The Science Behind Brainspotting: Why It’s a Powerful Tool for Trauma Therapy

Something traumatic happened to you. But it was so scary and difficult that you’ve never been able to speak about it. The problem is even though you don’t talk about it, the images replay again and again in your head. You feel stuck. Anxiety, fear, and isolation plague you. After doing some research, you decide to go to a brainspotting therapist. The work is hard, but one day you suddenly realize that when you wake up in the morning, your mind doesn’t automatically go to the event. You can live freely, without fear, without anxiety. And you have your boldness back.

The truth is that brainspotting is a powerful tool in trauma therapy, particularly for high-performing and highly sensitive women in Houston. It helps to unlock trauma stored deep in the brain for lasting healing..

What is Brainspotting? A Quick Overview for Trauma Therapy in Houston

Brainspotting is essentially a simple way of allowing you to unlock the areas of your brain where trauma and strong emotions are locked. Sometimes when you go through a traumatic event, because your body or mind isn’t ready to process it, it gets trapped in the deepest layers of your brain. It then proceeds to take over your life and bother you through symptoms likes dissociation, anxiety, fear, avoidance, tearfulness and irritability. Trauma can even begin to negatively affect your work and the relationships around you.

When you are finally able to gain access to those deep layers of the brain, you can then process, digest and finally clear the trauma from your brain.

Goodbye icky feeling!

Other traditional talk therapies only allow you to target the outer layers of the brain. Can they help you get rid of trauma? Probably. But they work so much slower and are not as powerful. Brainspotting can cut down the amount of time spent in therapy.

Hello savings!

The Neuroscience of Brainspotting: How It Targets Trauma

Your eyes are a part of your brain. Therefore where you look directly affects how you feel. Each eye movement targets a certain part of the brain. And because trauma gets stored in your brain, what better way to access trauma than utilizing your eyes? It’s the closest thing we can get to accessing your brain aside from actual brain surgery!

When your therapist guides you to look at a certain location- also known as a brainspot, it allows your brain to scan itself, thereby noticing problem areas and your brain naturally begins to solve these complex problems. The brain naturally wants to solve its own problems, the struggle is that we often don’t know the right tools to do so.

But when we use brainspotting, we are able to target the specific location in the brain where the trauma is held. Once we do this, your brain can then find the trauma, scan it, digest it and discard of it.

Brainspotting essentially connects specific eye positions with emotional healing. And it’s backed by neuroscience.

Why High-Performing Women Thrive with Brainspotting Therapy in Houston

A lot of high achieving and high performing women do not like having their time wasted. They are often too busy to take the time to go to therapy. They also like quick results. So brainspotting is especially helpful because you get great results, the results are quicker than those of talk therapy and you dive deep. I’m pretty sure you do not want superficial therapy.

Struggles with anxiety, feeling stuck, dissociation, intergenerational trauma, trauma from childhood, people pleasing, perfectionism, struggles with big emotions, decision making, are all areas that we can work on during our brainspotting sessions. If it interferes with your life, we can brainspot about it.

The Brainspotting Process: What to Expect in Trauma Therapy in Houston

A typical brainspotting session is so much easier than you’d expect. You come in, pick an issue that has been bothering you. It could be an event you experienced, or even a memory. I then ask you what emotion comes up for you as it concerns the event. So you would say something like “Fear” or “Anxiety” or “Disappointment” or “Terror.” Then I ask you where you feel this in the body. Although you might not have noticed this, our minds and bodies are actually connected, so we do feel emotions physically in our bodies. We then identify how it is felt on a scale of 1-10. 1 being the smallest and 10 being the largest,

Using a pointer, I help you find your brainspot- which is simply a point in space for you to look at. Once I find your brainspot, we allow your brain to do the work. It will feel like a bunch of emotions that are connected to the event naturally come up. Sometimes you cry, sometimes you speak out loud and other times, you’re more silent. All this is normal. You can’t do it wrongly.

An important part of brainspotting is also the relationship you have with your therapist. The therapist’s role is to help you feel comfortable, provide a space in which you can process safely and in comfort. Brainspotting is great because it is gentle, non invasive and also backed by science.

Choosing the Right Brainspotting Trauma Therapist in Houston

If you are ready to give brainspotting for trauma therapy a try, it’s important to choose the right therapist. Ensure that their website or therapy profile explicitly state ‘Brainspotting.’ The best step would be to schedule a consultation if possible, and also ask the therapist if they are trained and experienced in brainspotting.

Next, ensure that you feel comfortable with the therapist. Do you like their voice? Their approach to therapy? Are you comfortable around them? Do they answer all the questions you have? Does their schedule match yours? Ask yourself whether you want in person or online (although in my opinion, both will give you great outcomes). Think of finances too. How much are you budgeting per month for therapy?

Harnessing the Science of Brainspotting for Healing

Brainspotting is a powerful way to heal from trauma and get yourself unstuck. It is a great transformative experience for those ready to overcome trauma.

