Jousline Savea, LMFT

Psychotherapist

626-433-3051

hello@jouslinesavra.com

What is Brainspotting Psychotherapy?

Brainspotting is a new revolutionary and highly effective psychotherapy. It is a brain-based psychotherapy approach that uses the field of vision to find where a person is holding trauma and any negative experience in their brain. What we say Brainspotting simply is this: where you look affects how you feel. Brainspotting was discovered and developed by Dr. David Grand whose practice is in New York City. You may view a video of an interview of him describing Brainspotting and how he discovered it. He gives a detailed description of Brainspotting in a video posted that I have posted on my website. 

As a psychotherapist, I’m certified in Brainspotting in addition to being a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist. My counseling practice is in Burbank, CA, in the Los Angeles area, where I use this therapeutic model with many creative people in the entertainment industry, as well as many other professionals, who experience permanent and lasting shifts and changes from the technique.

As I mentioned, Brainspotting therapy is a new revolutionary and effective psychotherapy that uses the field of vision – your eyes. With the help of the therapist who is a certified brainspotter, you, as the client a focus on a pointer that the therapist holds in specific areas within your field of vision. This helps you find the certain eye positions where you are holding anxiety, traumas, depression, or any relational problems. This technique lets your brain process from the inside out and from the bottom up, in a way that you could not do just through talking or talk therapy.

When you have problems, sometimes a therapist can’t simply guide you through the outside by simply doing talk therapy, but instead can utilize Brainspotting to help you through a uniquely therapeutic and healing experience. Your brain is genius and it is amazing. It knows how to do the work on its own, and it knows how to shift on its own. Your brain discovers that connection between the eye position and the event or emotion in fact be processed, reconciled, and healed in a way that it has not before.

Watching the video on my site is highly recommended as it will give you more in-depth information by Dr. Grand, and he expands on this effective psychotherapy. This technique works right away and this work provides a rapid change (sometimes in as few as two sessions of Brainspotting). For the most part, but not always, the basic model is two sessions: the first session is your first experience, and the second one is where you follow up and see what has happened in between the two sessions. Hopefully, your brain has finished processing and healing from specific topics covered in two sessions, and you can continue with your growth in new undiscovered areas.

Now, most people do find great and lasting results, and for some, it may take longer or a few more sessions. However, it does show that our goal is rapid change and deep change, and permanent change. When I meet with you as a Brainspotting therapist, I want to get a sense of who you are and where you are coming from and what you need, or what you want. That way, I can help understand you and your goals as we begin to implement the Brainspotting technique into our work. The technique is an amazing process. The only way to find out is to experience Brainspotting for yourself and discover the changes for yourself.

We use Brainspotting with everybody and every issue that they may be struggling with. This is different from EMDR. For those of you who may know what EMDR is, it moves and goes fast with eye movement. However, with Brainspotting, it is a slow movement. Brainspotting is about a single precise spot in your field of vision, that is then focused on because a certain trauma or emotion, or event arises. That spot is continued to be concentrated on, as the issue related to the eye position gets resolved. As the issue resolves, you will notice a significant shift that usually is permanent, unless possibly a few more sessions are needed. It provides significant relief and lasting change.

The Brainspotting sessions can be as long as two hours or in certain cases more than three hours. It varies due to its depth and how the brain works on a deep level. The process will feel very unique and strange to bring up everything that is associated with that trauma or that issue. It digs right into the issue as the therapist guides you to find the spot through your eyes, as you will feel a strong session inside of you by the pointer used, to locate the spot in the brain that holds on to either the trauma(s) or whatever painful or negative experiences that continues to keep you stuck or in pain. This process brings up everything up that is associated with any trauma or any unresolved issue in your life – current or past. 

Brainspotting is also highly effective in performance issues working with creative people such as actors, writers, producers/directors, athletes, including CEOs. Brainspotting significantly improves topics ranging from an actor’s performance to writer’s block and more.

Brainspotting is much deeper than traditional talk therapy. Brainspotting works the right way. I get two types of clients who come and see me. One is those who are coming for the first time to see me, and the others who have been in therapy with several therapists in the past and are looking for a new therapist with a new therapy. 

The best way to find Brainspotting therapy is to give you an experience of it in the first session. You want to find a therapist who is certified in Brainspotting or who has completed at least two phases of Brainspotting training. 

If you are someone in the Los Angeles area, and you wish to experience this on any issue such as trauma, relational, or performance issues, please feel free to call me for a visit.

Jousline Savra, LMFT, Brainspotter 

www.JouslineSavra.com