Brainspotting Therapy in Annapolis, MD

Rich Doyle, LCSW-C | Advanced Training in Brainspotting | Phase 1, Phase 2 & Master Class

Where you look affects how you feel

Our eyes do more than help us see the world around us. They are part of a larger system involved in attention, orientation, and how we respond to what is happening both around us and within us.

You may have noticed yourself looking toward a particular place when remembering something, searching for a feeling, or connecting with an experience. Sometimes even a small shift in where you look can change what you notice or feel inside.

Brainspotting works intentionally with this connection.

By slowing down, turning inward, and paying attention to both where you look and what happens within you, Brainspotting creates a way to access and process experiences that may be difficult to reach through talking and thinking alone.

What is brainspotting?

Brainspotting is an experiential, brain- and body-based approach that uses eye position, focused attention, and the therapeutic relationship to access and process experiences that may be held beyond our immediate conscious awareness.

During Brainspotting, we begin with something you want to explore and notice what happens as you connect with it—not only what you think about it, but what you experience in your body and nervous system.

From there, we identify an eye position, or brainspot, that seems connected to what you are experiencing. By maintaining your gaze around that spot while paying attention to what unfolds internally, we create a focused space for your own processing to emerge.

Thoughts, emotions, memories, images, body sensations, impulses, or unexpected connections may arise. At other times, the process may be quieter or difficult to put into words. There is no particular experience you are supposed to have.

Rather than trying to analyze or direct what happens, we stay curious and follow where your system goes.

How does brainspotting work?

Our eyes and brain are constantly working together to orient us to the world around us—directing attention toward what feels important, relevant, threatening, or meaningful.

Brainspotting is based on the idea that this relationship also works in the other direction: where we look may influence how we access and experience what is happening within us.

When an experience becomes activated, different eye positions can sometimes bring subtle—or surprisingly noticeable—changes in emotion, body sensation, memory, or internal experience. A brainspot gives us a place to focus and sustain attention while allowing that experience to unfold.

Rather than trying to think our way through what happens next, we pay attention to what emerges and follow it. This sustained, focused attention may allow connections, shifts, and new experiences to arise that are not always accessible through conscious thought alone.

The exact mechanisms behind Brainspotting are still being studied. The approach proposes that eye position and focused attention may engage deeper brain and nervous system processes involved in orientation, emotion, memory, and survival responses. While these ideas offer possible explanations for what happens during Brainspotting, there is still much to learn about how and why the process works.

What happens once we find a brainspot?

Once we find a relevant eye position, you are invited to maintain your gaze around that spot while turning your attention inward and noticing what unfolds.

From the outside, this part of Brainspotting can look surprisingly simple. There may be stretches of silence as you notice thoughts, emotions, memories, images, body sensations, impulses, or other shifts in your internal experience. You might talk about what is happening, or much of the process may happen quietly inside.

There is no particular path the process needs to take. Something that initially seems unrelated may emerge. Your attention may move from a memory to a body sensation, an emotion to an image, or into an experience that is difficult to describe at all.

Rather than trying to make sense of each step or decide where to go next, you are invited to stay curious and follow what emerges. In Brainspotting, this is sometimes called focused mindfulness processing—sustained attention to your internal experience without needing to analyze, change, or direct it.

My role is not to determine where your process should go. I stay with you, follow what your system is doing, and offer support or guidance when it is helpful, while leaving room for your own process to lead.

What is the therapist doing during brainspotting?

Although much of the processing in Brainspotting happens within you, you aren't doing it alone.

A central concept in Brainspotting is dual attunement. This means I am paying attention on two levels at once: relationally, to you and what is happening between us, and neurobiologically, to what your brain and body seem to be communicating as the process unfolds.

Relational attunement means staying connected to you—your pacing, emotions, sense of safety, what you communicate, and what you may need from me in the moment. Neurobiological attunement means also noticing shifts in things like your gaze, facial expression, breathing, movement, body responses, and activation.

Together, these forms of attunement help us create and hold what Brainspotting calls the frame: the shared space within which we explore whatever you have brought into the session.

And within that frame, I try not to assume that I know where your process needs to go. Brainspotting places a strong emphasis on uncertainty—remaining open and curious enough to follow what emerges rather than imposing an explanation or predetermined direction onto it.

That doesn't mean I simply sit back and do nothing. I am actively present with you throughout the process—tracking, supporting, responding, and guiding when helpful—while trusting that your system can show us where the work needs to go.

What can brainspotting help with?

Brainspotting was developed in the context of trauma work, but its use is not limited to traumatic experiences.

It can be particularly useful when something continues to feel stuck even when you understand it intellectually—when your reactions, emotions, beliefs, or body seem to be responding in ways that don't fully match what you know to be true today.

In my work, Brainspotting may be used to explore experiences such as:

  • painful or distressing memories

  • anxiety, fear, or persistent activation

  • grief and loss

  • shame or negative beliefs about yourself

  • relationship and attachment patterns

  • emotional or bodily responses that are difficult to understand or put into words

  • performance or creative blocks

  • patterns that continue despite insight or attempts to change them

Brainspotting can also be used to connect with experiences that aren't centered on distress. We can work with feelings of groundedness, strengths, internal resources, creativity, performance, or possibilities you want to develop more fully.

