Brainspotting Feels Weird: What Is It Supposed to Do, What Might You Notice, and How Do You Know It’s Working?

By: Melissa Chana, MA, LPCC

If you have an anxiety disorder, Brainspotting can feel weird.

Your therapist asks you to think about something that makes you anxious.

Then they ask where you feel it in your body.

Then your eyes settle on a particular spot.

And then...you look there.

If you have an anxious, overthinking brain, approximately six seconds later you may be thinking:

What am I supposed to be doing?

Am I looking at the right place?

Should I be thinking about the problem?

Am I supposed to clear my mind?

Why is my chest tighter?

Was that random memory important?

Shouldn't I be crying or something?

Nothing is happening. Am I doing this wrong?

And underneath all those questions is usually one big one:

What the heck is Brainspotting supposed to DO?

So let's talk about that.

No complicated brain diagrams. No requirement that you understand neuroscience. And no pretending that every twitch, yawn, or tear is proof that your brain just healed something.

Here's the basic idea.

What Is Brainspotting Trying to Do?

If you have chronic anxiety, you've probably already discovered something incredibly frustrating:

You can know you're safe and still not feel safe.

You can know the plane is unlikely to crash and still grip the armrest.

You can know your boss saying, "Can we talk?" doesn't mean you're getting fired and still feel your stomach drop.

You can know your partner isn't your ex and still panic when their tone changes.

You can know you're capable of giving a presentation and still wake up at 3 a.m. with your heart racing.

That's because anxiety isn't only something you think.

It's something you experience.

Your heart speeds up.

Your stomach clenches.

Your breathing changes.

Your muscles brace.

Your attention searches for danger.

Your mind starts predicting what could go wrong.

Your entire system can react before you've had time to logically evaluate what is happening.

Brainspotting is intended to work with that deeper, automatic experience instead of relying entirely on talking and reasoning.

The basic idea is that a therapist helps you connect a troubling issue with what you're experiencing in your body, then uses a particular point in your visual field to help you maintain focused attention while you notice what unfolds.

The exact neurological mechanisms behind Brainspotting are still being studied, and we shouldn't pretend science has proven that a particular eye position literally "opens" one specific trauma circuit.

But from the client's perspective, the important idea is much simpler:

Instead of immediately escaping, explaining, analyzing, fixing, or suppressing the anxiety, you're giving your brain and body an opportunity to stay with the experience and see whether it changes.

Think of Anxiety Like an Alarm That Became Too Sensitive

Imagine the smoke detector in your kitchen goes off every time you make toast.

The smoke detector isn't evil.

It isn't stupid.

It's trying to protect you.

The problem is its sensitivity.

That's what chronic anxiety can feel like.

Your threat system learned:

WATCH OUT.

Maybe because something frightening actually happened.

Maybe because stress went on for years.

Maybe because certain experiences repeatedly taught your nervous system to expect danger.

Maybe you don't know exactly why.

But now your alarm can activate in situations where the current level of danger doesn't match the intensity of your reaction.

A text that says:

"Can you call me?"

creates instant dread.

Someone's facial expression changes and you immediately think:

"They're mad at me."

You make a small mistake at work and your body responds like your entire career is about to collapse.

Someone you love doesn't text back and twenty minutes later your brain has written an entire disaster movie.

Logically, you might know you're catastrophizing.

Your body doesn't care.

The alarm is already ringing.

Brainspotting is intended to help you spend time with that activated experience while you're actually safe, rather than automatically running from it, suppressing it, or thinking your way around it.

Over time, the hope is that the trigger stops producing the same overwhelming response.

And THAT is ultimately how we care about whether it's working.

Not whether you cried during therapy.

Not whether your leg twitched.

Not whether you uncovered a dramatic memory.

Does your life start changing?

We'll come back to that.

What Actually Happens During Brainspotting?

Let's use a real-life example.

Say you have severe work anxiety.

Sunday afternoon arrives and your stomach starts hurting.

Nothing has happened.

Nobody has emailed you.

Your boss hasn't called.

You're sitting on your couch watching Netflix.

