How Brainspotting Can Help With Chronic Overwhelm
Ivy Griffin
For many people, overwhelm feels like a constant state of being. It’s more than just a busy week or a stressful deadline—it’s the sense that your nervous system is always running on high, leaving you exhausted, irritable, and stuck. If you’ve tried to “think your way out of it” without success, you’re not alone. Overwhelm often lives in the body as much as the mind, which is why traditional coping tools sometimes fall short. This is where brainspotting can help.
Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach that accesses the mind-body connection directly. By working with the brain and nervous system, it helps release stored stress and trauma that fuel chronic overwhelm.
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is a form of therapy developed by Dr. David Grand that uses eye position to access areas of the brain where trauma, stress, or unresolved experiences are stored. The idea is that “where you look affects how you feel.” By focusing on specific eye positions, clients can process emotions on a deeper level than traditional talk therapy alone often allows.
Brainspotting is not about forcing change. Instead, it gently helps the brain and body process what’s been stuck, leading to greater relief and clarity.
Why Overwhelm Can Feel So Hard to Shake
Chronic overwhelm is not just mental—it’s physiological. When stress builds up over time, the nervous system can get “stuck” in a heightened state of fight, flight, or freeze. This leads to:
Trouble concentrating
Emotional reactivity
Constant fatigue
Feelings of being shut down or detached
Even small daily tasks can feel impossible when the nervous system is overloaded. Overwhelm lingers because the body has not fully processed past stressors, leaving you vulnerable to being triggered again and again.
How Brainspotting Addresses Overwhelm at Its Source
Unlike strategies that focus only on thought patterns, brainspotting works directly with the brain-body connection. During a session, a therapist helps the client find a “brainspot”—a specific eye position linked to an area of stored stress or trauma. With focused mindfulness and gentle guidance, the client can process what’s been held beneath the surface.
This process helps the nervous system reset, releasing the tension that fuels chronic overwhelm. Clients often describe feeling lighter, calmer, and more grounded after sessions. Over time, brainspotting can help reduce the intensity of stress reactions, making it easier to handle daily challenges without becoming flooded.
Benefits of Brainspotting for Chronic Overwhelm
Brainspotting may help people who feel stuck in cycles of exhaustion and stress by:
Releasing unresolved trauma that feeds anxiety and overwhelm
Calming an overactive nervous system
Improving focus, sleep, and emotional regulation
Increasing resilience when new stressors arise
Supporting a deeper sense of connection to self and others
Because brainspotting works at a deeper, somatic level, its benefits often extend beyond relief of symptoms—it can create lasting change in how clients respond to stress.
Is Brainspotting Right for You?
If you’ve tried other therapies or coping tools and still feel overwhelmed, brainspotting may be worth exploring. It’s often helpful for individuals who:
Struggle with anxiety, trauma, or emotional overload
Feel constantly “on edge” or unable to relax
Have a history of unresolved stress or painful experiences
Want a therapy that addresses both mind and body
Brainspotting is gentle and adaptable. Sessions are guided at your pace, with space to pause whenever needed. Clients often appreciate that it doesn’t require reliving trauma in detail—the focus is on the body’s natural ability to process and heal.
What a Brainspotting Session for Overwhelm Might Look Like
If you’re new to brainspotting, it can help to know what to expect. A session often begins with a conversation about what feels overwhelming in your life right now. Your therapist will then guide you in noticing where you feel that overwhelm in your body—maybe a tight chest, a clenched jaw, or a heavy feeling in your stomach.
From there, your therapist may help you find an eye position, or “brainspot,” that seems to connect with that feeling. With gentle focus, you’ll sit with the emotions and sensations that arise, while your therapist supports you in staying present and grounded.
You’re in control the whole time—able to pause, slow down, or redirect if needed. Many clients describe the process as surprising in its depth: without needing to retell every detail of past stress or trauma, they feel their body finally start to release what it’s been holding onto.
Over time, these sessions can help reduce the intensity of stress triggers and build a more lasting sense of calm.
Finding Relief in Sacramento and Online
Living with chronic overwhelm can make it feel like you’re always behind, always tired, and always bracing for the next thing. But you don’t have to stay stuck in that cycle. Brainspotting offers a way to move past overwhelm by addressing the root causes within the nervous system.
At Thrive Therapy & Counseling, we provide brainspotting therapy in Sacramento and nearby areas including West Sacramento, Elk Grove, Natomas, and Davis. We offer both in-person and online sessions, making support more accessible.
If overwhelm has been weighing you down, it may be time to try something different. Contact us today to learn how brainspotting can help you find balance and relief.