Susan Wasserman, psychotherapist and co-founder of Inner Journeys, has added Brainspotting to her practice. “This cutting-edge therapeutic approach identifies, processes and releases sources of emotional and physical pain associated with trauma,” Wasserman states. “Experts in trauma recognize that it is not only the major traumas that contribute to physical and emotional injury, but also the accumulation of little traumas experienced throughout our lives that are likely factors in depression, anxiety, pain, self-defeating patterns and other serious illness.”

Wasserman explains that, in many cases, trauma cannot be released by talk therapy alone. “Brainspotting is both psychological and neurological,” she notes. In a session, the client identifies what they want to work on, and then, while listening to sound that alternately engages right and left hemisphere of the brain and with the eyes fixated on a particular point, the client mindfully observes their physical sensations and internal experience as they unfold.

“During the Brainspotting session, deep attunement occurs between therapist and client,” she says. “Strategies that provide emotional security are woven into the process so that the parts of the brain that hold the sensations, images or memories of trauma can be accessed. Once accessed in this way, the stored traumatic content is processed and released without causing further traumatization.”

Location: 3970 N. Oakland Ave., Ste. 502, Milwaukee. For more information, call 414-961-0649, email [email protected] or visit InrJourneys.com.