Ultimately, we don't need to fully understand or explain something before we can explore it. Sometimes it's enough to know that something is there. We can begin with what feels important, notice what happens when we bring our attention to it, and follow where your system leads.

How is brainspotting different from EMDR?

Brainspotting actually grew out of EMDR. It was developed by psychologist David Grand, PhD, after he began noticing that where clients looked during processing seemed connected to what they were experiencing internally.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the two approaches share some important similarities. Both are experiential approaches that use focused attention to help us move beyond simply talking about an experience and engage more directly with what emerges in the brain and body.

In both approaches, we pay attention to what arises—memories, emotions, body sensations, beliefs, images, associations, or something unexpected—and allow what emerges to help guide where the process goes next.

The difference is often in how we enter and support that process.

EMDR typically uses a more structured framework for identifying and activating an experience, along with bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, or alternating sounds. Once processing begins, however, there can be considerable room to follow wherever your experience leads.

Brainspotting generally begins with a more open-ended frame. We connect with what feels relevant, notice what is happening in the body, find an eye position connected with that experience, and maintain focused attention there while following what unfolds.

So while the methods differ, both create conditions for experiences, connections, and shifts to emerge that we may not have been able to consciously plan or predict.

I don't see one approach as inherently better or deeper than the other. Different people—and different experiences within the same person—may respond differently. We can pay attention to what helps you connect with the work and let that guide how we proceed.

How can brainspotting fit into therapy?

There are different ways Brainspotting can fit into therapy, depending on what you're looking for and how we're working together.

Within ongoing therapy, Brainspotting can be incorporated into traditional sessions, though I often use it within extended sessions. Having more time can give us space to settle into the process, follow what emerges without watching the clock, and allow time for reflection and integration before we finish.

Brainspotting can also be incorporated into therapy intensives, either as a focused, stand-alone experience or alongside ongoing therapy with another therapist. Intensives offer a concentrated block of time to explore a particular experience, pattern, or area you want to work with.

Brainspotting doesn't have to be used in isolation. Depending on what fits you and what emerges along the way, it may become the primary focus of the work or be woven together with EMDR, somatic approaches, parts work, conversation, and other experiential methods.

Frequently Asked Questions About Brainspotting

  • A brainspot is an eye position that seems connected to a particular internal experience. Looking in that direction may bring a change in an emotion, body sensation, memory, thought, or simply a sense that something feels different or more present.

    We can find brainspots in different ways. Sometimes you notice where you feel the strongest connection to what we're exploring. Other times, I may notice subtle changes in your eyes, face, breathing, or body as your gaze moves. And sometimes your eyes naturally settle somewhere while you're connecting with something meaningful.

    I don't decide where your brainspot is. We discover it together by paying attention to what your system shows us.

  • No. Some people talk about what they are experiencing as it unfolds, while others spend longer periods processing quietly. You may also move naturally between talking and silence.

    There is no right way to do it. You can share what feels useful while allowing other parts of the process to remain internal.

  • Not necessarily. We need enough of a starting point to connect with what you want to explore, but Brainspotting does not require you to describe every detail of an experience for us to work with it.

    Sometimes what emerges has words and a clear story. Sometimes it shows up more as emotion, sensation, imagery, impulse, or simply a sense that something is there.

  • That's okay. Brainspotting has an expression I particularly appreciate: “You don't have to know what it is to know that it is.”

    You don't always need to understand, name, or explain something before we can become curious about it. Sometimes knowing that something feels present, stuck, uncomfortable, or important gives us enough of a place to begin.

  • Yes. Brainspotting is collaborative, and you remain an active participant throughout the process.

    You can talk, pause, move your gaze, shift what we're focusing on, or stop at any time. Following where your system leads does not mean giving up choice or control. We pay attention to your experience and pacing together.

  • No. Although Brainspotting was developed in the context of trauma work, it can be used to explore many kinds of experiences.

    That might include long-standing patterns, anxiety or activation, grief, relationship experiences, shame, performance or creative blocks, or something that continues to feel stuck despite understanding it intellectually. Brainspotting can also be used to explore strengths, resources, creativity, performance, and possibilities for growth.

  • Yes. Brainspotting can be adapted for virtual therapy when telehealth is appropriate for the person and the work we're doing.

    I generally prefer working together in person, particularly for experiential work like Brainspotting, but virtual sessions may be an option when needed and when they are a good fit.

  • There isn't a predetermined number. Some people use Brainspotting to explore a specific experience or area of focus, while for others it becomes one part of longer-term therapy.

    How we use it—and for how long—depends on what you're working with, how you respond to the process, and what seems useful as the work unfolds.

Curious whether Brainspotting might be a good fit?

You don't need to know whether Brainspotting—or any particular approach—is what you need before reaching out.

I offer Brainspotting and other experiential therapy approaches at my office in Annapolis, Maryland. A free consultation gives us a chance to talk about what's bringing you to therapy, answer any questions you have, and see whether working together feels like the right next step.

Get In Touch