BIPOC Brainspotting · Phase 4
August 6 to 8, 2026 · Bloomington, MN and Zoom
Training Schedule
With David Grand, PhD and Linnea Swanson · 9:00am to 6:00pm CDT each day, with a 75 minute lunch. Registration opens 8:30am on Day One.
Each morning brings a video microanalysis of a Brainspotting session. Each afternoon teaches one advanced frame set-up through lecture, live demonstration and practicum.
1
Day One Thursday, August 6
Morning
Intro lecture · Video microanalysis 1
Afternoon
Projected Image Spotting group exercise · Dreamspotting demonstration and practicum
2
Day Two Friday, August 7
Morning
Intro lecture on therapist exposure and limbic countertransference · Video microanalysis 2
Afternoon
The Expansion Model: demonstration and practicum
3
Day Three Saturday, August 8
Morning
Intro lecture on emotional memory and flashback · Video microanalysis 3
Afternoon
Bodyspotting: demonstration and practicum
This training is designed to be highly interactive
Start times, breaks and lunch are set by your trainer. Each afternoon's practicum is where the frame set-ups on the following pages get used.
Brainspotting Phase 4 · Frame set-up guides · August 2026 editionSchedule
Brainspotting · Phase 4
Frame Set-Up 1 of 4
Projected Image Spotting Frame Set-Up
Memories, fixed images, and flashbacks are projected onto the wall behind the therapist. Where the image lands positionally is itself a Brainspot.
1
Ask whether the client is visualizing the image
A memory, a fixed image, or a flashback. Confirm they are actually seeing it, not only thinking about it.
2
"Where do you see the image on the wall behind me?"
The image projects spontaneously to a position, which creates a simultaneous eye position: the Brainspot.
3
Guide the client to gaze at that spot and process
Follow the processing wherever it goes. Stay out of the way.
4
Periodically guide them back to the image
"What does it look like now, and what does it feel like?" The image may have faded, gone away, or been replaced by something else.
5
Let the ending be organically determined
There is no fixed endpoint. The process closes when it closes.
Why it works
The client places the image somewhere specific in space. That placement is not arbitrary: it is the brain locating the material, and the gaze position that finds it is the Brainspot.
Brainspotting Phase 4 · Frame set-up guides · August 2026 edition1 / 4
Brainspotting · Phase 4
Frame Set-Up 2 of 4
Dreamspotting Frame Set-Up
Projected Image Spotting applied to dreamwork. The whole brain is active during dreams, from the brainstem to the neocortex.
1
The client presents a dream for processing
Either brought in deliberately, or arising spontaneously during a session or during processing.
2
Ask first whether they are visualizing the dream
This step comes before anything else. No image, no Dreamspot.
3
"Where do you see the dream on the wall behind me?"
That position is the Dreamspot.
4
Guide the client to gaze at the Dreamspot and follow the processing
Wherever it goes, including away from the dream itself.
5
Periodically return to the dream
"What does it look like now? What does it feel like?" It may have faded or gone away, and something else may have arisen in its place.
6
Let the end of the process be organically determined
No interpretation is required. The dream does its own work.
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Brainspotting · Phase 4
Frame Set-Up 3 of 4
Expansion Model Frame Set-Up
SUDs goes from ten to zero. Expansion goes from zero to infinity. Used when the client reaches a squeezed lemon zero, or as work in its own right.
1
Guide awareness back to the site of the original body vulnerability
Now that it has been cleared, it becomes a site of body possibility.
2
Explore the experience of expansion in the client's body
Take time. The felt sense needs to be alive before you look for a spot.
3
Guide the client to locate the expansion spot
Multispotting is common in Expansion work: more than one spot may hold the state.
4
Hold the Expansion Frame together and follow where the process leads
Therapist and client hold it openly. Processing can be brief or extended.
When to use it
After clearing, at a squeezed lemon zero. Or as the whole reason for the session: performance, creativity, personal growth, spirituality, raised consciousness. Sports Performance and Creativity Enhancement are both applications of this model.
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Brainspotting · Phase 4
Frame Set-Up 4 of 4
Bodyspotting Frame Set-Up
The client uses a pointer to touch and press a spot on their own body. A gazespot locks in at the same moment. Highly experimental, and effective with a variety of clients.
1
Hand the pointer to the client for selfspotting with proximity
The client holds and directs the pointer themselves throughout.
2
Invite them to touch and press a spot on their body with the pointer
The bodyspot is found solely intuitively, not by any map or protocol.
3
Notice where the eyes lock as the pointer presses
The gazespot appears spontaneously and is matched to the bodyspot.
4
Process from the paired bodyspot and gazespot
Expect deep somatic processing. Follow it mindfully.
5
Use two or more pointers on different bodyspots if it fits
Continue the approach across sessions as it proves useful.
Not acupressure, not tapping
Bodyspots are found intuitively and matched with spontaneous eye positions. Beyond eye position, there are many sensory avenues for accessing the neurobiology and releasing trauma.
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Brainspotting · Phase 4
Background 1 of 2
The Frame
Facing the uncertainty of the client's 1 to 4 quadrillion synaptic connections, we set and hold a frame around the somatic and affective activation of their experience.
Questions the training opens with
What is the frame in Brainspotting?
What is the shape of a frame?
Is the Brainspotting therapist outside the frame, inside the frame, or in the frame?
1
Its shape is not fixed
Perhaps the frame is like an amoeba, constantly altering its shape based on circumstance.
2
Its purpose is focus
The frame provides neural and experiential focus for the client.
3
Focus becomes change
The frame activates and potentiates focused mindfulness, which leads to systemic change.
Hold it, don't tighten it
Every Phase 4 frame set-up is a way of setting and holding a frame: an image on the wall, a dream, an expansion in the body, a pressed bodyspot. The frame is what makes the uncertainty workable.
Brainspotting Phase 4 · Frame set-up guides · August 2026 editionBackground
Brainspotting · Phase 4
Background 2 of 2
Emotional Memory and Flashback
Much attention is given to body memory, while less attention is given to emotional memory. Day 3 begins here, and ends in Bodyspotting.
1
Emotional and body memories can be felt together or separately
Neither one is the whole picture of what is held.
2
Emotions felt in adulthood may actually be memories
Powerful emotions may be unrecognized manifestations of flashback.
3
Especially sadness, grief, anxiety and panic
These are the states most often mistaken for present-day feeling alone.
4
Panic attacks and phobias may be unrecognized flashbacks
Perhaps of traumatic experience from preverbal development.
5
Frame the emotional state itself
Brainspotting can be used to frame powerful, abiding emotional states and gain access to early traumatic experiences.
In the room
When a client arrives inside a large emotion with no story attached, treat the emotion as the frame rather than hunting for a narrative. Bodyspotting gives that frame a second sensory anchor.
Brainspotting Phase 4 · Frame set-up guides · August 2026 editionBackground