But your body already knows Monday is coming.

You start thinking:

What if I screwed something up Friday?

What if my boss asks about that project?

I should check my email.

No. Don't check it.

Maybe I should just check quickly.

Now your heart is beating faster.

Your therapist may have you bring up that Sunday-night feeling.

Then they might ask:

"Where do you notice it in your body?"

Maybe you say:

"Right here."

And point to your stomach.

Your therapist may ask how intense it feels from 0 to 10.

You say:

8.

Then you find an eye position associated with that activated feeling. Depending on how your therapist practices Brainspotting, they may guide your gaze with a pointer or invite your eyes to naturally settle somewhere.

Maybe your eyes land slightly to the right.

Then you stay with it.

This is where Brainspotting can get strange.

Because now your job isn't necessarily to explain why you have work anxiety.

Your job is mostly:

Notice what happens next.

What Are You Supposed to Notice?

Potentially, a lot.

Potentially, very little.

Your experience might move through your body.

Your thoughts might change.

Emotions might appear.

Memories might pop up.

Or things may become quiet.

The key word is notice, not perform.

Here's what that can look like.

You Might Notice the Anxiety Get Stronger Before It Gets Quieter

You start with:

"My stomach feels tight."

After looking at the spot for a while:

"Whoa. It's tighter now."

Your anxious brain immediately thinks:

THIS IS MAKING ME WORSE.

Not necessarily.

You're deliberately paying attention to something you normally try to avoid.

Of course you might notice it more.

Your therapist may invite you to stay curious about it, assuming you're still within a tolerable level of activation.

A few minutes later:

"It's not as sharp anymore."

Then:

"That's weird. Now I feel it in my chest."

Then:

"My chest feels warm."

Then:

"I just took this giant breath without trying."

Something changed.

That's what we're interested in.

You Might Notice Your Body Doing Things You Didn't Intentionally Do

People sometimes experience spontaneous physical changes while processing.

You might:

• sigh

• swallow

• yawn

• tear up

• change your breathing

• feel warmth or chills

• notice trembling

• feel muscles soften

• want to stretch

• notice your jaw unclench

• feel heaviness or lightness

• notice sensations moving or changing

For example:

You begin with your shoulders practically touching your ears.

Fifteen minutes later, you suddenly realize:

"Whoa. My shoulders dropped."

You didn't consciously tell yourself to relax.

It happened.

That's interesting.

But here's an important distinction:

Physical reactions are things we can notice. They aren't a required test proving Brainspotting worked.

No twitch?

Fine.

No tears?

Fine.

No giant sigh?

Fine.

Your nervous system doesn't need to put on a show.

You Might Suddenly Remember Something

This is another experience that can catch people off guard.

You're working on anxiety about your boss.

Suddenly, you picture your fourth-grade teacher.

That's weird.

Then you remember standing beside her desk while she corrected you in front of the class.

You haven't thought about that moment in twenty years.

Your brain immediately wants to do what anxious brains do best:

FIGURE OUT WHAT THIS MEANS.

Maybe the memory is connected.

Maybe it isn't.

You don't necessarily have to solve it right then.

You can simply notice:

"I just remembered Mrs. Taylor embarrassing me in front of everyone."

Then notice what happens in your body.

Maybe your stomach tightens.

Maybe you feel angry.

Maybe another memory appears.

Maybe you suddenly realize:

"I hate feeling like I'm in trouble."

Now something about your current work anxiety starts making more sense.

Your boss isn't your fourth-grade teacher.

But your body may respond to criticism, authority, embarrassment, or the possibility of making a mistake with an old familiar alarm.

That doesn't mean every anxiety problem secretly comes from childhood.

It means our brains learn from experience.

Sometimes Brainspotting brings some of those associations into awareness.

Sometimes You Cry and Have No Idea Why

You're staring at your spot.

Nothing dramatic is happening.

Then your eyes start watering.

Suddenly you're crying.

And because you have anxiety, you immediately say:

"I'm sorry."

You don't need to apologize.

Your therapist asks what you're noticing.

You say:

"I don't know. I'm just sad."

