Dear Readers,I’m excited that my new picture book Forest Bath Right Down this Path is part of the Sounds True Kids collection. It’s a book of my heart as it portrays a fog forest—Barred Island Preserve—that my family and I hike every year on our summer vacation in Maine. I’m thrilled that you can enjoy this forest through the window of Khoa Le’s gorgeous illustrations.
As we wander the forest’s moss-lined paths, we smell pines and firs, touch bark and berries, and listen to birds and chipmunks. The hike ends at a rocky beach where we swim and explore tidepools. When we leave, we feel peaceful and calm. The name for this kind of soothing experience is forest bathing.
There’s evidence that smelling chemicals from trees called phytoncides and microbes from soil called mycobacterium vaccae may reduce stress and boost immune function.
I work as a child psychiatrist to help children, teens, and adults, and I’m always looking for ways to help people manage stress and anxiety. Some of the recommendations I make for doing this include exercise, taking time away from screens, meditating, and connecting with family and friends. I try to do these things myself, too! Every morning I take a half hour walk through the woods near my home.
I’m also a parent of two children (now young adults), and I’ve been concerned about the ways phones and screens are interfering with paying attention to the natural world as well as one another. It’s known that spending a lot of time on social media is contributing to the worsening of teens’ mental health. Adults need to take time away from their phones, too. That’s why the main character of my book, Kayla, encourages her father to put away his phone and fully engage in their walk through their forest. Children want their parents’ undivided attention; often they’re the ones encouraging adults to turn off their phones and be present.
I hope this book inspires you to spend time with your loved ones outdoors and soak in all its beauty and mental health benefits. Happy forest bathing!
Wishing you fresh air and sunshine,
Lisa Robinson
P.S. I invite you to download the free story time kit with five activities for children to learn more about forest bathing—from heading out on a sensory expedition to exploring their senses to making art in nature.
Lisa Robinson is a therapist, picture book writer, and nature enthusiast. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts. Every summer her family travels to coastal Maine for two weeks. The highlight of the trip is a walk through Barred Island Preserve on Deer Isle. The animals and plants mentioned in her new children’s book, Forest Bath Right Down This Path, are all found there. Learn more about Lisa and her work at author-lisa-robinson.com.
Lisa Robinson has a BA in psychology from Cornell University, an MD from Tufts University, and an MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. She works as a therapist for children, teenagers, and adults, and is the author of numerous picture books. Lisa lives in Newton, Massachusetts. Learn more at author-lisa-robinson.com.
Dear Readers,
I’m excited that my new picture book Forest Bath Right Down this Path is part of the Sounds True Kids collection. It’s a book of my heart as it portrays a fog forest—Barred Island Preserve—that my family and I hike every year on our summer vacation in Maine. I’m thrilled that you can enjoy this forest through the window of Khoa Le’s gorgeous illustrations.
As we wander the forest’s moss-lined paths, we smell pines and firs, touch bark and berries, and listen to birds and chipmunks. The hike ends at a rocky beach where we swim and explore tidepools. When we leave, we feel peaceful and calm. The name for this kind of soothing experience is forest bathing.
There’s evidence that smelling chemicals from trees called phytoncides and microbes from soil called mycobacterium vaccae may reduce stress and boost immune function.
I work as a child psychiatrist to help children, teens, and adults, and I’m always looking for ways to help people manage stress and anxiety. Some of the recommendations I make for doing this include exercise, taking time away from screens, meditating, and connecting with family and friends. I try to do these things myself, too! Every morning I take a half hour walk through the woods near my home.
I’m also a parent of two children (now young adults), and I’ve been concerned about the ways phones and screens are interfering with paying attention to the natural world as well as one another. It’s known that spending a lot of time on social media is contributing to the worsening of teens’ mental health. Adults need to take time away from their phones, too. That’s why the main character of my book, Kayla, encourages her father to put away his phone and fully engage in their walk through their forest. Children want their parents’ undivided attention; often they’re the ones encouraging adults to turn off their phones and be present.
I hope this book inspires you to spend time with your loved ones outdoors and soak in all its beauty and mental health benefits. Happy forest bathing!
Wishing you fresh air and sunshine,
Lisa Robinson
P.S. I invite you to download the free story time kit with five activities for children to learn more about forest bathing—from heading out on a sensory expedition to exploring their senses to making art in nature.
Lisa Robinson is a therapist, picture book writer, and nature enthusiast. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts. Every summer her family travels to coastal Maine for two weeks. The highlight of the trip is a walk through Barred Island Preserve on Deer Isle. The animals and plants mentioned in her new children’s book, Forest Bath Right Down This Path, are all found there. Learn more about Lisa and her work at author-lisa-robinson.com.
What if you were never working alone—and neither was anyone you were trying to help?
This week, Tami Simon speaks with Laurie Nealon, an intuitive energy healer, medium, and educator whose work is profiled on the Sounds True podcast Phenomena: The Science and Stories of Energy Healing. Seventeen years ago, Laurie began seeing and hearing those who had passed—not in dreams, but in the middle of her waking life. She resisted it. Then she built a practice around it.
