Author Archives: Katherine Allen

Welcome 20 new Brainspotting Practitioners!

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Please join me in welcoming 20 more Brainspotting Practitioners to our community!

What a 3-day weekend. 20 trainees from coast-to-coast and Canada, 17 assistants (also from coast-to-coast and Canada!) and the amazing Amanda Perez as our pilot. We faced snowstorms and power outages and embraced pets (thank you Lily!) and processing.

The overwhelm and burnout we all face is hopefully smaller and lighter as we move back into our systems and continue to support our communities in navigating these very strange and difficult waters.

Well done everyone!!

Join me for Phase 2 Online in February!

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Keep your Brainspotting skills sharp with a brief overview of Phase 1 technique, and then learn a new array of set-ups for you and your clients in Phase 2 Brainspotting training. We do an in-depth focus on the eye and how it guides and informs us to the client’s held trauma to swiftly and effective release it.

We also learn to “play and practice” all of the Brainspotting set-ups, to gain confidence and skill in practice.

There’s still plenty of room! Register soon to claim your spot.

Join me in Welcoming “Pathways to Healing” to the Brainspotting community!

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The past 3 days were filled with heart and healing as we ushered in a private group Phase 1 Brainspotting training with Pathways to Healing Counseling in the Indianapolis area of Indiana.

Owner, Kristen Boice, generously and lovingly created an opportunity for her whole team to learn Brainspotting together. It was my deep privilege to be their trainer and leader in this journey.

Please join me in welcoming 10 new Brainspotting practitioners to the greater Brainspotting community! (in no particular order): Rachel Hall, Roxie Stone, Liz Howerth, Jason Tarnow, Matthew Stach, Julie Setmeyer, Renee Day, Missy Snyder, Mary Maas and Taylor Ellis. And, well, Renee’s 2 cats provided a remarkable reflection of internal processing!

And as always, this would have been impossible without my great team of support and Assistants. Giant shout-out to Micheal McGee for running the Zoom technology, and to Lucas Brewer, Beverly Fuentes, Christine Genovese, Mehwish Issa, Nikki Batta, Sheryl Wookey, Kim Knowlton-Young, Christina Smalley, Kimberly Ward and Helen Vozinidis. Their generosity of time, again and again, further demonstrates the deep commitment to this model of therapy and to this community. I am ever grateful for you, as are our newly trained colleagues!

Welcome Phase 2 Trainees!

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We did it again! We completed our latest ONLINE Brainspotting Phase 2 training. We had trainees from the US, Canada, Switzerland and the UK. Part of the emotional energy during the 3-day event was hijacked by the environmental crisis looming large in our small group, with extremely early snow happening at my house Saturday morning, followed by an emergency evacuation for our Colorado attendee later that day, we were all taking time to be with each other in a more thoughtful way.

So although I am only announcing 12 trainees, a 13th is 2/3 of the way there to being officially completed, and we will work to make that happen when they are safe and ready and able to focus again.

Please join me in welcoming these newest Phase 2 trainees to the Brainspotting community (in no particular order): Julie Burke, Kara Serasis, Erika López, Angela Thompson, Danielle LeRiche-Forkey, Wookaja Yukako Chang, Katherine Beckett, Gloria Hood, Davi Stein-Kiley, Majjham Warenfeldt, Michael Finegan and Lindsay Elin.

And as always, none of this would be possible without the essential support of our Assistants. Amanda Perez as my navigator was spectacular. Grateful thanks go out to: Christine Genovese, Carolyn Robistow, Kimberly Ward, Sheryl Wookey, Kim Knowlton-Young, Nikki Batta, Kristen Swart, Cesilia Gonzalez and Mehwish Issa. The generosity of time and commitment is deeply felt and appreciated.

Thank you Castleton University!

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I wanted to thank Castleton University for having me as a guest lecturer in their Introduction to Trauma Studies class, again.

I am so happy to do this kind of teaching as I believe it is the most important foundation of being a good therapist, really knowing how the brain and body react and respond to threat, and then the best part, how to actually heal from it.

The Castleton University Counseling Center has 3 trained Brainspotting practitioners, Martha, Linda and Amy, and they have created a unique and special resource for students who have experienced trauma. I am so proud of them and so proud to be invited back each year.

