Inside the Toolbox: Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

Not all trauma lives in your thoughts. Some of it lives beneath language - in the body's reflexes, tension, and split-second reactions you can't always explain. Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a powerful, emerging therapy that works at the brainstem level - targeting the earliest layers of trauma and attachment shock, before cognitive memory even begins.

In this post, I'll explain what DBR is, how it works, who it helps, and why I integrate it into my practice when deeper, foundational healing is needed.

What Is Deep Brain Reorienting?

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a neurophysiologically based trauma therapy developed by psychiatrist Dr. Frank Corrigan. It's designed to process attachment-based trauma, shock, and early wounding by accessing the orienting reflex - the body's automatic response to threat or surprise.

Whereas other therapies often engage with the story or emotion of trauma, DBR focuses on what happened before the emotional response - those subtle moments when the brain and body locked into survival mode.

DBR targets:

• Attachment trauma (e.g., misattuned caregivers, emotional neglect)

• Shock trauma (e.g., accidents, surgeries, assaults)

• Developmental trauma (e.g., preverbal stress or boundary ruptures)

  
  

Because DBR works at the level of implicit memory (below conscious awareness) it can reach patterns that traditional talk therapy may miss.

How Does DBR Work?

The process of DBR involves slowing down and guiding attention to the initial orienting tension in the body that arises when you begin thinking about a distressing event, memory, or relational pattern. This tension often arises in the back of the head, neck, or face; and reflects the brainstem's early response to potential threat.

In therapy we:

1. Identify a specific trigger or moment to work with

2. Guide awareness to the orienting tension that emerges as you focus on it

3. Stay with that sensation, allowing the body's shock and emotional response to rise naturally

4. Process the entire sequence - orienting, shock, emotion - in order, with support

5. Allow the nervous system to complete the response it couldn't finish in the moment of trauma

   
   

This approach enables deeply rooted trauma to resolve without overwhelm or retraumatization. You're fully aware and in control throughout the process, but working at a much deeper level than usual.

Who Can Benefit from DBR?

DBR is especially helpful for clients who:

• Have early relational trauma or preverbal attachment wounding

• Struggle with chronic dissociation, shut down, or freeze responses

• Feel like their trauma is stored in the body, not the mind

• Experience a sense of being "stuck" despite previous therapy

• Have done EMDR, IFS, or PIT but still carry lingering tension or reactive patterns

• Want to access healing without needing to talk about trauma in detail

  
  

DBR can be transformative when a client "knows" they've experienced trauma but can't access memories - or when intellectual understanding hasn't led to nervous system relief.

What to Expect in a DBR Session

DBR sessions are gentle, intentional, and body-focused. We'll start by identifying something that's emotionally activating - this could be a situation, person, or memory fragment. From there, I'll guide you to slow down and track subtle sensations in the head, face, or throat as you orient to that material.

Sessions may involve:

• Quiet tracking of physical tension

• Noticing shifts in breath or body temperature

• Allowing emotion or images to surface without pressure to analyze

• Grounding and co-regulation throughout

  
  

It's not uncommon for clients to experience spontaneous releases - tears, sighs, sensations moving through the body, as the nervous system reorganizes itself in a more regulated state.

Why I Use DBR in My Practice

DBR speaks to something I witness often in trauma work: that the body remembers what the mind cannot say. It allows us to go to the source of distress, not just the symptoms, and offer healing at the level where trauma first took root.

I integrate DBR with other approaches like EMDR, ART, IFS, and PIT when a client is ready to access deeper layers of healing. It's especially powerful for attachment-based work, and for clients whose trauma is hard to put into words.

DBR honors the nervous system. It respects the body's pace, and it creates healing through presence, not performance.

Moving Forward with DBR

If you feel like your trauma lives in your body more than your words, or if other therapies have helped but something still feels unresolved, Deep Brain Reorienting may be a path work exploring.

To learn more about how I use DBR in therapy, visit my services page or reach out through my contact page to schedule a consultation.

Stay tuned for my next series where I will take a deep dive into Cognitive Behavioral Therapy!