That's enough.

You don't need to manufacture an explanation.

Maybe the meaning becomes clearer.

Maybe it doesn't.

Part of this work can involve allowing an experience to exist before your thinking brain immediately categorizes, explains, judges, or fixes it.

Sometimes Your Mind Goes Everywhere

You might think Brainspotting means your mind is supposed to become perfectly silent.

It doesn't.

Your experience could look more like:

My chest hurts.

I hate this feeling.

This reminds me of college.

Why am I thinking about college?

I remember sitting outside that classroom.

God, I was terrified.

My chest feels different.

I'm hungry.

Why am I thinking about tacos during therapy?

My hands aren't clenched anymore.

Brains are weird.

You don't have to police every thought.

Notice it.

See what comes next.

Sometimes You Feel Nothing

This one matters enormously for people with anxiety disorders.

Your therapist asks:

"What are you noticing?"

And your answer is:

"Nothing."

Then your anxiety immediately turns that into:

I'm doing it wrong.

Other clients probably know how to do this.

My therapist thinks I'm difficult.

This isn't working on me.

Something must be wrong with me.

Stop there.

Because THAT is something you're noticing.

Maybe you're trying so hard to produce the "correct" response that you've disconnected from your actual experience.

Maybe you're overwhelmed.

Maybe you feel numb.

Maybe you genuinely don't notice much right now.

Maybe you're sitting there staring at the pointer because you think that's what the therapist expects.

All of that is useful information.

Tell your therapist.

You can literally say:

"I'm so focused on whether I'm doing this correctly that I can't tell what I'm feeling."

That's something your therapist can work with.

When Anxiety Turns Brainspotting Into a Performance

Here's a scenario I see as especially important for highly anxious people.

Your therapist holds the pointer.

You find the spot.

Now you're staring at it.

Five minutes pass.

Your brain starts:

Am I supposed to keep looking there?

My eyes moved.

Was I allowed to move them?

Should I say something?

Why isn't my therapist talking?

Maybe they're waiting for me.

Am I supposed to have a memory?

Oh God. I'm failing Brainspotting.

Now you're no longer attending primarily to your original anxiety.

You're trying to please your therapist.

That isn't a personal failure.

It's something worth noticing and discussing.

People with chronic anxiety can be extremely good at monitoring other people.

Are they upset?

Am I taking too long?

Did I say the wrong thing?

What do they expect from me?

That pattern doesn't magically disappear because you entered a therapy office.

Your therapist may need to adjust the process.

Brainspotting Doesn't Have to Be a Silent Staring Contest

You are allowed to communicate.

If you're lost, say so.

If you're overwhelmed, say so.

If you're numb, say so.

If you're thinking about whether you're doing it correctly, say that.

Your therapist might periodically ask:

"What's happening now?"

Or:

"Where do you feel it now?"

Or:

"What changed?"

Maybe you answer:

"It moved from my stomach to my throat."

Or:

"I'm suddenly really angry."

Or:

"I keep thinking about my dad."

Or:

"Honestly? I have no idea."

That's okay.

The goal isn't to give your therapist the right answer.

The goal is to help you stay connected to what's actually happening.

You May Not Even Need the Pointer

For some anxious clients, the pointer itself can feel incredibly clinical.

Your brain sees it and thinks:

TEST.

Now you're concentrating on following directions instead of noticing yourself.

A therapist trained in Brainspotting may use different ways of finding or working with a spot.

For example:

"Think about the anxiety for a moment. Now let your eyes wander naturally around the room. Don't try to find the correct place. Just notice where they want to stop."

Your eyes settle on the corner of the bookshelf.

Great.

Why the bookshelf?

Who knows.

The bookshelf doesn't need to be spiritually significant.

What matters is what you notice while your gaze rests there.

You Are Allowed to Move

You aren't being scanned by an MRI.

You don't have to become a statue.

Maybe you want to roll your shoulders.

Maybe your fingers want to move.

Maybe you need a deeper breath.

Maybe your feet want to push against the floor.

Maybe you've been holding your arms tightly against your body and suddenly want to open them.

