Brainspotting and Neurodivergence
TL;DR: Brainspotting is a trauma-focused therapy that uses eye position, body awareness, and the client’s internal experience to support deeper emotional processing. Because it is less verbally demanding and more flexible than some traditional trauma therapies, it may be especially supportive for neurodivergent clients, including people with ADHD, autism, sensory sensitivities, or non-linear processing styles. The research on Brainspotting is still growing, and many clinicians are drawn to it because of its client-led, body-based approach to trauma healing.
Last weekend, I became certified in Brainspotting Level 1, a trauma-focused therapeutic modality that incorporates bilateral stimulation, similar to approaches such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, often called EMDR, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy, often called ART.
I was drawn to Brainspotting for a few reasons…
First, it is less structured than many traditional trauma modalities. That flexibility allows the therapeutic process to feel more natural, spacious, and responsive to the person sitting in front of me.
Second, Brainspotting does not rely as heavily on talking. Instead, it centers the client’s internal experience, including body sensations, emotions, memories, images, and whatever begins to emerge in the moment.
Finally, I was interested in Brainspotting because of its potential usefulness for neurodivergent clients. While research is still developing, many clinicians are exploring how Brainspotting may support people whose brains process information, emotion, memory, and sensory input differently.
What Is Neurodivergence?
A question I am often asked when I say that I am neurodivergent-affirming is: What does neurodivergence actually mean?
Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in how people think, learn, process, communicate, and experience the world. The neurodiversity framework challenges the idea that there is one “right” or “normal” way for a brain to function. Instead, it recognizes that differences in cognition and processing are part of human diversity. Northwestern Medicine describes neurodiversity as a way of understanding brain differences without automatically viewing those differences as deficits.
Broadly speaking, people may be described as neurotypical or neurodivergent. Neurotypical means someone’s cognitive development and processing tend to align with dominant societal expectations. Neurodivergent means someone’s brain may process information, emotion, sensory input, or social experiences in ways that differ from those expectations.
Neurodivergence may include autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, and other differences in brain-based processing. It is important to note that neurodivergence itself is not a diagnosis. It is a broader framework for understanding neurological differences.
Why Trauma Therapy May Need to Look Different for Neurodivergent Clients
Therapy is not one-size-fits-all.
For some clients, especially neurodivergent clients, traditional talk therapy can feel helpful and limiting at the same time. Many people can explain exactly why they feel anxious, overwhelmed, stuck, or triggered, and still feel unable to access relief in their bodies.
They may understand their patterns intellectually and still feel hijacked by them emotionally.
They may be deeply insightful and still feel disconnected from what they are feeling.
They may want to talk about trauma and still find it overwhelming to organize memories, emotions, and sensory experiences into a clear narrative.
This is one reason body-based and brain-based trauma therapies can be meaningful. Brainspotting is grounded in the idea that where we look can affect what we access internally. Developed by David Grand, PhD, Brainspotting uses specific eye positions, called “brainspots,” to help clients access and process distress that may be held in the brain and body. Early research and clinical writing describe Brainspotting as a therapy that may support processing of trauma, distressing memories, and nervous system activation, although the overall research base is still emerging.
What Makes Brainspotting Different?
Brainspotting is often described as a “bottom-up” therapy. In other words, instead of starting primarily with thoughts, language, and cognitive insight, it often begins with the body, the nervous system, and the client’s felt experience.
During Brainspotting, a therapist helps the client identify an eye position connected to a particular emotional or physical activation. From there, the client is invited to notice what happens internally while the therapist provides attuned support.
That may include noticing:
Body sensations
Emotions
Images
Memories
Thoughts
Urges
Shifts in breathing
Tension or release
Quietness or spaciousness
There is no pressure to perform therapy “correctly.” There is no requirement to tell the whole story in detail. There is no expectation that a client must have perfectly organized language for what they are experiencing.
For many neurodivergent clients, that matters.
Why Brainspotting May Be Supportive for Neurodivergent Clients
One of the things I value most about Brainspotting is that it honors the client’s natural processing style.
Some neurodivergent people process in loops.
Some process through images or sensations before words.
Some move between topics quickly.
Some need time to sit with an internal experience before naming it.
Some become overwhelmed when asked too many direct questions.
Some feel disconnected from their body until therapy slows down enough for them to notice what is happening.
Brainspotting creates room for that.
