Skip to main content Skip to footer Trauma can leave lasting imprints on the brain and body, affecting how individuals respond to stress, regulate emotions and experience connection. This often happens outside of conscious awareness, trauma can alter how the nervous system functions, influencing, emotional regulation, physiological responses, and relational patterns overtime. For many people these effects persist even when they understand what happened and why.
Trauma does not require specific diagnosis to warrant care. Brainspotting therapy offers a neural biologically informed, trauma-focused approach that works directly with the brain and body to support healing.
Trauma isn’t defined by how bad something looks from the outside. It is defined by how your nervous system experienced it. Trauma can affect all areas of life, including mode, relationships, and a sense of self. Trauma can include a wide range of situations, such as serious injury, sexual violence, chronic abuse, and neglect. Around 70% of adults in the United States have experienced at least one trauma. Trauma can lead to numerous mental health problems, such as anxiety, self harm, substance, abuse, and PTSD. Trauma can manifest and diverse weights, significantly impacting survivors cognitive, emotional, and physical functioning. Not everyone who experiences trauma will develop blasting negative effects, but some may develop PTSD. Traumatic and sensitize a persons nervous system, leading to heighten responses to certain stimuli. Trauma can be categorized into big tea, trauma, which includes significant events, and small tea trauma, which includes more personal distressing experiences.
Trauma isn’t only stored as a story you can tell. It is often stored as patterns in the nervous system.
When something overwhelming happens, the body shifts into survival mode, fight flight, freeze appease, or collapse. If the experience isn’t fully processed, the nervous system may continue reacting as if the threat is still present.
This can show up as:
Much trauma is stored as implicit memory, sensations emotions, reflexes, rather than clear, narrative memory. That is why insight alone often does not resolve it.
In other words, you may understand what happened, but your body still reacts.
Trauma informed care operates on the assumption that every individual seeking services may be a trauma survivor. Trauma informed therapy shifts of focus from, "what's wrong with you" to "what happened to you?" Trauma informed therapy emphasizes, creating a safe and supportive environment for patients, addressing their individual experiences and needs. Trauma informed therapy aims to empower individuals with the skills and understanding necessary for long-term healing and resilience. Trauma informed care is based on key principles such as safety, trusts, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. Trauma informed care acknowledges that public institutions and service systems meant to offer support sometimes to be trauma inducing.
Trauma therapy can help clients regain a sense of control and empowerment in their lives. Evidence space therapy for trauma, primarily focuses on helping the brain and body process distressing memories that it becomes stuck. Trauma therapy can help clients develop healthy coping mechanisms and learn to express their emotions in a healthy way. Effective trauma therapy like EMDR, brain, spotting, and somatic approaches, helped by reprocessing, distressing memories, correcting distorted, beliefs, and regulating the nervous system.
Brainspotting is a brain body therapy that works with the parts of the nervous system where trauma is stored, without requiring you to relive or explain everything.
Brainspotting uses opposition to help access subcortical areas of the brain connected to emotional and physical activation. This allows processing to happen through sensations and awareness not just words.
Brainspotting works when memories are fuzzy, inaccessible or nonverbal. You don’t need a clear memory or detailed story for brains spotting to work.
Brainspotting works with:
Rather than push, pushing for catharsis, brain, spotting, prioritize, safety, pacing, and regulation. This makes it especially supportive for people who feel overwhelmed easily or shut down when talking about the past.
Brainspotting sessions are collaborative and led by the client.
A session may include
Brain can be helpful for people working with:
Do You Need a PTSD Diagnosis?
No
Many people heal trauma without ever meeting criteria for PTSD.
Brainspotting is a trauma focused, brain- body therapy that helps process trauma stored in the nervous system. By identifying specific eye positions linked to emotional activation, brainspotting allows the brain to release trauma at a deeper, subcortical level often without needing to retell the full story.
No. You do not need a PTSD diagnosis to benefit from trauma therapy. Many people experience symptoms of trauma, such as anxiety, emotional numbing, and attachment, wounds without fully meaning criteria for PTSD. Trauma is defined by how your nervous system responded not a series of specific symptoms.
Many people heal trauma without ever meeting criteria for PTSD.
Unlike traditional talk therapy which focuses primarily on cognitive insight, brainspotting works directly with the body and nervous system.
Compared to eat and do therapy brain spotting:
For many clients, it feels gentler and more contained.
Brainspotting therapy may help with:
It is particularly helpful when inside alone hasn't created lasting change.
HIlary Stokes, Ph.D., LCSW is a licensed psychotherapist in California with more than 25 years of clinical experience, specializing in trauma therapy, PTSD treatment, anxiety, depression, and nervous system healing. She holds Master's degrees in Clinical Social Work and Kinesiology and Sports Psychology and a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology with a specialization in Tibetan Buddhist Psychology. Dr. Stokes is extensively trained and certified in brainspotting, EMDR, somatic therapy and other mind body approaches. Her integrative work bridges neuroscience, mindfulness, and holistic psychology to help clients process unresolved trauma, rewire stress patterns, and build emotional resilience.
Dr. Stokes’ clinical approach is informed by advanced professional training and her own healing journey from complex trauma, which shaped her commitment to therapies that go beyond traditional talk therapy. She has worked in psychiatric hospitals, addiction and PTSD treatment centers, universities, integrative medical facilities, and private practice. As co-developer of the psychology and wellness programming at Sanoviv Medical Institute, she witnessed firsthand the power of integrating mind and body for lasting transformation. Today she helps individuals heal trauma, strengthen emotional regulation and reclaim purpose through brainspotting, EMDR, somatic therapy and mindfulness interventions.
Kim Ward, Ph.D. holds both a masters and a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology with a specialization in Tibetan Buddhist Psychology. She brings more than 25 years of experience in trauma recovery, Brainspotting and mind-body transformation. She is extensively trained and certified in Brainspotting, somatic therapy, and trauma-informed approaches. Dr. Ward integrates neuroscience, nervous system regulation and consciousness-based psychology to help individuals process unresolved trauma, shift limiting beliefs, and access greater emotional resilience. Her work focuses on healing at the root, beyond symptom management, through brain-body therapies that create lasting change.
As co-developer of the psychology and wellness programs at Sanoviv Medical Institute, Dr. Ward brings a uniquely holistic perspective to trauma therapy and personal growth. Her path from corporate leadership into psychology shaped her commitment to helping clients move beyond external success toward embodied fulfillment and emotional freedom. Dr. Ward's expertise combines Brainspotting, emotional intelligence, contemplative psychology and purpose-driven coaching. Drawing from both advanced academic training and lived experience navigating complex family mental health dynamics, she supports clients in transforming stress patterns, reclaiming vitality, and aligning with authentic purpose.
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