First Tuesdays Supervision Group Beginning 9/1/2020

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I am announcing a regular Supervision/Consultation group be held the first Tuesday of each month from 10a-12p EST. These will be held via Zoom.

Finally! I know it’s been tough to plan around my crazy schedule.

Group consults are $50 per person for the 2-hour group. These are for skills-building and community building and they do not count as hours towards your Certification (a question I get asked often). Come as often as you’d like, or not. I love seeing everyone and helping build our Brainspotting community.

E-mail me at k@bspkat.com to be added to the list and please share with anyone you think may also be interested in joining.

Damir del Monte and the Brain

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I cannot exclaim enough about how fabulous Dr. del Monte’s videos are, how well he explains just how things like PTSD happen and hopefully in doing so, gives validation and comfort to the suffering with such experiences.

Watch, learn, share.

 

 

https://www.lecturio.de/medizin/brainspotting-special-saving-package.kurs

New England’s June 2020 Phase 1 and Phase 2 to be held ONLINE

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I have heard from KUA that the pandemic physical restrictions guidelines make it impossible for us to hold the trainings scheduled for June in-person. So they will both now be held ONLINE.

The good news is that we may have more attendees this way. Also, I have been training in how to run these online and I am now VERY confident that we will have a great experience. My grateful thanks for those who have helped me learn!

Please forward the new information to colleagues whom you feel may be interested in learning Brainspotting or expanding their Brainspotting skills to assist clients through the non-verbal and felt-sense essence of the current pandemic. We will do a deep dive into Limbic Countertransference as well as global existential crisis, trauma shock, and how to work with clients and ourselves regarding these issues.

I am available for supervision for all attendees post-training and will be scheduling more group supervisions to support skills growth and community building.

Setting up for Brainspotting via Telehealth

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As we are all preparing to do things differently for a while, I have been fielding many questions regarding just how to get things working well – for us and for our clients. Here is a summary of what I feel is good to know.

First, a short video of my introduction on how to do Brainspotting sessions via telehealth.

Working from Home
When we are in our homes, so many things are so different. The space, our muscle memory for where things are, maybe even how we feel about ourselves and our practice. I know that I feel much more “on the job” when I am in my office than at home, that’s a big reason why I have an office. I like the separation of work/life and I like the guaranteed privacy.

At home I need to create a space that achieves as much of my professional comfort as possible. I have a room where I can close the door. I purchased a second sound machine so I have the same familiar ocean wave noise as I am accustomed in my office. I have a desk where my computer can be stable and at eye-level. I have a rolling desk chair so I can move about a bit. I have a jar with pens, pointers, finger puppets to use in the session. I have my files and my phone. I have a clock at eye-level so I can track the timing of the session.

I also have 2 things that I don’t typically use in my office. I have a set of wireless headphones with a built-in microphone and I have a conferencing microphone.

The headset is so I am confident that my clients are being protected as much as possible, nobody in the house can hear the client’s voice or what they are expressing. In working for just a short while with earbuds that have a mic, I found them to be very uncomfortable, and the mic gets brushed and muffled often which becomes overly irritating (at least to me) on the receiving end when you are doing work this way all day.

The conferencing microphone is a great option for groups, and that is how I have been using it so far. It drowns out background noise and amplifies my voice and it has a great range so if I move around, the client or group can still hear me clearly.

TIP: make sure the audio on your system is selecting the remote speaker/headset, not the built-in one. You can check that on the top bar of your screen, and then again make sure to select it within the Preferences of the video conferencing platform that you use. 

The Client’s Home   Client-side setup
My colleague here, Nick Doolittle, created a lovely “get started” how-to page for clients and offered to share it with everyone. I e-mail it prior to the session so clients can set up their space and be as ready as possible before the session, making the most of the time.

One thing to really stress with clients, trainees, colleagues is that their video source (laptop / desktop / iPad / tablet / phone) be STABLE, i.e: stationary. Working with screen sessions for extended periods I find myself quite seasick by the end of the day if clients are moving around, jostling the device, etc.

The Business Part
I have a new link on my site to accept PayPal or credit card payment for sessions. I also have a fill-in-able pdf of the Intake Paperwork that clients can send to me via e-mail, or if need be through a Dropbox exchange.

We are all doing the best we can, learning from each other and from each session. Be kind and gentle with yourself and remember that your clients will give you far more credit than you think.