Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a type of psychotherapy that is designed to directly target the way a trauma response is held in the body and release the stuck pattern. 

Here is the DBR official website: https://deepbrainreorienting.com/

Your brain is processing the world around you, unconsciously, every moment. If something unexpected or alarming happens the network of fight/flight/freeze is activated within milliseconds.  Emotions come after your brainstem has already directed your body what to do, and only much later might you begin to cognitively make sense of the event, to tell yourself the story of what happened. 

DBR works by tapping into the very beginning of this sequence, the moment you orient towards something. By keeping your awareness on the physiological sensations that unfold from here you are able to begin to release the shock your system is carrying from the event.  You will find you can process emotion with less overwhelm, leading to a greater capacity to hold space for difficult feelings and situations.

Doing DBR is a bit like practicing mindfulness.  We are sitting in stillness, tracking the nervous system and body sensations.  As we continue to work in this way, clients often report feeling lighter, more calm and more emotionally regulated.  The nice thing about DBR is that because you anchor your awareness into the body you don’t have to keep an emotional trigger in your mind, so feeling overwhelmed is uncommon. 

There is a lot of variation in how often clients choose to do DBR.  Some clients chose to do a session of this deeper work and then spend some sessions talking and integrating what they have noticed.  More intensive formats are available where a client may do several sessions of DBR in a short period of time to work through some targeted issues.

If you feel drawn to do deeper therapeutic work, or are simply tired of feeling stuck, DBR could be a great modality to explore.  Because there is a component of grounding in the body, DBR inherently helps to avoid an overwhelm of emotions.  It is a powerful tool for clients who have a tendency to dissociate as the method of grounding in DBR facilitates keeping you within your window of tolerance.

Feel free to reach out for a consultation if you would like to talk more about if this work could be helpful for you.