Accelerated Resolution Therapy, referred to as ART, is a form of psychotherapy with roots in existing evidence-based therapies but shown to achieve benefits much more rapidly (usually within 1-5 sessions).
Clients suffering from trauma and other mental health problems such as:
Anxiety
Depression
Phobias
Panic Attacks
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Addictions/Substance Abuse/addiction interaction disorder
Performance Anxiety
Family Issues
Victimization/Poor Self Image
Victimization/Sexual Abuse
Relationship Issues/Infidelity/betrayal trauma/attachment injury
Codependency
Grief and loss
Job-Related Stress
Pain Management
Memory Enhancement
Dyslexia
and many other mental and physical conditions can experience remarkable benefits starting in the first session.
The client is always in control of the entire ART session, with the therapist guiding the process. Although some traumatic experiences such as rape, combat experiences, or loss of a loved one can be very painful to think about or visualize, the therapy rapidly moves clients beyond the place where they are stuck in these experiences toward growth and positive changes. The process is very straightforward, using relaxing eye movements and a technique called Voluntary Memory/Image Replacement to change the way in which the negative images are stored in the brain. The treatment is grounded in well-established psychotherapy techniques, and the end result is that traumas and difficult life experiences will no longer trigger strong emotions or physical reactions. Importantly, clients do not even have to talk about their traumas or difficult life experiences with the therapist to achieve recovery. ART also focuses on the negative sensations in the body, and with a somatic approach ART is able to release the negative sensations from the body leaving the client with only the memory and losing the negative images, symptoms and sensations attached to the memory.
ART incorporates a combination of techniques used in many other traditional psychotherapies. ART works directly to reprogram the way in which distressing memories and images are stored in the brain so that they no longer trigger strong physical and emotional reactions. ART accomplishes this through the use of rapid eye movements similar to eye movements that occur during dreaming. Although techniques similar to these are used in other types of therapies, ART’s very specific and directive approach can achieve rapid recovery from symptoms and reactions that may have been present for many years.
Therapy approaches used in ART are informed by
-Exposure Therapy (including imaginal, narrative and in-vivo)
-Gestalt Therapy
-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
-Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
-Imagery Re-scripting (used in many cognitive therapies)
-Guided Imagery
-Brief Psychodynamic Therapy
Techniques of ART: