How Deep Brain Reorienting Heals Trauma | DBR Therapy Toronto
When you experience traumatic events, it affects the deepest layers of your being and disturbs the fine tuning and harmony of the various parts of your brain and body. The impact is stored in layers that cannot be accessed via talk-therapy. Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a new trauma modality that is revolutionizing the approach to trauma healing.
What is Deep Brain Reorienting?
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a relatively new trauma-focused modality that targets the most primal part of your brain – the brain stem. It was developed by Dr. Frank Corrigan in the UK, and it works by tracking the original physiological response sequence that occurs in these intense moments of trauma, before difficult emotions show up in the body. This bottom-up approach provides healing in ways that talk-therapy and even certain trauma modalities cannot offer, as it targets the deepest layers of your brain.
How Deep Brain Reorienting Works
When a traumatic event occurs, a cascade of events happens within your mind and body. Firstly, the brain activates the Orienting Response. It is the way your head and your senses turn automatically in the right direction when you hear a knock on a door or a bump in the night.
To activate this response, the brain triggers the Orienting Tension. It is a very particular tension or pressure in the forehead, around the eyes, and/or the back of the neck/head. This is the layer where Deep Brain Reorienting would start its processing work.
This is also the layer where shock from the traumatic event would get registered. Our body absolutely despises a strong shock response and will create all kinds of inner barriers to avoid re-experiencing this shock. High shock memories are often extremely challenging to process even with EMDR and other somatic modalities. DBR is the first therapy modality that directly targets the shock layer in a gentle manner and thus allows it to be released by the body.
After the shock layer comes Affect/Emotion, which is often that of fear, shame, sadness, embarrassment, etc. Then comes Defense response, such as Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn, Dissociate, and Submit. Then come thoughts and actions. DBR uses the Orienting Tension as a reference key to the rest of the memory chain and helps to release it from the body.
What to Expect in a Deep Brain Reorienting Session
Ayan Mukherjee completed his Deep Brain Reorienting with Dr. Frank Corrigan in 2022, before it became popular. He has been using it extensively since then and has successfully blended it with EMDR therapy and other somatic modalities.
Orienting Self Meditation – We would start with a short “Orienting Self” meditation, to help activate the orienting element of the brain-stem (the Superior Colliculus) in a gentle and supportive manner.
Activate the Target Memory – We would then activate a fragment of the target trauma memory and you will be prompted to allow your mind and body to go to the beginning of the memory when your nervous system recorded that something bad was about to happen. Don’t worry if you can’t explicitly remember the moment, your body knows where to go.
Track the Orienting Tension – You would then be guided to find the location of the orienting tension. It will be a specific tension/pressure in your forehead, around the eyes and/or the back of your neck/head. This becomes your physiological anchor and prevents the memory from becoming too overwhelming.
Noticing and Tracking – After that you will be guided to notice the various thoughts and sensations arising and subsiding in your body. You are prompted to allow your body intelligence to make small movements and initiate somatic release in the form of yawning, twitching, shaking, shivering, etc. This process typically happens in silence, and you are prompted to share what you are noticing, occasionally. It is essential that we don’t talk a lot nor engage in logical analysis. Let the modality do the heavy lifting!
Re-evaluating the Memory – Near the end of the process, we re-evaluate the original memory and it would most likely feel a lot more desensitized and less emotionally charged. At this point, we either target the rest of the memory with EMDR or close it up with container, grounding and debriefing.
Deep Brain Reorienting has transformed our practice, and we are forever grateful to Dr. Frank Corrigan for it. Reach out for a free 30-min phone consultation to learn how Deep Brain Reorienting can help you with your trauma healing.
