Deep Brain Reorienting Therapy
in St. Albert & Edmonton
Working With Trauma at Its Deepest Point
Sometimes an experience continues to affect you even when you have talked about it, understand it intellectually, and know that it happened in the past.
You may still notice strong emotional or physical reactions, feel easily overwhelmed, or find yourself returning to the same patterns.
Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a trauma-focused therapeutic approach that works with the brain and body’s response to overwhelming experiences.
At Guided Path Counselling, DBR is used as part of a gentle, trauma-informed approach that respects your pace and your nervous system.
What Is Deep Brain Reorienting?
Deep Brain Reorienting was developed by psychologist Dr. Frank Corrigan. It focuses on the brain's response to experiences that involve sudden threat, shock or attachment-related trauma.
DBR pays particular attention to what happens in the body and brain at the moment we experience something overwhelming.
Rather than requiring you to repeatedly describe or relive a traumatic event, the process involves carefully noticing subtle physical and emotional responses while remaining grounded in the present.
What Can DBR Help With?
DBR may be helpful for people experiencing the effects of:
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traumatic experiences
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childhood or attachment trauma
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complex trauma
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PTSD
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overwhelming or shocking events
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relationship trauma
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grief and loss
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anxiety and emotional overwhelm
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experiences that continue to feel unresolved
You do not need to know exactly why you are reacting the way you do before beginning therapy.
A Gentle Approach to Trauma
Trauma therapy does not have to mean telling your story over and over again.
DBR offers another way of approaching difficult experiences by slowing the process down and paying attention to your body's responses.
Your therapist will guide you through the process while helping you remain oriented to the present and within a manageable level of emotional activation.
The goal is to help your system process what has happened while developing a greater sense of safety, regulation and choice.
Could DBR Be Right for You?
DBR may be worth exploring if you feel that something from your past continues to affect you, even though you have tried to understand or work through it.
At Guided Path Counselling, we can explore whether DBR—or another trauma-focused approach such as EMDR or Somatic Experiencing—fits your needs.
Your experiences are part of your story, but they do not have to determine your future.
Deep Brain Reorienting therapy is available in St. Albert and online across Alberta.