Small movements can sometimes help you remain connected to your body rather than disappearing into your thoughts.

Your therapist should be paying attention to whether you're present and engaged, not whether you're winning a staring contest.

So What Is All This Supposed to Accomplish?

This is the important part.

We're not noticing sensations just because sensations are interesting.

We're looking for change in the way your system responds to something that used to overwhelm it.

Let's go back to work anxiety.

At the beginning:

Boss: "Can you come into my office?"

Your body:

DANGER.

Heart pounding.

Stomach drops.

Hands sweat.

Your mind instantly produces:

I'm getting fired.

What did I do?

I knew I screwed something up.

After successful therapy, the goal isn't necessarily that you feel absolutely nothing.

Maybe your boss says:

"Can you come into my office?"

You still notice a little jolt.

But then:

"Okay. I don't know what this is about yet."

You walk into the office.

Your heart isn't trying to escape your chest.

You're able to hear what your boss actually says instead of mentally preparing for your unemployment.

That's change.

The Goal Isn't "I Never Feel Anxiety Again"

This is an important expectation to get straight.

A healthy nervous system is supposed to experience anxiety.

If a truck is coming toward you, I want your nervous system to react.

If you have a major exam tomorrow and haven't studied, a little anxiety might encourage you to open the textbook.

The goal isn't to become a human golden retriever floating peacefully through every situation.

The problem is when your alarm goes off too intensely, too frequently, or in situations that aren't actually dangerous.

So improvement might mean:

The trigger still exists.

The reaction doesn't own you anymore.

How Do You Know Brainspotting Is Working?

Don't only judge it by what happens while you're looking at the spot.

Watch what happens Tuesday morning.

That's where therapy has to eventually matter.

Maybe before therapy:

Your boss sends:

"Do you have five minutes?"

Your anxiety shoots to a 9.

You reread the message twelve times.

You ask a coworker what they think it means.

You Google something ridiculous.

You can't concentrate.

You walk into the meeting nauseated.

After some successful treatment:

Your boss sends:

"Do you have five minutes?"

Your stomach jumps.

Your anxiety hits a 4.

Then you think:

"I don't know what this is about yet."

And you go talk to them.

THAT matters.

Look for These Kinds of Changes

1. The same trigger produces less anxiety.

Before:

9/10.

Later:

6/10.

Eventually:

3/10.

Not every change happens in a perfectly straight line, but the intensity may begin decreasing.

2. Anxiety doesn't last as long.

This is huge.

Maybe an argument with your partner used to ruin your entire weekend.

Now you're upset for an hour.

You recover.

That's progress.

3. Your body recovers faster.

Your heart still speeds up.

But it settles.

Your stomach tightens.

Then releases.

Your shoulders tense.

Then drop.

Instead of remaining activated for hours, your body finds its way back toward baseline.

4. You don't spiral as far.

Before:

My friend hasn't texted me back.

becomes:

She's mad.

then:

I did something wrong.

then:

Everybody eventually leaves me.

Now:

She hasn't texted me back.

Your anxiety rises.

Then:

"She's probably busy. I'll wait."

That may not look dramatic.

It's actually a big deal.

5. You stop avoiding as much.

This may be one of the clearest signs.

You make the phone call.

You drive on the highway.

You go to the party.

You speak during the meeting.

You schedule the doctor's appointment.

You go to the grocery store without planning your escape route.

You apply for the job.

You set the boundary.

Your life gets bigger because anxiety gets less control over your decisions.

6. You need less reassurance.

Before:

"Are you mad at me?"

"Are you sure?"

"Did I do something?"

"Are we okay?"

After:

You notice the urge to ask.

You tolerate the uncertainty.

You wait.

You discover that you don't need another person to constantly convince your nervous system that everything is okay.

7. You can think about the event without your body acting like it's happening again.

Maybe you can remember the breakup without feeling like you can't breathe.

You can talk about the accident without your hands shaking as intensely.

You can remember being humiliated without immediately feeling like you're 14 again.

The memory still exists.

Its grip has changed.

That's an important distinction.

Healing doesn't necessarily erase your history.

