Testimonials
Brainspotting undeniably is one of the most powerful techniques available to help you and your clients change and resolve deep issues.
Lisa Schwarz is an excellent, professional, educated, fun therapist and trainer in Brainspotting. I have learned so many innovative and exact techniques for helping my clients get resolve. I have had the privilege of taking trainings from Lisa Schwarz and Dr. David Grand. It has been life changing and has expanded my practice forever. I can’t wait to do more!
Diane Ulicsni
Dear Lisa, Thank you so much for the honor of joining you and such an incredible group of people in New York last week. I am grateful to be learning this skill that will move so many people toward wholeness.
I attempted to explain to my mother what brainspotting was. A couple of weeks later, I heard her speaking to one of my siblings as she translated my explanation: “You find the find the spot in your brain that you want to work on and then you put light on it.” That must be how she visualized what I said. It resonated with your message about allowing the light within to shine.
Keep Shining,
Jenni Olivetti
The client confirmed to me that this work was so effective for him. He never had the possibility to look at his feelings, find connections etc. in such an intense way. He feels already released and he wants to continue. It is amazing what happened in 4 sessions within 2 weeks. A normal talk therapy could never have reached these results. I am so happy to have this tool in my hand. It is very satisfying for the client but also for the therapist. In this case I could convince the health insurance company to take over the costs of the therapy. It is much cheaper to pay for a number of BSP sessions than do all this medical treatment.
Tomris Gris, Vienna, Austria
Brainspotting has revolutionized my private practice. Not only have a seen near miraculous results with accelerated healing of serious trauma, I have found it an invaluable tool for peak performance, resolving grief, building strong connections to a client’s Higher Power, even working to reverse persistent negative core cognitions. I currently use it with over half of my clients. Best of all, the technique is so straightforward, I could use it “right out of the box,” the day I got back from the training! It is a permanent part of my practice and prominently featured in my workshops across the country.
Gregg Unterberger, M.Ed., Licensed Professional Counselor, National Workshop Presenter
Lisa Schwarz’s Intensive on resolving Pre Birth Trauma and alleviating Somatic Generational Dissociation with Brainspotting techniques was wonderful. She is a gifted urban shaman and teacher. You will definitely be shovel ready to use the techniques immediately and to dig into complex issues with confidence and Joy.
Dr. Damaris Methner
What Lisa teaches on the use of BSP for work with ego states, dissociation and attachment is so unique and advanced that students will be getting the most advanced, integrative training available anywhere in the world. —
David Grand, Phd.
Hi Lisa – I wanted to let you know that after my session with you in Ashland, I’ve had NOOOOO asthma problems. This is the time of year it’s the worst for me. I was off work for a week with the flu/laringitis everyone had, but it didn’t turn into asthma as it ALWAYS HAS IN THE PAST.
I’m completely off my daily asthma Advair and will see the pulminologist in 2 months. I hope to get a clean bill of health.
Rosie Watne, Ashland, Oregon
“I have had the distinct privilege to experience the healing power of Lisa Schwarz’s Brainspotting ™ work during a workshop demonstration, where I was her client, as well as during private intensive sessions. Even though Lisa worked with me while being filmed in front of a group of clinicians, she was able to skillfully guide me through the process of some deep and important inner work, relating to the loss of my father. I believe Lisa’s knowledge and expertise as a skilled trauma clinician was integral to the power of our work. Her formal education, coupled with solid clinical practice utilizing EMDR and other trauma skills acquired over the years, have clearly provided a strong foundation for the Brainspotting ™and Resource Brainspotting ™ work. Lisa now teaches Brainspotting ™, as well as the Resource Brainspotting ™ course she developed, to mental health clinicians around the world.
In addition to Lisa’s solid clinical skills and expertise, which are reassuring at the outset, she gently and easily communicates her respect for you, the client, and for your work together. When I worked with Lisa, I experienced her “warm and open heart”, and it was easy to see that she genuinely respects her clients, no matter their faith or spirituality. Doing this work has provided me with valuable insights and has opened my eyes and heart to inner wisdom which will continue to impact my life and my work with my own clients. I look forward to the opportunity to work with Lisa again in the future.”
Sandy K. Bookmeyer
Lisa,
I’ve been meaning to send an email to thank you for the terrific training you did in New York a few weeks ago. I loved the training and have been using brain spotting with great success since then. I’ve tried it with 9 or 10 patients and mostly have had amazing sessions. For most of them I simply did outside window, then switched to an inside window resource spot if they needed resourcing. With one patient where the issue is pain I tried the mini internal dirigible and the pain totally dissipated. Amazing. Another person was able to bring her best adult self to her child self who was in the middle of a panic attack and had the most profound session. Another patient who was horrifically sexually abused went right to vaginal pain and did a brain spotting that seemed to greatly lessen the experience. Another patient was in a dissociative fugue state which always scares me because she is passively suicidal in that state. We did brainspotting and a few hours later she was back to the present. Usually it takes a week to get her out of this dissociative place so this was astounding.
