EDITOR’S SUMMARY: Targeted eye movements, put into practice within the context of a guided ART facilitator, carry the ability to help you shift your emotional state. In this particular landscape, the experience of past trauma may be altered, producing a positive, current outlook and decrease in anxiety. Accelerated Resolution Therapy is an offshoot of Eye Movement Desensitization and Processing, and is known for swift transformation.
By Sarah Campise Hallier
The prevalence of anxiety disorders among Americans has surged dramatically over the past few decades. Between 2008 and 2018, individuals aged 18–25 experienced the most significant increase in reported cases, rising from 7.97%–14.66%. For those living with anxiety, the impact can be profoundly debilitating. Symptoms range from persistent worry and restlessness, to physical manifestations, including increased heart rate and sleep disturbances. Anxiety can affect your quality of life significantly, creating a constant sense of unease and a looming feeling of dread. Severe forms, such as agoraphobia, fear of animals or medical treatments, and social anxiety disorder, can impair daily functioning. Individuals turn to various treatments, including psychotherapy, medications, dietary changes, and methods such as acupuncture, homeopathy, and meditation, with mixed results.
Anxiety’s widespread impact, along with varying success of traditional treatments have led many to seek innovative solutions. Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) has emerged as a promising option for the hundreds of thousands who are left struggling. Rooted in the principles of eye movement and memory reconsolidation, ART aims to reframe distressing memories, and reduce emotional triggers tied to anxiety. Unlike traditional talk therapy, ART is designed to achieve significant results within a few sessions, making it especially appealing if you’re an immediate results kind of person, and think that talk therapy sessions might be too long a journey. Studies have shown that ART can effectively reduce anxiety levels and improve emotional regulation. By incorporating guided imagery and specific eye movements, ART enables you to process and desensitize the emotional impact of traumatic or stressful experiences. If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, this can mean not only alleviating symptoms, but also addressing underlying causes, helping to break the cycle of extreme worry and fear. Touted as a new type of psychotherapy, ART borrows many of its techniques from Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR). According to the Counseling Center of Maryland:
“Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a form of psychotherapy that aims to reduce the emotional impact of traumatic memories by having the patient recall the memory while simultaneously engaging in a guided eye movement or other bilateral stimulation (such as tapping or auditory tones).”
While Dr. Francine Shapiro, the developer of EMDR, was working on her Ph.D. in Literature, she noticed a strange phenomenon while walking in the park one afternoon. As she began having upsetting memories of a past event, she experienced that moving her eyes side to side helped eliminate the discomfort of the negative memory, and also aided in keeping the memories from coming back as strongly. Dr. Shapiro changed course in her studies, eventually achieving a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Professional School of Psychological Studies in San Diego, and went on to publish the first edition of her textbook on the subject, “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols and Procedures.”
The Mechanics of ART With Roots in EMDR
Although looked upon with skepticism at first, EMDR has become a respected technique for treating many types of mental health issues, from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). ART differs from EMDR in several ways. EMDR is more cognitive, while ART is visually oriented and physical. During ART, the therapist utilizes a strict script, while in EMDR, you are encouraged to explore negative thoughts and feelings. Additionally, ART prompts you to change the visual memory, while EMDR involves recalling and verbalizing distressing memories. However, the key distinction is ART’s ability to address a broader range of mental health concerns while delivering results much faster. The goal of EMDR is to work through negative memories using a structured, eight-phase approach to treatment, while ART uses 40 eye movements to treat trauma symptoms, typically over one to five one-hour sessions within three weeks. From “ART Vs. EMDR: Understanding the Differences”:
“ART is focused primarily on replacing disturbing images with positive ones, whereas EMDR aims to both desensitize client distress and rework traumatic events. Both of these treatments utilize eye movements to reprocess traumatic images and sensations,” states Michelle Risser, LISW-S, who specializes in maternal mental health, trauma, and EMDR.
The creator of ART, Laney Rosenweig, M.S., has been a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) for over three decades. She trains mental health professionals how to use ART effectively, and says, “The most difficult aspect of discussing ART is the fact that it sounds too good to be true.” Accelerated Resolution Therapy sessions aim to help you process and resolve distressing memories, emotions, and physical sensations associated with traumatic or challenging experiences. A typical session begins with a detailed description by your therapist on the history and applications of ART. They will then begin to target the issue or memory you want to address. This might be a traumatic event, phobia, anxiety, or other distressing experience. Together, you and the therapist establish your goals by defining the desired outcome, such as reducing emotional distress, reframing negative thoughts, or neutralizing physical reactions. Typically, you’ll be seated at a comfortable distance from your therapist—not too close; not too far. If needed, you will be guided through exercises intended to calm you.
You will be invited to recall the distressing memory, while focusing on the therapist’s hand movements or light feature, which move back and forth horizontally at a specific pace. “This bilateral stimulation is believed to activate the brain’s information processing systems and facilitate the reorganization of the traumatic memory.” Unlike other therapies, detailed verbal descriptions of the trauma are not required, eliminating the need to go into depth with the therapist about past trauma. The idea is that through repeated eye movements, the emotional charge of the memory will begin to diminish. This technique, rooted in cognitive-behavioral principles, which examine the connections between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, helps your brain process traumatic events more adaptively, fostering emotional balance. Research is still limited when it comes to the science behind ART, however, several studies have helped researchers explain how and why these specific eye movements help alleviate pain, trauma, and other negative memories and emotions. “Although how it works is unclear, it’s thought that ART can alter how the brain stores and recalls traumatic images and memories.”