It changes your relationship with it.

What Might Healing Feel Like Inside a Brainspotting Session?

Sometimes it does feel dramatic.

You start with:

"There's a bowling ball sitting on my chest."

Twenty minutes later:

"It's gone."

Sometimes you cry hard.

Sometimes you tremble.

Sometimes you suddenly take a giant breath.

Sometimes an old memory comes up and something clicks.

But healing can also sound like:

"It's still there, but farther away."

"I can think about it without getting that horrible feeling."

"I don't feel like I need to run anymore."

"I'm sad, but I'm okay."

"My chest feels open."

"I don't know what happened. I just feel calmer."

Or my favorite kind of progress:

"Huh. That's weird. It doesn't bother me as much anymore."

Not every successful session ends with fireworks.

Sometimes your nervous system simply stops treating something like a five-alarm fire.

What About the Big "Release"?

You'll sometimes hear Brainspotting, trauma therapy, and other body-oriented approaches described using language like "releasing stored trauma," "discharging survival energy," or "completing the trauma response."

Those descriptions can be useful metaphors for what people subjectively experience.

Someone may genuinely feel as though something released.

They may tremble, cry, breathe deeply, feel warmth, or experience a sudden drop in tension.

But we should be careful about turning those experiences into a rigid neurological formula.

We don't have enough evidence to say:

You shook, therefore trauma left your body.

Or:

You didn't shake, therefore nothing happened.

The same goes for claims that an eye position literally opens one exact trauma circuit, shuts down the thinking brain, or exhausts a circuit until it runs out of neurochemical fuel.

Those are much stronger claims than current Brainspotting research can support.

Your brain is considerably more complicated than that.

And for an anxious client, I actually think that's good news.

Because it means:

You don't need to produce a dramatic "release" to prove you're healing.

What If I Leave the Session Exhausted?

That can happen.

You might feel relaxed.

You might feel tired.

You might feel emotional.

You might feel peaceful.

You might want a nap.

Or you might walk outside and think:

"Well, that was strange."

Don't judge the entire treatment based on the 30 seconds after one session.

Pay attention to patterns.

How do you react when the trigger happens again?

How quickly do you recover?

What are you doing now that anxiety used to prevent you from doing?

Those questions tell us much more.

And What If Nothing Changes?

Then that matters too.

Brainspotting isn't something you have to believe in harder.

If you've been doing it and your symptoms aren't changing, tell your therapist.

If you spend every session frozen and staring blankly at a spot, tell your therapist.

If the process makes you so worried about "doing it right" that you can't connect with yourself, tell your therapist.

If your anxiety is getting significantly worse outside sessions, tell your therapist.

Therapy should be responsive.

Your therapist may change how they use Brainspotting, incorporate more conversation or grounding, use a different way of locating the spot, slow things down, or consider whether another treatment approach better fits what you're experiencing.

You don't fail Brainspotting.

The treatment needs to be useful to you.

The Simplest Way to Think About Brainspotting

You don't need to understand every proposed neurological mechanism.

Think about it this way:

Trigger → Notice → Stay Curious → Process → Notice What Changes

You bring up something that activates your anxiety.

You notice where and how you experience it.

Your therapist helps you find a visual point of focus.

You stay curious about the thoughts, emotions, memories, and body sensations that emerge.

Your therapist helps you stay connected rather than forcing an outcome.

And over time, you're looking to see whether that old trigger still has the same power over you.

That's the part that matters.

One Last Thing for the Person Who Is Terrified They're Doing Brainspotting Wrong

You probably aren't.

If you're staring at the spot thinking:

I don't know what I'm supposed to feel.

Notice that.

If your stomach tightens:

Notice that.

If you remember something from third grade:

Notice that.

If you're irritated:

Notice that.

If you want to cry:

Notice that.

If your shoulders suddenly relax:

Notice that.

If your brain starts thinking about tacos:

Yep.

Notice that too.

And if you're thinking:

"I'm terrified my therapist thinks I'm doing this wrong."

Please say that out loud.

Because Brainspotting isn't supposed to be another test for an anxious person to pass.

