Heal your Triggers - Feel Calm, Connected and Present.

Deep Brain Re-Orienting (DBR) Therapy in Toronto, Ontario

You’ve tried everything you can think of to feel better, but nothing is sticking.

This is where DBR can help…

You’re still feeling…

  • Triggered by situations, people or interactions.

  • Mostly fine on the outside, but underneath you feel deeply alone.

  • Stuck in a survival state of fight, flight or freeze.

  • Stuck in people-pleasing reactions that you don’t feel you can control.

You CAN find relief…

DBR works to resolve stored up ‘shock’ energy in the deepest part of the brain, where traumatic reactions and emotions originate.

Imagine no longer reacting to situations that currently trigger you.

What the heck is Deep Brain Re-orienting (DBR)?

DBR is a newer trauma therapy approach that brings together the latest research on trauma and neuroscience

Unlike traditional therapy where you talk through past experiences, staying in the cognitive part of your brain, DBR targets the brain's deeper structures - specifically the brainstem, where our primal stress response originates. These deep brain structures are linked to how traumatic, stressful and overwhelming material gets stored and sequenced neurophysiologically (meaning in our brain/body/nervous system). This stored ‘sequencing’ impacts how we react emotionally and behaviourally to things that happen in our current lives. By targeting this part of the brain and brain/body patterns, DBR can alleviate triggers and stubborn symptoms by treating them at the root of where they occur.

I know the description might sound complicated and maybe a little intense - but in terms of trauma therapy approaches, it is actually a pretty simple (but sophisticated) and gentle approach that many people can do without feeling overwhelmed.

In short, we start with a specific grounding process that helps you ground in your ‘where-self’ - the part of the brain that orients to external stimuli.

We then have you turn your attention towards the identified target and start tracking your body responses in a particular sequence. As we track the body response sequence, we allow it to slow down, which we hypothesize allows for reconsolidation and rewiring to occur.

DBR can help resolve triggers at a deep body level.

Why I love DBR:

  • DBR focuses on healing current triggers so that you get relief as soon as possible.

    DBR starts with what you want to shift in the here and now, without having to do lots of exploring and talking about the historical source of that current day issue.

  • You don’t have to talk at length, or at all, about the original traumatic event to heal from it.

    In fact, with DBR, you don’t even have to know the original source of what is causing you to feel triggered in your current life.

  • My clients generally report that they can do DBR without feeling overwhelmed during the session and without feeling ‘wrecked’ after a session. Tired, yes. Emotionally raw, sometimes. But feeling like we opened up too much 'stuff' is mostly avoidable with DBR.

What you’ll gain

With DBR therapy you can…

  • Improve your sense of self

  • Experience more self-compassion

  • Become more able to be present and grounded

  • No longer feel triggered

  • Move out of chronic survival mode

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

  • Here's a step-by-step outline of what DBR looks like in practice:

    1. Creating Safety: We set the stage together for a safe and supportive environment, where you can feel secure and grounded.

    2. Identify What to Work on: You identify what triggers, behavioural patterns, emotional responses, etc. you want to shift. Then we choose a recent example where this issue came up in your life, which we use as the ‘target’ for the session.

    3. Ground in the Brainstem: In DBR, we start with a particular grounding process that helps you ground in your ‘where-self’ - the part of the brain that orients.

    4. Turn towards the distress: We then have you turn towards the identified target and start tracking your body responses in a particular sequence. 

    5. Processing and rewiring the physiological sequence: As we track the body response sequence, we allow it to slow down, which we hypothesize allows for reconsolidation and rewiring to occur.

    6. Consolidating the shifts: Afterward, we work on integrating these changes into your life, with regular check-ins to monitor progress and address any new challenges.

  • The cool thing about DBR is that it can focus on present-day triggers so you do not have to spend a lot of time and sessions at the beginning gathering lots of background information. I often move into processing with folks somewhere between the first and third session. Of course this is not a guarantee and there are many factors that can impact this.

    Everyone is different, and the pace of progress depends on many factors. Some of the factors that can impact the pace include:

    • If you are someone who can notice and stay with your body sensation

    • If you have done previous work on the issue you are coming to therapy for

    • If you can tolerate some amount of intense emotion.

    • The severity, frequency and your age at the time that you experienced traumatic or overwhelming experiences.

    Wherever you stand on the above factors, you may benefit from DBR in a relatively short period of time.

    Many of my client start to notice shifts within a couple of sessions of DBR processing.

  • DBR is a relatively new approach, so there is not a lot of published research or clinical trials about it.

    There is currently one major clinical trial underway at Western University, in London, Ontario. While the research is still ongoing, initial findings are promising. These findings show DBR to both be well tolerated, as well as effective in significantly reducing symptoms of PTSD, including triggers, negative mood, and flashbacks.

    This particular research project is continuing to look at neuroimaging of particiapants before and after DBR, with the hypothesis that DBR effectively targets and alters brain structures involved in trauma processing.

    Of course, more research is needed to fully understand the long-term effectiveness and applications of DBR across different groups and conditions.

    Anecdotally, I have observed the ways that DBR can help with improving reactivity due to triggers and helping resolve the disconnect between what we know intellectually and what we feel on a gut level.

    I used DBR as a client to work on recovering from burnout as a parent and noticed that my ability to stay calm increased, as did my sense of being present and connected with my kids.

    Some of the types of comments that my clients have made about their DBR experience:

    • “I knew intellectually that it wasn’t my fault, but now I can feel that is true on a deep level in my core.”

    • “I feel more compassionate towards myself.”

    • “It’s weird, but now I just don’t get reactive in that situation anymore!”

Change is possible. Let’s do it together.

discover your inner zest for life.

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discover your inner zest for life. —