Brainspotting therapy is the most remarkable and effective form of treatment I've ever encountered for relieving anxiety. It works quickly and creates lasting change.
– Andy Garner
As Master Brainspotting Professionals, Andy, Anna, Jordan, and Laura Young have reached the highest level of Brainspotting training, putting them among Tennessee’s premier Brainspotting Professionals. They each trained directly with Brainspotting pioneer Dr. David Grand, PhD, featured in the ESPN and Healing Tree videos below. Please visit each therapist’s profile for areas of specialty including OCD, addiction, anxiety, and trauma treatment.
There are two kinds of psychotherapy: Technical and Non-Technical. Traditional talk therapy is a very valuable, non-technical form of psychotherapy. Brainspotting Therapy is a technical form of psychotherapy with psychological, emotional, and physical results. It is typically used to treat trauma and anxiety related issues.
When distressing things happen, your brain stores these memories in a quick-access file. This is very much like minimizing a window on your computer rather than closing the program. Your brain and body keep the memory running in the background. That uses up lots of energy. For survival, it works remarkably well. For daily life, it’s exhausting.
Unresolved trauma depletes you as you stay prepared to fight, flight, or freeze (lion, gazelle, turtle.) This releases the stress hormone, cortisol, which negatively impacts mood, memory, sleep, focus, digestion, and your immune system. Unlike traditional talk therapy, Brainspotting Therapy bypasses the thinking brain (neocortex) and accesses the reactive brain (subcortex), allowing you to resolve trauma responses in a comfortable, controlled setting with an attuned, caring professional.
Your brain has a natural, protective mechanism called a “withdrawal reflex.” If you were to reach your hand out to a hot stove, your nerve endings would sense the heat and quickly send a message to your brain, telling you to pull your hand away to avoid injury. Athletes who have experienced accidents, injuries, shaming coaches, and humiliating performances sometimes develop a “withdrawal reflex” on the field, on the ice, on the track, on the court, or on the road. But that brief withdrawal reflex is now a game-losing play, a missed opportunity, and the dreaded mental block. Golfers refer to this as the “yips.” When it happens, athletes often experience shame, frustration and even some mild depression due to the loss of identity and activity. Brainspotting Therapy helps athletes beat mental blocks and performance anxiety for good. Click below to see ESPN featuring Brainspotting with an athlete.
In his Psychology Today article, “The Things We Fear More Than Death”, Glenn Croston, Ph.D. writes that surveys show humans fear public speaking more than death itself. (Additional surveys show that the fear of heights and insects are numbers two and three.) Public speakers, musicians, and stage performers can experience the exact same fight/flight/freeze responses that auto accident victims, combat soldiers, victims of crime, and injured athletes suffer. For the stage performer and public speaker, Brainspotting Therapy has been shown time and again to provide (in many cases) immediate relief and performance expansion.
“I wrote most of this album while in therapy with you. The Brainspotting sessions we had were life changing. Not only did they open my eyes and heart to identify my feelings and embrace grief, they also enabled me to turn haunting traumatic events into real life events that I no longer had to be afraid of. Brainspotting enabled me to face them. Not only that, but the therapy gave me actual tools that I could apply to every day life (I still use them EVERY day). After just three brain spotting sessions I was finally able to write a song about my dad. Until now, I’ve never been able to process that loss. One day after a session, I got home and wrote one of the most satisfying songs I’ve ever written. I was finally able to depict what it was like to lose my father. I attribute this song to Brainspotting. Thank you for educating yourself in the art of Brainspotting.”
– From a musician/client (identity kept confidential)
“Phenomenal! After our Brainspotting session I was back out there without any anxiety at all. It felt the same as when I was training last year. Thank you for spending so much time with me yesterday. I am quite impressed with the method and your presentation of it.”
– From an injured athlete/client (identity kept confidential.)
“Thank you again for meeting with me. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me. It’s been frustrating having this mental block against riding, and now I can finally enjoy it again.”
– From an injured athlete/client (identity kept confidential)
This Is Your Brain On Sports, by Dr. David Grand, Ph.D. & Alan Goldberg, Ed.D.
Brainspotting, by Dr. David Grand
Brainspotting Online
Research and Case Studies