The goal isn't to become really good at staring at a spot.

The goal is for the things that have been running your nervous system to start having less power over your life.

You may know Brainspotting is helping when the email doesn't ruin your afternoon.

When the disagreement doesn't convince you your relationship is over.

When your heart races, but settles again.

When you stop replaying the conversation for three days.

When you drive somewhere you used to avoid.

When you say what you actually think.

When you can remember what happened without feeling completely hijacked by it.

When your brain says:

"What if?"

And instead of spending the next four hours trying to answer it, you can say:

"Maybe. Maybe not."

And continue with your day.

That's the kind of change we're looking for.

Not perfect calm.

Not a dramatic therapy performance.

Not never experiencing anxiety again.

More freedom.

More flexibility.

And a nervous system that doesn't have to sound the alarm quite so loudly every time life feels uncertain.

But Is There Research Behind Brainspotting?

This is where it's important to separate what Brainspotting practitioners propose is happening from what researchers have actually demonstrated.

Brainspotting was developed by David Grand in the early 2000s and combines focused visual attention, awareness of body sensations, and the therapist's attunement to the client's experience (Grand, 2013). The approach proposes that where you look may influence how you experience and process emotionally activating material.

There is some early research examining Brainspotting, including studies involving people experiencing trauma-related distress. For example, Hildebrand et al. (2017) compared Brainspotting and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) with a body-scan meditation condition among adults with traumatic experiences. Both therapeutic approaches were associated with reductions in trauma-related symptoms.

However, Brainspotting does not currently have the same depth of research supporting it as more extensively studied treatments for anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

That distinction matters.

We also don't currently have sufficient evidence to say that holding a particular eye position literally "opens" a specific trauma circuit, turns off the prefrontal cortex, drains a neural circuit of neurochemicals, or causes stored trauma to physically leave the body.

Those ideas may be used as ways of conceptualizing what happens during treatment, but they shouldn't be presented to clients as established neurological facts.

What is well established is that anxiety involves more than conscious thoughts. Anxiety can involve physiological arousal, attention, threat detection, avoidance, learning, memory, and behavioral responses (Craske et al., 2017; LeDoux & Pine, 2016).

Research on anxiety treatment also tells us something very important: repeatedly avoiding feared experiences can help maintain anxiety, while learning that uncomfortable thoughts, sensations, memories, and situations can be experienced without the expected catastrophe can contribute to recovery (Craske et al., 2014).

That gives us a much more useful way of evaluating Brainspotting.

Instead of asking:

"Did my body release the trauma?"

Ask:

"Is my relationship with this trigger changing?"

Can you think about it without becoming as overwhelmed?

Does your body recover more quickly?

Are you avoiding fewer things?

Can you tolerate uncertainty a little better?

Do you need less reassurance?

Can you experience anxiety without immediately organizing your entire life around making it disappear?

Those are meaningful changes.

And ultimately, whatever therapy approach you're using, improvement in your actual life matters more than producing a particular reaction in the therapy room.

References

American Psychological Association. (2017). Clinical practice guideline for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults. American Psychological Association.

Craske, M. G., Hermans, D., & Vervliet, B. (2018). State-of-the-art and future directions for extinction as a translational model for fear and anxiety. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1742), 20170025.

Craske, M. G., Stein, M. B., Eley, T. C., Milad, M. R., Holmes, A., Rapee, R. M., & Wittchen, H.-U. (2017). Anxiety disorders. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 3, Article 17024.

Craske, M. G., Treanor, M., Conway, C. C., Zbozinek, T., & Vervliet, B. (2014). Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 58, 10–23.

Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: The revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change. Sounds True.

Hildebrand, A., Grand, D., & Stemmler, M. (2017). Brainspotting: The efficacy of a new therapy approach for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in comparison to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 5(1).

LeDoux, J. E., & Pine, D. S. (2016). Using neuroscience to help understand fear and anxiety: A two-system framework. American Journal of Psychiatry, 173(11), 1083–1093.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2018). Post-traumatic stress disorder (NICE Guideline NG116).NICE.