Looking from the Inside Out: Clare Stobart’s experience of Brainspotting with Zoe Eckersley

Brainspotting is a natural and powerful alternative therapy that uses ‘spots’ in a person’s visual field to help identify, process and release core neurophysiological sources of emotional or physical pain, or challenging symptoms. It does so by accessing the subcortical part of the brain responsible for emotions, motion, consciousness, and learning.

My Brainspotting sessions happen in the treatment room at CPASE Health Club with Zoe Eckersley, who trained with David Grand, the founder of this technique. Zoe owns Balancing Minds and is an accredited psychotherapist, children’s counsellor and hypnotherapist.

Unlike traditional ‘top down’ talking therapies which focus on the conscious mind, Brainspotting is a somatic ‘bottom up’ therapy which focuses on the brain and body connection, enabling it to reset.

A key benefit of Brainspotting, over more traditional therapies, is that you don’t need to ‘relive’ traumatic events or incidents to release them from your body.

Prior to the session, Zoe recommended downloading biolateral music, which I listened to whilst relaxing into some breath work. Once you are settled into a mindful state, you will identify an issue you’d like to work on. You’ll then observe a place in your body where you feel the most distress and rank it on a scale of one to ten.

Using a pointer stick, Zoe identified “brain spots” – points where my eyes naturally focused during moments of heightened discomfort. Together, we pinpointed the areas where I felt “stuck” and needed to process.

Zoe employs the “Outside Window” and “Inside Window” approach. Her being the outside window, observing my gaze and recommending appropriate access points where she sees a change or subtle movement in my face or body. As this therapy is self-led, I am the inside window, giving me the opportunity to identify spots myself and really tune into what’s happening in my body. Throughout the session, Zoe supported me in zoning in on the emotions arising and spent time processing these feelings.

As the session went on, there was a noticeable reduction in my stress levels. I felt some sort of shift. Surprisingly, crucial thoughts, particularly regarding work and personal decisions, surfaced during the session. The Brainspotting allowed me to laser in on the right path to choose, and highlighted some areas I hadn’t realised were bothering me. The relief I felt when those decisions were made was palpable.

Post-session, tiredness is common, and processing may continue for several days. Brainspotting can help in many different areas of your life and is suitable for people of all ages including children. As it is self-led, your brain directs your mind, and Zoe’s expertise guides you to the area you need it most. It has been proven to help in fields such as sports and personal performance, and to increase creativity and motivation. It boosts self-esteem, can relieve anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain, and can even help if you have relationship worries.

These benefits extend beyond the sessions and include improved sleep, increased energy, stress reduction, pain reduction, and reduced anxiety, making way for a calmer and more focused positive outlook.

My personal experience with Brainspotting left me with a clear mind and an immediate plan of action for positive life changes. With Zoe’s guidance, I will definitely continue to use this method going forward and look forward to my next session.

Zoe offers sessions from CPASE and can be contacted at info@balancingminds.co.uk

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