Brainspotting: The Gentle, Precise Method That Helps You Break Through What’s Been Holding You Back

You’ve done the work. You’ve journaled, meditated, practiced mindset reframes, and attended workshops in the name of growth. You’ve explored healing modalities that offered relief and many times you've crossed into big moments of clarity. Yet for reasons that feel mysterious and frustrating, you keep bumping into similar (or the same) walls. You make progress, and then something pulls you back into familiar patterns that don’t match who you’re trying to become.

It’s easy to start questioning yourself when this happens. You wonder if you’re doing something wrong or if some part of you simply can’t shift or if you're doomed to repeat the same thing over and over. The truth is far more empowering: there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re simply trying to create deep, whole-system change using tools that primarily work at the surface level of the mind. And when your conscious mind wants one thing while your inner system holds onto something else, the result can feel like an internal tug-of-war.

This is where frustration can grow. This is the moment where many people start to think, “What am I missing? Why isn’t all the work I’ve done adding up the way it should?” You’re aware that a deeper, more grounded version of you is waiting to be accessed. Trust that this awareness is the sign that you absolutely can reach your goal. This moment is the doorway to a different kind of approach, one that doesn’t rely on thinking your way through your patterns, but instead helps you access the exact part of your brain and body where those patterns live.

This is the essence of Brainspotting.

What is brainspotting and how does it work?

Brainspotting is a powerful, gentle mind-body method discovered by Dr. David Grand. It’s built on a simple yet profound insight: where you look affects how you feel. Your eyes are directly connected to the midbrain, a region that plays a major role in emotional responses, reflexes, body sensations, and internal patterns that operate beneath your conscious awareness.

If you’ve ever noticed that certain thoughts, memories, or reactions carry sensations in your body like tightness in your chest, a knot in your stomach, a sense of heaviness, or even a subtle shift in your breath, you’ve already experienced the mind-body connection Brainspotting works with.

During a session, your gaze naturally settles on a specific point in space when you think about something meaningful or activating. That point is known as a brainspot, and it acts as a direct access portal into the neural networks holding the unprocessed material behind your patterns. These could reflect old beliefs, stored emotional residue, unintegrated experiences, or even unconscious habits you’ve carried for years.

Rather than talking your way through these patterns, you allow your brain to process them directly, quietly, efficiently, and often more rapidly than traditional talk-based approaches. Brainspotting works from the “bottom up,” which means it begins with the body and nervous system rather than the analytical mind. This allows change to occur where it matters most: at the level of your automatic responses.

What a Brainspotting session feels like

A session is calming, spacious, and surprisingly simple. You begin by choosing something you want to work on. It could be a recurring pattern, a belief that’s been getting in your way, a sense of being “stuck,” or something in your life that creates an internal reaction you’d like to shift.

Your practitioner then guides you to notice what’s happening in your body as you think about this issue. You don’t need a big physical response as subtle sensations are more than enough. From there, you slowly move your gaze across your field of vision until you land on the point where the sensation feels strongest or most noticeable. That point, the brainspot, becomes your anchor.

You remain gently focused on that spot while your nervous system processes in the background. There is no pressure, no forcing, and no need to relive anything. You simply notice what arises. You might feel your breath deepen, a wave of relief move through you, an emotion drift to the surface and dissolve, or a surprising insight appear. Sometimes the body becomes very still; other times it shifts and releases energy naturally. When the session concludes, most people notice that the issue they began with feels different. It can feel lighter, less charged, or more resolved. And many say the best part is this: they didn’t have to force anything to happen.

Why brainspotting is ideal for people who have already done a lot of personal growth work

The people who benefit the most from Brainspotting are often the same people who have tried multiple modalities already. They’re self-aware. They’ve done the journaling, the affirmations, the reframing, the coaching, the meditation, and the mindset work. They’re not new to healing but they are ready for something deeper.

Brainspotting is especially powerful for individuals who understand their patterns intellectually but can’t seem to shift them fully. They know why they react the way they do, but knowing hasn’t changed the experience in their physical body. They’ve built strong mental and emotional muscles but still feel pulled into old habits or emotional loops that don’t match who they’re becoming. Because Brainspotting works directly with the deeper layers of the nervous system, it reaches the exact place where those automatic patterns are stored. This is where ultimately the long-lasting change can finally take root.

The benefits

Although every person’s experience is unique, certain outcomes are very common. Many people report a sense of emotional neutrality around issues that once felt charged or heavy. Others notice that their body feels more relaxed or open, as if a long-held tension has finally let go. Some find that patterns they’ve struggled with for years suddenly shift; they simply stop reacting the way they used to.

Another powerful benefit is that Brainspotting doesn’t require you to force change. Instead, the shift comes from within, allowing you to step into new habits and new levels of clarity more naturally. You begin responding instead of reacting. You feel more grounded and centered. Your internal state becomes more aligned with the person you’re actively becoming. For many, there’s also a feeling of wholeness that emerges akin to a sense that parts of themselves they’ve been separated from are finally reintegrating.

How brainspotting complements therapy, hypnosis and coaching

One of the reasons we at Coral Gables Hypnosis are excited no offer Brainspotting is because of how seamlessly it blends with the other modalities we use. Our philosophy has always been to have you come into a four-body balance. We are our best when our physical, mental, emotional and energetic bodies are in alignment. Hypnosis helps rewire beliefs. Coaching helps shift habits, patterns, and behaviors. Breathwork and Reiki help you to heal your physical and energetic bodies. Brainspotting works with the body and nervous system, allowing you to clear what the mind alone cannot.

Together, these methods create a powerful, integrated system of transformation that touches every level of your experience.

Your next breakthrough may be one call away

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re already committed to your growth. You’re not someone who gives up easily. You care about your evolution, and you want to live your life from a place of clarity, freedom, and alignment. If you’ve been searching for a method that takes you deeper than mindset work alone, Brainspotting may be exactly what you’ve been missing.

Your next level is closer than you think.