This is how BSP session looks like
2016/09/14
- English (United States)
- 日本語
I have experienced a brainspotting session which can exemplify how brainspotting session can go. With my client’s permission, I introduce the session. Also, in the second part, how brainspotting session have impact on our heart through measuring HRV, heart rate variability.
A client came to my office for a relationship issue with her x-boyfriend who has broken up a few months ago. Her issue is anger toward him and that can be related to her sleep issue in which she awakes early in the morning everyday for 2 months.
He used to ask her to buy what he wanted for him but he insisted not to spend money for herself. She did not like this selfish requests everytime he made but reluctantly did what he wanted. She had built up her anger inside this way for several years.
She became upset a conversation about him. She also found her had some physical reactions to the topic. The therapist realized this from her facial expression. Also he found she was looking at a point while she was talking, a gaze spot.
The therapist pointed out the gaze and asked how strong her physical sensation was(SUDS10). From there, the therapist instructed her to observe what would be unfolded moment by moment while she was on the gaze spot.
Processing for 5 minutes, her SUDS decreased to 1 from 10 and it eventually got to 0.
Going back to the original issue did not increase her SUDS level, but the therapist noticed some bodily reactions while her focusing on the issue, so the therapist told her to go more from there. Processing for a few minutes, She told the therapist that “nothing is happening”. The therapist did notice no limbic countertransference activated from her statement and asked her to describe what exactly happened just after the image, memory, or thought about the issue when she went back a few minutes ago. She said, “I just remembered what he did and said and understood what these mean that I could not understand before”. To the therapist it felt BSP processing helped her to consolidate her frozen memories by rewriting the ones to more realistic or at least in a way that she can understand after subcortical or bodily processing had been completed.
By squeezing lemons for 3-4 times, the SUDS finally came to a solid 0. Using a simple method, gaze spotting” of brainspotting, with holding a frame based on uncertainty principle, her issue came to a resolution.
The same client a session before, the therapist measured HRV(heart rate variability) before and after a brainspotting session. With a plethora of stress factors, she looked rather dissociated, and she might have been so because her parasympathetic rate was much stronger than the sympathetic one. Other numeric values were relatively low and it felt to the therapist that she was repressive at that time. The numeric value of interest which is called SDNN which is explained to associated with variety of physical as well as mental conditions was 33 which was low but did not indicate the increased risk for these conditions.
After the quiet session, successful but not including a lot of emotive/phsycial movements that could show “something happened”, however numeric values increased as a whole. No big changes in her high parasympathetic rate (although it became more balanced)was measured. The value that the therapist was most interested in and most meaningful, the SDNN increased from 33 to 43. It can be analyzed that BSP session helped her heart to function more healthier way.