Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)
and AT-informed Somatic Therapy

 

What is Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)?

 

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a neuroscience-based therapy developed to treat trauma and attachment wounds by accessing and transforming the brain’s response patterns. When a traumatic event occurs, including unmet attachment needs in early life, the brain initiates a survival response that can continue to replay in the nervous system long after the event has passed—especially when something triggers a memory or emotional echo of the trauma. DBR helps by gently revisiting and slowing down this early, automatic sequence, offering the brain a chance to transform it, often leading to deep and lasting healing.

 

 

How DBR Works

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​Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a cutting-edge trauma therapy that works by targeting the brain’s earliest responses to shock—before conscious thoughts or emotions arise. Rooted in neuroscience, DBR guides clients to access and notice subtle physical sensations and feelings in their body that reflect deep brain activity, where the trauma response begins. By slowing down this pre-conscious sequence with the support of a trained therapist, DBR allows the nervous system to safely process and release unresolved trauma.

 

This bottom-up approach helps rewire survival patterns such as fight, flight, freeze, or shutdown, without needing to talk through the traumatic event—making it especially effective for PTSD and relationshiip attachment-related wounding. DBR supports deep healing by harnessing the innate healing mechanisms of the brain.

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Incorporating Somatic (body-based) Techniques into DBR for Trauma Healing

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Why Combine DBR with the Alexander Technique (AT)?

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DBR-AT integrates Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) with gentle somatic techniques adapted from the Alexander Technique. Developed through collaboration between Martin Warner and Dr Frank Corrigan, this approach is designed to support the release of physical bracing patterns that can interrupt the natural flow of DBR processing.

The intention is to gently unwind the body’s defensive contractions so the DBR sequence can continue and complete — including supporting the release of long-held shock from the body–brain system.

These body-based interventions can strengthen a client’s capacity to soften protective tension that, when held in place over time, may block trauma processing and keep the effects of past experiences active in the nervous system.

The somatic interweaves are guided through simple verbal instruction between therapist and client, making this approach highly accessible for online telehealth sessions.

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What Can Deep Brain Reorienting Help With?

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DBR has helped many of our clients with a wide range of emotional, physical, and relational challenges:

• Trauma & PTSD

• Anxiety and chronic stress

• Depression linked to early pain or unresolved trauma

• Somatic symptoms (e.g., tension, chronic pain, medically unexplained symptoms)

• Attachment wounds and relationship insecurity

• Trust and connection issues

• Fear of abandonment and rejection in relationships.

• Emotional numbness or disconnection

• Survival responses: fight, flight, freeze, fawn, shutdown, dissociation

• Emotional dysregulation and reactivity

• Low self-worth 

• Unresolved grief and loss

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What Happens in a DBR Session?

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1. Where-Self

The first step in DBR involves your therapist guiding you to ground yourself in your “where-self”—the sense of here-nowness—creating a stable foundation for safely accessing and resolving the trauma response.

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2. Identifying your target for the session (activating stimulus)
Your therapist helps you choose a recent situation that triggered distress, or the unwanted symptoms or pattern of emotional reactivity that you want to change.

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3. Accessing the Orienting Tension
Your therapist guides you to find the orienting tension that can feel like tension, tightness or a fingerprint of pressure that appears in the muscles across your forehead, around your eyes, or at the base of your skull.

 

When we are faced with a threatening situation, these muscles are used to turn our head, eyes, or attention towards or away from the threat, even before any emotion sets in. This marks the beginning of the trauma sequence and becomes the grounding anchor for the session.

 

If the processing starts to feel intense or overwhelming, you can return your attention to this grounding anchor. This technique helps you stay grounded and connected to your body, reducing the risk of emotional flooding and making the process more manageable than many other trauma-focused therapies.

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4. Slowing the Brain's Response

Your therapist guides you to stay attuned to your body's physical sensations and emotions as your brain's sequence unfolds. Using a thorough understanding of neurobiology, your therapist guides you to be present with the process in a way that slows down the brain’s underlying response sequence, with the aim of allowing it to be safely and effectively modified, minimising overwhelm and the intense emotional flooding often associated with trauma work.

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The Research and Evidence

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A recent high-quality study tested how effective Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is for treating PTSD. In the study, 54 people with PTSD were randomly placed into two groups—one group received eight DBR sessions over video calls, while the other group was put on a waitlist and didn’t receive treatment during the study.

Those who received DBR showed major improvements in their PTSD symptoms—nearly half no longer met the criteria for PTSD after the sessions, and even more improved three months later. The waitlist group, by comparison, saw little to no change.

DBR was also regarded as well tolerated. Unlike many trauma therapies where people drop out due to emotional distress, only one person in this study didn’t finish the DBR sessions. This may be because DBR doesn’t require clients to talk through the trauma in detail, making it a gentler and more accessible option for healing.

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20008066.2023.2240691?um

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40098781/

https://cfas.isst-d.org/content/deep-brain-reorienting-dbr-disconnection-pain-and-dissociation%C2%A0?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987719309673?via%3Dihub

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Learn More:

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https://deepbrainreorienting.com/history-of-dbr/

https://deepbrainreorienting.com/hypothetical-basis/

https://deepbrainreorienting.com/dbr-theory-videos/​

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