Accelerated Resolution Therapy
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) — A brief, structured trauma therapy that uses guided eye movements to shift how your brain stores distressing memories. You don’t have to describe what happened in order to work on it.
I’m certified in ART and offer sessions in person in Little Canada, MN, and via telehealth across Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Questions About ART
What is Accelerated Resolution Therapy?
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ART is a type of therapy built on how the brain is wired and how it makes lasting change.
Distressing images, thoughts, and memories get stored in the lower part of the brain, the part that reacts before you've had a chance to think. ART uses bilateral stimulation, eye movements that go back and forth, to help the brain reprocess what's stored there and rewire how it holds it.
The work is aimed at the reaction your body has, not the memory. You don't lose what happened. What can change is the grip it has on your body, so the thought or image stops setting off those strong physical and emotional reactions.
What do you use ART for?
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I bring ART to the things that live in the body as much as in the mind — the memories and images that still set off a physical reaction, sometimes years later.
That includes:
Single-incident trauma, the one thing that happened
Developmental and complex trauma, the things that happened over and over
Relational trauma, including what got learned in the family you grew up in
PTSD
Grief and loss, including pregnancy and infant loss
Anxiety and panic
Depression that's tied to something specific
Painful memories that you might not call trauma, but that still have a grip on you
Do I have to talk about what happened?
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No. That's one of the best parts of ART. You don't have to tell me the details.
You watch the images in your own mind, the way you'd watch a movie trailer. That part can be activating, and I won't pretend otherwise. But the eye movements are doing something at the same time: they're calming your body while you're looking. So the settling and the reprocessing happen together, and you never have to say the story out loud.
If what's kept you from trauma work is not wanting to relive it, this is the part worth knowing.
Why did you choose to get trained in ART?
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Before I trained in ART, I was on the other side. I went through EMDR myself as a client, and it was life-changing.
So when I decided to get trained in something trauma-specific, EMDR was the obvious place to start. Then I learned about ART, and a few things pulled me toward it instead.
It moves faster. Although nothing is guaranteed, things can shift in one to four sessions, with an average of three to four, rather than over months.
Another thing that drew me in was that you don't have to talk about the trauma, or whatever it is you want to process. You don't have to share any details with me at all.
What I also liked is how it incorporates noticing sensations in your body. I work somatically with my clients and do more than just talk therapy. So ART really aligned with what I know about how the brain makes changes, and with how noticing what's happening in your body is one of the things that helps shift the way our brain holds onto a memory.
Is ART backed by research?
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Yes. ART has been studied in randomized controlled trials, with published research spanning combat-related PTSD, civilian PTSD, complicated grief, depression, military sexual trauma, chronic pain, and cancer-related distress.
In one randomized trial, older adults living with complicated grief saw large, statistically significant drops in grief, PTSD, and depression symptoms compared with a control group, after an average of 3.7 sessions.
A 2024 systematic review in PLOS Mental Health concluded that ART "shows some promise as a time-efficient clinical treatment for symptoms of PTSD in adults."
And the research is still expanding. NIH-funded trials are underway at Mayo Clinic and Yale, and the Canadian Armed Forces is running a government-funded study of ART for military PTSD.
Nothing in therapy is guaranteed, and I'll never tell you otherwise. But I trained in ART because the research pointed somewhere real, and because it lines up with what I know about how the brain makes lasting change.
ART asks a few specific things of you, and it's worth knowing them up front.
You need to be able to hold a thought. The work involves keeping an image or a memory in mind while we move through the protocol, so you'll need to be able to stay with it.
You need to be able to follow the eye movements. If tracking with your eyes is hard for you, there are alternatives. Handheld buzzers that alternate from side to side do the same job.
And you need to want something to be different. This is a big one. ART works with motivation. If you're not ready for change, or you're here because someone else thinks you should be, ART may not be the best fit right now. But we can talk about what's getting in the way and work through that, and ART could become an option from there.
Some things are better worked on before trauma work, or alongside it. The first session is partly about sorting that out, and if ART isn't the right tool for you right now, I'll tell you what I think would help more.
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Is ART right for you?
What to Expect
Your First Session
The first session is 50 minutes, and it's a conversation. We'll talk about what your symptoms are, what you want to work on, and what you want to be different.
We'll also talk about the bigger picture: how resolving this would help you, how it would help the people around you, and what you hope your life looks like on the other side of it.
This part is about what you want to change, not the details of what happened. You still don't have to tell me those.
By the end, we'll have landed on something specific to work on, and a clear picture of what different would feel like.
The Sessions After That
ART sessions are 80 minutes.
I'll walk you through the protocol step by step, start to finish. I'll ask you to look at the images and notice what's happening in your body, all while doing the eye movements back and forth.
You are in total control the whole time.
If the images bring up distress in your body, I'm right there with you. The eye movements themselves are calming, and I'll use them to help your body settle.
Each session has a beginning and an end. Nothing gets left half-open, and we close the work up before you go. Then we'll do some movement and check in on how you're feeling. Most people leave calmer than when they walked in.
Can We Do This Over Video?
Yes. I use a tool that lets you follow the eye movements on your own computer screen, and I walk you through exactly what to do, the same as I would in person. I see clients by telehealth anywhere in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Common Wonderings
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They're related. ART was developed by a clinician trained in EMDR, and both use eye movements. ART is its own protocol with a set structure, it works more closely with sensations in your body, and it doesn't require you to describe the memory out loud. I'm trained in ART, not EMDR.
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Usually one to four, with an average of three to four. Nothing is guaranteed, and we'll figure out together what you need as we go.
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Your first session is 50 minutes. ART sessions after that are 80 minutes.
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No. You keep what happened. What can change is the reaction your body has to it.
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$175 for a 50-minute session and $275 for 80 minutes. See my fees. I'm private pay and out of network, and I provide superbills if you want to submit to your insurance for out-of-network reimbursement.
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A free 10-minute consultation. We'll talk about what you're hoping to work on and whether ART seems like a fit.