BrainWorking Recursive Therapy (BWRT)

BrainWorking Recursive Therapy (usually known as BWRT) is a recently developed model of psychotherapy that, like cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), works to change unwanted behaviours, replacing them with chosen responses and bringing about positive life change.  Unlike CBT though, BWRT works to transform thought processes at sub-conscious level.  Studies have shown that there is a delay between the time an event or stimulus occurs and the moment that awareness of it occurs in the brain and it is this cognitive gap that BWRT targets to bring about the desired change.

BWRT works with the natural processes of the brain, which filters incoming information and tries to match it with previously encountered information to enable it to decide how to respond in any given situation.  Responses to that incoming information are then “remembered” for future reference in the brain’s neural pathways.  When the brain encounters something equal or sufficiently similar to trigger the same reaction it will do so automatically and we are usually not aware of this until after we have responded.  The therapy makes use of the gap between the event and consciousness to rewire the neural pathways in the brain which have become fixed in an undesirable or outdated pattern matrix.  The unwanted response is overlaid, or indeed replaced, with the client’s preferred outcome to the issue being treated.

BWRT is a solution-focused, client led therapy and is predominantly content free.  The client is encouraged to explore the issue they are seeking help with, but do not need to disclose specific instances of that issue.  This is especially helpful in circumstances where it is difficult for the client to share or to talk about issues which affect them deeply and about which they may feel shame or fear.  This breaks down or removes barriers which may otherwise produce resistance to both therapy and to change.