than something being done. For women who found EMDR effective but exhausting, or who struggled with its more structured format, Brainspotting is often a better fit.
Compared to purely talk-based therapies, Brainspotting works at a different level. It does not require you to construct a narrative about what happened, to find the right words, or to make cognitive sense of your experience before something can shift. The working theory is that processing occurs at a level beneath language – which may be why it reaches material that talking alone has not been able to move.
Brainspotting and IFS: How the Two Work Together
In my practice, I use Brainspotting alongside Internal Family Systems therapy, and the combination is one I find particularly powerful for the women I work with. IFS provides the relational and psychological framework – helping clients understand the parts of their inner world, what those parts are carrying, and what they need. Brainspotting provides the somatic processing depth – reaching the stored activation in the body and brain that the IFS work has identified but that talking alone cannot fully resolve.
For women dealing with complex trauma or deeply ingrained emotional patterns, this combination addresses the work from two levels simultaneously – the psychological and the physiological – in a way that produces a quality of change neither approach delivers alone.
What a Brainspotting Session Actually Feels Like
People often expect Brainspotting to feel strange or clinical. In practice it is usually neither. Sessions have a quiet, internally focused quality. You will be asked to bring something to mind – a feeling, a memory, a body sensation – and to notice where you feel it in your body. From there, the therapist will help you find the eye position that most activates that material.
Once the brainspot is located, you simply hold your gaze there while staying with what arises internally. The therapist is present throughout, tracking your process and holding the relational container. You do not need to narrate what is happening or make meaning of it in the moment.
What many people notice is a gradual movement – an unfolding of sensation, emotion, imagery, or simply a slow settling in the body. Sessions can feel quiet and undramatic even when significant processing is occurring. Others are more emotionally present. There is no right way for it to go.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brainspotting Therapy in Australia
Do I need to have a trauma diagnosis to benefit from Brainspotting?
No. While Brainspotting has strong evidence for trauma, it is equally effective for anxiety, chronic stress, burnout, and emotional patterns that have not responded to other approaches. Many of the women I work with do not identify as trauma survivors – they simply carry activation in their bodies that cognitive approaches have not been able to fully reach.
Is Brainspotting available online in Australia?
Yes. Brainspotting works well in an online format. The eye positioning work is adapted slightly for video – typically using a pointer on screen – but the depth and effectiveness of the process are not diminished. Online Brainspotting therapy in Australia makes this approach accessible to women regardless of where they are located.
How many Brainspotting sessions will I need?
This varies depending on what you are bringing and what you are hoping to shift. Some women notice significant change within a handful of sessions. For complex trauma or longstanding patterns, the work tends to unfold over a longer period. Brainspotting is often used alongside IFS as part of an ongoing therapeutic relationship rather than as a standalone short-term intervention.
Is Brainspotting the same as hypnotherapy?
No. You are fully conscious and present throughout a Brainspotting session. There is no trance state and no suggestion from the therapist. The focused quality of Brainspotting can feel somewhat similar to deep concentration, but you remain in full awareness and in control of the process at all times.
Explore Brainspotting Therapy with Sallyanne Keevers
If Brainspotting therapy sounds like something you have been looking for, I would welcome a conversation. I work exclusively with women, fully online, using Brainspotting alongside IFS to address trauma, anxiety, burnout, and emotional patterns at the level where they actually live – in the brain and body, not just in the story.
You can read more about how I work on my approach page. When you are ready to take the next step, you are welcome to get in touch directly. I aim to respond to all enquiries within two business days.
Some things cannot be thought through. They need to be processed. Brainspotting is built for exactly that.
Research References
by Sallyanne Keevers | Feb 7, 2026 | Therapy Tools & Methods, Working with Me
What is Brainspotting? It is one of the most common questions I hear from women who have been referred to me, or who have found their way here through their own research. They have heard the term, they are curious, and they want an honest answer before they decide whether it is something they want to try.
So here it is – a clear, plain-language answer to what Brainspotting is, how it works in practice, and what it might offer you if you are carrying something that talking alone has not been able to move.
What Is Brainspotting: The Simple Answer
Brainspotting is a therapy approach developed by American psychotherapist Dr David Grand in 2003. It is based on the observation that where you look affects how you feel – and that specific positions in the visual field appear to correlate with stored trauma, emotional activation, and unprocessed experience.
In a Brainspotting session, a therapist helps you locate what is called a brainspot – an eye position that activates the material you are working on. Once that position is found, you hold your gaze there while staying with whatever arises internally: sensations, emotions, images, or simply a physical sense of something shifting. The therapist stays present and attuned throughout, but does not direct or interpret what happens. The processing is yours.
The theoretical framework suggests that this process accesses brain structures involved in emotional memory and trauma that are not easily reached through language and conscious thought alone. It is important to be clear that this remains a working hypothesis – the precise neurological mechanism has not been definitively established. What is established, through clinical experience and a growing body of research, is that many people find it produces a quality of change that other approaches have not.
Where Did Brainspotting Come From?
