Christine Ranck, PhD, LCSW, is a Brainspotting and EMDR therapist and trainer. Trained in Brainspotting by Dr. David Grand (discoverer of Brainspotting) and in EMDR by Francine Shapiro (inventor of EMDR), Dr. Ranck works on the front edge of the most effective mental health therapies available today.
Christine Ranck is an internationally known speaker on topics of creativity and performance improvement. Drawing on her love of the science of holograms and her education and background as a performer, Chris brings a lively and compelling energy to her speaking engagements.
Christine Ranck trains and supervises mental health professionals in Brainspotting and is available for speaking engagements.
Christine Ranck in her own words...
ASTONISHING DISCOVERY
I was really curious…and also a little skeptical when, in 2003, my friend and colleague, Dr. David Grand, with whom I shared an office suite in NYC, described a rather astonishing event that had just happened in his office.
Dr. Grand had been working for about 18 months with a very gifted young professional skater, “Jane,” who could not successfully perform a crucial part of her routine, the Triple Loop (leap high in the air, twirl around 3 times, and land on your feet in perfect form!). With each attempt, she only made it around 2 ½ times before falling out of the sky.
Dr. Grand was, at the time, a senior EMDR facilitator and perpetual experimenter. That day, he asked Jane to focus internally on the very moment when her triple loop falls apart, as he slowly guided her eyes with his index finger—using an extremely micro-slow hand movement—across her field of vision.
At some point, as he was going across, Grand suddenly noticed that Jane’s eyes began to wobble and blink rapidly. At the same moment, he had the sensation that someone was literally grabbing his hand to hold it stationary on that spot!! So they stopped there, and while Dr. Grand held that eye position for Jane with his finger—for about 10 minutes—she simultaneously experienced a torrent of new associations and memories. When the session was over, they both remarked that it was very interesting, and Jane went home.
But the next day, she called excitedly to say that she had successfully performed the triple loop over and over during her latest practice session. (And she never had trouble with it again!) That surprising result caught Dr. Grand’s attention, Brainspotting was born, and I, too, was soon introduced to this exciting new way to help clients.
TRAUMA THERAPY
I am a Brainspotting and EMDR therapist with an additional background in Psychoanalysis. I practiced in New York City for several years before moving to the Nashville, TN area, where I now live and work. I focus my therapeutic work on trauma survivors (of all kinds). Still, I also work extensively with clients who need enhanced access to their creativity, including professional and non-professional artists in all fields. I find that creativity and trauma often overlap.
I was a practicing EMDR therapist when Dr. David Grand introduced me to his discovery of Brainspotting, which seemed to provide even more profound and rapid results with many clients. I quickly adopted Brainspotting and worked with Dr. Grand, alongside many other clinicians, to validate the theory and methodology. Because I learned directly from Brainspotting’s discoverer just as he was developing it, I am probably the most senior Brainspotter. I am also now a Senior US Brainspotting Trainer and Brainspotting Approved Consultant.
As I work further with these methodologies, I find that adaptations to the Brainspotting and EMDR processes seem to give my clients new access to creative parts of themselves that have been hidden away because of trauma. Successful resolutions of the often profound issues that bring people to therapy require creativity and brand new brain connections. When our creativity is blocked because of trauma of all kinds, we are denied many choices that could lead to getting what we want – whether healing from trauma, enhancing creativity, or having new confidence in ourselves and our ability to be successful in life.
But once clients fully reconnect with themselves, they begin making transformative quantum leaps, overcoming deep past trauma or uncovering and unblocking positive, creative energy and a new consciousness in their lives.
BACKGROUND
I earned my Ph.D. from the International University, a 4-year Psychoanalytic Certificate from the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, a Master’s degree in Social Work from Hunter College, and two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music.
For many years I volunteered for the St Luke’s/Roosevelt Rape Intervention Program at St. Luke’s Hospital in NYC, assisting rape survivors through their emergency room experience and in their interface with police. As a speaker for Amnesty International, I also served as volunteer Director of AI’s East Coast speaker’s bureau.
I lived and worked in NYC on Sept 11, 2001, when terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center Towers, killing over 3000 people and traumatizing tens of thousands more. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, I worked with hundreds of firefighters, police, and survivors using Brainspotting and EMDR. The profound healing and the empowering results I’ve seen with these methodologies often astound me.
MUSIC
My particular interest in uncovering the creativity that lives in all of us springs from my earlier education and career in music. As a singer-actress, I have performed in Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, as a back-up singer Barry Manilow and Eddy Arnold, and in an opening act for comedian Jackie Mason. I have performed in cabaret shows, magic shows, and global music tours. I currently sing professionally as a member of “The Janes,” a pop-rock vocal trio that has performed in theaters, concert halls, and clubs all over the US and Europe (we’ve been singing together professionally for 45 years!).
ANIMALS
I have a deep connection with the animal world and am particularly fond of orangutans (you’ll understand when you watch the video here.) I was an Earthwatch volunteer at Camp Leakey on the remote Sekonyer River in the jungles of Borneo (an island of Indonesia.) At a rehabilitation camp for ex-captive orangutans founded by world-famous primatologist, Dr. Birute Galdikas, I bathed in the river, tracked and studied wild orangutans in their natural habitat with the assistance of the Dayaks, an indigenous formerly head-hunting jungle tribe, and assisted in the rehabilitation of illegally captured orangutans back into the wild. A favorite experience was watching as Princess, an adolescent female orangutan, mimicked human females by lathering up with soap at the river and shaved her legs with a razor she stole from camp.
I combined my arts education, creative inclinations, professional performing career, and my therapeutic experience into co-authoring a bestselling book on creativity, Ignite the Genius Within: Discover Your Full Potential. Published by Penguin Books, “Ignite” is a book and audio/visual method for changing how you think and how you understand your world, while maximizing your creative potential.
This unique book/soundtrack combo uses a revolutionary system based on the latest in brain science and technology to help uncover then release the deeply-held secret blocks and beliefs that stop us all from getting what we want in life.
CURRENTLY
While immersing myself in brain-body science with Brainspotting and with the creation of my book, I became fascinated with quantum physics and holographic theory, which has become a specialty.
Brainspotting TrainingI now use my experiences and knowledge as a scientist, therapist, and performer to provide unique and entertaining training experiences for therapists who want to learn to use Brainspotting in their practices, as well as creativity-enhancing workshops for the general public.
