Christina Janiga Psychotherapy - Blog
This blog is not a substitute for therapy, but provides evidence-based education for the purposes of self-help and information
You Are Not Your Diagnosis:
How Brainspotting Reaches the Wounds That Words Cannot
If you’ve ever been given a mental health diagnosis and felt something inside you quietly collapse, a sense of hopelessness, being categorized, reduced, or written off, you are not alone. And if some part of you has wondered whether a label on a page can really explain the full complexity of what you’ve lived through, that instinct is worth listening to. It is also where Brainspotting therapy begins.
What If The Problem Isn’t a Disorder?
The mental health field has long relied on diagnostic language to describe human suffering. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) classifies symptoms: disorders, deficits, and pathologies. David Grand, the developer of Brainspotting, points out something important about this: the word “disorder” is, at its core, a judgmental and blame-shifting term. One that locates the problem inside a person rather than in what happened to them. What if we looked at it differently?
Many of the symptoms that bring people to therapy, such as emotional overwhelm, fear of abandonment, difficulty trusting others, chronic emptiness, impulsivity, and a fragile or unstable sense of self, are not evidence of a broken or defective person. They are evidence of a nervous system that adapted as it learned to survive. A child who grew up in an unpredictable, unsafe, or unloving environment does not develop a disorder. They develop adaptations. They learn, at a very deep level, how to manage danger, how to get needs met, how to stay alive.
The problem is not that these adaptations exist. The problem is that they were formed with a purpose in a time and context that no longer apply, yet the nervous system continues to operate as though the threat is ongoing. The brain and body don’t realize the threat is over. They are still running the old code. This is why, when working with clients, I prefer to discuss not what’s wrong with you but what happened to you. And what is still living inside your nervous system that needs healing?
Why Understanding Your Trauma Isn’t Always Enough
Many people come to therapy having already done a great deal of thinking about their lives. They understand their childhood. They can name their patterns. They know intellectually why they react the way they do, and yet the symptoms keep recurring. The relationship ruptures still sting as though abandonment is imminent. The body still floods with panic or shuts down completely. This is not a failure of insight or effort, rather it simply reflects where the trauma actually lives.
Attachment wounds, early developmental trauma, and chronic emotional dysregulation are stored in subcortical regions of the brain, areas that are largely out of reach of conscious thought and verbal processing. The thinking mind can observe these reactions from a distance, but it cannot easily reach down into the brainstem and rewrite them through language alone. Understanding what happened is meaningful. But healing what happened requires deeper access.
What is Brainspotting Therapy?
Brainspotting is a brain-body therapy developed by Dr. David Grand in 2003 that uses eye position to locate and access unprocessed trauma held deep in the subcortex, the brain regions beneath conscious thought and language. It is grounded in the understanding that where you look affects how you feel. The premise is deceptively simple: as we hold our gaze at certain positions in our visual field, we open a direct channel to the parts of the brain and body where trauma has been stored. These positions, brainspots, are not symbolic or metaphorical. They reflect real neurological activity. The retina, comprised of approximately 100 million neurons, is an extension of the brain formed from neural tissue. The eyes are, quite literally, a window into the subcortex.
David Grand describes Brainspotting as a neuroexperiential process that works from the bottom up, beginning with the nervous system and the body rather than with language and story. Rather than asking clients to narrate their experience, Brainspotting invites the nervous system itself to lead. The therapist creates a careful, attuned holding environment and then follows, with curiosity and presence, wherever the client’s internal process needs to go. This matters because healing at this depth doesn’t require explanation. As Grand writes, “Something has changed, but I can’t put it into words” is one of the most common and meaningful things a client says at the end of a session. The nervous system has already registered the shift. The meaning can come later or not at all.
What Happens in a Brainspotting Session?
Brainspotting sessions begin with a simple but powerful question: What would you like to work on today? This is an invitation for the nervous system to orient toward what is most ready to be engaged. From there, a client is gently guided to notice where they feel the activation in their body. Through careful observation of natural eye reflexes and the client’s own sense of where their activation feels highest, a brainspot is located and held.
What follows is focused mindfulness processing. The client is not asked to analyze, interpret, or explain. They are supported to observe and follow their internal experience with openness and trust, allowing body sensations, images, emotions, memories, and shifts to arise and move through without being shaped or redirected. The therapist holds the space in attuned, non-directive presence, following the client’s nervous system rather than leading it. This process can feel quiet or intense, rapid or gradual. It does not follow a predictable script. The nervous system is not linear; it moves in spirals, in layers, in its own timing. Clients often report a felt sense of something releasing, settling, or coming into clarity in ways they couldn’t have anticipated or engineered through thinking alone.
