What is brainspotting and how does it work?
Understanding somatic trauma processing
Part of Therapy cluster.
Deeper dive: Related topic
Brainspotting uses specific eye positions to access subcortical brain areas where trauma is stored. Where you look affects how you feel. The therapist finds the eye position correlating with most activation and helps you process from there.
Brainspotting is based on the principle that where you look affects how you feel. The therapist helps you find an eye position—what is called a brainspot—that correlates with the most emotional or physical activation related to your issue. You maintain that gaze while processing. This bypasses the thinking brain and accesses trauma held in the midbrain and body.
Trauma is often stored subcortically—in the midbrain and brainstem rather than the cortex—particularly when the thinking brain was offline during the trauma. Traditional talk therapy may not reach these areas because they are not language-based. Eye positions correlate with specific neural networks and emotional states.
What Can Help
- For trauma that talk therapy hasn't reached
- Somatic processing
- Finding where body holds trauma
- Requires trained practitioner
If traditional talk therapy has not reached your symptoms, if you have somatic experiences you cannot explain, or if traditional trauma therapy felt too activating, brainspotting with a certified practitioner may help.
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Research References
This content draws from peer-reviewed research and established clinical frameworks.
Primary Research
- Ressler, K.J. et al. (2022). Post-traumatic stress disorder: clinical and translational neuroscience from cells to circuits. Nat Rev Neurol, 18(5), 273-288. [Link]
- Ehlers, A. & Clark, D.M. (2000). A cognitive model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Behav Res Ther, 38(4), 319-345. [Link]
- Felitti, V.J. et al. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The ACE Study. Am J Prev Med, 14(4), 245-258. [Link]
- Bremner, J.D. (2006). Traumatic stress: effects on the brain. Dialogues Clin Neurosci, 8(4), 445-461. [Link]
Foundational Authorities
Robert Greene
Author, Founder, Navy Veteran & Trauma Survivor
Robert Greene is the founder of Unfiltered Wisdom and a veteran of the U.S. Navy—a background that gave him both discipline and skepticism toward standard narratives. After leaving service, he spent years studying human behavior through psychology, neuroscience, history, and strategic thinking. His work is rooted in lived experience and cross-disciplinary research. Robert approaches mental health with curiosity and precision, drawing from his own journey through trauma recovery. He doesn't offer quick fixes or motivational platitudes—instead, he provides frameworks for understanding how humans actually work.