SB – New York
Thank you – For an incredible and deeply altering weekend. I feel so grateful on so many levels. I have used it with many people and am finding it really powerful.
BD – New York
Regarding Lisa, I have done a few trainings with her. I have watched her work with people and I have done some sessions with her. She is really phenomenal.
Jason Kant – NYC
Brainspotting is a remarkable therapy and Lisa Schwarz is a remarkable therapist. Thirty-five years ago as a high school baseball player, I began to have trouble with the simple act of throwing the ball. Not only did throws to first become problematic, merely playing catch became a problem. As an adult, playing catch with friends or my daughters, an activity that I love, required so much concentration and anxiety that I was relieved when we were finished. Always, I was afraid; afraid of making a bad throw and afraid of embarrassing myself. After all this time, and for reasons about which I’m still not sure, I had had enough of being afraid.
I began to read up on major leaguers who had suffered through this problem, including former New York Met Mackey Sasser. Ultimately, I discovered Lisa at which point I had to decide that my problem, small as it was relative to the rest of the world, was worthy of being fixed. My e-mail contact with Lisa reassured me on this count and so began one of the best experiences of my life.
Working over the phone through 4 one-hour sessions, I was able to identify various unhealed traumas that had taken place in my ball playing days. We all suffer multiple traumas on a daily basis; those little episodes in our lives that spark fear or anxiety or doubt. And we all overcome them on a daily basis—for the most part. Occasionally, however, some trauma goes unresolved and begins to act as an unwanted computer program, constantly running unnoticed in the background and crashing the system, usually at the worst possible time. Essentially, Lisa helped me erase these background programs.
Immediately, after the first session, my fear of making a bad throw had vanished. Today, a bad throw is just a bad throw and not a cause for fear and doubt. After 35 years of aiming and hesitating with the ball, I have some mechanical corrections that need to be made, but it is such a relief to know that now, a bad throw comes from my arm and not my head!
During the sessions, Lisa taught me certain breathing techniques that allow me to monitor myself and prevent any recurrence of “background programs.”
Dr. Schwarz’s professional technique is outstanding, but ironically, I never felt as if I was talking to a therapist. I always talked to Lisa whose concern for me was sincere, whose desire to help was intense, and whose belief that my small problem was not too small for her to address was unwavering. I always felt that I was talking to a good friend, who truly understood me; one who also just happened to really know what she was doing!
The problem that I almost judged too insignificant to solve was, perhaps, related to other anxieties in my life. I certainly feel more certain about my personal direction and I owe this to Lisa. I highly recommend her to anyone who is ready to jettison recurrent fear and doubt, and to improve his or her life.
–Austin Gisriel
Williamsport, MD
Dear Lisa,
My experience with our Brainspotting session last week was truly amazing. As an EMDR therapist for over 15 years, I am used to being amazed by the outcome of that procedure with my clients and in my own therapy.
I had a particularly difficult “stuck” place that was still bothering me after working on it with EMDR a few years ago. I wanted to see what might happen if I targeted this during our Brainspotting session. I was struck by how quickly we accessed the disturbance, and the creativity that came about as we oscillated between the resource spot and the most disturbed spot. The distress continued to go down, and the felt sense of well-being grew, until the distress was completely gone. It has now been 5 days and I cannot dredge up the upset no matter how hard I “squeeze the lemon”! This stuck place has been a constant problem for over 50 years, and it is really, truly gone. Lisa, thank you for your generous and heartfelt session…you are truly gifted. And thank you for showing me in a deep and profound way how Brainspotting works….and how effectively it works. I can’t wait to be trained in this marvelous technique, so I can share this with my clients. –Warmly,
Mary Kay Neumann
Lisa is an amazing consultant. She is caring, compassionate, and very creative in her work with clients. I searched extensively for a consultant for clients with complicated and severe PTSD and DID. There was no one I consulted with who was as knowledgeable, skilled or intuitive at working with this very challenging population. Lisa provides insightful guidance and suggestions that actually work with clients! She is clear and so competent at conceptualizing cases and finding many different ways to approach each situation or issue regardless of how complicated. Lisa provides a sense of security and confidence when working with these clients where the work can be so delicate and there are many levels to consider.
Lisa’s work with Brainspotting and especially Resource Brainspotting is brilliant. This model actually enabled me to effectively process and resolve severe trauma which was otherwise too overwhelming or fragmenting for clients to process and resolve. I am continually amazed at how effective Resource Brainspotting is with clients.
Lisa’s knowledge of neurophysiology and how to work with the brain/body while doing ego state (parts) work or any therapeutic work is impressive. Lisa’s own work with clients and her extensive training in many therapeutic and healing modalities gives her a unique approach and a depth of understanding as a therapist and consultant. I would highly recommend her as a consultant, teacher or psychotherapist.
