Brainspotting was developed in 2003 by David Grand, so it is now 20 years old. Leading scientists and therapists (including Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk) agree that this special method offers great possibilities. This article sheds new light on the specific opportunities that exist for increasing performance in the areas of leadership, entrepreneurship and business functioning.
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Are You Familiar with Brainspotting?
Brainspotting was developed in 2003 by David Grand, so it is now 20 years old. Leading scientists and therapists (including Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk) agree that this special method offers great possibilities. This article sheds new light on the specific opportunities that exist for increasing performance in the areas of leadership, entrepreneurship and business functioning.
Then there is a good chance that you mainly know this revolutionary method as a method for treating trauma and trauma-related blockages. And that's fine, because many people have been helped by Brainspotting to process traces of trauma on a physical and mental level, and especially when other forms of therapy were insufficiently effective. However, did you know that you can also use Brainspotting to improve your performance?
David Grand, the developer of Brainspotting, works with many top athletes and artists and even wrote a book about it ('This is Your Brain on Sports'). I myself have had a busy practice for many years with mainly Brainspotting requests, and this often included musicians, artists and athletes who, for example, wanted to regain confidence after an injury or wanted to break through artistic blockages.
Even less known, however, is that you can also very well use Brainspotting to take your business performance to a higher level. And that's a shame, because this would help countless leaders and entrepreneurs enormously - especially since Brainspotting does NOT have a number of problems that coaching and talk therapy DO have.
In this article I will show you how Brainspotting can also have a place in improving your business performance, increasing your skills as a leader or manager and in finding your personal and business purpose.
How Does Brainspotting Work?
To begin with, Brainspotting is a so-called brain-based therapy, a method that does not work with talking, cognitions or behavior modification. On the contrary, all you have to do is look at a point as your brain naturally calms down the underlying sources of trauma, obstacles and blockages. You hardly have to talk, you don't have to understand what was actually going on, your brain does the work. Dr. Robert Scaer (‘The Trauma Spectrum’) defines Brainspotting as follows:
"Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the amygdala. It isn't just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis."
How Brainspotting really works exactly in the brain and in the body? For the time being, the answers to this are mainly hypothetical and theoretical. An extensive scientific status is obviously going too far for this article.
The 3 main ways to achieve greater performance through Brainspotting
Working from blocks (1)
Do you run into blocks in your business performance? For example, are you sweating before you have to speak in public or are you cramped in a sales conversation? Then we can straightforwardly opt for brainspotting aimed at the blockade you experience yourself. Recently, for example, I worked with a director of a utility company who absolutely could not stand being played on man. Now I thought that was very healthy, but he completely shut down in team meetings and team meetings, and that in a team where there was a lot of unrest and anger 'under water'. Brainspotting helped him to experience this much more calmly, so that he could keep his head up and guide his employees to express their needs in a constructive and compassionate way.
Performance Brainspotting (2)
Top athletes and professional musicians can benefit from Brainspotting if there are specific blockages in their performance. Sometimes this is after an injury, after a bad experience on the field, or when tensions cause motor skills to be disrupted and the technical execution becomes cramped.
Specific skills, behaviors or actions that are important for your functioning can be optimized with Performance Brainspotting. You just do or act out what you want to improve, and then we use Brainspotting to treat the blockages and tensions that arise. To give you an idea: during demonstrations in recent years, David Grand regularly asked a singer to perform a song, then do a Performance Brainspotting session and then recite the same song again. The difference was audible to everyone!
Now you probably don't have to play the cello in your company, but if you function at a high level in a business environment, the comparison with the complex process and the constant pressure of top sport and the performing arts is easily made. Examples of specific skills that qualify for this type of work include public speaking, sales pitches and making interventions during meetings and conferences.
Expansion Brainspotting (3)
One of the more recent additions to the Brainspotting toolbox is Expansion Brainspotting. David Grand himself once said that we do not work from 'zero to ten' but from 'zero to infinity'. That pretty much says it all. Do you have a visionary plan for your company and do you want to realize this dream? In your field of vision we find the eye position at which this dream becomes tangible and can unfold from within. I can also say from my own experience that Expansion Brainspotting helps tremendously to fully develop your deepest wishes and ambitions.
What Are the Benefits of Brainspotting for Entrepreneurs?
Would you like to discover how Brainspotting can help you with your entrepreneurship, leadership development and personal life? Brainspotting is one of the core methods we use in our coaching programs for leaders and entrepreneurs - for our Dutch and Belgian clients both in the usual 1-on-1 setting as well as in inspiring retreats with small groups of entrepreneurs. Internationally we use Brainspotting differently to fit the format of a video session. The different applications of Brainspotting have already contributed to great results, usually exceeding our clients' expectations.
Using this link you can sign up for a free video call to discuss the possibilities and opportunities in your specific situation.
Dirk Jan Versluis (MM, MSc) is psychologist and executive coach and specializes in the integral psychology of trauma, leadership and top performance (more information).
