Brainspotting vs. EMDR: Which One Is Right for You?

I have been practicing EMDR with clients for years, and am currently training in Brainspotting, which means I am learning the differences firsthand rather than just reading about them.

How Are They Actually Different?

Both approaches use the eyes to help you process things that talk therapy alone cannot always reach, but they go about it in different ways. EMDR relies on back-and-forth eye movements, taps, or tones, alternating left and right, as a core part of helping your brain make sense of a memory it stored but never fully processed. We call this "reprocessing" for a reason — it is often working through the sensory or emotional residue of an experience, not just the story and meaning of it.

Brainspotting starts somewhere else. Instead of moving the eyes back and forth, the work is about finding the "spot," the specific place your eyes land when you think about whatever you are wanting to work through, which seems to connect to where that experience is held in the body. The hypothesis is that where your eyes are looking or the activation spot is a neurological resource to the midbrain which is grounded in the body (or the felt sense of the experience, the distress, and a sensation in your body). While in EMDR, the back-and-forth stimulation is at the heart of the model, in Brainspotting, it is optional.

Why I Was Drawn to Training in This

I went into this training thinking Brainspotting might not be for me personally, but that I wanted to be able to offer it to clients who have not fully resonated with EMDR or have struggled with it for different reasons. EMDR's structure, while genuinely useful, asks a lot of a client — describing images, naming negative and positive preferred beliefs, and rating how distressing something feels. That can be a lot to hold, especially early on, and especially for clients who find it hard to put what they are noticing into words in real time.

Brainspotting does not ask for nearly as much of that. You can share as much or as little as you want, and you do not have to answer anything you are not ready to. I think that matters most for clients who find it hard to talk about what they are working through, whether that is because of how their own mind processes things, or because of cultural or language differences that make translating an inner experience into specific words feel clunky or exposing. Like any therapy though, with Brainspotting, what you do not share, the therapist will not know, and the trust between the client and therapist can make a difference in how much the client might benefit from the session, much like any other therapy regardless of the modality.

What Does the Research Say?

EMDR has a much larger research base at this point, and I want to be upfront about that rather than overstate what Brainspotting has behind it so far. But the early research is promising. A 2017 study comparing the two approaches for PTSD found that both EMDR and Brainspotting produced meaningful reductions in symptoms after just a few sessions. The Brainspotting research base is still smaller and newer than EMDR's, so I would not call the evidence settled, but what exists so far lines up with what I am seeing in my own training.

What Surprised Me Most

Before I started this training, I actually tried Brainspotting once myself as a client with another therapist, and I could see how the silence in sessions isn’t for everyone. Part of me could see how a client can view it as the therapist being uninvolved, “doing nothing,” or even at worst, neglectful. But practicing it myself during training, that same silence landed completely differently. I could feel how it let my own system take the lead, rather than being guided through it. Knowing I could share as much or as little as I wanted let the process move at my pace is what has stuck with me.

Who I Think Might Benefit More From Brainspotting

I think about the clients who have had a very difficult time landing on what was the most disturbing part of the experience, or who struggle with identifying the negative belief or meaning they have about themselves as a result of what happened, or the clients who describe feeling "stuck in their heads" and cannot verbalize or put into words what is coming up for them. Brainspotting's quieter approach, leaving room for clients to talk as little or as much as they want throughout the processing, seems like it could be a good fit for clients who have found EMDR's structure overwhelming, or for whom talking openly about a painful experience does not come easily. I also think about the shame that can come with putting certain thoughts and feelings into words. In those cases, Brainspotting might feel safer, because a client can simply "be" with what is coming up rather than having to name it, which leaves room for whatever cultural values or shame they might be carrying around those feelings.

The Bottom Line

What is actually hard about trauma work is not choosing the right approach, it is showing up and letting yourself feel something you have spent a long time not feeling. EMDR and Brainspotting are both trying to get you to the same place, just by different roads. I am still early in this training and have not yet used Brainspotting with a client of my own, so take this as an honest first look rather than a finished opinion.

What I have seen so far has me genuinely curious to keep going, not as a replacement for EMDR, but as another option for clients for whom EMDR does not fully resonate.

Common Questions About Brainspotting and EMDR

Is Brainspotting just a simpler version of EMDR? Not exactly. Brainspotting was developed out of EMDR, but it works differently rather than doing less, trading EMDR's structured process for a more open format during the processing.

Does Brainspotting still use eye movement like EMDR does? Not in the same way. EMDR uses back-and-forth eye movement as a core part of processing, while Brainspotting uses a fixed eye position, with sound as an optional addition rather than a requirement.

Is Brainspotting backed by as much research as EMDR? Not yet. EMDR dates back to 1989, while Brainspotting was developed in 2003, so EMDR has more than a decade of extra research behind it. Brainspotting's research base is smaller and newer, though early results have been promising.

Can Brainspotting and EMDR be used together? Yes, some clinicians combine them, using whichever fits best for a particular client or a particular memory.

How do I know which one is right for me? It often comes down to a lot of factors, and honestly, you may not know until you try. The simple answer I can give is that for someone who has a hard time verbalizing their feelings or putting thoughts into words, Brainspotting does not require you to. But, what matters most is trusting the process and communicating openly with your therapist about what is or is not working. The more you can name what is helping, the more we can adjust and let the therapy work for you. This is often something we keep checking in on together as we try different approaches. As your therapist, I am also watching for what is and is not working, so we can lean into your strengths and make the adjustments when needed. Book a free consultation and we can start figuring out what fits.

Sources: Hildebrand, Grand & Stemmler, 2017, Mediterranean Journal of Clinical Psychology