Bibliotherapy: The Power of Brainspotting: An International Anthology Editor Gerhard Wolfrum
This anthology was required reading for my Brainspotting Consultant-in-Training Program. It is not a casual read, it is clinical and dense with information. Each chapter is written by a different Brainspotting expert. Three chapters stuck out to me:
Brainspotting and Grounding by Cynthia Schwartzberg: I work with grounding therapeutically with therapy clients and somatically as an embodied resource in my Open Floor Teacher world. This chapter deepened and expanded my understanding of ground. I love how she shares our bodies pulsate “states of charge, discharge, and containment." How she states we’re “neither hovering above the ground nor collapsed into it,” it’s a just right amount of energy and balance with our bodies and the earth. It’s our bodies seeking equilibrium energetically on a subatomic level.
Brainspotting with Children and Adolescents by Monika Baumann & Martha S. Jacobi: I currently work with teens and adults, in the past I saw children as young as 5 years old. I loved the tangible frame ideas shared in this chapter on brainspotting with children.
Using toy or sports equipment as a pointer.
Go outdoors.
Using pieces on a gameboard as spots.
Construct something and then move around it for gazespots.
Using drawings and art to gaze at.
BrainSpotting, qEEG, Biofeedback and Neurofeedback: Towards an Integrative Approach to Trauma Healing and Regulation by Santiago Brand Ortiz: I liked his use of micro and macrotraumas. He posted a list from Peter Levine’s work on dynamics and factors that impact trauma responses: duration/intensity/frequency, client life at time/stability, personal characteristics, learned abilities, internal/external resources, and history of success/failure. I loved reading the brainwave, heart rate, and respiration data. In our field, there isn’t often concrete, quantifiable evidence on outcomes and impacts. Qualitatively we know what works, but this intrigues me having ways to measure what is actually happening physiologically in the body.
IF you’re a brainspotting clinician or in the brainspotting certification process, this might be a read worth considering to deepen your knowledge. I am now accepting consultees for brainspotting certification in the United States. If you are interested, please reach out for a free consultation.