Join Tami and Laurie to explore:
What Laurie actually perceives when someone who has died “appears”—and how she learned to filter it
Integrated Energy Therapy (IET), attunement, and why she calls the practitioner a facilitator rather than a healer
The “spiritual support group”: angels, guides, ascended masters, and loved ones she says fill the room during a session
A guided practice—rolling the energy—you can do in two minutes before you get out of bed
The screen technique: how to stay open to love without carrying everyone else’s journey
Why “lightening someone’s load” may actually dishonor their path
Entity energy, imprints, and what clearing a block really means
Tami’s hardest question: what about the people who did everything right and still died?
A closing prayer Laurie offers for every listener
Laurie’s conviction is that none of this is exotic. Everyone, she says, should be trained in energy healing the way everyone is trained in CPR—and everyone has the capacity to open to their own gifts.
Listen now, and find out who else is in the room. →
This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and originally aired on Sounds True One.
“You have to want the freedom more than you want to be right about it.”
That’s what Reverend Dr. Michelle Wadleigh offers to anyone who has tried forgiveness and found that it didn’t take. Not a technique. A decision.
This week, Tami Simon speaks with Wadleigh—ordained minister in Centers for Spiritual Living, retreat facilitator, co-founder of the Planned Happiness Institute, and author of Forgiveness, Shadow Work, and the new Dance Like Nobody’s Watching: The Soul’s Journey to Courage, Authenticity, and Self-Love—about what it actually takes to stop living at the mercy of our own stories.
Join Tami and Michelle to explore:
Why forgiveness practices fail when they skip the body and the subconscious—and what to do instead
How shadow work and forgiveness depend on each other, and why projection drives so much of the divisiveness we see
“Functioning on top of dysfunction”: our addictions to being nice and being liked, and how they train us to dumb ourselves down
The 15 to 20 minutes before sleep, when the mind turns porous—and how Michelle guards that window
Fire walking, cold plunges, and the discovery that fear is a choice rather than an automatic
What it means to demand to be me without excuses—and who, exactly, that demand is addressed to
Why a book about bold self-expression closes with instructions for a solo silent retreat
Presence as a practice, learned while walking beside a dying husband
Michelle speaks throughout from the middle of her own hardest passage, which gives everything she says about buoyancy, beauty, and determination a weight it would not otherwise carry.
Listen now. →
This conversation offers genuine transmission, not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together, and originally aired onSounds True One.
Insights at the Edge is supported by Omega Institute, a global gathering hub for lifelong learning and spiritual exploration. Located in upstate New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley, Omega offers weekend workshops, special events, rest and rejuvenation retreats, professional trainings, online learning, and more.
Special Offer – Sounds True community members enjoy10% off any workshop registration at Omega Institute. Discover what calls to you at eomega.org/true. Use code TRUE at checkout.
Insights at the Edge is supported by Magic Hour, whose ceremonial teas carry more presence, beauty, and ritual into ordinary days. Magic Hour draws its leaves and botanicals from regenerative small farms around the world, in blends made to nourish the body and open the mind.
Explore their teas, matchas, and herbal rituals atclubmagichour.com. Get 20% off your first order with the code TRUE.
What happens when healing needs to go deeper than words can reach? For many people, the most profound emotional experiences resist easy articulation. Brainspotting is a therapeutic approach developed by David Grand that uses specific eye positions to access what the brain and body hold onto, even when language falls short.
At Sounds True, we’ve spent more than 40 years sharing trusted teachings from therapists, authors, and spiritual teachers whose work nurtures healing, personal growth, and lasting transformation. From online courses and in-depth programs to podcasts and digital resources, we bring the voices that matter most directly to you.
We cover what brainspotting is, how David Grand developed the approach, the role of eye position in trauma therapy, and how brainspotting compares with EMDR.
Key Takeaways:
Healing Beyond Words: Brainspotting uses specific eye positions to access unresolved trauma and emotional experiences stored in the brain and body, creating a path forward that doesn’t require verbal storytelling alone.
David Grand’s Path to Healing: David Grand developed brainspotting after observing that a client’s eye position reflected deeper emotional processing during trauma treatment, giving rise to an approach built around the brain’s natural capacity to heal.
EMDR vs. Brainspotting: While both approaches help people process trauma, brainspotting and EMDR differ in structure and session style. The right fit depends on your history, goals, and therapeutic relationship.
What Is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting is designed to help people access and process unresolved trauma through focused attention on specific eye positions. The method rests on the idea that where a person looks can correspond to where difficult experiences are stored in the brain and body. Staying with a brainspot while remaining aware of physical sensations and emotions, people can work through material that language alone might not reach.
Since David Grand developed this approach, brainspotting therapy has been applied broadly, with athletes, artists, business leaders, and survivors of large-scale events, among others. Grand also offers an online course through Sounds True that walks through the core principles behind brainspotting therapy, available to those who want to learn directly from the source.
