3: Spotlight on Healing: Dr. Melanie Young and Dr. Pie Frey's Brainspotting Trainer Insights

[00:00:36] Cherie Lindberg: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Elevated Life Academy. And today I am, I have a treat. I have Melanie Young and Pi Fry, both brainspotting trainers. And we are going to talk about what it is like to be a brain spotting trainers and share some of our experiences, funny stories of hope and healing.

And I hope you enjoy this, this episode. I will have Melanie and Pie introduce themselves in just a second, but I want you to know a little bit more about brain spotting. I know we talked a little bit with Dr. Grand about it and you can find out more information on brainspotting.com. You can also look at my YouTube channel and there are some videos of how to brain spot.

Brain spotting is basically a way for you to be able to go inside and reprocess any information that is stored maladaptively inside of you. And we're going to talk about that process here a little bit with Melanie Young and Pie Fry. We're going to talk about what it's like being a trainer and all the people that they have met and worked with and taught and trained over the years.

So Melanie, if you would like to just introduce yourself for our audience.

[00:02:46] Melanie Young: Sure. I'm Melanie Young and I am in Boulder, Colorado, and have loved psychology and working with people going way back. I even knew I wanted to be a psychologist when I was 16 years old. So, pursued it and I've worked in all kinds of settings. Mental health centers and hospitals and rehabilitation. I mean, it's psychiatric units, all kinds of places. And as I kept developing my skills, I decided to go into private practice and private practice was wonderful, but it always, you know, felt like there was more we could do, which is why we're talking about brain spotting tonight.

But as I was in private practice, I was introduced to brain spotting, which I'll, I'll talk about how I got there in a minute.

[00:03:46] Cherie Lindberg: Okay. Thank you. And dear Pie, please introduce yourself to the audience. Good to see both of you this evening.

[00:03:53] Pie Frey: Thank you. Good to see you. I am Pie Frey. I live in Nederland, Colorado and work in Boulder, Colorado.

And I got trained in brain spotting by David in 2006. Brain spotting had been around since 2003. I became a trainer in brain spotting at the end of 2008. And I have been a therapist for 40 years. And I love brain spotting because I've seen how it has changed my life, clients lives, and people who are therapists who take our trainings' lives.

And so that gives me energy to keep doing the work and excitement to see changes that go on with everyone.

[00:04:40] Cherie Lindberg: Great. Thank you. And for those of you in the audience that don't know what brain spotting is, we will have a description and links alongside this podcast so you can do a little bit of research.

But the famous line is where you look affects how you feel. And so, you can harness a brain spot to go in and process old memories, trauma memories, or even blocks that get in the way of you achieving a goal. Melanie, so why don't you talk a little bit about, you know, how you went towards brainspotting after you went into private practice?

[00:05:17] Melanie Young: Sure. Yeah. So, it was actually Pie and another woman that brought brain spotting to Boulder and I started hearing rumors about it and something just clicked. And then you know, got to start seeing it in action and I was so excited. So I took the training with David Grand, and back then, which was 2007, it was just a two day training.

It was a newer technique. And I just remember feeling, this is just right. It gets, it gets in deeper and I could just feel the healing happen with within me. I, I did a brain spotting intensive where it was five days of brain spotting with several people and David and just found that it was really challenging work, but it helped me to make some big life decisions.

It helped me get more in touch with spiritual side as well as overall healing. And so I started assisting David, and from there became a trainer. And then we continued training even through COVID and went online. So all three of us obviously do, you know, trainings online and in person.

[00:06:43] Cherie Lindberg: Great. And Pi, you know, you've been in this field for 40 years. Like, how did you find out about David and how did you get drawn to, to brain spotting?

[00:06:52] Pie Frey: I actually, my story is different than other people's, but my, I actually met David in the EMDR world when he was selling his bilateral CDs, and I used it in my practice then.

And then when I saw the brochure that he had sent out about brain spotting, I just because I knew who David was is why I signed up for it. I think he is very gifted and I like working with him. So I signed up and went to the training.

