Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma                                       David Grand, PhD - Main Session - pg. 1 
                                           Rethinking Trauma 
                             Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma  
                                                             the Main Session with  
                                               David Grand, PhD and Ruth Buczynski, PhD 
          National Institute for the Clinical  
          Application of Behavioral Medicine 
           
          Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma                                       David Grand, PhD - Main Session - pg. 2 
                                                                                         Rethinking Trauma: David Grand, PhD  
                                             Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma  
                                                             Table of Contents 
                                                                (click to go to a page) 
          A Brain-Based and Body-Oriented Approach to Trauma ......................................... 3 
          Brainspotting and Visual Mapping .......................................................................... 4 
          How the Idea of Brainspotting Developed .............................................................. 5 
          Using EMDR, Visual Cues, and Creativity ................................................................ 8 
          How to Activate around a Specific Cue ................................................................... 12 
          Blinking: The Most Ubiquitous of Cues ................................................................... 14 
          The Processing that Happens after a Blink ............................................................. 15 
          Using Biolateral Sound to Enhance Brainspotting ................................................... 17 
          The Body as a Resource Model .............................................................................. 18 
          Finding Relevant Brainspotting through Gazespotting ............................................ 21 
          Brainspotting and the Dual-Attunement Frame ..................................................... 22 
          Why Brainspotting Works ....................................................................................... 23 
          About the Speakers  ............................................................................................... 27 
           
           
           
          Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma                                       David Grand, PhD - Main Session - pg. 3 
                                                                                         Rethinking Trauma: David Grand, PhD 
                                             Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma  
          Dr. Buczynski:  Hello everyone and welcome. I am Dr. Ruth Buczynski, a licensed psychologist in the State of 
          Connecticut and the President of the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine.  
          Tonight we will be talking with David Grand. He is a licensed clinical social worker with a PhD from 
          International University, and, more importantly, he is known for some very groundbreaking discoveries 
          where he has integrated some really important ideas.  
          I was very excited as I was preparing for this webinar, and I think you will be as you watch.  
          So, David, first of all, welcome. It is good to meet you and have you participating in this session – thanks for 
          being here! 
           
                                  A Brain-Based and Body-Oriented Approach to Trauma 
          Dr. Buczynski:  I am going to attempt to introduce this by saying that you have worked on finding a way to 
          combine a brain-based approach with a body-oriented approach – a talking-treatment approach – sort of a 
          therapeutic cocktail.  
          We will take this piece by piece, but to just look at it as a whole, you use the patient’s visual field as a window 
          into their brain and into their unprocessed trauma. Can you just give us the big picture of what you mean by 
          that? 
          Dr. Grand:  In brainspotting the watchword is “where you look affects how you feel.”  
          Every therapist who sits with their client is unconsciously observing everything about the client, and also 
                                                          observing where the client looks when they speak. But generally 
             “You use the patient’s 
                                                          speaking, the therapist doesn’t consciously note it or consciously 
             visual field as a window 
                                                          make use of it.  
             into their brain and into 
             their unprocessed trauma.” 
                                                          Where we look is very much related to the orienting response and 
           
          Brainspotting: An Evolving, Healing Science for Trauma                                       David Grand, PhD - Main Session - pg. 4 
          the orienting reflex – literally we are constantly orienting in our visual field to our environment all the time. 
          Not just humans do this; all animals do, so this is a very primal sort of response.  
          Where we look at different times is not random – in fact, I believe it is never random. We are searching on 
          the outside as we are searching on the inside, so there is sort of a dual-orientation process that goes on 
          where we are orienting to our environment as we are also orienting to our 
          internal environment.                                                                                      “Where we look 
                                                                                                                    at different times 
          We could say that is true experientially, but it is also true neurobiologically.                         is never random.”  
          With brainspotting, we look for relevant eye positions – and I say relevant eye positions in contrast to 
          random eye positions.  
          You could have a person look at any spot and start to process off of it, and just the focus of looking at that 
                                                spot would give some focus to their processing.  
             “With brainspotting, 
             we look for relevant               But we look for relevant eye positions: eye positions where we see reflexes in 
             eye positions.”                    the client’s eyes, or face, or even body. 
          These are eye positions where they just feel it the most – eye positions where a client just gets locked on it as 
          they are talking to us – almost like they are doing a soliloquy, but to a spot in space.  
          In all three cases, we see this as relevant, as opposed to just random. 
           
                                                  Brainspotting and Visual Mapping 
          Dr. Buczynski:  I just want to check: is it similar to Freud, where a candlestick means certain things and you 
          would say that if they look over here it means one type of thing and over there it means another type of 
          thing? Or is it all idiosyncratic to that particular patient?  
          Dr. Grand:  First of all, we are looking to drop from the neocortical awareness into subcortical awareness. 
          Symbolism doesn’t exist in the subcortical brain, so it wouldn’t be that something represents something.  
          Something might have a literal meaning to that person and might look like an object that somehow is 
          associated with an experience or possibly a traumatic experience. In NLP – neuro-linguistic programming –