Heidi L. NYC
Lisa Schwarz’ talents and gifts are expansive and growing exponentially. She is light years ahead of the field in combining traditional therapeutic techniques (EMDR etc.), cutting edge technologies (Brainspotting), and spiritual/energetic/metaphysical knowledge. She is an organized and thorough teacher, whose motivational style inspires all who come into contact with her. If she could, she would cut out her heart and share it with each and everyone in her workshops. Her work with athletes is unparalleled, and her learnable techniques can be applied to psychotherapy across the board.
Roger Reynolds LCSW and Performance Enhancement therapist in Steamboat
Springs, Colorado; home of four 2010 Olympic medals in Nordic Combined
I want to thank you again. I integrated the resource gridwork with and without bilateral music and with and without brainspots and got amazing results. One client who I work with for 4 years now- which is severely traumatized – called me after the session where we invited her ovarian ulcus in the resource grid to do some healing there. She usually never calls in between sessions but she let me know full of excitement and joy that she was at the doctor and her ulcus has nearly vanished! Your work is so familiar to my approach that I could immediately integrate the beautiful new tools and spirits you brought with you from over the ocean and I am completely ready for the wonders of healing!
Thanks again – I am looking forward to your coming in February.
Romana Tripolt, Psychologist - Vienna, Austria
I can’t say enough about how much the resourcing/attachment work has helped me personally and professionally, and my clients in some miraculous ways. One client who I have known was quite dissociative, but didn’t for sure know whether she was DID: we brought the part of her holding her daily headaches into the grid and a disturbing child image entered to reveal an abuse memory that we processed and she hasn’t has a headache since. Wow, Lisa! I also feel that when people are better resourced within, I am lessed drained in the work. Many thanks for your creative and inspiring trainings.
Ina Robbins, Psychologist
It was such a great weekend; I was hoping that it would never end! The learning that I experienced was just phenomenal! I know that we are placed where we need to be in life, and given what we need to survive, and these tools are just amazing! I hope to help my kids in ways that nobody else has ever done in this part of the country. With all of your experience, I think it would be so awesome if you were to put together a book of all of this stuff, and use clinical examples the way you did during the training. How valuable of a resource that would be for people! And what a great legacy to leave for future generations!
Wallace Cotton, LCSW
Lisa Schwarz is a motivational, heartfelt and experienced therapist and educator. I have greatly benefitted from the information she has developed and shared in her Brainspotting trainings, and find myself relying on these techniques daily in my personal life and professional practice. Lisa’s approach to therapy allows one to access their own internal wisdom and personal power, providing an integrative healing experience that enhances one’s well being psychologically, somatically, emotionally and spiritually. I highly recommend Lisa’s workshops for anyone ready to take their therapy practice to the next level!
Ruby Gibson, ThM, LMT, Author and Developer of Somatic Archaeology
“Your workshop helped advance my skill with Brainspotting to a new level. The innovative resourcing protocols you’ve created are just fabulous. I feel so much more in flow with the work since the training. Thank you, Lisa!!”
Jessica McCrea, Psy.D., Psychologist & Business Coach
Dear Lisa!
My life and my work gained new colors since you worked with me. Thank you.I would ask for more personal training, watching you and talking things and thoughts over. Brainspotting is a marvellous technique. sincerely
Christa
She is an experienced EMDR, Brainspotting and parts work therapist who has been able to do deep trauma processing with clients compromised by severe dissociation, including many carrying the diagnosis of DID. I recently had ONE supervision session with Lisa that completely changed the course of my work with one of my most challenging clients who was on a death march, so I can personally attest to power of her work. Now, I am applying the principles of her work in far less “severe” instances and finding it extremely helpful.
Leah L, NYC
Hi Lisa; I am loving using the wonderful resource/attachment techniques you taught us when you last came to Boulder. With Gratitude, Damaris.
I can’t thank you enough for the last week. As I said, I found it really stimulating and it was obviously just meant to be for me – the combination of approaches just resonated with me perfectly. I feel privileged to say the least. It is kind of exciting not quite knowing where all this might lead, and it has me completely engaged.
CE, Christchurch, NZ
“Brainspotting is the closest thing to magic I’ve ever seen in the field of psychology- now that I have used it and seen what it does, everything else seems sillly”
Sarah Myers, Boulder, Co
Hi Lisa -Thanks for such a stupendous workshop in Boulder! You give so much of yourself and are so clear. Your pace suits me just fine. And thank you for the personal sharing…for me, it adds a lot.—
SK,
Having practiced as a therapist for almost thirty years, it is rare for me to find
a single method that so dramatically deepens the therapeutic work done by my
clients. Lisa Schwarz’ unique contribution to Brainspotting is such a method. Her work is
a rare jewel waiting to be discovered by more therapists who wish to work on one of the cutting
edges of our field.
Gordon Meredith, M.A., M.S.S.
Certified EMDR Therapist
Certified Therapist and Supervisor in Training, Emotionally Focused Therapy
Faculty, University of Santa Monica