Start Your Healing Journey with a Brainspotting Trauma Therapist in Houston!
Ready to experience the power of brainspotting for yourself? If you’re a high-performing woman or a highly sensitive woman looking to heal from trauma, let’s connect! Click here to schedule your free 15-minute consultation call for brainspotting trauma therapy in Houston and unlock a new path to healing!

About Me

My name is Ibinye Osibodu-Onyali. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist in California and Texas. I help women who are struggling with trauma, anxiety and insomnia.

I also help couples learn how to speak each other’s language, date each other again and manage conflict in a non-painful way.

Many of my clients are:

Highly sensitive people

High performing women

People with insomnia

Couples who want to regain their friendship and trust

If you’re ready to take the next steps, click here.

Why You Should Choose a Trauma Therapist in Houston for Your Healing Journey

You’ve been through so much trauma and pain. All you want is to feel like yourself again, but you have no idea where to start or what to do about it. The good thing is that with the right trauma therapist in Houston, you can indeed experience transformation like you’ve never seen before.

Before you say “Therapy takes too much time and probably doesn’t work,” I’d like to introduce you to a cutting edge method of trauma healing called brainspotting. It can typically cut down the amount of time you spend in therapy, it goes straight to the deepest layers of your brain where trauma and difficult emotions are stored, and you don’t have to give your therapist a play by play of what happened to you if you don’t want to.

What Does a Trauma Therapist in Houston Do?

The role of a trauma therapist is to guide you in a (hopefully) gentle way so that you are able to work through the traumatic memories and digest them. The outcome should be that those memories no longer haunt you, and you begin to feel as close to normal as possible. We do not promise you that your memory would be wiped clean. Nope. But the desired outcome is that you will be able to live a full life, the constant anxiety will quiet down, healthy relationships will be restored and trauma no longer consumes you.

There are many methods of healing trauma. There is talk therapy, in which you discuss the details of the issue over and over again until it no longer bothers you so much. There is talk therapy in which you don’t necessarily have to go into detail, but you work on the after effects of the trauma- not being able to stand up for yourself, avoiding certain things or people, fear, anxiety, irritability, etc.

There is also non traditional therapy (ike brainspotting and EMDR) in which you’re targeting your brain- which is where traumatic memories and feelings are stored.

It is important that therapy be personalized for you. In my practice, I do not use brainspotting for all people. I’m a therapist, NOT a dictator. Some people prefer talk therapy, some prefer a more hybrid model, and some want strict brainspotting. We do what works for you.

Why Brainspotting is a Game-Changer for Trauma Therapy

I love that brainspotting is not only gentle, but it is also effective. You don’t have to jump through a lot of hoops to get started. After the first assessment session, I jump right into it from session 2. I prep you verbally for a few minutes and then I step back to let your brain do its thing.

Brainspotting essentially utilizes your eye gaze to help you target the specific areas of the brain where trauma is stored. Once you gain access, you can now process then digest the trauma.

You see when trauma is stuck in your brain, you feel the effects- jumpiness, tearfulness, anxiety, anger, dissociation, body aches and pains etc. Wouldn’t it be nice to finally clear out those places where trauma has been locked?

It helps you get to the root of the trauma faster. That means less time in therapy and you can go ahead with your happy life sooner.

Why Choose a Trauma Therapist in Houston: The Local Advantage

When you work with a therapist who is local, they get the culture you are a part of. The Houston area is such a unique place that people from other places might just not understand things like how it takes 20 minutes to drive just 5 miles! (Make it make sense).

It is also important to choose a trauma therapist who gets all the other parts of you- ethnicity, religion, gender, marital status, parenting status, etc. Because you have to feel like your therapist is a great match for you- or else, you won’t be able to open up.

I absolutely love working with highly sensitive Christian women who feel like they have to hold their entire family up. I get their unique needs.

What to Expect from Your Healing Journey with a Trauma Therapist in Houston

The therapy processs starts before the first session. You are on Google, trying to find the right fit. With me, I offer a free 15-minute consultation call.

I learn how you want to be supported, what has worked so far, what hasn't worked, and we discuss the way I work. If we decide we are a great match, then during our first virtual session, I get to know you more.

We’ll go through your spiritual, educational, career, relational and emotional background. All these areas help me better understand how to personalize therapy for you.

During the second session, we jump into brainspotting. While using my pointer, we decide what traumatic experience to focus on. You’ll start to process through the event as if it was happening again. You might cry or feel tense while it’s happening, but if you give it some time, you’ll start to feel a sense of relief and peace. Your own body will guide you.

Essentially we open the door in your mind that has been holding back traumatic memories, As you walk through the door, the memories will have less and less of a hold on you.

It sounds more complicated than it really is.

How to Find the Right Trauma Therapist in Houston for You

It is important to pick the therapist you feel most comfortable with. You can do a Google search, use a therapy directory or ask around. Chances are you know a few friends who have seen an amazing therapist lately.

