Brainspotting for Eating Disorders
As clinically trained licensed therapists, our team at Recovered & Restored Eating Disorder Therapy Center are committed to perpetual learning and exploration in our field. While continuing education is a requirement for our licensure, that’s the very least of our reasons for keeping up with new research and methodologies. Our passion for genuine recovery and lifelong restoration from eating disorders is what truly drives us to gain new insight and education every day. It’s what is best for our clients!
Brainspotting is a somewhat new development as a therapeutic treatment. Psychotherapist, David Grand, Ph.D. began to establish Brainspotting from his experience with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. He found that clients felt physical or emotional sensations when they fixed their eyes on certain points in space. Remarkably, he also had many clients who were then able to resolve the underlying issues associated with those sensations. Our Clinical Director, Gabby Morreale, LPC, is now working with Brainspotting to treat eating disorders.
What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a somatic type of therapy, which basically means that it engages both the mind and body to work through mental health concerns. There is a growing field of research studying how the nervous system reacts and changes in relation to thoughts and emotions. For example, many people with PTSD have debilitating physical symptoms. Somatic therapies can often help individuals find physical relief as the trauma is finally processed and resolved. We are fully connected beings!
Eye-related therapies like Brainspotting and EMDR rely on the eye’s close connection to the brain to get right to the source of the issue. Brainspotting works by having the client answer a few questions about what they physically or emotionally feel, then focus their eyes where the therapist is holding a pointer or their finger. When clients look at certain points in space, they may feel the sensation more acutely. This is where the therapist would explore the symptoms.
Once clients and their therapists identify a connection between something deep within their mind and how it makes them physically feel, they can start processing the underlying matter. The result is that clients often begin to feel relief, sometimes very quickly! As they process their trauma, memory, fear, grief, or other concern, their physical, emotional, and mental symptoms alleviate. This is not magic! Brainspotting is a tool for therapists to support clients in becoming fully connected with themselves so they can heal.
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​In eating disorder therapy, Brainspotting may work well in combination with traditional treatment approaches. Recovered & Restored tailors each treatment plan to work with our client’s specific circumstances. Our therapeutic approaches include:
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
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Exposure and Response Prevention therapy (ERP)
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR)
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Family therapy
Our comprehensive approach also includes nutrition coaching and meal planning. Sustaining recovery usually means acquiring new skills in order to eat for health and physical healing.
Does Brainspotting Work for Eating Disorders?
If you are living with an eating disorder, no one needs to tell you that it affects every part of you - mind, body, and spirit. For many women struggling with an eating disorder, it’s hard to really pinpoint which came first - the mental/emotional part or the physical behaviors. And really, each side of the disorder tends to spur on new symptoms in the other part. It’s a scary cycle that can even create an all out war between your mind and body.
If you have felt this internal conflict, you are not alone. At Recovered & Restored, we specialize in eating disorder therapy because we also know these feelings. Everyone on our team of compassionate licensed therapists has personal experience with eating disorders and the toll they take on the precious relationship we should have with ourselves. Healing restores that mind and body relationship so that we respect and honor our wholeness.
Having explored the research around Brainspotting, our team feels that this modality offers great promise as a treatment for eating disorders. It is common for our clients to have one or more co-occurring disorders with their eating disorder, such as:
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Trauma, PTSD, or C-PTSD
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Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
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Anxiety or mood disorders
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Depression or grief
The research on Brainspotting shows that locating the original motivation to begin disordered eating habits could be a profound step towards healing!
What is truly amazing about a treatment like Brainspotting is that the knowledge and capacity for healing are fully within the client already. You are the expert on yourself; you might just need some professional assistance getting to the heart of the matter. This has always been a guiding principle for our practice, and Brainspotting is one tool available to support our clients in recovering from eating disorders and associated concerns.
Online Brainspotting Therapy with a Trusted Eating Disorder Therapist
Gabby Morreale is Phase 1 Brainspotting trained and is currently offering this therapy to new and current clients. Brainspotting is available as an online therapy modality, just like many other common therapeutic treatments. Through online therapy, our clients are able to meet with their therapist from wherever they are comfortable. There is no commute or time in a waiting room; we just get right to work within our convenient, confidential platform.
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If you are searching for Brainspotting for eating disorders, EMDR for eating disorders, or any type of therapy for eating disorders, you are bravely taking the first step to begin healing!
Our compassionate team of licensed therapists are here to help you take your next step and the one after that. Our comprehensive approach combines evidence-based therapy modalities with nutrition counseling and meal planning to support you along your recovery journey and restore you to a life without internal conflict. You deserve to love your whole self. Contact us to learn more about all of our therapy options for eating disorders in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, South Carolina, and Florida.