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By Lisa Larson, LMFT and Brainspotting Trainer
Dear Colleagues,
In our work with addiction, we meet clients who are fighting battles far deeper than the behaviors we see on the surface. Shame is almost always riding shotgun, quietly steering compulsions, isolating the client, and feeding the belief that they are unworthy and incapable of change.
Brainspotting gives us a doorway directly into the subcortical brain, where these painful emotional imprints live. When we pair accurate, thorough assessment of the root causes of the addiction, along with Expansion Brainspotting, clients gain access not only to the core etiology of their suffering, but also to the solutions already inside them. The right eye positions allow them to tap into their innate capacity for regulation, safety, and profound healing.
When the limbic and brainstem systems settle the eight nervous systems of the body, sobriety becomes possible, not because the client is “trying harder,” but because their nervous system is no longer in a state of survival.
Below is a simplified, clinician-friendly checklist to help uncover root causes gently and completely.
Root-Cause Assessment Checklist for Addiction Healing
1. Emotions Before Using: “What am I feeling right before I engage in the behavior?” Have clients list and rate each emotion (0–10). Encourage post-use journaling to refine accuracy.
2. Core Beliefs That Drive the Behavior: What beliefs show up before using? (“I’m unworthy,” “Why try,” “This is just who I am.”)
3. Developmental Experiences That Shape the Addiction: What early experiences make quitting hard? (e.g., deprivation, bullying, identity labels, cultural messages)
4. Trauma Timeline: When did the addiction begin? Was there a specific trauma or a developmental echo of earlier pain around that time?
5. Protector/Firefighter Part: What is this part trying to prevent? What pain is it soothing or avoiding? How is it trying, however imperfectly, to help?
Solutions Through Expansion Brainspotting: For every emotion, belief, experience, trauma, and protector part, help the client find:
•An Expansion Spot that embodies the opposite feeling or belief
•A “Soul” or “True Self” Spot to restore inherent worth
•Corrective Attachment Spots or Higher Power Spots when appropriate
•Trauma-processing spots paired with expansion to rewire safety at the deepest level
Continue until the client feels genuine freedom; not just behavioral control, but nervous-system-level release and regulation.
Client Examples from my Practice Leading to Using:
•Feelings: Shame, unworthiness: Expansion spot to connect to their loving grandma.
•Beliefs: “I am unworthy.”: Expansion spot most potent to believe in their inherent goodness. (Soul/True Self Spot or Loving Resource)
•Early Experience: Food restriction leading to the belief “If I don’t eat it now, I’ll never get it again.”: Expansion spot that supports the opposite belief, “If I’m not hungry now, I can make it later.” (Double Spot or use only the Expansion- ask the client)
•Trauma Timeline: I began using after a painful breakup and felt unwanted and rejected: Double Spot with Expansion Spots such as Higher Power or Soul spots to connect with their inherent worth.
•Protector Part: Trying to soothe loneliness, abandonment, humiliation, and deprivation Expansion with the “Self’ and the “Protector Part” Spot.
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