[00:07:25] Cherie Lindberg: All right. And tell us a little bit more. I know we kind of joke about who has more brain spotters now, whether it's Colorado or Wisconsin, but I, I do know that he had his first big training there and you organized that.

And were you there, Melanie, when that happened?

[00:07:41] Pie Frey: Yeah. Yeah. Actually, his very first training in 2006 had 18 people in it, and only two of us were from Colorado. It was from 2007 on that I helped organize all the trainings in Colorado and brought David out to do the trainings, which was great.

[00:08:01] Cherie Lindberg: Wonderful. So Melanie, coming back to you now, tell, you know, maybe one or, or two of your favorite stories about, you know, as you've continued to be a trainer interacting with other professionals and, and witnessing, you know, the demonstrations that we do and participating in them during the trainings, any, any fond memories or stories of hope and healing that come up for you?

[00:08:26] Melanie Young: Yes, absolutely. You know, there, there are many. So in our trainings, we, we show a technique for the therapists and how to use whatever brain spotting technique. And then we demonstrate it. We have an experiential. What I have seen is amazing healing within just an hour of the experiential. So, for example, working with a woman who had had severe, and this is a therapist, severe brain injury from an accident years ago. And she had chronic headaches and anxiety and just trauma around it and went in to do the demonstration. And she wasn't even starting with that specific piece, but it went right into all the the trauma and all the physical pain. And at the end of the demonstration, she said that her headache was gone and she felt much lighter.

And I got an email from this woman later saying how amazing it was because she felt like she was finally getting a reprieve and she could breathe again and just not feeling it anymore, the, the trauma.

[00:09:49] Cherie Lindberg: And how about you, Pi? I'm sure you've had lots of stories you could add here.

[00:09:52] Pie Frey: Yes, and I actually want to say that when I first learned of it in the training, I was pretty skeptical. And I, I see a lot of therapists who come in for the training and very skeptical about it. But I think what excites me as for myself and when I see the clinicians is they feel really amazed at the changes that are going on.

Part of what we do is the, the therapists do their own work as well as, you know the demonstrations that Melanie was talking about. And when they're doing their own work, they're always amazed at how fast, how much the trauma moves through. And so what I've seen is people who have anxiety and, and in one session, they can clear their anxiety, decrease it so they can go ahead and do whatever they need to do as clinicians or as clients. And that's what I like is to see it in both directions that people are doing amazing work. And it usually takes a couple of sessions before people really believe it. And then they go from saying, I'm skeptical to, I can't believe it. It's so amazing. The changes that go on.

And I, I was working with someone who has a, a physical condition called dystonia, where the muscles don't operate very well, it's neurological. And what I found is even in the first session, they can decrease some of the dystonic symptoms where they have no control over their muscles. And what I'm amazed at is we can do a lot of physical issues along with emotional issues, along with spiritual issues you know, along with athletic issues. And that is so exciting to see the changes that occur within people.

[00:11:46] Cherie Lindberg: Thank you. So talk to me more. I'm always interested. I mean, I know we've done a lot of trainings with each other and so forth, but talk to me more about, you know, the experience of, of being a trainer. Maybe even like, you know, expectations or things that you were surprised of when you became a trainer and, and maybe what keeps you, you know, training. Because I, I know it requires, even though we just went through COVID and we're able to do more online trainings, but it requires travel and a lot of time and effort, you know, to put in, to host the training.

So any, anything you want to share around that, Melanie?

[00:12:26] Melanie Young: Sure. You know, I think there's there's so many things about being a trainer that are challenging and also wonderful. And, and some of the wonderful is lifetime friendships I've made, including with both of you. And even with all the travel, we bring in humor.

We, you know, we find ways to just really enjoy each other, the people in the trainings, the surroundings, wherever we are. I, I think, you know, it can be really tiring and yet at the same time, it can be really energizing. So when I'm at a training and I may have been traveling and I'm tired, but when you see people get it and, and feel like, wow, this could really help people heal and seeing it's a very client centered therapy.

