What Is Brainspotting and How Is It Different from EMDR?
If you've been researching therapy and stumbled across the word "brainspotting," you might have had one of two reactions. Either: that sounds fascinating, tell me more. Or: that sounds made up, what is happening.
Both are understandable.
Brainspotting is one of those approaches that sounds stranger than it is (the name probably doesn’t help) and works better than you might expect. It's also frequently lumped together with EMDR because both involve eye positioning, which leads to a lot of confusion about what makes them different and when one might be more useful than the other.
So let's clear it up. Plain terms, no jargon (to the best of my abilities), an honest explanation of what brainspotting actually is, how it compares to EMDR, and how to think about whether either might be worth exploring for you.
First, a quick recap of EMDR
If you haven't read the full EMDR explanation yet, here's the short version: EMDR uses bilateral stimulation—typically guided eye movements that travel back and forth—while you hold a distressing memory in mind. The rhythmic, alternating stimulation helps your brain reorganize how that memory is stored, reducing its emotional charge over time.
EMDR is structured. It follows a defined eight-phase protocol. There's a clear sequence, a clear target, and a clear process for moving through it. For a lot of people, that structure is actually reassuring, because it feels organized and purposeful, with a clear sense of direction.
So what is brainspotting?
Brainspotting was developed by therapist David Grand in 2003, actually while he was doing EMDR therapy. He noticed that when clients' eyes landed in certain positions, something shifted. Their processing deepened, their body responded, something moved. He began to explore the idea that where you look affects what you access.
The core principle is this: where you look is connected to where your brain holds emotional and physiological experience. By finding a specific eye position, called a “brainspot”, that correlates with a feeling, sensation, or distress you're holding, and then resting your gaze there while staying present to what comes up in your body, your brain can access and process material that often sits below the level of conscious thought or language.
When you’re deeply thinking about something or trying to access a memory, lost thought, or forgotten item—do you ever notice your eyes drifting to a certain direction as if you’re trying to find that exact place in your brain where the information is stored? Think of brainspotting as a way to utilize that natural tendency for some real progress in your therapy journey.
In practice, it looks quieter and slower than EMDR. There are no moving eye movements. Instead, you find a point in your visual field, hold your gaze there, and stay with whatever arises (sensations, emotions, images, memories) while your therapist holds an attuned, present witness to the process. The work happens largely in the body and the subcortical brain, the parts of you that don't use words.
The Key Differences Between the Two
Both approaches work with the brain-body connection. Both use eye positioning. Both help process experiences that feel stuck. But they do it in meaningfully different ways.
Structure: EMDR is more structured and protocol-driven. Brainspotting is more fluid and open-ended. In EMDR, there's a defined sequence of phases and a clear target memory. In brainspotting, the process is more guided by what your body is communicating in real time, with less of a fixed roadmap.
Movement vs. stillness: EMDR uses moving bilateral stimulation: eyes tracking back and forth, or alternating taps or sounds. Brainspotting uses a fixed gaze point. You find the spot and stay with it, rather than moving through it.
Language and talking: Both can involve less talking than traditional therapy, but brainspotting tends to be even quieter. Your therapist isn't guiding you through a verbal check-in sequence like in EMDR; they're mostly holding space while your nervous system does the processing. Some people find this deeply settling. Others find the silence takes some getting used to, especially if all they’ve done before is talk therapy.
Access point: EMDR typically starts with a specific memory or event as its target. Brainspotting often starts with a body sensation or a felt sense of distress and works outward from there. It’s particularly well-suited for experiences that are harder to name or locate as a single event, like chronic stress, intergenerational patterns, or a general sense of being emotionally stuck without a clear origin story.
What Brainspotting is Especially Good for
Because brainspotting accesses the subcortical brain, which are the parts responsible for emotion, survival responses, and somatic experience, it tends to be particularly effective for things that live below the surface of language and conscious understanding.
This includes:
Anxiety that feels diffuse or hard to trace to a specific cause
Chronic stress and burnout that has settled into your body as tension, exhaustion, or numbness
Racial and intergenerational trauma
Perfectionism, people-pleasing, and deeply held beliefs about yourself that you can understand intellectually but can't seem to shift
Physical symptoms that feel connected to emotional experience (tightness in the chest, a knot in the stomach, a persistent low-grade dread, etc.)
Experiences that feel too overwhelming or fragmented to approach through a structured narrative
For my AAPI clients in particular, brainspotting can offer something meaningful. So much of what shapes anxiety and identity distress in multicultural families operates outside of language—in the silences, in what was never named or spoken, in patterns passed down without explanation. Brainspotting doesn't require you to find words for those things in order to work with them.
Does brainspotting require you to talk about your past?
No. This is one of the things that makes it genuinely different from talk therapy. You don't need to narrate events, recount details, or explain your history in order for brainspotting to be effective. But you can if you want to. In brainspotting you can talk as much or as little as you want.
In fact, one of the reasons some people find brainspotting such a relief is precisely because of this. If you come from a background where talking about difficult things openly doesn't feel culturally familiar, or if you've spent years in therapy talking about the same things without feeling like they're actually moving, brainspotting offers a different entry point entirely.
Your nervous system knows things your narrative doesn't. Brainspotting works with what your body already holds.
Which one is right for you: EMDR or brainspotting?
Honestly, this is a question worth exploring together rather than deciding in isolation, because it really depends on what you're carrying and how you tend to process.
EMDR might be a better fit if you have a specific memory or experience you want to work through, you appreciate structure and a clear sense of protocol, and you're comfortable with a more active, directive process.
Brainspotting might resonate more if your distress feels diffuse or hard to pinpoint, you're drawn to quieter, more body-based work, you've found that talking about things in depth doesn't seem to move them, or you're processing things that don't have a clear narrative. Often these can be: chronic experiences, cultural and relational patterns, or something you feel but can't quite name.
And sometimes both are useful at different points, or even within the same course of therapy. I use brainspotting and EMDR as part of a broader, integrative approach, meaning the right tool for you is the one that meets what's actually showing up, not a one-size-fits-all protocol.
A note on doing this work online
Both EMDR and brainspotting are available via telehealth, and both can be done effectively in an online format. I offer both to clients throughout California, which means you can access this kind of deeper processing work from your own home, in a space where you already feel some sense of safety and comfort. For a lot of people, especially those who have struggled to find a therapist who genuinely understands their cultural background, telehealth also opens up access to more specialized care that might not be available locally.
If something in this post landed for you: a description that felt familiar, a sense of recognition about what might be stuck —that's worth paying attention to. You don't have to have it all figured out before reaching out. That's what the conversation is for.
Caitlin Blair is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW #128351) in California offering brainspotting, EMDR, somatic therapy, and culturally attuned care for anxiety, burnout, and identity-related stress — with a specialty in supporting AAPI and multicultural clients. Online therapy available throughout California.
Wondering if brainspotting might be right for you? Book a free 15-minute consultation