I attended the Brainspotting Phase One training presented by Marie Jose Boon and organised by Chantale Ishac on 1 – 3 March 2024. As a clinical psychologist who has been practising for over 20 years I highly recommend the training, and look forward to attending Phase 2 later this year.

The training was well-presented and included numerous demonstrations and opportunities to practice brainspotting, both as a client and as a therapist. The experience of being on the receiving end really highlights the effectiveness of this technique in activating areas within the nervous system where there is trauma, or clusters of emotional and experiential dysregulation. Given that I have been in my own therapy, I could compare the speed and intensity of what was elicited to the process of my own therapy on these issues, as well as my own way of working as a therapist.

Brainspotting diverts from a lot of traditional approaches in therapy and psychology therein that the focus is not on talking, but on experiencing and sitting/staying with the experience that arises in our bodies. As such it belongs to the current wave of experiential therapies where insight, talking, intellectual formulation and language are increasingly seen as secondary in effecting change. I find this refreshing. The implication of the above is that the approach is much faster, literally cutting through the verbal and intellectual “noise” of therapy.

My own experience of the brainspotting practice was deeply provocative, not only in experiencing it first-hand, but also in prompting me to rethink the whole scope of what makes therapy effective. This includes the importance of becoming present in the room and really “seeing” what is happening to your client. I know some of these experiential insights will continue to inform my clinical practice, even where I do not use brainspotting. Brainspotting really reminds us that we need to get out of our heads and into the room when we are working with people.

In the months to follow I will be exploring using brainspotting as a stand-alone approach as well as ways of integrating it with other ways of working. The training has left me keen on learning more and attending the next training when available. What I really appreciated was that the training provided me with something I can start using immediately and with confidence. This in itself is rare as anyone who has explored new approaches will be able to attest to.

I deeply appreciate the space created by Marie Jose Boon and Chantale Ishac with this training and the way it was set up and facilitated. It was an intense and meaningful experience that I will gladly recommend.”

Juan Korkie,

Clinical Psychologist, Director of Clinical Governance & Compliance, The LightHouse Arabia