Research suggests that when a memory is recalled, its emotional intensity can be shifted by introducing a new sensation or experience while the memory is active. By “reconsolidating” the memory—essentially storing it again within a specific timeframe—these changes can become permanent, potentially altering the memory’s foundation at a biological level, including DNA transcription. ART meets your brain’s needs by enabling new learning to overwrite and eliminate old, unwanted patterns, rather than simply suppressing them or forcing them to compete with new information. Looking further, ART isn’t just for anxiety symptoms. From PTSD in military veterans to depression, ART has been found to alleviate multiple types of stressors. A 2016 analysis, “Pilot Study of Accelerated Resolution Therapy for Treatment of Chronic Refractory Neuropathic Pain,” suggests that ART can help with chronic, neuropathic pain, as well as sleep issues and mobility problems.
Other studies show that ART has the ability to lessen the symptoms and severity for those suffering with complicated grief (CG), which includes severe, prolonged grief that lasts over 12 months and usually affects older adults. From Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing (CJON), “Complicated Grief: Risk Factors, Interventions, and Resources for Oncology Nurses”: “CG is associated with numerous psychological problems, including loneliness, social isolation, anxiety, clinical depression, cognitive impairment, and post-traumatic stress disorder.” As explorations regarding mental health care continue to evolve, so does the demand for more effective and efficient holistic approaches. ART stands out not only because of its speedy outcomes and unconventionality, but also because it offers an opportunity to get hands on with your own healing process. From “Art as a Path to Emotion”:
“The reason that art is healing is simple: It helps people get in touch with and express feelings that might otherwise remain buried or ignored. There’s a long roster of feelings that we’re “told,” either explicitly or implicitly, not to feel. That is in addition to our natural resistances, which are fed from early life by parents and authority figures.”
Cultivating a Shift in Perspective
Accelerated Resolution Therapy is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, it provides a tailored approach that can adapt to your needs, allowing you to rewrite your emotional narrative. One of the most remarkable aspects of ART is its ability to shift how you experience your memories, rather than just how you remember them. You’re not forced to relive the trauma (often seen as an aspect of psychodynamic psychotherapy that is questioned for efficacy and thought to do greater damage than good), nor are you asked to confront every single detail of your pain. Instead, ART helps you reframe the emotional charge that binds you to those memories, offering a fresh perspective that can empower you to move forward without being stuck in the past. It’s a process of emotional unburdening, where the power of your past is diminished, and your future is ignited with possibility. This reprocessing can affect all areas of your life. Many ART practitioners have noted how clients report shifts not only in their emotional state, but also in their physical health. Stress manifests in the body, causing everything from headaches to chronic muscle tension and digestive issues.
By addressing the emotional trauma, and resetting the brain’s response to it, ART has the potential to alleviate these physical symptoms. One of ART’s compelling features is its accessibility. In an era where mental health treatment can be an exhaustingly long and expensive process, ART offers a solution by delivering quick and effective results in significantly less time than traditional therapies. ART is not a substitute for other forms of therapy, but rather, a complementary approach that can work in tandem with other treatments, amplifying their effectiveness. In fact, many individuals find Accelerated Resolution Therapy to be the catalyst that increases mindfulness, which aids in the development of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved in decision making and execution of tasks. Perhaps most profoundly, ART brings back something you may feel has been lost—hope. It’s easy to feel that your emotional pain will never fade, like your past will always haunt you, and that anxiety will be a constant part of your life. But ART proves that change is possible, and transformation is within reach.
Curious about the training levels of ART therapists? Licensing involves a stringent qualification process. Professionals must meet specific educational and licensing criteria. Licensed medical doctors need to be authorized to practice in the mental health field within their state or province. Registered Nurses must hold at least a Master of Science in Nursing with a psychiatric specialization, and be licensed through their nursing board. Similarly, licensed mental health clinicians must have graduate degrees in a mental health discipline, such as counseling, psychology, or social work, and hold licensure from their state or provincial board. Pre-licensed clinicians working under supervision can also qualify if they are actively pursuing licensure, and hold a master’s degree in a mental health-related field. Additionally, graduate students in their final clinical practicum or internship may qualify as long as they’ve completed core coursework, are on a licensing track, and working under a fully licensed clinician. First-year graduate students, however, are not eligible.
The International Society of Accelerated Resolution Therapy provides a directory of ART-certified therapists, categorized by certification level and location. ART is also offered in countries worldwide, including Canada, the UK, Switzerland, and many others. So if you find yourself standing at a crossroads, wondering if there’s another way forward, consider ART not just as a psychotherapeutic therapy, but as an opportunity to seek new and innovative ways to decrease your anxiety. Kids can benefit from ART sessions as well, and may include playful activities such as drawing for self-expression. In some cases, parent involvement will be part of the process, providing support and additional therapeutic structure at home. To keep learning about Accelerated Resolution Therapy, and get your questions answered, consider reaching out to a therapist in your area.
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Published on January 02, 2025.
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