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1039 Golf Course Road, Old Fort, NC 28762 | 5 Sunset Terrace, Asheville, NC 28804
115 Black Mountain Avenue, Black Mountain, NC 28711 | 704.312.2347
Brainspotting
in Asheville, Black Mountain & Old Fort, NC
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a powerful form of therapy that honors both the mind and body. It can help you access and process emotions and memories that are stored within your nervous system.
Rather than focusing on thoughts and symptoms, this approach allows you to safely engage with physical and emotional experiences that can be difficult or painful to put into words. These sessions go beyond surface-level awareness, empowering you to release patterns that persist even when you know where they come from.
Many people seek out brainspotting after trying other types of therapy or healing practices. They may have gained insight into their stress, anxiety, perfectionism, or relationship struggles. But they still find it difficult to embrace genuine connections or feel stuck between constant overwhelm and emotional numbness.
Brainspotting works by using specific eye positions to access areas of the brain where these unresolved experiences are held. As you focus on a particular point in your visual field, you and your therapist track the physical feelings and sensations that arise internally.
Words aren’t always necessary to explore this process. Over time, brainspotting can enable you to let go of tension, feel more regulated, and truly attune to yourself and others.
The History Of Brainspotting
Brainspotting was developed by David Grand through his work with trauma survivors and his desire to aid people in finding more effective ways to heal at a deeper level. Drawing from existing approaches like Somatic Experiencing and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Grand began exploring how the brain and body process unresolved trauma beyond traditional talk therapy.
Although brainspotting emerges from EMDR, Grand took his approach in a more open-ended direction after working with 9/11 survivors. He noticed that a client’s fixed eye position corresponded to a healing emotional release. This observation led to the understanding that where you look can influence your emotional state, and that specific eye positions can unlock areas of the brain where trauma is stored.
Since then, brainspotting has evolved into a widely used, research-informed approach. Brainspotting sessions can flow naturally, without a fixed protocol or talking through trauma.
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How Does Brainspotting Work?
A strong therapeutic relationship is the essential foundation for brainspotting. In early sessions, we might use more traditional forms of therapy to build trust and safety. As we begin exploring your current challenges, we can incorporate brainspotting organically when you notice certain stress responses or emotions in your body. We start the process by identifying a particular eye position—sometimes by using a pointer—that connects with these internal experiences and opens a pathway for profound processing.
During a brainspotting session, we slow things down and pay close attention to what comes up. This could include emotions, physical feelings, memories, or shifts in your awareness.
You’re not required to control or analyze the experience. We trust that your brain and body know what they need in order to heal.
There is no “right” way to process. Some people like to share their reflections out loud, while others find that they don’t have to put these experiences into words.
The timeline for results through brainspotting can vary from person to person. Brainspotting can lead to meaningful relief after just one session, but gradual changes can also take more time. Often, it’s a combination of both, with moments of releasing major tension alongside more incremental progress.
As your body processes, you might notice reflexive responses, like needing to shift positions, close your eyes, or even lie down. This is perfectly normal. Sessions are paced to feel comfortable for you, and we incorporate grounding or regulation techniques so that you leave feeling more settled and supported each time.
Who Can Benefit From Brainspotting?
Brainspotting can be especially powerful for people who understand their challenges intellectually but still feel stuck emotionally or struggle to foster close relationships. Many clients come to therapy knowing exactly what their obstacles are, yet despite years of counseling or personal development work, they can’t seem to shake these painful patterns.
This modality is often transformative for individuals who want to address attachment wounds, childhood or developmental trauma, relational loss, chronic stress, panic, hypervigilance, perfectionism, dissociation, grief, or low self-worth. Many women seek brainspotting when they notice old survival patterns playing out in their marriages, friendships, or approach to parenting.
Because brainspotting treatment works directly with the nervous system rather than relying solely on words or cognition, it allows you to process experiences that feel difficult to “think” your way through. Instead of just managing symptoms, this work loosens the grip that shame and protective reactions have on your mind and body.
In time, many people find a deeper sense of emotional regulation and ease in their daily lives, as well as more fulfilling relationships with others. Relationships with friends and family feel safer and more authentic, and people can become more attuned to their true selves. Brainspotting paves the way for genuine self-trust, healthier boundaries, and strong, enduring confidence.
Our Background In Brainspotting
Our practice brings more than a decade of experience using brainspotting to support individuals overcoming complex trauma, childhood wounds, attachment injuries, and nervous system dysregulation. Over the years, we have pursued extensive training in both foundational and advanced brainspotting techniques, with an emphasis on approaches designed specifically for development and complex trauma.
We continue to expand our knowledge through ongoing consultation, mentorship, and advanced trainings, ensuring our work remains trauma-responsive and informed by evolving research on the brain and nervous system. In addition, Emily assists with brainspotting training for therapists who are beginning their certification process or expanding their skills.
Why We Offer Brainspotting
As we get to know each other, because we fully understand the importance of client/therapist relationship, we’ll dig into familiar patterns from your past that might be connected to or influenced by these challenges in the present, exploring areas like romantic relationships, family dynamics, and friendships. Gradually, we’ll map out your internal experiences and how anxiety, emotional reactivity, perfectionism, numbness, overwhelm, and more show up in your body.
Our goal is to shed light on what’s underneath and bring it to the surface. In other words, we make the implicit explicit. We’ll look beyond what is happening to explore why, uncovering the link between current struggles and early attachment wounds, learned behaviors, and protective strategies from your childhood and adolescence.
As this awareness deepens, we can start healing the splinter from the inside. Then, we can focus on what it might look like to try something different and engage with the world in new ways, whether that means making space for rest, asking for help, reconnecting with your creativity, or pursuing something totally out of your own box.
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5 Sunset Terrace, Asheville, NC 28804
1039 Golf Course Rd, Old Fort, NC 28762