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Chasing the First-Time High
How I fell in love with Brainspotting
Mary is a client I’ll never forget. She was the first woman whose courageous work gave me unshakeable confidence in Brainspotting, a highly-targeted mindfulness practice discovered in 2003 and developed ever since by Dr. David Grand and his students.
I was a trauma specialist and spiritual resource for clients in a residential trauma treatment center when I met Mary in late 2013. I had been a contemplative therapist for several years, but had just received initial training in Brainspotting from a Sounds True online training that introduced it to a larger audience. I was very excited about it.
Brainspotting is grounded in the attuned relationship between client and practitioner, which was entirely congruent with how I work as a contemplative therapist and spiritual director. But for a few months I found I was timid about using something this new. Especially something that most clients would never have heard of. People in crisis don’t always want to learn to do something new. They just want relief.
We were a sprawling trauma treatment program in the midst of the rural southeast. The women’s houses were anywhere from 5–7 curving country miles from the central campus. This meant that clients were dependent on a system of vans scheduled tightly to get everyone to their sessions and…
