FAQ

Talk therapy has a ceiling. It can name what happened to you, but it can’t always reach it.

You can understand your trauma perfectly and still feel it every single day. You can talk about it for years and still wake up with the same tightness in your chest. Your brain understands the story, but your body never shifted the wound.

Talking gets to the part of the brain called the neocortex. But what’s keeping you stuck doesn’t live there.

Brainspotting reaches the layer underneath, where what happened to you is actually stored. When we work there, you’ll experience real movement and change.

That’s a question only you can answer.

Most of the people who find me have already invested in therapy that wasn’t reaching what was actually holding them back. By the time they call me, they want to know how this will finally do what nothing else has done.

I’m going to invite you to think about what your stuckness has already cost, and what moving through it would feel like, or what it would mean to you.

I’d be happy to talk more about this in our consultation. The consultation is free.

Because I experienced it myself.

I’ve been on the other side of this work, done the talk therapy, knew the story, understood the patterns, and still had some things that hadn’t moved.

When I discovered Brainspotting, I was able to reach things I’d been working on for years.

That’s why I do this. Not because I read about it. Because I felt what it does, and I knew I had to learn how to give that to other people.

I believe healing happens when what’s underneath finally gets met with curiosity, not judgment. Not through rushing, not through pushing past what your body’s trying to say. Just the room to be met where you are.

Brainspotting is a brain-body therapy that works at the level of your subcortical brain.

The subcortex doesn’t respond to words. Everything that’s happened to you is imprinted there. Your history. Your wounds. The patterns you can’t think your way out of.

Using Brainspotting, we find what’s been out of reach.

You stay awake. I maintain a safe space and guide you through the steps. Your body does its own work. Nothing is forced. We go step by step, and through this gentle process, what’s been stuck finally moves.

Brainspotting was developed by Dr. David Grand in 2003. Neurologist Robert Scaer, MD, describes it as a practice of "profound attunement" that "down-regulates the amygdala" through somatic cues. The amygdala is the brain’s alarm center, the part that reacts to threat before your thinking brain catches up.

Brainspotting therapists are highly attuned and trained in this unique approach. I’ve done extensive training (as well as my own Brainspotting) to be in the position to be able to support you with this amazing healing modality.

Brainspotting came from EMDR.

Dr. David Grand was an EMDR therapist when he discovered it in 2003. Both EMDR and Brainspotting reach the brain through the eyes. Both bypass the limits of talk therapy.

However, they work differently. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (eyes moving side to side or other methods of stimulating first one side of the brain and then the other) to process specific memories through a structured eight-phase protocol.

Brainspotting uses a fixed gaze on one spot, with no set protocol, letting the client’s body lead.

Many therapists trained in both use them together. It’s not a question of which one is better or worse. They each offer a different way in.

It’s Brainspotting work done in a focused block of time rather than week-to-week, for people who are ready to move what’s been stuck without stretching the work out over an extended period of time.

Instead of one session a week for months, we go deeper: three hours, a half-day, a full day, sometimes several days, depending on what your nervous system can hold.

Many of my intensive clients are people who’ve already been in therapy for years and want something different. They can clear the time. They’re ready to commit to the process. They’re tired of going week by week. They want to move what’s been stuck.

We’ll talk about whether an intensive is right for you in a consultation. If it is, we’ll design it together.

It’s different than what most people are used to from talk therapy.

You won’t always notice what’s changing in the moment during a session. Improvement often shows up between sessions. You might notice that something doesn’t grab you anymore, or certain thoughts or emotions feel less loud. Some shifts arrive quietly. Others land all at once.

The breakthroughs that come from Brainspotting don’t end when the session does. Your body keeps reaching for what it’s been holding back from doing. I help my clients understand how to notice the positive changes, and this becomes something we discuss from session to session so you feel even more confident about the process.

You don’t have to know. You already do a version of this.

Every day, without thinking, your eyes find comfortable and uncomfortable places to rest. That link between where you look and how you feel is what Brainspotting works with, on purpose.

That’s what I’m here for. People come to me having never thought about their body in a therapy room. They sit down expecting it to be weird. Within minutes, their body starts doing what it knows how to do, and they realize their body has been speaking the whole time. They just hadn’t learned to listen.

You don’t need to be a meditator. You don’t need to be "in touch with your body."

If you have a body, you have what we need. I’ll guide everything else.

No. And that’s the part most people don’t expect. You’re not back there. You’re here, in your body, in this moment, with me beside you.

Brainspotting doesn’t force you through the experience. It reaches the wound where it’s been imprinted and lets your body move what it’s been carrying without making you relive it.

You don’t have to relive it. (But if you want to, you can, and we’ll talk about how to do that safely.)

This is what I mean when I say I make this work accessible instead of terrifying. The thing that scared you about trauma therapy isn’t what we’re doing here. But the benefits can be just as deep and long-lasting.

No.

A lot of my clients come to me from another therapist. They have a relationship that’s working. They’re just stuck in one specific place that talk therapy hasn’t been able to reach.

What I do is meet them exactly there. We do focused Brainspotting work, sometimes one session, sometimes an intensive arc. You experience genuine relief and all the benefits that come from doing this type of therapy.

Your therapist takes it from there and builds on what’s now possible.

You don’t need any prior therapy experience.

Brainspotting reaches the layer underneath your conscious awareness. Your body has been carrying what brought you here whether you’ve talked about it before or not.

We’ll find where to begin together.

If you’re worried about whether you’re ready, that worry makes sense.

The worry itself is your nervous system asking: is this safe? That’s exactly what Brainspotting works with.

We can start small. We can go slow. We can work in chunks your body can hold and integrate. We’ll only move forward as fast as your body says yes.

If after a consultation something else really fits better, I’ll say so. My door stays open either way. I’ve had many people come back when the time was right.

Ninety minutes.

I find that 90 minutes is enough time for you to arrive, drop in, and then let your body do what it’s been waiting to do.

Focused Personal Intensives run longer.

Because you’re most at ease in your own space, and that helps us go deeper faster.

Most of my clients do this from home. From their own couch in their own room with their pet beside them.

If home isn’t the right place I’ll help you figure out a great option.

Brainspotting works beautifully virtually. Your eyes can find the spot. When we’re done, you’re already home, so you don’t have to figure out how to reenter the world and drive through traffic after a deep session. This is immensely helpful, which you’ll see.

I’m licensed in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Florida.

Wherever you are in those four states, we can work together.

Not directly. I’m out of network, which keeps things private and gives us freedom in how we work.

I provide a superbill you can submit for possible reimbursement, and many plans cover part of out-of-network care. We can talk it through in your consultation.

Yes. Many of my clients have a pet beside them. If they help your nervous system settle down, they belong in the room.