Most trauma therapy starts with what happened. Deep Brain Reorienting starts earlier than that, with what your body did in the fraction of a second before you knew what was happening.
That sounds abstract, so here is what it actually means.
What DBR stands for and where it came from
DBR is Deep Brain Reorienting. It was developed by Frank Corrigan, a Scottish psychiatrist, who first published on it in 2020. Much of the research since has been done in Canada, led by Ruth Lanius at Western University with colleagues at McMaster.
The idea behind it is this. When something threatening happens, your body responds in a sequence. First the orienting response, the automatic turn of the head and eyes toward the threat before you have consciously registered anything. Then the attachment related shock, the part that registers whether anyone is coming. Then the emotion, the fear or the grief or the rage. Then, eventually, the story you tell about it.
Most therapy works at the level of the emotion and the story. DBR proposes that the earlier layers are still held in the body, and that going straight to the emotion without them is part of why trauma work sometimes overwhelms people or stalls.
What actually happens in a DBR session
Less than you might expect, and that is the point.
You bring an activating memory or situation to mind, lightly rather than plunging into it. Then your attention goes to physical sensation in a specific place, usually tension in the muscles of the head, neck and face. Not the chest, not the gut, not where people usually look.
Your therapist helps you stay with that tension slowly while it unfolds in its own order. There is no eye movement, no tapping, no instruction to describe the event in detail, and no requirement to relive anything. A session is quiet and much of it happens with very little talking.
People often say afterwards that it felt like too little to have done anything. That reaction is common enough that it is worth naming in advance.
What the evidence actually shows
This is where most pages about DBR become vague, so here are the specifics.
One randomized controlled trial has been published, by Kearney and colleagues in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology in 2023. Fifty-four adults with PTSD were randomized, twenty nine to DBR and twenty five to a waitlist. Treatment was eight weekly ninety minute sessions delivered by videoconference.
| Measure | DBR group | Waitlist |
|---|---|---|
| Symptom reduction after treatment | 36.6 percent | 8.0 percent |
| Symptom reduction at 3 month follow up | 48.6 percent | 15.1 percent |
| No longer met PTSD criteria after treatment | 48.3 percent | Not applicable |
| No longer met PTSD criteria at follow up | 52.0 percent | Not applicable |
Who DBR tends to suit
In practice it is often considered for people who find other trauma therapy too activating, people who shut down or go numb rather than becoming distressed, people who cannot or do not want to narrate what happened, and people whose trauma is pre verbal or early enough that there is no story to tell.
DBR training at The Therapy Team
Very seasoned therapists at The Therapy Team are trained in DBR. Both were trained by Frank Corrigan, the founder of DBR.
Common questions
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Deep Brain Reorienting. It is a trauma therapy developed by psychiatrist Frank Corrigan, first published in 2020.
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There is no evidence for that claim in either direction, because no trial has compared them. EMDR has by far the larger evidence base. DBR may suit people who find EMDR too activating.
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Usually very little. DBR works with physical sensation rather than narrative, which is one of the main reasons people choose it.
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The published trial used eight weekly sessions of ninety minutes. In practice it varies with what you are carrying and how long you have carried it.
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Yes. Therapists at The Therapy Team are trained in DBR, and much of the research has been conducted in Ontario and Canada.
Book a free fifteen minute call
If other trauma therapy has felt like too much, or you have never been able to put what happened into words, we will talk through whether DBR fits.
Sources
Kearney BE, Corrigan FM, Frewen PA, Nevill S, Harricharan S, Andrews K, Jetly R, McKinnon MC, Lanius RA. A randomized controlled trial of Deep Brain Reorienting: a neuroscientifically guided treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 2023;14(2):2240691.
Trial registration NCT04317820