So seeing how people heal within themselves and helping teach these, these practitioners to spread the healing to other people, which to me can make the world a more peaceful place as idealistic as it sounds.

[00:13:37] Pie Frey: I think the excitement, the excitement that I see is when the clinicians, the therapists and taking the training go from not understanding it, not sure they believe in it.

And then they do some of their own work and all of a sudden they are feeling great about what they just went through. And then we see clients that have taken phase one and then we meet with them on zoom for several times. And then if we do a phase two with them and it's so exciting to see the changes that go on with our therapists who are taking the training and how excited they are when they share cases that they have with their clients and their clients are moving through so fast. And I think the power of brain spotting is that people don't have to be in therapy for forever. It's a very fast moving approach that, you know, people were afraid it'd be years and years.

It doesn't have to be. It can just be something they want to deal with and, and learn to get over it and just work on, you know, one issue at a time sometimes. But it's exciting to see the therapist so excited. when they're doing the work.

[00:14:50] Melanie Young: And we thought with the pandemic, we would shut down. And within, you know, three, four weeks, we figured out ways to bring this to people all over the world, because we went online.

And that's another thing that's exciting about being a trainer, is we've gotten to know people from all over the world, very different cultures, backgrounds. And that's, it's really cool.

[00:15:17] Cherie Lindberg: Yeah, okay. So now let's switch to some funny stories. Okay. Think about some of the situations you have found yourself in.

And like, I have tons of them coming up, but I'm, this is about you all sharing. But I know some of my adventures have been with you and some funny things that have happened. So can you think of anything coming to mind, Melanie, about some funny stories, inspiring stories?

[00:15:44] Melanie Young: Yeah, absolutely. Just real briefly, I'll tell this one and then a one from the training is going through security with a fake brain.

And we have a teaching brain. And the poor woman that was checking my bag thought I had a real brain. And she was all panicked. And she said, but it looks green in the x-ray. I got pulled aside and had to talk to a few of the TSA people to get them to let me through with my extra brain.

So there you go. And I've heard other people having the same issues or the pointers we use. But yeah, there's, there's many stories. One that's coming to mind is when Cherie and I taught at a wilderness. Or it was what was it? It was, it was a residential place, was a wilderness program for teens and they had all kinds of animals all over the place. And so we're walking around during the practicums and the practicums where the two therapists get together and practice on each other and they had therapy cats that were getting in the way.

So next thing, you know I've got a cat under my arm walking around and walk in a room and there's a peacock looking in the window at two people trying to do the practicum. And it's like pecking on the window and doing that. And so we laughed, you know, we just had to, we had to close the shade on that one.

Do you want to tell them, Pie?

[00:17:20] Pie Frey: I was in Atlanta with Cynthia Schwartzberg and they had a room of all gorillas and stuffed animals. And people would, you know, wanted to fight to get into this room with the gorillas. And then at the end of the session, we brought several of the gorillas out and they asked me to do brain spotting on the gorilla.

Put the headphones on, you're moving the pointer. And some people process very silently and they don't talk, and I'm one of those. So we just talked about the gorilla that was processing and not sharing his or her feelings as to what was going on, but there's always something funny going, happening. There's always something.

[00:18:03] Cherie Lindberg: I just, I recall as the two of you were talking, I remember Melanie, you being at a training and sending pictures of like costumes and things like that.

[00:18:14] Melanie Young: Yes, yes, we were in a theater and so we began to dress up and then we realized there was a security camera on us and we didn't know if people were wondering what we were doing in the room with all the costumes.

[00:18:28] Pie Frey: In 2008, I was in San Diego with David, it was Halloween. So I brought some costumes to wear then. David sort of looked at me like, what's going on? But, you know, I think the idea is make therapy fun also, you know, and that's what we do when we're training. And we've trained in so many different places.

