Brainspotting for Anxiety - Can it Help?

If you live with anxiety, you may have noticed that understanding why you feel anxious doesn't always make the anxiety go away.

You may know that you're safe, yet still feel tension in your chest. You may recognize that you're overthinking, but find it difficult to turn your thoughts off. Or you may be able to talk about what is bothering you while your body continues to feel stuck in a state of stress or alertness.

This is one reason some people are interested in Brainspotting for anxiety. Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that uses focused eye position, body awareness, and the therapist's attunement to help clients process distressing experiences. Research on Brainspotting is still developing, but early studies suggest that it may help reduce distress associated with difficult memories and emotional experiences.

So, can Brainspotting help with anxiety?

The answer is yes. Brainspotting can be one therapeutic approach to consider, particularly for people who experience anxiety alongside unresolved stress, difficult experiences, trauma, or strong physical sensations.

What Is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a form of psychotherapy developed by psychotherapist David Grand. The approach grew out of his work with EMDR and is based on the observation that particular eye positions may be associated with changes in emotional and physiological activation.

During a Brainspotting session, a therapist may use a pointer to help you identify a particular location in your visual field that seems connected to the issue you're working on. You are then invited to maintain your gaze while noticing what happens internally.

The process may involve paying attention to:

• Physical sensations

• Emotions

• Thoughts or images

• Memories

• Changes in tension or activation

• Other experiences that arise during the session

  
  

Unlike traditional talk therapy, Brainspotting often places greater emphasis on what you notice in your body rather than requiring you to explain everything intellectually.

That can be appealing to people who feel like they have already thought about their anxiety extensively but still experience it physically.

How Can Brainspotting Help With Anxiety?

Anxiety can involve much more than anxious thoughts.

You might experience:

• Racing thoughts

• Muscle tension

• A tight chest

• A racing heart

• Restlessness

• Trouble sleeping

• Feeling on edge

• Difficulty concentrating

• Irritability

• A sense that something bad is about to happen

• Avoidance of situations that make you uncomfortable

  
  

Sometimes your mind can recognize that you are safe while your body continues to respond as though there is a threat. This is where a body-focused therapy approach such as Brainspotting may be worth exploring. Rather than asking you to simply challenge an anxious thought, Brainspotting invites you to notice what is happening in your body and stay present with the experience while working with your therapist.

For some people, this can provide a different way of approaching anxiety—particularly when the anxiety feels difficult to explain or seems connected to experiences that have not been fully processed.

Brainspotting and the Mind-Body Connection

Anxiety involves interactions among thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, attention, and behavior. This doesn't mean that anxiety is "all in your head." In fact, anxiety can feel intensely physical.

You might notice your stomach tightening before you consciously realize that you're worried. Your shoulders may tense when you anticipate a difficult conversation. Your heart may begin racing before you've identified what you're afraid of.

Brainspotting works with this awareness of the body as part of the therapeutic process.

The goal isn't necessarily to force yourself to stop feeling anxious. Instead, your therapist can help you slow down, notice what is happening, and explore the underlying emotional and physical experience in a way that feels manageable.

How Is Brainspotting Different From Traditional Talk Therapy?

When we talk about anxiety, we often make it sound like the problem is the anxious thought itself.

I'm going to mess this up.

Something bad is going to happen.

What if they don't like me?

What if I can't handle it?

And if the thought is the problem, then it would seem logical that changing the thought should change the anxiety. This is part of the premise behind many cognitive approaches to therapy. We identify the thought, examine whether it's accurate or helpful, challenge the belief, and learn strategies for responding differently. And for some people, that can be useful.

But there is a problem with assuming that anxiety is primarily a cognitive problem.

Anxiety is often less a diagnosis of what you think and more a description of what your nervous system has learned to expect.

In other words, what we call "anxiety" can be an umbrella term for a much deeper pattern that developed over the course of a person's life.

Maybe you learned early on that other people's emotions weren't predictable.

Maybe you learned that being good, successful, quiet, useful, or accommodating was the safest way to stay connected to the people around you.

Maybe you experienced things that were too much, too early, or too difficult to fully process at the time.

Maybe there was no single traumatic event at all. Instead, there were years of subtle experiences that taught your nervous system to stay alert, anticipate problems, monitor other people, or prepare for what might happen next.

Over time, these patterns can become automatic.

You may grow up knowing intellectually that you are safe while your body continues to behave as though you aren't, and this is where people sometimes become frustrated with traditional cognitive approaches.

You can know that you're okay.

You can know that your partner isn't angry with you.

You can know that making a mistake isn't going to ruin your life.

You can know that the presentation you're giving isn't actually dangerous.

You can even know that the thing you're worrying about is unlikely to happen.

And yet your heart is still racing. Your stomach is still tight. Your shoulders are still braced. You're still scanning the room. You're still replaying the conversation. You're still waiting for something to go wrong.

At some point, telling yourself "I'm safe" doesn't necessarily create a felt sense of safety.

That's because the part of you that is responding may not be operating primarily through conscious thought.

Anxiety Can Be Developmental

This is one of the reasons I think it's helpful to look at anxiety through a developmental lens. The question isn't always, "What are you thinking that is making you anxious?"

Sometimes a more useful question is:

"What happened that taught your system to respond this way?"

If your anxiety developed through repeated experiences, relationships, adaptations, and nervous-system responses over time, it makes sense that simply changing the language in your head may not be enough to change the underlying pattern.

You may already understand your anxiety extremely well.

You may know exactly where it comes from.

You may have read every book, listened to every podcast, learned all the coping skills, and become incredibly good at recognizing your cognitive distortions.

