Brain Working Recursive Therapy (BWRT®) What is it?  Why is it the latest therapy hotness?

 In BRWT Blog

What is BWRT®?

BWRT®’ stands for ‘Brain Working Recursive Therapy®’, a model of psychology and psychotherapy created by renowned UK professional therapist, Terence Watts, MCGI.

BWRT®  works because it uses the latest discoveries in neuroscience, coupled with your own unique brain processes to help you to ‘re-programme’ unwanted emotional responses such as fears, phobias and anxieties.

Five reasons why BWRT® is the latest THERAPY HOTNESS

1.  It works because it works with how your brain works – the LIZARD PART!

The lizard  (or reptilian) brain refers to an entire brain region, which is evolutionarily its oldest part.

The lizard brain evolved in our very earliest creature ancestors around 575 million years ago.  Its only purpose was to trigger any action that was a threat to survival including our ‘flight’ or ‘fight’ response.

All of its responses were totally instinctive with no capacity for thought or reason.  If something was a threat.  It would always be a threat.

The lizard brain has played a huge role in our survival as a species and we still have this part of the brain today underneath our modern neo-mammalian brain, which only evolved about 300.000 years ago.

Our modern brain is an amazing evolutionary development, BUT it is still motivated by our unthinking reactive lizard brain.

Every bit of information entering our brain is still processed first by our instinctive lizard brain BEFORE – and this is important – it reaches our modern conscious brain.  In other words, lizard brain is the first responder to our every experience.

An easy way to understand the way lizard brain works is to imagine something has been thrown at you. You don’t need to make any conscious, rationale decision before attempting to catch or avoid the object, your lizard brain does it for you.

Lizard brain never forgets any event that was important in any way.

For example, if at some time in your life, you learnt that something was truly terrifying, such as spiders, or mice or clowns or flying, or anything really, lizard brain will remember.

And, in remembering it will instinctively cause you to react before a more appropriate response has had time to reach your modern mammalian brain.

BWRT works by interrupting the unwanted response and replacing it with a response that you do want.  It does this by enabling you to create a different neural pathway response – in other words a different mental response – before you react to something.

2.   BWRT® is a virtually content free therapy

BWRT® is a solution focused therapy and is virtually content free.

This means that, unlike some other therapies, all the BWRT practitioner needs to know is very basic information about what feelings/behaviours you want to change and how you would prefer to feel/behave instead.

There is no need to go rooting around in painful past memories trying to discover the cause of the problem or constantly re-living a trauma in order to desensitize it, or by doing anything remotely similar or weird.

As part of the process, you will simply be asked to momentarily recall the worst memory or feeling that you have about the issue.

3.  BWRT® is logical, straightforward and easily understood

BWRT®  is a logical straightforward and easily understood therapy.  It works within what is called the ‘cognitive gap.’

This is a gap of approximately one-third of a second between the moment the brain responds to something and our conscious awareness of that response. It was first discovered by the scientist Benjamin Libet in 1983. 

The cognitive gap explains why we cannot decide not to panic in situations where we usually do, for example, at the sight of a spider – because, by the time we are consciously aware of what’s happening, the response is already underway. 

Other therapies seek to modify or remove these unwanted emotional responses in more or less complicated and protracted ways.  BWRT doesn’t need to do this because it works to stop the unwanted response triggering in the first place. 

4.   BWRT® is an ideal on-line therapy because:

IT’S EFFECTIVE.  It’s just as effective as face-to-face therapy and doesn’t require you to leave the comforts of your own home (or anywhere else where you may be) – you can have a session in your pyjamas and slippers, with a cup of tea if you want to.

IT’S FLEXIBLE AND CONVENIENT. It’s much more flexible and much more convenient – no more wasted travel time, parking problems, getting lost or any of the other frustrations that can cause you to get frazzled before you even arrive at the therapy practice.

IT GIVES YOU MUCH MORE CHOICE. It gives you much more choice in finding a therapist. You’re not limited to the (sometimes) few that you can physically travel to – as long as you have access to the internet the world’s your oyster!

ACCESSIBILITY.  If you are disabled or unable to leave the house for some reasons, on-line therapy is an accessible option.

CONTINUITY.  Sessions can continue in situations where there are obstacles to face-to-face meetings – pandemics for example!

5.  Certified Practitioners

Only Certified Practitioners have been trained to deliver BWRT®

We all have to adhere to a strict ethical code, to have regular supervision sessions and undertake Continual Professional Development (CPD).  To find out more, please visit

I am qualified as a BWRT® therapist to work with people who are seeking help with issues such as:

  • Fears and phobias
  • Self-confidence and self-worth
  • Low self-esteem
  • Anxieties
  • Success inhibition
  • Performance anxieties



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