NEUROBIOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS AND TREATMENTS

At HeadFirst Counseling, we offer two evidenced-based and innovative treatments to address trauma processing and stress reduction. These interventions are made to be short-term and solution focused and are often an additional treatment to further your or your child's healing journey in therapy. Read below for the two interventions offered at our practice.

BRAINSPOTTING

What is Brainspotting?

Brainspotting is a gently, body-centered therapy that uses a fixed eye position, or "brainspot," to help the brain and body process what talking alone can't always reach.

Developed by Dr. David Grand in 2003, it works at a pace that feels safe for you.

What will Brainspotting help with?

Anxiety, worry, and panic
Trauma and painful memories
Burnout and chronic stress
Grief and loss
Performance and creative blocks

What to Expect:

You stay in control and can pause anytime
No need to retell every detail of a traumatic event
Offered in-person and virtually
Processing may continue after the session ends
Rest, water, and gentleness help afterward

For Children and Teens

Because Brainspotting doesn't rely on words, it can frequently help with children and teens and adapts well for younger people.

Helps when feelings are hard to explain
Short, kid-paced sets with breaks
Supports sports, arts, and test nerves and anxiety
Can use drawing, play, or a comfort item
Can help with worry and school stress
Caregivers stay informed and involved

EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING (EMDR)

What is EMDR?

EMDR is an evidence-based approach used to help people heal from trauma or other adverse life experiences. Using bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps reprocess traumatic memories, which alleviates emotional and psychological symptoms in response to the event(s).

Trauma and the Brain

Much like a filing cabinet, our brains have an inherent information processing system to help us store every single bit of information we have gathered as we go about our day. When we experience a trauma or adverse event, our brains don’t know how to process or store this information due to high arousal, so the memories are encoded (or filed away) as survival information, creating distress responses when we encounter triggers either related or unrelated to the trauma.

Common responses to triggered memories

Intrusive thoughts
Negative emotions
Negative perceptions of self
Physical sensations
Concentration problems
Trouble sleeping or nightmares
Irritability
Feeling jumpy or easily startled

How does EMDR work?

Research has found that certain eye movements, or other forms of bilateral stimulation, have reduced the intensity of disturbing thoughts related to traumatic or adverse events. During EMDR, the stuck memories are stimulated and then connected to other information in our brains so that the memory can be encoded as an event that occurred in the past, and therefore can no longer hurt us. It also strengthens our ability to reframe our thoughts associated with the traumatic/adverse memory, which further reduces our distress response to memories of the event(s).

Interested in adding EMDR or Brainspotting to your treatment plan? Contact our office or ask your therapist and we'll get you set up.