And you may still feel anxious.

That doesn't mean you're doing therapy wrong.

It may mean that understanding something and changing something are two different processes.

This Is Where Brainspotting Can Offer Something Different

Brainspotting doesn't require you to reason your way out of an experience.

Instead, it gives us an opportunity to slow down and become aware of what is happening beneath the story.

What happens in your body when you think about the thing that makes you anxious?

Where do you feel it?

What happens when you stay with that sensation rather than immediately trying to change it, explain it, or make it go away?

What memories, emotions, images, or sensations begin to emerge?

This is not about digging endlessly into the past or forcing yourself to relive painful experiences.

It's about allowing your system to tell us something, because sometimes the part of you that is anxious doesn't need another explanation. It needs an experience of something being different.

Brainspotting works with this idea by using focused visual attention, body awareness, and the therapeutic relationship to help access experiences that may not be readily available through conscious thought alone. For someone whose anxiety is rooted in developmental patterns or experiences that have been held more implicitly than cognitively, that can be a very different way of working.

The goal isn't simply to convince yourself that you are safe. It's to create the possibility that, over time, your system can begin to experience safety differently.

What Does a Brainspotting Session for Anxiety Look Like?

Every therapist may use Brainspotting somewhat differently, but a session generally begins with identifying what you would like to work on.

You might come in with a specific concern, such as:

"I panic every time I have to speak in front of people."

Or:

"I can't stop worrying about something going wrong."

You may also simply know that you're experiencing anxiety without being completely sure where it comes from.

Your therapist may then invite you to notice what happens in your body as you think about the issue.

They may use a pointer to move slowly through your visual field while asking you to notice whether particular positions seem to correspond with changes in your internal experience.

Once you identify a position that feels significant, you may maintain your gaze there while continuing to notice your thoughts, emotions, memories, and physical sensations.

Your therapist's role is not to tell you what you are supposed to experience.

Instead, they help create a supportive environment in which you can notice what is happening and work through it at a pace that feels appropriate.

If an experience becomes overwhelming, you can pause, shift your attention, or stop the process. A Brainspotting session should be collaborative and responsive to your needs.

What Can Brainspotting Be Used For?

Brainspotting is most commonly associated with trauma and distressing experiences, but practitioners may use it with a variety of concerns.

Depending on the therapist and your individual treatment plan, Brainspotting may be explored for:

• Anxiety

• Stress

• Trauma-related symptoms

• Distressing memories

• Emotional overwhelm

• Performance anxiety

• Panic or fear responses

• Grief and loss

• Depression

• Chronic stress

• Feeling emotionally "stuck"

  
  

That doesn't mean Brainspotting is the right treatment for every person or every mental health concern.

A qualified therapist can help determine whether it makes sense as part of your treatment.

Can Brainspotting Help With Anxiety That Doesn't Have an Obvious Cause?

Yes, this is one situation in which some people may be interested in exploring Brainspotting.

Sometimes anxiety has an obvious trigger.

You might feel anxious before a job interview, during a conflict, while traveling, or when speaking in front of a group.

Other times, anxiety can seem to come from nowhere.

You may think:

"Nothing is wrong. Why do I feel so anxious?"

Anxiety doesn't always arrive with a clear explanation. There may be patterns, experiences, or associations that are difficult to identify through conscious thinking alone.

Brainspotting doesn't require you to arrive at therapy already knowing exactly why you feel the way you do.

Instead, the process can begin with noticing what is happening right now.

That said, unexplained anxiety can have many possible causes, and a mental health professional can help determine whether anxiety is related to an anxiety disorder, trauma, stress, another mental health concern, or something that warrants additional medical evaluation.

Is Brainspotting the Same as EMDR?

Brainspotting and EMDR are different therapeutic approaches, although they have historical connections.

EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, has a much larger research base and is an established treatment for PTSD. Brainspotting developed later and uses eye position and focused attention in a different way.

Both approaches may involve working with distressing experiences while paying attention to internal responses, but the structure and techniques used in a session are not identical.

If you're trying to decide between Brainspotting and EMDR, you don't necessarily have to make that decision on your own. A trained therapist can discuss the differences with you and help determine which approach may fit your goals.

How Many Brainspotting Sessions Do You Need?

There isn't one standard number of Brainspotting sessions that everyone needs.

Your experience with therapy will depend on what you're working on, how long you've experienced the problem, your goals, and how you respond to treatment.

Some people may notice changes relatively quickly, while others may benefit from longer-term therapy.

It's also worth remembering that meaningful therapy isn't necessarily about getting rid of every uncomfortable emotion.

The goal may be to develop a greater sense of safety, flexibility, self-understanding, and ability to respond to anxiety rather than feeling controlled by it.

Brainspotting for Anxiety: What Should You Expect?

If you're considering Brainspotting, it may help to approach your first session with curiosity rather than expecting a particular outcome.

You don't have to know exactly what your "brainspot" will be.

You don't have to know why you're anxious.

And you don't have to be able to explain every sensation or emotion that comes up.

Your therapist can help you explore the experience while maintaining a sense of safety and control.

Most importantly, Brainspotting doesn't have to be an either/or decision.

Depending on your needs, it may be used alongside other therapeutic approaches and coping strategies.

You Don't Have to Figure Out Your Anxiety Alone

Anxiety can be exhausting—especially when you've tried to reason your way through it and still feel the anxiety in your body.

Brainspotting offers one possible way to explore the connection between your emotional experiences and physical responses.

If you're curious about whether Brainspotting could be appropriate for you, schedule a call with us today. You don't have to know exactly what's causing your anxiety before you ask for help.