His insights align with the conversations we host on the Insights at the Edge Podcast, where therapists, teachers, and practitioners share what healing really looks like from the inside out.
David Grand and the Development of Brainspotting Therapy
Brainspotting therapy came out of a significant clinical observation. During trauma treatment, David Grand noticed that a client’s eye position seemed to shift when deeper emotional material surfaced. That moment became the foundation for a method built around the brain’s own capacity to process and release what it has long held in place.
Since its introduction, brainspotting therapy has been used by clinicians around the world to help people facing trauma, anxiety, grief, chronic stress, and performance-related challenges. Grand’s work continues to shape the field by drawing attention to the connection between the brain, the body, and emotional healing.
Sounds True is home to teachers like David Grand alongside hundreds of other practitioners, healers, and visionaries whose work spans a wide range of healing traditions. Those who want to trace that full breadth can visit our All Teachers & Authors collection, where every teacher’s body of work is gathered in one place.
Trauma Therapy Eye Position and the Brain-Body Connection
Trauma therapy eye position describes the relationship between where someone directs their gaze and what emotional or physical experiences become accessible as a result. During a session, a therapist guides the client to a specific visual point and invites them to notice what arises in the body as they hold that focus. Sensations, emotions, and memories can surface as the nervous system begins to process material it has held in place for years.
The body carries what the mind sometimes can’t articulate. A shift in eye position can open access to experiences held below conscious awareness, gently creating conditions for the nervous system to complete what was once interrupted. Healing, in this way, becomes a process the whole person takes part in, not just the thinking mind.
The teachers and practitioners gathered in our Health & Healing collection share this same orientation: that real healing often begins when we learn to listen to what the body already knows.
How the Brainspotting Technique Uses Eye Position to Access Trauma
The brainspotting technique begins with identifying an eye position linked to an emotional or physical response. From there, the therapist invites the client to rest their attention on that visual point while remaining aware of what arises in the body. The process creates space for the nervous system to do what it naturally knows how to do, without demanding that memories surface on command.
A concrete example might be this: someone working through anxiety tied to an experience might start by calling that experience to mind. As the therapist slowly moves a pointer across their field of vision, the client notices a position where a physical sensation intensifies, perhaps tightness in the chest or a change in breath. That’s the brainspot. The session then focuses there while the client tracks what unfolds internally, allowing the nervous system to process what it has previously stored.
EMDR vs Brainspotting: Understanding the Key Differences
EMDR follows a standardized eight-phase protocol and uses bilateral stimulation, typically through guided eye movements, sounds, or tapping, to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories. Brainspotting focuses on identifying one significant eye position and following the client’s internal experience from there. Sessions tend to be more open-ended, allowing the individual’s nervous system to lead.
Neither method is universally better than the other. A qualified therapist can help determine which fits a person’s history, goals, and comfort level. Many clinicians receive training in both and draw on each as the situation calls for it.
Those who want to go deeper into trauma healing and related practices can find immersive learning through our In-Depth Programs, where experienced practitioners bring both clinical knowledge and heart to each course.
Final Thoughts
Brainspotting offers a distinctive perspective on trauma healing, one that trusts the body’s capacity to know where attention is needed. Working with eye position rather than narration alone, this approach creates conditions for healing to happen at the body’s own pace.
As David Grand has shown through decades of clinical work, healing is often less about forcing change and more about creating the conditions for it to unfold. That belief is at the heart of what we do at Sounds True. We share the work of practitioners and teachers who honor the full range of human experience, including the places where language falls short, and the body quietly holds the way forward.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brainspotting
Is brainspotting backed by research?
Brainspotting is supported by a growing body of clinical research and case studies. While research continues to evolve, many mental health professionals use it as part of trauma-informed care for emotional and psychological concerns.
Who can benefit from brainspotting?
Brainspotting may benefit adults and adolescents experiencing trauma, anxiety, grief, stress, or performance-related challenges. A qualified mental health professional can determine whether it is an appropriate approach for an individual’s needs.
Do I have to talk about my trauma during brainspotting?
Not necessarily. While some people choose to discuss their experiences, brainspotting can also focus on physical sensations and emotions, allowing processing without requiring detailed verbal storytelling.
Can brainspotting be combined with other therapies?
Yes. Many therapists integrate brainspotting with other evidence-based approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness practices, or somatic therapies, to create a personalized treatment plan.
Is brainspotting only used for trauma?
No. Although it is widely recognized for trauma treatment, brainspotting is also used to support people dealing with anxiety, creative blocks, chronic stress, and performance enhancement in sports, music, and public speaking.
What should I expect after a brainspotting session?
Some people feel calm or relieved after a session, while others may continue processing emotions or physical sensations for a short time. Therapists often recommend rest, hydration, and self-reflection between sessions.
Is brainspotting suitable for everyone?
Brainspotting may not be the best fit for every individual or situation. A licensed therapist can evaluate your mental health history and recommend the most appropriate treatment approach.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