Rather than forcing a linear narrative, the therapist follows the client’s process. That flexibility can feel deeply validating for clients who have spent much of their lives being told that their way of thinking, feeling, moving, focusing, or communicating is “too much,” “too scattered,” “too sensitive,” or “not enough.”
In Brainspotting, the client does not have to translate their internal world perfectly for the therapist to support it. The work can happen through attention, attunement, sensation, and curiosity.
Some clinicians have written about Brainspotting as a potentially helpful approach for neurodivergent clients because it can rely less on verbal processing and more on body-based awareness, emotional processing, and client-led pacing. These clinical perspectives are promising, although more research is still needed specifically on Brainspotting and neurodivergent populations.
Brainspotting, Mindfulness, and the Body
Mindfulness is also a central part of Brainspotting, which aligns with my broader clinical approach. Many clients I work with are highly articulate and intellectually aware. They can name what happened. They can explain their family dynamics. They can identify their coping patterns. They can describe their anxiety, trauma responses, or relationship struggles with impressive clarity.
And yet, insight alone does not always create relief.
Sometimes healing requires more than understanding the story. It requires gently experiencing what the body has been holding, in a space where the nervous system does not have to do that work alone.
Brainspotting can offer a structured and low-pressure way to connect with the body, tolerate emotional discomfort, and integrate experiences more fully. The goal is not to force a breakthrough or rush the nervous system. The goal is to create enough safety, support, and space for the brain and body to process what may have felt stuck.
A Client-Led Approach to Trauma Processing
Another part of Brainspotting that feels especially aligned with neurodivergent-affirming care is its client-led nature.
In some therapeutic approaches, the therapist follows a more structured protocol. That structure can be helpful for many people. And for others, especially clients who feel constrained, overwhelmed, or disconnected by rigid steps, a more flexible approach can feel safer and more accessible.
Brainspotting allows the therapist to follow the client’s natural flow of thoughts, sensations, emotions, and associations. Instead of offering quick interpretations or prescriptive solutions, the therapist supports the client’s own internal processing.
This can be especially important for clients who are used to masking, people-pleasing, over-explaining, or trying to “do therapy right.”
Brainspotting invites something different:
You do not have to perform.
You do not have to have the perfect words.
You do not have to make your experience make sense right away.
You can notice what is happening, and we can stay with it together.
What We Know and What We Are Still Learning
Brainspotting has been practiced by clinicians around the world for over two decades. There is some early research suggesting it may help reduce distress related to trauma and disturbing memories, and some studies have compared Brainspotting with approaches such as EMDR and body scan meditation.
At the same time, it is important to be honest: the empirical research base for Brainspotting is still developing. We need more high-quality studies, especially studies focused specifically on neurodivergent clients.
That said, many clinicians are increasingly drawn to Brainspotting because it offers a trauma-focused, body-based, and client-led way to support healing. For clients who do not resonate with traditional talk therapy, or who feel overwhelmed by highly structured trauma modalities, Brainspotting may offer another path.
Final Thoughts
For me, becoming trained in Brainspotting felt like a natural extension of the work I already care deeply about: helping clients feel understood, supported, and less alone in the way their brains and bodies respond to the world.
Neurodivergent-affirming therapy is not about trying to make someone more “typical.” It is about understanding the person in front of us with more accuracy, compassion, and respect.
Brainspotting offers one way to do that.
It gives us room to slow down.
It gives us room to listen to the body.
It gives us room to process without needing every feeling to be perfectly explained.
And for many clients, especially those who have spent years trying to fit their internal experience into someone else’s expectations, that kind of room can be deeply healing.
References
D’Antoni, F., Matiz, A., Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2022). Psychotherapeutic techniques for distressing memories: A comparative study between EMDR, Brainspotting, and body scan meditation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 1142. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031142
Inclusive Therapists. (2025). Brainspotting and neurodivergent high achievers. https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/blog/brainspotting-neurodivergent-high-achievers
Neuron and Rose Psychology. (2026). Brainspotting: Recognizing and processing trauma through the visual field. https://www.neuronandrosepsychology.com/blog/brainspotting-recognizing-and-processing-trauma-through-the-visual-field
Northwestern Medicine. (n.d.). Understanding neurodiversity. https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/Understanding-Neurodiversity
Talbot, J., D’Andrea, W., D’Andrea, L., & Katz, L. (2022). A paradigm shift in trauma treatment: Converging evidence for a multidimensional framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 970353. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.97033
