(2-minute read) One of the interventions I most enjoy doing with clients is Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART). It’s so moving and gratifying to witness people shift from pain to relief, especially when the process is quick, powerful, and creative. Often, I’m in awe of what ART can do. Here’s the skinny:
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a highly effective, evidence-based intervention that offers rapid relief from trauma-related symptoms. The approach is brief and moves quickly, utilizing eye movements and imagery to help clients process distressing memories and reduce the emotional impact.
One significant feature is that unlike traditional talk therapy, ART does not require clients to talk about or relive traumatic experiences in detail. Instead, you focus on the traumatic memory while your eyes follow my hand movements (much like the bilateral eye movements used in EMDR). This helps the brain reprocess the memory, reducing its emotional charge and associated symptoms.
A key feature of ART is Voluntary Image Replacement, which involves me guiding you to re-imagine and transform painful memories into positive or neutral images. By changing the way the brain stores and recalls these memories, the emotional distress tied to them can be significantly reduced or eliminated. This isn’t memory erasure, but rather a way to give the brain something more adaptive to think about. ART moves the traumatic memory out of the limbic system, reducing the “fight or flight” response, and into the long term memory where it belongs.
ART has been shown to be effective for treating a variety of trauma-related conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, fear, phobias, grief, substance use, addictions, performance anxiety, chronic pain, and sleep disturbances. Many clients experience significant improvement in as few as 1-5 sessions, making ART an attractive option if you’re seeking rapid results (bang for your buck!). And the relief and joy felt by so many of my clients after an ART session is palpable. That’s the part I love!
If you are interested in learning more about Accelerated Resolution Therapy and how it can help you, please contact me to schedule a consultation. I’d love to support you.
