Jennifer Beall, LCPC, LCADC
If you’re at all familiar with Brainspotting, you know that it’s a powerful source of healing for trauma, depression, anxiety, addictions, and more. Did you know, though, that Brainspotting can also be used to improve the performance of athletes, artists, actors, writers, and others?
When he was an EMDR therapist, Dr. David Grand successfully helped many athletes with anxiety and performance blocks. He discovered Brainspotting while doing EMDR with one such athlete, a skater who was unable to execute a triple loop.
As he developed Brainspotting, he found that he had even more success at dealing with these issues with Brainspotting than he had had with EMDR.
In his 2013 book Brainspotting: The Revolutionary New Therapy for Rapid and Effective Change, Dr. Grand described his work with Phil, a Division I college catcher. Phil developed what is called “the yips” after being hit in the shoulder by a ball during a game. While he had no trouble with reflexive actions like throwing someone out, he was suddenly unable to throw the ball back to the pitcher after a pitch.
Phil went to a sports psychologist who tried to help him by using visualization and relaxation exercises, among other things. It was unsuccessful. A family friend then sent Phil to Dr. Grand for Brainspotting.
Dr. Grand was not surprised when, during processing, Phil pictured the moment when he was hit in the shoulder by the ball. The processing didn’t stop there, though. Phil started to process through one injury after another that he had sustained during his athletic career. All of these injuries were physical traumas that accumulated over time. They also caused psychological traumas; the two were intertwined.
To fully resolve the issue, Phil also needed to process through two attachment traumas. This was not just true of Phil; there are many athletes whose “sports traumatic stress (STSD)” (in Dr. Grand’s terminology) is partly rooted in childhood attachment traumas.
The benefits of Brainspotting don’t stop when the sports trauma is healed. After the trauma has been cleared, the part of the body that was the source of the most activation can be used as a body resource. The therapist and client can then find a Brainspot that corresponds to that body resource and use it for further processing.
Even athletes who haven’t experienced traumas like these can benefit from Brainspotting. Every athlete has insecurities and slumps in their performance. Brainspotting’s work in the deeper parts of the brain cuts through and eliminates the negative self-talk associated with these issues.
Athletes can also improve their performance by processing on Brainspots that correspond to their strengths.
Musicians, actors, writers, and other creatives can also derive these types of benefits from Brainspotting.
Like athletes, they can sustain injuries, and the resulting physical and psychological traumas intertwine, as they do with athletes.
Just as athletes’ teachers and coaches can be harsh, so can teachers and coaches of creatives. One of the worst things creatives suffer is rejection by auditioners, directors, audiences, and others.
Creatives tend to be very sensitive and perceive the world differently than other people do. Parents, teachers, and peers often don’t understand them, and frequently give them a hard time. This wounds a deep, essential part of them, and can also create anxiety and performance blocks.
Many people think that trauma is the source of their creativity; they are afraid that healing the trauma will rob them of creativity. This is not true. Trauma actually decreases access to creativity, and healing restores a person’s creative potential. Dr. Grand frequently says that “There is no healing without creativity, and there is no creativity without healing.”
Did this post teach you anything new about what Brainspotting can do? Where are the areas that you can imagine it helping you? When you’re ready to discuss the potential of Brainspotting to improve your life, fill out a contact form, book a consultation, or call or text me at 410-888-0590.