Dr. Nicolette Bautista

Maybe something terrible happened to you or to someone you love, and you wonder how to live with the grief, anxiety, depression, or anger. Your relationships, on some level, are probably suffering -- maybe you overreact or are numb and feel detached from others. You've likely been in therapy, and learned coping skills, but are frankly tired of just coping. There is good news; it's called neuroplasticity! The brain is an organ designed to heal itself! If you've found little to no relief of symptoms, you may have undischarged trauma. I can help you extract the trauma once and for all! EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: I am a licensed clinical psychologist and hold masters and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, and a BA in psychology from Marquette University. I completed postdoctoral training at a California Youth Correctional Facility, where quite literally everyone is traumatized. From there I worked at Kaiser Permanente before opening my own practice. Prior to direct clinical work, I led three trauma-focused agencies including California's largest domestic violence and sexual assault organization. I enjoy gardening, traveling, movies, hiking, cooking and spending time with family, friends and three little canines. WHAT IS BRAINSPOTTING? Brainspotting (BSP), is a powerful, focused treatment that I use daily to treat trauma. It works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, dissociation and other challenging symptoms of trauma. Brainspotting locates points in the visual field that help to access unprocessed trauma in the subcortical brain. Brainspotting is based on the observation that the body activation experienced when describing a traumatic event has a resonating spot in the visual field (called the brainspot). Holding attention on that brainspot, allows processing of the traumatic event to flow until the body activation and associated memory have cleared. Its goal is to bypass the conscious, neocortical thinking to access the deeper, subcortical parts of the brain where trauma is held and stored.