The High/Low Brainspotting setup
Rationale
Many people I work with in Brainspotting sessions display high levels of charge – be it emotional and/or somatic. When activation like this becomes fixated in a flight, fight, or freeze response it can be difficult to tritate into manageable chunks for the person to process. There are several setups in basic Brainspotting training to work with this – Body resource spot, One-eyed Brainspotting with all its variants and Expansion points.
The High/Low set-up achieves the same tritating effect using another another route – a form of double spotting where the person alternates between a focused and diffused gaze off a resource spot.
The set-up potentially allows people to experience several positive contradictory experiences.
- The first is experiencing a resource spot (low activation) within the activation field while experiencing reduction in the initial activation.
- The second is when the person remains connected to the low activation point and while they imagine looking at the high activation point experience an increase in activation. Here the person experiences how the predictive brain map is negatively biased in a safe way.
- Lastly when the person returns to the high activation point, the charge has often significantly dropped. This in itself can provoke positive surprise and makes it safer to clear the fixated network.
Case session
I was working with a man for some time struggling with a debilitating form of focal dystonia. When triggered his whole upper torso would twist to one side and his head would be pulled into the chest quite vigorously. His professional performance had been affected as a result.
At the beginning of therapy activation level were generally high around 9/10. I worked with body resource points, expansion points and one-eyed BSP to reduce the level of charge we were working with at any one time. Progress was made with a reduction in the number of triggering situations and an overall reduction in the body reaction itself.
He recently came to a session having identified a specific administrative task which was still triggering him in work. He evaluated the activation level to be around a 6/10.
Given the overall drop in activation I began working with the Inside Window setup. As I tracked the X axis I could see there were areas of high and low activation in his visual field. As we fined tuned the activation point, his usual body response kicked in with the torso twisting violently to one side.
He was also finding it hard to keep his eyes on the activation point. He reported with a smile the activation had remained at a 6/10. But this felt somewhat contradictory because I was witnessing a body in a higher level of activation than at the beginning of the session.
I could have followed and stayed on the activation point to begin processing. Or I could have looked for a body resource spot. But I was still thinking about the areas in his visual field with low activation and suggested we look for a low activation spot instead to see what would happen.
As soon as he identified the low activation spot the twisting in his body stopped immediately and the activation dropped right down to 3/10. He was surprised by how strong and instantaneous the drop in change was.
I was tempted to squeeze the lemon but something told me to wait. After his body had fully settled the activation rose spontaneously like the body was bubbling up inside and he connected to emotionally difficult elements related to the initial issue. After processing the activation dropped down to 3/10. After settling for a few moments the activation rose again spontaneously and he connected to more emotionally difficult material. He processed this and the activation dropped back to a 3/10. He stepped through the cycle a third time until the activation finally stabilised.
Now instead of squeezing the lemon, I suggested he keep his eyes on the low activation point and IMAGINE his eyes moving back onto the high activation point to see what would happen.
As he did this he experienced an increase in activation connecting to more difficult material which he then processed. When the activation dropped down to 3/10 I suggested he imagine looking at the high activation point a second time. The activation increased and he processed more material.
When the activation stabilised at 3/10 while imagining looking at the high activation point, I suggested he now bring his eyes onto the high activation point.
When he did this, there was no body spasms, no twisting of the torso and no head being pulled into the chest. He was really surprised by the absence of an ingrained somatic reaction. It was the first time in our work together where he was able to connect to an activation point without his body jerking uncontrollably.
The activation was now down to 5/10 and he was able to process down to 1/10 without any undesired involuntary body movements reoccurring.
In a follow up session he reported the administrative task in question was no longer triggering and he was able to proceed normally with what he needed to do.
The High/Low Brainspotting setup
1. Choose issue
2. Determine activation
3. Take SUDs
4. Identify location of activation in the body
5. Find highest activation point (X/Y axis)
6. Find lowest activation point (X/Y axis)
7. Process on lowest activation point until SUDS below 3.
8. Ask subject to keep eye on lowest activation point and IMAGINE looking at high activation point.
9. Process to 0 SUDs
10. Repeat Step 8 until activation remains below 3
11. Ask subject to look at high activation point.
12. Process any remaining activation to 0 SUDs.
Stepping through the set-up
After choosing the issue, determining activation and location in the body, proceed as you normally would to identify an activation spot. As you are tracking the X axis, pay particular attention to reported areas of high and low activation.
Once you have identified the activation spot, ask the person to postmark it. Then identify the point of lowest activation.
Begin processing off the low activation point first. In the case of people with high levels of activation, by remaining on the low activation point it’s possible activation will rise spontaneously. Process this with the person.
Once the activation is clearly below 3 SUDs, ask the person to keep their eye on the low activation point while they imagine looking back at the high activation point. Process any rise in activation. Repeat this step as many times as you need until the activation remains less than 3 SUDs.
Then ask the person to look at the high activation point. Process any remaining activation to 0 SUDs.
Follow up
For Brainspotting practioners who try out the High/Low setup with their people, I would love to hear from you – your clinical observations, any difficulties or insights you may have. Connect with me through this contact page.
If enough practitioners are interested I will set up an online Clinical Research Group to collate our expertise.
