What to Expect in a Brainspotting Session: The Neuroscience of Trauma, Healing, and Chronic Pain
By Melissa Chana, MA, LPCC
If you’re considering Brainspotting therapy, you might be wondering what actually happens during a session. Many clients ask questions like:
Will I have to talk about my trauma in detail?
What does it feel like during a session?
How can eye position help heal emotional pain or even chronic physical pain?
Brainspotting can sound unusual at first, yet it is rooted in well-established neuroscience about how the brain processes trauma, stress, and pain. It works by accessing deeper parts of the brain—particularly the subcortical brain—where emotional experiences, survival responses, and even certain pain patterns are stored.
In this article, I’ll explain:
The science behind Brainspotting
How trauma and chronic pain are stored in the subcortical brain
What to expect during a Brainspotting session
What the experience may feel like
The kinds of issues Brainspotting can help treat
Understanding both the science and the experience can help you feel more informed and comfortable if you decide to try Brainspotting.
The Brain Science Behind Brainspotting
To understand why Brainspotting can be effective, it helps to know how the brain processes overwhelming experiences.
When something stressful or traumatic occurs, the brain shifts into survival mode. In these moments, the brain prioritizes immediate safety rather than thoughtful reflection.
Instead of being fully processed by the thinking brain, the experience is often stored in deeper emotional and sensory systems. These deeper systems are part of what neuroscientists call the subcortical brain.
The Subcortical Brain and Trauma
The subcortical brain refers to structures located beneath the cerebral cortex that regulate survival responses, emotions, and implicit memory.
Several important structures are involved in trauma and emotional processing.
The Amygdala: The Brain’s Alarm System
The amygdala acts as the brain’s threat detection system. It constantly scans the environment for danger.
When a threat is perceived, the amygdala activates the fight, flight, or freeze response.
During traumatic experiences:
The amygdala becomes highly active
The thinking brain becomes less active
Because of this shift, traumatic experiences are often stored as emotions, body sensations, and sensory fragments rather than clear stories.
This is why many people say:
“I know I’m safe, but my body still reacts.”
“I can’t explain why certain situations trigger me.”
The amygdala may continue reacting to reminders of the trauma long after the event is over.
The Hippocampus: Memory and Context
The hippocampus helps organize memories and place them in time.
Trauma can disrupt this process, which is why traumatic memories can feel as if they are happening in the present rather than in the past.
Research has shown that chronic trauma may even reduce hippocampal volume, making memory integration more difficult.
The Brainstem: Survival and Automatic Responses
The brainstem controls essential survival functions such as:
Heart rate
Breathing
Startle reflex
Freeze responses
When trauma becomes encoded in brainstem circuits, the body may automatically react to perceived threats—even when the person consciously knows they are safe.
The Insula: Awareness of Internal Body States
The insula plays a key role in interoception, which means awareness of internal body sensations.
Trauma and emotional stress are often experienced through physical sensations such as:
Tightness in the chest
Nausea
Muscle tension
Pressure in the head
Because trauma is often stored in the body, therapies like Brainspotting that focus on body awareness can be particularly helpful.
Why Trauma Gets “Stuck” in the Brain
When trauma is overwhelming, the brain may not fully process the experience.
Instead, the memory becomes locked in maladaptive neural networks within the subcortical brain. These networks can continue triggering emotional and physiological responses long after the event has passed.
Traditional talk therapy primarily engages the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for reasoning and language. While insight is valuable, it does not always reach the deeper brain systems where trauma responses originate.
Brainspotting works differently by accessing those deeper networks directly.
The Eye–Brain Connection
Brainspotting is based on a powerful principle:
Where you look affects how you feel.
Eye position is neurologically connected to emotional processing networks in the brain.
A structure called the superior colliculus, located in the midbrain, coordinates eye movements and orienting responses. The superior colliculus is closely connected to:
The amygdala
The brainstem
emotional processing systems
Because of these connections, certain eye positions can activate specific neural networks associated with emotional experiences.
Dr. David Grand discovered that when clients held their gaze in certain positions, previously inaccessible emotional material often surfaced and began processing.
These eye positions are called brainspots.
How Brainspotting Engages the Midbrain
Brainspotting appears to activate the midbrain, which acts as a bridge between:
The brainstem (survival responses)
The limbic system (emotion and memory)
The cortex (thinking and reasoning)
When the midbrain is activated, emotional material stored in deeper brain systems can begin moving into conscious processing pathways.
Corrigan and Grand (2013) proposed that Brainspotting recruits the midbrain to access sensorimotor memories of trauma and integrate them.
Memory Reconsolidation: Updating Emotional Memories
Another important mechanism behind Brainspotting is memory reconsolidation.
When a memory network is activated, it temporarily becomes flexible and open to change.
