Brainspotting Therapy Australia: A Guide for Women

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.

In this article

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.

Brainspotting Therapy Australia: What It Is and How It Is Used