I know you have trained, both of you have trained different places. I've trained in churches, I've trained in basements, I've trained in someone's house, you know. And you'll go, we'll go anywhere to do a training. I think that's the gift of it all. Even, you know, though we're now on zoom a lot, it's just so much fun.

I think part of it, like Melanie said earlier, we are meeting so many therapists from all over the country and even all over the world that we are reaching out. We're seeing a lot of people. People are getting excited no matter where they are doing their training. And it's exciting. It's exciting to keep in touch.

[00:19:35] Cherie Lindberg: I was just thinking of our last, I mean, I know we had our first conference in Brazil, but the last one here, that was in Denver, how some of the therapists got up and did like a little skit. And singing and so forth. So yes, I think it is lovely to see the spirit of of fun and laughter. And I, I think, you know, listening to what both of you are talking about is that with brain spotting, like people get to their higher self or can get to their authentic self and gain confidence and and do things that maybe they wouldn't normally do or take risks that they normally wouldn't do.

[00:20:15] Pie Frey: I would like to say that for some people that don't know, brain spotting can work with helping people decrease their anxiety. I can't tell you how many high school and college age kids who get anxious taking a test. You can do brain spotting and clear that out. Melanie and I know a triathlete that's in the top few in the world.

And he brain spots the injuries he's had, issues with coaches he's had. And he is amazing when we get to watch him. And David's worked with him three times in the peak performance class. Yes. And so you see him get better and shorten his time every time. We've worked with spirituality, you know.

[00:20:58] Cherie Lindberg: In your mind's eye, just again, these are stories of hope and healing. Any, any stories that may be come to mind about hope, you know, someone that you've, you've worked with, or you've trained that you know, brain spotting brought some hope to them.

[00:21:16] Melanie Young: Yeah, many, many people actually. Yeah, I, I'm just thinking about someone I worked with with a lot of medical trauma amputee and, you know, not being able to do well in life and function well because of all the trauma as well as the pain. And being able to get through that after working on the trauma, the phantom pain went down tremendously, much less episodes of it and just the ability to know that healing can happen. That would continue to happen of course, you know, you have to do the work to make it happen, but seeing this person be able to get off substances because they were healing the trauma and move forward and start becoming a success when in terms of what they wanted in their life.

[00:22:09] Pie Frey: And I know we've had so many people since the pandemic start, started coming in who have so much depression, so much anxiety, and to be able to move them through that so they feel like I have gratitude today, every day. But we've also, and we've also worked with lots of conditions, medical conditions.

I have a traumatic brain injury. I work with a lot of people who have a traumatic brain injury. And to break down and help their brain start to get better. The symptoms that have come up start to decrease. And I've worked with stroke survivors so that they can have a better life and be more involved in their own life and being less depressed.

It just creates so much hope of thinking we are helping people one by one feel better.

[00:22:59] Cherie Lindberg: Yes. Absolutely. And this network keeps us all in here doing this.

[00:23:04] Pie Frey: That's right.

[00:23:04] Melanie Young: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, what, what we see is folks come in to therapy because they know something's off.

They know something's not right. They're overwhelmed, they're anxious, they're down, whatever it is. And you know, we know it as dysregulation, but they, we don't know that, but they know they don't feel good. And to be able to, you know, come in and change that to, to heal, to start becoming regulated again, and then to be able to teach other therapists to do the same so they can go help their clients heal themselves.

[00:23:46] Cherie Lindberg: It is, it is. I want to thank both of you for coming to Elevated Consciousness and sharing some stories, inspiring stories and hopeful stories of, you know, being a trainer, clients you've worked with folks that you've taught, folks that you've done experientials with.

And I, you know, in some ways this podcast can be historical because maybe five years from now we'll need to do this again and, and see where we've evolved from where we're at now. So thank you both for, for joining us and you know I will be a part of this soon.

[00:24:20] Melanie Young: Yes. And thank you for having us here.

[00:24:24] Cherie Lindberg: Thank you so much. It's wonderful having both of you at the same time .

[00:24:26] Pie Frey: Thank you so much, Cherie. We're glad to be here with you.