EMDR compared to BSP

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) compared to Brainspotting (BSP)   

(from David Grand (founder of BSP. He had used EMDR before discovering BSP) 

• EMDR uses eye movements- smooth pursuit 

BSP uses fixed eye gaze on relevant eye positions 

  Eye fixation and eye movements are opposites 

• BSP- relevant eye positions are established with high attunement 

EMDR- eye movements are not established with high attunement 

• BSP is articulated as using relational attunement 

EMDR is not 

• BSP’s foundation is the Uncertainty Principal (discovered by Werner Heisenberg in 1927, “we really don’t know where electrons are at any time; we can’t pinpoint where they will be at a certain time.”) Basically, we don’t ever make assumptions about how and when events in an individual person’s life have an effect on him/her. Each person is unique. 

EMDR doesn’t have an Uncertainty Principal 

• BSP is frame based, client and coach/therapist create the frame 

EMDR is protocol based 

• BSP attempts to bypass the neocortex (the busy “monkey brain” to access the subcortex 

EMDR accesses the neocortex 

• EMDR uses the AIP (Adaptive Information Processing ) model 

BSP does not, each person is an individual and their interactions with life are unique. We do not assume that they will fit into a protocal. 

• BSP is articulated by a neuroexperiential model 

EMDR is not 

• BSP uses a developmental model (generational, intrauterine, birth, preverbal,…) 

EMDR explicitly does not use a developmental model.