NeuroShift Counseling, PLLC
Rewiring the brain. Restoring the self.
DEEP BRAIN REORIENTING
NEUROSCIENCE INFORMED CARE
IN-PERSON OR VIRTUAL SESSIONS
MORE ABOUT NEUROSHIFT counseling
Trauma Specialist
If you're coming to us with a trauma history, whether it be a single traumatic event or a lifetime of trauma, NeuroShift Counseling is equipped to help you heal, versus just managing your symptoms. The type of traumatic experience, combined with your trauma history, informs the therapeutic intervention I use. My practice is client-led, and I am certified and/or trained in numerous therapeutic modalities, allowing me to meet each client where they are and tailor treatment to their individual needs. I work side by side with you to determine your treatment goals and what modality will best meet these goals.
Developmental and Attachment Trauma Specialist
A significant portion of my work focuses specifically on developmental trauma rooted in early attachment disruptions -particularly experiences of motherlessness or emotional and/or physical abandonment by a primary caregiver - the caregiver turning away when the child reaches for them. Neuroscience has shown that when these early relational injuries occur, the developing brain adapts for survival rather than connection. Without a secure attachment, a human struggles to develop a stable sense of self. Brain networks responsible for reflection, emotional regulation, critical thinking, empathy, play and healthy relationships often remain underdeveloped, while the nervous system becomes organized around detecting threats and maintaining a state of chronic hyperarousal. NeuroShift helps address these neurological patterns directly by supporting the brain’s ability to reorganize and regulate itself. As the nervous system becomes more stable and flexible, clients report a deeper healing that occurs in both the mind and the body. Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is the modality used to address early life attachment trauma.
How DBR Supports Healing
Deep Brain Reorienting
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) was developed by psychiatrist Dr. Frank Corrigan. Through his clinical work, Dr. Corrigan noticed that many of his patients were not experiencing the lasting relief he hoped for from the therapeutic approaches he had been trained to use. This led him to look more closely at what happens in the brain in the moments immediately surrounding a traumatic experience.
Dr. Corrigan has devoted—and continues to devote—years to researching the brain's response to trauma, particularly the sequence of events that occurs before, during, and immediately after an experience of shock or threat.
Traditionally, much of our understanding of trauma has focused on the limbic system, particularly the amygdala, along with areas of the cerebral cortex involved in memory, emotion, and meaning-making. These parts of the brain are certainly involved in trauma and recovery. However, Dr. Corrigan's work suggests that the earliest neurological response to a sudden threat occurs deeper in the brain, within the brainstem and midbrain. In particular, his model focuses on three structures: the periaqueductal gray (PAG), locus coeruleus (LC), and superior colliculi.
So, what does that mean in everyday language?
Imagine that something frightening or overwhelming happens. Before you have time to think about what is happening or put words to it, your brainstem reacts and orients to the potential threat.
That first reaction happens incredibly quickly—before the thinking parts of the brain have time to understand what is happening.
DBR is based on the idea that this very early response to threat can become "stuck" in the nervous system, particularly when an experience is overwhelming, unexpected, or occurs during a vulnerable period of development.
How is DBR different?
Many evidence-based trauma therapies work primarily with thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and sensations associated with the memory of the traumatic experiences. DBR takes a somewhat different approach. Rather than beginning with the story of what happened, DBR gently brings attention to the very first physical response to the experience of shock.
The goal is not to force someone to relive their trauma or repeatedly tell the story of what happened. Instead, the therapist helps the client slow down and notice what happens in the body at the earliest point of a traumatic response.
In very simple terms, DBR helps us pay attention to what happened in the nervous system before the mind had words for it.
The therapist carefully guides the client to notice subtle sensations and shifts in the body while maintaining awareness of the present moment and a sense of where they are in the room. By staying with these early responses in a slow and controlled way, the brain and nervous system have an opportunity to process and integrate what was previously left unresolved.
Why work with the brainstem?
The brainstem is one of the most primitive and essential parts of the brain. It regulates many functions that happen automatically, including breathing, heart rate, arousal, and our basic responses to threat.
When something happens too quickly or is too overwhelming for the brain to fully process, the body's protective response can continue long after the danger has passed.
DBR is designed to work with this deep, automatic level of the nervous system rather than relying primarily on conscious understanding.
This is important because trauma is not simply something we remember. It can also be something our nervous system continues to anticipate.
A person can know, logically, that they are no longer in danger while their nervous system continues to prepare for something bad to happen.
DBR seeks to help resolve that underlying sense of unresolved shock so that the brain and body can begin to live in a regulated, present state.
What does a DBR session feel like?
DBR is typically a quiet, slow, and highly collaborative process. You do not have to tell every detail of your trauma story. Instead, the therapist helps you notice what happens inside your body as you gently bring attention to a particular experience or reaction.
You might notice a tightening in your chest, a change in your breathing, tension in your abdomen, a feeling of pulling away, or another subtle physical response.
Rather than trying to make the sensation go away, you learn to observe it with curiosity and without judgment.
The therapist then helps you stay oriented to the present while allowing your nervous system to gradually process what it was unable to fully process at the time of the original experience.
For some people, this can create a sense of completion—as though something that has been held in the nervous system for a long time is finally able to settle.
DBR and healing from trauma
One of the most important principles of trauma therapy is that healing does not require us to simply understand what happened. Understanding is important, but trauma can exist at levels of the nervous system that are not accessible through thinking alone.
You can understand your trauma and still feel it.
You can know that you are safe and still feel unsafe.
You can know that something happened a long time ago and not have the words for it, but know that it continues to live in your body.
DBR offers a way of working with that deeper, automatic response by gently addressing the brainstem and midbrain processes involved in the earliest response to shock.
For people whose trauma responses have remained deeply embedded in their nervous systems—particularly those with early or developmental trauma—this can offer another pathway toward healing.