During Brainspotting:
Emotional memory networks are activated
The brain experiences the memory in a safe environment
New information—such as safety or regulation—is integrated
The memory is then stored again in a less distressing form.
This process allows the brain to update emotional experiences that were previously unresolved.
Brainspotting and Chronic Pain
Brainspotting can also help individuals experiencing chronic pain.
Chronic pain is increasingly understood as involving brain-based processing patterns, not only physical injury. Pain signals are interpreted and regulated through networks involving:
The insula
The anterior cingulate cortex
The amygdala
sensory processing regions
Stress, trauma, and emotional experiences can amplify these pain pathways.
Research shows that emotional trauma can increase nervous system sensitivity, making the brain more likely to interpret signals as pain.
Brainspotting may help with chronic pain by:
Accessing emotional memories linked to pain patterns
calming hyperactive nervous system responses
reducing stress-related muscle tension
allowing the brain to reorganize pain processing networks
Some clients notice that as emotional stress resolves, their physical pain also decreases.
This does not mean the pain is “imaginary.” Rather, it reflects how closely the brain, body, and nervous system are connected.
What to Expect in a Brainspotting Session
While the neuroscience behind Brainspotting is fascinating, many people want to know what the experience is actually like.
Each session is unique, but there are some common steps.
1. Identifying the Issue
At the beginning of the session, we talk about something you would like to work on.
This might include:
Anxiety
Trauma
Relationship stress
Emotional overwhelm
Chronic pain
Performance blocks
You may also notice where you feel the issue in your body.
For example:
Tightness in the chest
A knot in the stomach
pressure in the head
tension in the shoulders
These body sensations help guide the Brainspotting process.
2. Finding the Brainspot
Using a pointer or guiding your gaze, I slowly move across your visual field while you focus on the issue.
At some point, your nervous system may respond in subtle ways:
a stronger emotional feeling
a shift in breathing
increased body sensation
deeper awareness
This location becomes your brainspot.
The brainspot acts as a neurological access point into the network where the emotional or sensory material is stored.
3. Focused Processing
Once the brainspot is located, you gently keep your gaze there while noticing your internal experience.
You may observe:
thoughts
emotions
body sensations
memories
images
There is no pressure to talk constantly. Some clients speak occasionally while others process quietly.
The brain often does much of the work in the background.
4. Deep Brain Processing
As processing continues, the nervous system may begin releasing stored emotional or physiological activation.
Clients may experience:
emotional waves
body movements or shifts
yawning or deep breathing
memories surfacing
insights emerging
a sense of calm or relief
These responses are signs that the brain and nervous system are integrating previously unresolved experiences.
What Brainspotting Can Feel Like
Each person’s experience is different.
Some sessions feel calm and reflective, while others may bring up strong emotions that later lead to relief.
Common experiences include:
emotional release
feeling lighter afterward
increased clarity
fatigue or deep relaxation
reduced anxiety or pain
Many clients say it feels like their brain is processing something deeply in the background.
What Happens After the Session
Processing often continues after the session ends.
Over the following days, people sometimes notice:
new insights
emotional shifts
improved sleep
reduced triggers
decreased pain
feeling calmer in situations that previously caused stress
This ongoing processing is known as integration.
Issues Brainspotting Can Help With
Brainspotting has been used to support healing with a wide range of concerns.
Trauma and PTSD
childhood trauma
complex trauma
medical trauma
Anxiety Disorders
panic attacks
generalized anxiety
social anxiety
Emotional Challenges
depression
grief and loss
shame and self-criticism
Chronic Pain Conditions
tension headaches
stress-related pain
trauma-related pain patterns
Performance Blocks
public speaking anxiety
athletic performance
creative blocks
Because Brainspotting works with both the brain and body, it can be especially helpful for people who feel stuck despite years of traditional therapy.
Why Brainspotting Can Be So Effective
Brainspotting engages several neurological healing processes:
activation of subcortical emotional networks
engagement of midbrain orienting systems
memory reconsolidation
neuroplasticity, allowing the brain to create new pathways
Rather than forcing change, Brainspotting allows the brain to complete natural processing that was interrupted during trauma or stress.
Final Thoughts
One of the most remarkable aspects of Brainspotting is that it relies on the brain’s innate ability to heal.
When the brain is given the right conditions—focused attention, safety, and attuned support—it can process experiences that have been stored for years or even decades.
A Brainspotting session is not about pushing through pain or forcing insight.
Instead, it creates space for the nervous system to release what it has been holding and move toward greater regulation, resilience, and relief from both emotional and physical pain.
References
Corrigan, F., & Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: Recruiting the midbrain for accessing and healing sensorimotor memories of traumatic activation. Medical Hypotheses, 80(6), 759–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2013.03.005
Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: The revolutionary new therapy for rapid and effective change. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.
LeDoux, J. (2012). Rethinking the emotional brain. Neuron, 73(4), 653–676.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. New York: Norton.
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Viking.
