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Deep Brain Reorienting

NEW CLIENT CONSULT

How can DBR help?

Trauma isn’t always held in words or even in memories we can easily explain. Sometimes our nervous system continues to react to something that happened long ago, even when we know we are safe now.

Process Trauma at a Deeper Level

  • Work with the body’s earliest response to a traumatic experience
  • Process shock that may sit underneath intense emotions
  • Work with trauma without needing to analyze or revisit the memory in detail

Reduce Overwhelm

  • Process the shock that may still be trapped in your brain/nervous system
  • Work beneath overwhelming emotional reactions
  • Gently approach experiences that have previously felt too much
  • Support trauma processing when dissociation or shutting down occurs

Heal Attachment Wounds

  • Work with early experiences of abandonment, rejection or disconnection
  • Explore why relationships can trigger powerful reactions
  • Process the pain beneath patterns of seeking or avoiding connection
  • Help old relational wounds feel less powerful in the present

What can DBR help with?

DBR was developed specifically for trauma and trauma-related difficulties. It can be helpful for:

  • PTSD and traumatic experiences
  • Childhood and developmental trauma
  • Attachment and relationship wounds
  • Shock and frightening experiences
  • Emotional overwhelm and strong trauma reactions
  • Dissociation, freezing or shutting down
  • Painful reactions that seem bigger than the present situation
  • Trauma that has been difficult to resolve through other approaches

The Science

Deep Brain Reorienting was developed by psychiatrist Dr. Frank Corrigan. The approach is based on the idea that when something threatening or shocking happens, the brain first orients toward the event before the more familiar emotional and defensive responses unfold.

DBR pays close attention to this early orienting response, including subtle tension patterns around the head, face and neck, while the person remains connected to the present. The therapy aims to process the sequence of shock, threat and emotional response in a carefully paced way rather than pushing directly into the most intense part of a traumatic memory.

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What can I expect during a DBR session?

A DBR session is usually quiet, focused and carefully paced. Your therapist may invite you to bring to mind a specific moment, trigger or relational experience while paying attention to subtle sensations in the body rather than describing the event in detail.

You may notice small shifts in tension, gaze, head or neck sensations, emotion, or an impulse to move or protect yourself. Your therapist will guide you to stay with these responses slowly and with curiosity, while helping you remain oriented to safety in the present.

You remain in control throughout the process. You do not need to force a memory, relive an experience, or disclose more than feels manageable. The pace is adjusted to you, with grounding and stabilization built into the work.

Our DBR Therapists

Rosemary Holt, Registered Psychotherapist at Blue Shores Counselling in Collingwood and Stayner.

Registered Psychotherapist

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Rosemary Holt

Registered Psychotherapist

Bio

Julia Lippert

Christina Malley, Registered Psychotherapist at Blue Shores Counselling in Collingwood and Stayner.
Bio

Christina Malley

Andrea Foster, Registered Psychotherapist at Blue Shores Counselling in Collingwood and Stayner.
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Andrea Foster

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Couple Therapy

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)

Emotion-focused therapy can help you understand and transform the emotional patterns that shape your experiences and relationships. Rather than avoiding emotions, EFT helps you safely explore them so they can become a source of insight and healing.

Research shows that working through emotions in this way can lead to powerful shifts in self-understanding and connection with others.

EFT is particularly helpful for relationship challenges, as well as anxiety, depression, and trauma recovery.

Gottman Couples Therapy

Gottman Couples Therapy is based on over four decades of research into what makes relationships succeed or struggle. This approach can help you strengthen friendship, improve communication, and learn practical tools for navigating conflict in healthy ways in your relationship. You and your partner can learn how to understand each other more deeply and rebuild trust and emotional connection. Many couples find that this work helps them move from feeling stuck or disconnected toward a more supportive and fulfilling partnership.

Polyvagal & Somatic Therapies

Polyvagal theory allows you to understand how your body’s threat and safety systems operate and why certain reactions, such as anxiety, shutdown, or hyper vigilance, can occur.

Understanding the biology of your nervous system patterns can be incredibly empowering.
Through gentle awareness and regulation techniques, clients learn how to release stored stress and restore a sense of safety and balance in the body.

Somatic work can be especially helpful for trauma, chronic stress, anxiety, and emotional overwhelm, helping you feel more grounded, regulated, and connected to yourself. In turn, you can experience more connected, present, and joyfully engaged in life and in your relationships.

You can move out of survival mode and toward greater calm, resilience, and emotional freedom.

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Internal Family Systems (IFS) views the mind as made up of different “parts”: your protective parts, your wounded parts, and your inner wisdom.

Rather than fighting against difficult emotions, IFS helps you understand and heal the parts of you that carry pain, fear, or shame. Through this process, many people

Equine Assisted Psychotherapy

Equine-assisted psychotherapy involves working alongside horses in a therapeutic setting to support emotional growth and healing.

Horses are highly sensitive to human emotions and can provide immediate, honest feedback about how we relate and communicate. This experience can help clients develop self-awareness, confidence, emotional regulation, and trust.

At Blue Shores, we offer highly specialized Equine Assisted Psychotherapy that integrates trauma therapies, including EMDR and DBR in the presence of our horse friends. Many people find that working with horses in this way creates powerful breakthroughs that complement traditional talk therapy.

Play & Sand Tray Therapy

Play and sandtray therapy provides children with ways to express feelings and experiences that may be difficult to put into words.

Through creative play, storytelling, and symbolic expression, children can process emotions, build confidence, and develop healthier coping skills.

These approaches are widely used in child psychology and supported by research in emotional development and trauma treatment. Parents are often included in the process so children feel supported both in and outside of therapy.

Neurofeedback Therapy

Neurofeedback is a brain-based therapy that helps regulate how the brain functions by providing real-time feedback about brainwave activity.

Using specialized technology, you can learn to strengthen healthier brain patterns associated with focus, calmness, and emotional regulation. Research shows neurofeedback can support concerns such as ADHD, anxiety, trauma symptoms, sleep difficulties, and mood regulation.

Over time, this training helps the brain become more balanced and resilient.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) Trauma Therapy

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a neuroscience-based therapy that works with the trauma responses that live in the deep areas of the brain.

DBR is both innovative and well-researched, with promising results for relief from PTSD symptoms. It focuses on subtle physiological reactions that occur before conscious emotions and thoughts arise.

DBR therapists help their clients’ nervous system process deeply held trauma and attachment wounds through this gentle therapy and can help clients heal from traumatic injuries (including complex trauma and attachment wounding).

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (MCBT)

Mindfulness-based therapy combines psychological science with mindfulness practices that help you become more present and aware of your inner experience.

Instead of being overwhelmed by thoughts or emotions, you learn how to observe them with curiosity and calm.

Research shows mindfulness can reduce anxiety, stress, depression, and emotional reactivity while increasing resilience and well-being. Through guided exercises and reflection, clients develop the ability to respond to life’s challenges with greater steadiness and clarity.

EMDR Trauma Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a highly researched trauma therapy that helps the brain process and resolve distressing memories.

When difficult experiences are not fully processed, they can remain “stuck,” continuing to affect emotions, beliefs, and relationships.

EMDR uses structured techniques and bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess these memories so they lose their emotional intensity. Many clients find that EMDR helps them move beyond trauma, anxiety, and negative self-beliefs toward a greater sense of safety, freedom and enjoyment of life.