What Healing Can Look Like
In my clinical experience, when the nervous system is given the conditions it needs, genuine safety, attunement, and the space to process at depth, remarkable things become possible. Clients who have spent years feeling like hostages to their own reactions begin to experience real shifts: less emotional flooding, greater steadiness in relationships, and a more stable and compassionate relationship with themselves. The symptoms that once felt permanent begin to loosen their hold because the original wounds that drove them are finally being addressed. Healing cannot flourish in a climate of shame or self-judgment. What the nervous system needs is something closer to what it never fully received: the experience of being held, witnessed, and trusted to find its own way.
Brainspotting offers exactly that.
While our past influences us, it does not have to define us. My goal is to create a space where clients feel supported in reclaiming their sense of self and moving forward with clarity and confidence. As a student of human behaviour, leadership coaching, and trauma-focused therapy, I am passionate about supporting individuals who feel stuck. My approach is informed by Brainspotting, a powerful modality for processing trauma, as well as mindfulness, attachment-based work, and somatic techniques that help clients reconnect with their inner resilience.
Common Questions About Brainspotting
Is Brainspotting supported by research?
The research on Brainspotting is younger than the research on more established therapies like EMDR, and it is growing. In a study of 76 adults seeking help after a traumatic event, three sessions of Brainspotting reduced PTSD symptoms as effectively as EMDR, with gains still holding six months later (Hildebrand et al., 2017). A more recent comparative study found that even a single session of Brainspotting or EMDR significantly reduced the distress attached to painful memories (D’Antoni et al., 2022). Researchers have also mapped out how Brainspotting likely works in the brain, through the eyes’ direct connection to the midbrain regions where trauma responses are held (Corrigan & Grand, 2013). And in my clinical experience, what the research describes is what I watch happen in sessions.
How is Brainspotting different from EMDR?
Both approaches understand that trauma lives in the brain and body, not just in the story we tell about it. EMDR follows a structured eight-phase protocol and uses bilateral stimulation, (eye movements, auditory, or tapping), to reprocess specific memories. Brainspotting holds the eyes still on a single relevant point and lets the nervous system lead. Some people do well with the structure of EMDR; others need the openness of Brainspotting, especially where the wound is early, preverbal, or hard to pin to a single memory. Our practice offers both, and I am happy to help you think through the fit.
Do I have to talk about my trauma in detail?
No. This is one of the things clients find most relieving. Brainspotting does not require you to retell what happened or relive it out loud. The nervous system can process without narration. You are welcome to share as much or as little as feels right, and the work moves forward either way.
How many Brainspotting sessions will I need?
There is no fixed number, and I would be cautious of anyone who promises one. Some people feel a meaningful shift within a session or two around a specific issue. Deeper attachment wounds and developmental trauma tend to unfold in layers, over a longer arc. The nervous system sets the pace, and we honour it.
Does Brainspotting work over video?
Yes. Brainspotting adapts well to virtual sessions, since the work rests on eye position, body awareness, and attunement rather than on anything in an office. I work virtually with clients across Ontario.
Ready to Begin?
Book a free 15 minuted consultation call.
Taking the first step toward therapy is an act of courage. If you’re looking for trauma counselling in Ontario with a therapist who provides warmth, curiosity, and effective tools for change, I would love to connect. I work virtually with clients across the province. Book a 15-minute free consultation. Let’s explore how I can support you on your journey to healing and self-discovery.
About The Author
Ashira Lapin, MSc, is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) and Brainspotting Consultant at Christina Janiga Psychotherapy, where she provides virtual trauma therapy to clients across Ontario under the clinical supervision of Christina Janiga, RP. Her work draws on Brainspotting, mindfulness, attachment-based, and somatic approaches.
References
Corrigan, F., & Grand, D. (2013). Brainspotting: Recruiting the midbrain for accessing and healing sensorimotor memories of traumatic activation. Medical Hypotheses, 80(6), 759–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2013.03.005
D’Antoni, F., Matiz, A., Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2022). Psychotherapeutic techniques for distressing memories: A comparative study between EMDR, Brainspotting, and Body Scan Meditation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1142. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031142
Grand, D. (2021). Brainspotting as a neuroexperiential process for healing and expansion. Keynote address, Brainspotting International Conference.
Grand, D. (2025). Focused mindfulness processing in Brainspotting’s neuroexperiential model.
Hildebrand, A., Grand, D., & Stemmler, M. (2017). Brainspotting – the efficacy of a new therapy approach for the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in comparison to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.6092/2282-1619/2017.5.1376