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Dear Colleagues,
In my years of practicing Brainspotting and witnessing the depth and mastery of David Grand’s work, one truth has become unmistakably clear: Lasting healing happens when we reach the youngest, most traumatized parts and give them what they never received.
But how we get there matters.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) offers a powerful, compassionate, top-down approach to help clients access their wise, regulated “Self” to witness and unburden exiled parts.
Brainspotting, however, is fundamentally different. It is a bottom-up process.
By using specific eye positions, Brainspots, we have access to the midbrain, moving up through the limbic system and then moving into the neocortex. In doing so, Brainspotting engages the survival brain structures and accessed the entire body where the “Body Keeps the Score” of every single trauma. This allows us the capacity to regulate all eight nervous systems of the body. This is not just insight. This is deep, neurobiological regulation. Healing is never complete without a regulated brain and body.
And this is where Expansion Brainspotting becomes transformational.
When we utilize eye positions connected to the Self- what clients often call their “True Self” Spot or their “Soul” Spot alongside Expansion Frames such as the Corrective Attachment Frame or the Positive Reinforcement Frame something profound occurs:
The body begins to settle. The nervous systems reorganize. And the traumatized child part is no longer alone or overwhelmed. When the system becomes regulated and the child part is truly safe, the symptoms of dysregulation begin to dissolve:
Hyper-arousal softens-anxiety, panic, insomnia, and hypervigilance decrease.
Digestive distress and inflammation begin to calm.
Hypo-arousal shifts-dissociation, isolation, chronic fatigue, and depression start to lift.
Clients reconnect with a sense of vitality as their lifeforce returns
And from this state of regulation and coherence, something else becomes possible: Clients can access their highest, most wise Self-not as a concept, but as a lived, embodied experience.
This is why the sequence matters. We are not asking clients to “think” their way into healing. We are helping their brain and body become safe enough for healing to naturally emerge. The system reorganizes. Healing accelerates. Symptoms that once felt intractable… begin to disappear. This is the difference between managing symptoms and transforming them.
Below, I’m sharing two of my favorite Expansion Frames for working with these youngest, most traumatized parts-the ones that quietly drive so many of the symptoms we see every day.
This is the work that changes everything.
Warmly,
Lisa Larson, LMFT
Brainspotting Trainer
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