Using Brainspotting to Relieve Election Anxiety
Election stress isn't automatically something that needs Brainspotting. Sometimes you need to stop checking the news every fifteen minutes, get off social media for a while, protect your sleep, and get back into your actual life.
But sometimes you've already done those things and the reaction is still there.
You know you're safe sitting in your own house, but your body is reacting as though something is happening right now. A particular headline, conversation, uncertainty, or thought about the future brings up the same intense response again. You understand why you're stressed, but understanding it hasn't changed the reaction.
That's where Brainspotting fits in.
I originally wrote this article during the 2024 election cycle. I'm a certified Brainspotting practitioner with extensive Brainspotting experience, and I spent approximately 25 years as a paramedic, including years in clinical emergency practice. That background matters because I'm not interested in treating every uncomfortable response as though it requires the same intervention.
Part of my job is determining whether what you're experiencing is an appropriate target for practitioner Brainspotting, whether practical changes are likely to be enough, or whether what you're describing needs assessment and treatment from a licensed mental-health professional. You don't have to make that determination before you contact me.
Key Points
- Election anxiety can sometimes improve significantly when you change your news consumption, boundaries, sleep, and daily habits.
- When a specific emotional or body-based response continues despite those practical changes, Brainspotting can give us a way to work directly with that response.
- Brainspotting uses your visual field and focused attention as part of the processing work.
- You do not need to know exactly why you're reacting before beginning Brainspotting.
- I screen for fit and scope. If you need licensed mental-health treatment rather than practitioner Brainspotting, I'll tell you.
What is Brainspotting?
Brainspotting was developed by psychologist David Grand, PhD. One of the central ideas behind the approach is that where you look can affect what you access and process.
During a session, we identify a specific issue, reaction, feeling, memory, physical sensation, or other target you want to work with. We then use your visual field to locate an eye position, commonly called a Brainspot, that is associated with the activation around that target.
From there, you maintain focused attention while I support and track the processing with you.
You don't have to spend the entire session explaining or analyzing everything. You also don't need to arrive with a perfect explanation for why you're responding the way you are. What matters is that we have something specific enough to work with.
Why election anxiety can become more than ordinary stress
An election can bring together several things at once: uncertainty, repeated exposure to emotionally charged information, disagreement with people you care about, concerns about the future, and the uncomfortable reality that you cannot personally control the outcome.
None of that automatically means you need deeper work. Stress in response to an important and uncertain event can simply be stress.
That's why I start with the obvious practical questions.
Before assuming you need Brainspotting, look at:
- How often are you checking election news?
- Are notifications interrupting you throughout the day?
- Are you spending hours in political conversations or social-media feeds?
- Is election coverage interfering with your normal sleep routine?
- Have you stopped doing ordinary activities that normally give your attention somewhere else to go?
- Does the stress decrease when you change those behaviors?
If changing those things substantially changes how you feel, use the practical solution. You don't get bonus points for making the intervention more complicated than the problem.
But if you've addressed the obvious inputs and the same specific reaction keeps showing up, that's useful information too.
Where Brainspotting fits in for election anxiety
Brainspotting becomes particularly relevant when the response is persistent, specific, and isn't shifting just because you've changed the practical circumstances around it.
Maybe you can stay away from election coverage for hours and feel fine, but one particular topic immediately brings the reaction back. Maybe you notice a tightness, sinking feeling, agitation, dread, anger, or another recognizable response every time a certain issue comes up. Maybe you know you're catastrophizing, but telling yourself to stop doesn't actually change anything.
In those situations, we aren't simply trying to teach you another way to distract yourself from the response. Brainspotting gives us a way to focus directly on what is getting activated and allow processing to occur around that target.
People can experience shifts in the intensity of the target during a Brainspotting session. Sometimes the change is substantial in one session. Other targets need additional work. I don't promise a specific number of sessions because the response, target, history, and person are not identical from one client to the next.
What happens during a Brainspotting session?
