What Is Deep Brain Reorienting?
Most people who come to me for DBR aren't new to therapy.
They come with depression that won't lift. Anxious thoughts that circle the same worries. Relationships that keep setting them off in the same ways. Beliefs about themselves (I'm too much, I'm not enough, something is wrong with me) that they know aren't true, and yet, they believe anyway.
Many of them have already talked about all of it, sometimes for years. They understand where it comes from. They've worked hard. And they're tired, because understanding hasn't changed how it feels to live inside it.
If this is you, you haven't failed at healing.
What is Known About Why People Stay Stuck
When something overwhelming happens, especially early in life, the brain responds with a fixed sequence. It turns toward the threat. Then, it experiences shock. After this, the emotions come and then the thoughts come to try to make sense of it all. This is all happening in less than one second, and the layer of the brain where your thoughts live is not typically able to register it’s predecessors of orienting and shock.
This sequence runs in the deepest, oldest part of the brain, the brainstem. It runs faster than thought, and we have very little conscious control over it. When the original shock was never resolved and in particular when there were shocks about similar events, the brain keeps running the same play-by-play every time something reminds it of the past. The type of shock I’m talking about isn’t the emotion shock (the alarm we experience when something is scary). This form of shock, buried in the brainstem, is experienced when something could potentially be harmful or difficult. A tone of voice. A look. A silence.
From what has been recently understood in research, this is why people stay stuck. Not because they aren't trying, but because the pattern is being driven from a level that effort and insight can't reach. You can talk about the emotion. You can challenge the thought. But the shock underneath, the thing holding those emotions and thoughts in place, stays exactly where it was.
DBR works at that level.
What DBR Does
DBR begins in the brainstem, with the very first moments of the response: the subtle orienting tension around the eyes, forehead, and neck, and the shock beneath it.
The session is crafted so that you stay, as much as possible, at that level while processing. We don't move up into analysis or story. This does two things. Emotions that used to feel like too much become much easier to be with. And thinking doesn't take over, so the session doesn't turn into another round of trying to figure it out.
When shock is met this way, it can release. And when it releases, the emotions and thoughts it was holding in place loosen too. They aren't argued with or managed. What was anchoring them is simply no longer there.
What It's Actually Like
People are often surprised by how calm DBR is.
Mostly, there are feelings moving through the body. Sometimes the intensity rises, but it usually feels manageable to be with. If it doesn't, we slow down and bring it back to a level you can stay present with. The point is never to be overwhelmed or to push through something awful. The point is to stay present enough for the shock to release on its own.
Along the way, recognitions come naturally. You don't have to work for them. They just arrive: Oh. That's what that was. That's why I've always done that.
It Actually Changes Things
I've practiced many approaches. This is the one I've seen change the most.
You don't have to talk through everything. You don't have to make an effort to change. Your brain is releasing old pathways and forming new ones. All you have to do is show up and be present to what comes: the shock, the emotion connected to it, and the recognitions that follow.
It is so strangely simple. And it is the most effective approach I have seen.
What People Find
Over time, people tell me about feeling:
More spaciousness inside
Less reactive, with old triggers landing differently or not at all
Much less distress
A deeper understanding of themselves
More capacity to be themselves, including in relationships
A clearer sense of who they are and what they want in their lives
The ability to move toward things without the stress that used to come with them
That last part is what I didn't expect when I started this work. DBR doesn't only relieve symptoms. It helps people discover who they are and to then become more of themselves. As the shock that shaped so much of their lives releases, parts of themselves that were never accessible start to come forward.
I've never seen another approach do this.
A Little Background
DBR was developed by Dr. Frank Corrigan, a Scottish psychiatrist who has worked for decades with trauma and attachment wounding. The "deep brain" in the name refers to the brainstem, where orienting and shock happen. It has nothing to do with deep brain stimulation, surgery, or implants. Nothing is done to your brain except paying close attention to it.
The research is young but promising. In the first randomized controlled trial, conducted entirely by video, about half of participants no longer met criteria for PTSD after eight sessions, and the results held three months later. Very few people dropped out, which reflects what I see too: people can tolerate this work, even when it goes deep.
If You've Tried Everything
If you've done the work and still find yourself in the same patterns, the problem may not be you or your effort. It may be that the work has been happening above the level where the pattern lives.
DBR starts underneath. And from there, things actually change.
Read more about how I practice DBR, or reach out for a consultation.
https://www.awakenpsyche.com/deep-brain-reorienting
Read here about the difference between EMDR and DBR.