Brainspotting and Low-Dose Ketamine
Brainspotting is a powerful somatic psychotherapy that involves the use of eye movements, focal eye positions and the identification of “brainspots” – areas of the brain that hold traumatic memories or emotions. Through focused attention on these brainspots, a trained therapist can help clients process and release the underlying emotions and memories associated with them. Brainspotting has been used to treat conditions such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. As a somatic psychotherapy, it has profound effects on releasing trauma and stress and assisting the nervous system to return to coherence.
By combining Brainspotting with ketamine, clients can benefit from both of these powerful modalities. With therapist guidance, the client can utilize a low (psycholytic) dose of ketamine to help “unlock” and facilitate the processing of traumatic memories or emotions during a brainspotting session. Ketamine can assist with lowering defenses and vigilance (creating a strong container for the processing) and thereby increasing access to process challenging material with less overwhelm, while the Brainspotting and somatic work can help clients release the charge of stored trauma and return to balance.
Learn more about healing with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy