March '23 - Brain Injury

Brain Injury Awareness Month & the Power of Brainspotting

Over the years, I have had many clients with traumatic brain injuries. In my work with these clients, there is often tremendous grief and shame about the loss of functioning, fear of permanently losing their previous functioning, as well as the infuriating mental and physical symptoms.

One of my clients came to me two years after having a serious stroke. His loss of mental functioning had caused him to make grave errors in his role as his synagogue’s finance manager. He was mortified. His face had some paralysis and he was in a severe depression. His shame and fear of permanent disability led to a suicide attempt. When he arrived in my office, he believed “I am stupid and not good enough anymore. I would be better off dead.” In addition, he had shame and guilt for his suicide attempt and felt God was displeased with him. He was also having night terrors and kept his wife awake nightly thrashing and moaning with chronic nightmares.

He came for his first session of Brainspotting with his wife and adult daughter. I first worked on his shame and self-loathing around his loss of functioning mentally and his numerous financial mistakes in his community. I found an activated spot. I asked him what he would need to be able to have forgiveness for his mistake and to know he still had worth. He said that would have to come from God himself. I had him activate the part of him that knew God loved him whether he could do accounting well or not. He felt it in his chest and then I found the expansion spot of God’s love. I had him pendulate between both. He cried tears of joy as he felt deep in his soul that God did not love him any less because he could no longer do figures as he always had.

Then we tackled his suicide attempt. Once again activated and expansion. God was his Expansion Spot again. God told him his brain had been injured and he was loved and understood. After a two-hour session, this man’s SUDS on both issues went from 10 to zero. His nightmares and violent tremors at night ended after the first session. During processing, his body was reenacting many movements and facial tics seen during and right after his stroke.

I ran into him and his wife six months later at a restaurant. He reported he was happily helping the children at his synagogue and was joyful and peaceful.

Brainspotting has been powerful for all of my TBI clients. While not every client experiences the same immediate relief, they have all found it to work wonders on their related issues.

The set-ups I love to use most are Rolling and Inside/Outside Window in order to process each reflex across the visual field to maximize the processing of all of the physical and emotional disturbances involved in brain injuries. I also use Expansion liberally to strengthen the positive neural networks around their worth as a human being, in spite of the losses emanating from the TBI.