My best advice is to check out the therapist’s website first. This gives you an idea of their personality, their background, training, fees etc. I am biased but I recommend brainspotting if you are specifically trying to work through trauma.

Next, schedule a free consultation call if the therapist offers it. This gives you a chance to hear their voice and ask whatever questions are on your mind. I tend to be a very transparent therapist who sees myself as your guide- NOT your boss. I believe you have the answers if I ask you the right questions.

Don’t forget to ask them how they work. Will you meet weekly? Biweekly? Monthly? Etc. My preference is to see my clients weekly to start with. This helps create some rapid progress.

If the therapist doesn’t work out for you, don’t suffer through it. Simply go through the process again and find someone new. Sometimes it takes a few tries, but the right therapist is out there waiting for you.

Ready to take control of your healing journey with a brainspotting trauma therapist in Houston? Schedule a free 15-minute consultation call so you can experience the transformative power of brainspotting trauma therapy firsthand!

About Me

My name is Ibinye Osibodu-Onyali. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist in California and Texas. I help women who are struggling with trauma, anxiety and insomnia.

I also help couples learn how to speak each other’s language, date each other again and manage conflict in a non-painful way.

Many of my clients are:

Highly sensitive people

High achieving women

People with insomnia

Couples who want to regain their friendship and trust

If you’re ready to take the next steps, click here.

4 Sneaky ways in which trauma affects your life (And how to kick it in the butt)

Trauma.

1 huge horrific word.

It’s the boogie man in the closet that you do not speak of for fear that it will eat you up. It’s the thing that has you in a chokehold so you feel like you can’t breathe.

You think you can ignore those horrible things that happened to you and around you, but little do you know that trauma is indeed affecting you.

Here are 4 sneaky ways that trauma affects your life.

1) You avoid CERTAIN situations, people, places and things

When you go through a traumatic event, you get the idea that anything to do with that event is a red flag. For example, if you were involved in a car accident, every time you go to that specific street, or you see a reminder of the event, you might feel your chest tighten or your palms get sweaty.

At first it seems unproblematic, but over time it begins to get in the way. To use the car crash example, it might stop you from driving altogether. And then you have to start asking for rides, using rideshare programs or walking everywhere (which we know is rough in the Houston summers).

Or maybe you went through a traumatic experience due to being attacked. Every time you see someone who resembles or sounds like the assailant, you might freeze or feel the need to run or fight.

It makes complete sense. Your body is just really trying to protect you.

2) You see danger everywhere you go

Trauma really has you protecting yourself- even when there is no need to actually protect yourself. You might have walked through the world feeling excited and carefree, but trauma changes that.

Suddenly you find yourself feeling closed off in new friendships. Everyone becomes a suspect. You learn how to build a solid wall, but you don’t know how to knock the wall down when you need to have loved ones peek through.

You become a much more hardened version of who you used to be.

And sometimes you see physical danger when you go around. You think so much more about protecting your body and your personal space. It’s exhausting.

3) It haunts your dreams. Literally

Sometimes trauma continues to nag at you- even in your dreams. You spend the entire day feeling happy, and then you shut your eyes, only for trauma to start bothering you.

You might see yourself running away from something or someone. Or you might find yourself revisiting what happened over and over again.

4) You become super defensive or aggressive

Trauma at first makes you feel weak, taken advantage of and small. And so to compensate for this lack, you might become aggressive. Or you might assume people are trying to hurt you, so you defend yourself. Your walls are up, and you might start to get snappy at people. The idea might be, “I don’t need anyone. Let me hurt them before they hurt me.”

Now this keeps you protected, but it also prevents intimacy and closeness.

The good thing is that trauma does not have to ruin your life.

How to kick trauma in the butt

• The first step to kicking trauma’s butt is to take a look inward to see if you are indeed ready to do the work. Trauma therapy isn’t for the faint of heart.

• If you realize that you are ready to work through your trauma, find yourself a great trauma therapist in Houston. One whose style matches your personality and your goals.

• Figure out what style of therapy you want. There is basically talk therapy and non talk therapy. Talk therapy will have you doing a play by play of the trauma and talking through it. But my favorite is- brainspotting trauma therapy . This is a non traditional style of therapy in which we utilize your eye movements to help you access the deeper layers of your brain where trauma and big emotions live. Once we successfully do that, your body takes care of the rest. Brainspotting is basically the cousin on EMDR.

Neve heard of brainspotting trauma therapy in Houston? Watch my videos below.

What exactly is brainspoting?

How does brainspotting work?

If you are ready to stop letting trauma control your life, click here to schedule your free 15-minute consultation call for brainspotting trauma therapy in Houston.

About Me

My name is Ibinye Osibodu-Onyali. I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist in California and Texas. I help women who are struggling with trauma, anxiety and insomnia.

I also help couples learn how to speak each other’s language, date each other again and manage conflict in a non-painful way.

Many of my clients are:

Highly sensitive people

High achieving women

People with insomnia

Couples who want to regain their friendship and trust

If you’re ready to take the next steps, click here.