Brainspotting is much less complicated from the client's side than people sometimes expect. You don't need to prepare a detailed story or figure out exactly what you're supposed to say.
1 We identify what we're working on
We start by getting clear enough about the target to know what we're addressing. For election anxiety, that might be a particular fear, recurring thought, physical response, image, conversation, uncertainty, or reaction that keeps getting activated.
2 We notice the activation
You'll notice what happens when you bring the target to mind. That may include an emotion, physical sensation, image, memory, thought, or simply a felt sense that something is there. There isn't one correct way for activation to show up.
3 We locate the Brainspot
I guide you through your visual field, typically using a pointer, while we notice where the target feels most connected or activated. We use that information to identify the eye position we'll work with.
4 You process while I stay with you
You maintain visual focus around the Brainspot and notice what comes up. I stay present, track the process, and support you without requiring you to narrate every thought or sensation.
5 We check what changed
Toward the end, we return to the original target and notice what is different. The intensity may be lower. The physical response may have changed. The thought may feel less charged. Sometimes what seemed like the original issue leads us to something else that needs attention.
Do you have to talk about everything?
No.
One reason Brainspotting appeals to some people is that you don't have to spend the entire session explaining every detail of what happened or defending why something affects you.
We need enough information to work safely and appropriately, but you don't have to give me every detail for processing to occur.
That's especially useful when you understand the situation intellectually and don't need another hour devoted to explaining something you already understand.
How quickly can Brainspotting help?
Brainspotting can create noticeable change quickly for some targets. I've seen meaningful shifts happen within a single session.
That does not mean every person or every issue resolves in one appointment.
A narrowly defined current trigger may process differently from something connected to a much larger history. What emerges during the session matters too. My job is to work with what's actually there rather than promise you a predetermined timeline because it sounds good on a sales page.
Brainspotting or therapy: how do you know what you need?
You don't need to answer that by yourself.
I'm a Brainspotting practitioner and coach, not a therapist. I'm also a longtime paramedic. Decades of clinical emergency work trained me to assess what I'm seeing, ask focused questions, recognize scope, and understand that similar-looking symptoms can require very different interventions.
I use that judgment here too.
If what you're bringing me is an appropriate Brainspotting target within my practitioner scope, we can work with it. If what you're describing indicates that you need diagnosis, ongoing mental-health treatment, crisis support, or another service that requires a licensed mental-health professional, I'll tell you and refer you toward the appropriate level of care.
You don't have to show up already knowing which category you're in. Determining whether we're a good fit is part of the process.
Interested in using Brainspotting for election anxiety?
Start by looking at the practical pieces. Reduce unnecessary news exposure. Protect your sleep. Put boundaries around political conversations and social media. Give your attention somewhere else to go.
Then notice what remains.
If the stress settles, keep using what works.
If a specific response continues to get activated despite those changes, Brainspotting gives us another way to work with it. You don't need to know whether it's "serious enough," whether Brainspotting is the right fit, or whether you should be seeing a therapist instead before you reach out. I'll help you sort that out.
The goal isn't to stop caring
Managing election stress doesn't require you to stop caring about an election, an issue, or what happens next.
The goal is for you to be able to care without the same reaction repeatedly taking over your sleep, concentration, relationships, or ability to participate in the rest of your life.
Start with the simplest reasonable intervention. If that works, use it. If the practical strategies aren't changing the response, that's when it makes sense to look at what else may need to be processed.
That's where Brainspotting fits in.
Suggested Reading
Before assuming a recurring reaction needs deeper processing, start with the practical options. These articles can help you test what changes the problem.
Start with practical changes to news exposure, sleep, conversations, movement, and daily attention. Start Your Day to Beat Election Stress
Test whether changing the way you begin your morning reduces the stress before looking for a deeper explanation. Quick Mindfulness Techniques to Ease Election Stress
Try practical ways to interrupt the stress response and bring your attention back to what's happening right now.
Brainspotting is one powerful method of managing election stress. For a broader guide, visit How to Deal With Election Anxiety: Election Stress Resources to find help.
