A gentle approach to trauma

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

A gentle way to help the body release shock and deep stress 

If you’ve done a lot of talking, understanding, and inner work — yet your body still reacts — Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) offers a quieter, gentler way forward.

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR) is a body-based, trauma-informed therapy that supports the nervous system to release shock and deep stress held beneath conscious awareness.

Many people are drawn to DBR when they notice patterns like freeze, numbness, dread, or overwhelm that don’t seem to shift with insight alone. DBR doesn’t ask you to relive what happened or explain your story in detail. Instead, it works respectfully with the body’s earliest survival responses, allowing things to settle from the inside out.

DBR is offered in my Port Macquarie practice as part of trauma-informed counselling and can be used on its own or alongside other approaches.

How DBR works 🧠

When something frightening or overwhelming happens, the body responds before we have time to think.

The very first response is an orienting response — the instinctive moment your system tries to locate and assess what’s happening. This often shows up as subtle tension around the eyes, face, head, or neck, as the body prepares to turn toward or away from threat.

If the situation is too sudden, intense, or there’s no way to escape, this orienting response may not complete. The nervous system can then move into shock, freeze, or collapse.

DBR slows everything right down and gently brings attention to these early, instinctive responses — especially orienting tension and shock — before thoughts or stories take over. Rather than analysing or pushing through, we practise being with what’s there in a contained, supported way. This gives the nervous system the conditions it needs to finish what was interrupted.

Nothing is forced.
Nothing is relived.
The body leads the process, at its own pace.

A gentle but accurate note on the neuroscience 

DBR works with the deep survival systems of the brain — the parts that respond to threat before language, reasoning, or conscious memory.

One of the first structures involved is the superior colliculi (in the midbrain), which coordinates the orienting response— the movement of the eyes, head, and neck as the brain scans for danger. This is why DBR often involves noticing subtle sensations or tension around the eyes and face.

If the threat feels overwhelming or inescapable, deeper survival circuits may activate — particularly the periaqueductal gray (PAG). The PAG plays a central role in shock, freeze, collapse, and immobilisation responses, protecting the body when fight or flight isn’t possible.

Because these responses happen so quickly, they often occur before emotions, thoughts, or memories fully form. Trauma held at this level may not have a clear story and instead shows up as bodily states — numbness, dread, bracing, shutdown, or sudden overwhelm.

DBR gently supports these deep brain systems — the orienting response (via the superior colliculi) and the shock/immobilisation response (via the PAG) — to complete what was interrupted at the time of threat. As these early responses resolve, emotional states (affect) often soften naturally — not through catharsis or analysis, but through completion.

In simple terms:
DBR helps the brain move out of survival mode and back into a felt sense of safety — gently and respectfully.

What DBR can help with ✨

DBR may be helpful if you notice:

• feeling frozen, shut down, or numb

• a sense of dread or collapse that comes out of nowhere

• reacting strongly to stress without knowing why

• difficulty feeling safe, even when life is stable

• trauma that feels early, vague, or hard to put into words

It can be especially supportive for experiences involving shock, such as accidents, medical procedures, sudden loss, or early relational trauma.

You might recognise yourself here — or you might simply have a quiet sense that your body is still holding something.

What DBR feels like in sessions 

DBR sessions are usually calm, slow, and spacious.

You’re guided to notice very small sensations — perhaps a tension, stillness, or pull — while staying grounded and supported. We take time to simply be with what’s there, without trying to change or fix it.

Clients often describe DBR like this:

“It felt like my body exhaled.”

“There were no big emotions — just a deep settling.”

“I felt safe and not rushed for the first time.”

A little history of DBR 🌍

Deep Brain Reorienting was developed by Dr Frank Corrigan, a Scottish psychiatrist and psychotherapist with decades of experience working with trauma, PTSD, and complex developmental trauma.

Through his clinical work, Dr Corrigan observed that many people remained stuck in shock or freeze even after years of insight-based therapy. Drawing on neuroscience and careful observation, he developed DBR to work with the earliest moments of threat response — before thoughts, beliefs, or emotions fully form.

DBR is now used internationally and is especially valued for its gentle, respectful approach to trauma healing.

How DBR fits with other therapies 🔄

DBR works beautifully alongside therapies such as EMDR and Brainspotting.

While EMDR and Brainspotting help process memories and patterns, DBR focuses on very early, instinctive survival responses that can sit underneath everything else. For some people, DBR is a gentle starting point. For others, it’s woven in when other approaches feel too activating or when the nervous system needs extra care.

DBR can also be offered within Healing Intensives, where longer, uninterrupted time allows the nervous system to slow right down and integrate more deeply.

Is DBR right for me?

DBR may be a good fit if:

• your body reacts even when your mind understands

• you feel stuck in freeze or shutdown

• talking about the past feels overwhelming

• you’re drawn to a gentle, body-led approach

You don’t need clear memories or a detailed story. Often the body already knows what it’s ready to release.

TL;DR 📝

• DBR is a very gentle, body-based therapy for shock and deep nervous system stress

• You don’t need to relive or explain what happened

• It works with early survival systems in the brain (orienting and shock responses)

• Sessions are slow, calm, and carefully paced

• DBR can be used on its own or alongside EMDR, including within Healing Intensives

Learn more about DBR 🎥

Shock Before Trauma – Dr Frank Corrigan (Founder of DBR)
A calm, trustworthy explanation of how DBR works with orienting responses and shock in the nervous system.

 👉 Watch Here

Curious whether DBR could support you?

Book a discovery call, an initial session or reach out to begin the conversation.

You don’t need to be sure — curiosity is enough.

Get in touch

* Image by Andrew Lister, Sunrise at Town Beach, Port Macquarie.