David Grand developed Brainspotting from his work with EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing – another eye-position-based trauma therapy. During an EMDR session with a client, he noticed that when her eye position reached a specific point, she had a significant therapeutic breakthrough. He began to investigate whether eye position itself was carrying information, and Brainspotting grew from that observation.
Since 2003, Brainspotting has been taken up by therapists internationally and used across a wide range of presentations – from single-incident trauma through to complex trauma, anxiety, burnout, grief, and performance blocks. It is now taught across multiple training phases and used by practitioners in many countries, including Australia.
What Does a Brainspotting Session Actually Involve?
Sessions begin with settling – slowing down, noticing what is present in the body, and identifying what you are bringing to work on. From there, I will ask you to locate where you feel the activation in your body, and we will use that as an anchor for finding the brainspot.
Finding the brainspot involves slowly moving a pointer across your visual field while you stay connected to the body sensation. At certain points, there will be a response – a blink, a shift in breathing, an increase or decrease in activation. That is where we stop. That is the brainspot.
Once located, you hold your gaze at that position and simply stay with what is there. There is no need to narrate, analyse, or make sense of what arises. I stay present and attuned, tracking what I observe externally while you follow what is happening internally.
Sessions typically run for 50 to 60 minutes. Online sessions work well – the pointer is adapted to a screen pointer, and the depth of the work is not diminished by the online format in my experience.
What Does Brainspotting Feel Like from the Inside?
This is the question I find most useful to answer honestly, because expectations can significantly affect how someone approaches a first session.
Brainspotting sessions are often quieter than people expect. There is a focused, inward quality that can feel a little like deep concentration or meditation – though you are fully conscious and in control throughout. Nothing is being done to you. The processing is happening inside your own system, at its own pace.
What people notice varies. Some experience a gradual movement of sensation through the body – warmth, tingling, a sense of something releasing. Others notice emotions arising and passing. Some experience imagery or memories. Some simply feel a slow settling, without being able to name what shifted. All of these are valid. There is no right way for a Brainspotting session to unfold.
What clients most consistently report is that something moves that has not moved before. Not dramatically, and not all at once – but in a way that feels real and different from anything they have experienced in more cognitive approaches.
Who Is Brainspotting For?
Brainspotting tends to suit women who are ready to work at a body level, not just a cognitive one. You do not need to have experienced identifiable trauma to benefit. Many of the women I work with come with chronic anxiety, burnout, emotional patterns that persist despite good self-awareness, or a felt sense that something is held in the body that talking has never quite reached.
It works particularly well for women who are psychologically minded but have found purely cognitive approaches incomplete. If you understand yourself well and still feel stuck in the body, Brainspotting may be what has been missing.
It is also well-suited to women who have found other trauma therapies helpful but not quite enough, or who struggled with the more structured format of EMDR. Brainspotting is more open and less protocol-driven, which many clients find easier to settle into.
Brainspotting and IFS: How I Use Them Together
In my practice I use Brainspotting alongside Internal Family Systems therapy. IFS provides the relational and psychological scaffolding – helping you understand the inner parts that carry your patterns, what they are protecting, and what they need. Brainspotting provides the somatic depth – processing what those parts are holding in the body and brain at a level that language alone cannot reach.
Not every session uses both. Sometimes the work is primarily IFS. Sometimes it is primarily Brainspotting. Often the two weave together naturally within a session. I follow what the work needs rather than applying a fixed formula.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brainspotting the same as EMDR?
No, though they share roots. Both involve eye position and were developed from related observations. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation and a structured protocol. Brainspotting uses a fixed eye position and is less directive – the therapist locates the brainspot and then largely holds space while the client’s system processes. Many clients describe Brainspotting as feeling less effortful and more organic than EMDR, though both can be effective.
Do I need to talk about my trauma in a Brainspotting session?
No. One of Brainspotting’s distinctive features is that it does not require a narrative. You do not need to describe what happened in detail, find the right words for your experience, or construct a coherent account of your history. The processing happens below the level of language, which is part of why it can reach material that talking has not.
Can Brainspotting make things worse?
Any trauma-informed therapy can stir things up if moved too quickly. Brainspotting is designed to be titrated – paced carefully to what the nervous system can tolerate. I always work with stabilisation before processing, and the approach respects the protective parts of the system rather than bypassing them. If something feels like too much in a session, we slow down or stop.
Is Brainspotting available online?
Yes. I offer Brainspotting online via secure video call. The pointer work is adapted for screen, and in my experience the depth and effectiveness of the sessions is not diminished. Online access also means women across Australia can work with a Brainspotting practitioner without being limited by geography.
Ready to Find Out if Brainspotting Is Right for You?
If you are curious about Brainspotting and wondering whether it might be the right next step, I would welcome a conversation. I work exclusively with women, fully online, using Brainspotting alongside IFS to work at the level where patterns, trauma, and emotional activation actually live.
You can read more about how I work on my approach page. When you are ready, get in touch directly to ask a question or enquire about availability. I aim to respond to all enquiries within two business days.
You do not have to fully understand it before you try it. Most people find that the first session answers the question better than any explanation could.
Further Reading
