Accelerated Resolution Therapy for PTSD and Trauma
Trauma and anxiety counseling for adults in person in Tigard and online across Oregon.
It’s exhausting living with symptoms from a past traumatic experience you’ve had. Can you ever really be free of the freeze response you get, the knot in your stomach or the tension headaches once and for all?
When you’re at a place in your life when you want to take action and you’re willing to put in the work it takes to get to the root of the issue, then contact me. I’m here to help.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy explained:
If you’re in the Portland area and trying to figure out how to address your PTSD or trauma symptoms, I invite you to consider Accelerated Resolution Therapy with me. I like to describe Accelerated Resolution Therapy, or A.R.T. as similar to EMDR but more structured and to the point. You may find this therapy especially appealing if you’re interested in doing EMDR but are nervous about how well you’ll be able to handle the intense emotions that addressing your trauma can bring up. Instead of spending the session focusing on whatever is associated with your negative experience or emotion like we would in EMDR until the disturbance is resolved, we only spend about half of the session desensitizing you to this while intermittently focusing on your body sensations. This gives you little “breaks” from the trauma while simultaneously relieving some of the associated bodily disturbance. Then we go back to the trauma. We focus on the trauma memory only twice before switching to what you wish would have happened instead of that disturbing experience. And then you basically rewrite the script YOUR way. You can imagine the thing never happened or imagine it turning out completely opposite. The more positive you imagine it, the better!
You keep all the facts. You will still know logically what happened. You’re fully present with me. You know what you’re doing. BUT the next time you bring up the memory, you experience it differently because you worked with me to change the images and memory to the way you wish things had happened. And therefore the feeling is different. Doesn’t that sound amazing?
What does Accelerated Resolution Therapy do?
This theory takes a specific past experience you’ve had and uses eye movements, just like EMDR, to help you reprocess through that experience so you don’t feel the same way when you have reminders of that experience. It’s a somewhat new therapy based on concepts from EMDR and other evidence-based approaches that compiles these other approaches in a unique way to help you feel better faster. It can also help you see different, positive images instead of the negative images you’re used to seeing from your traumatic experience. Accelerated Resolution Therapy is especially effective for addressing a specific trauma or situation.
“That was amazing! I can already feel the difference. I’m no longer checking my rearview mirror all the time while I drive like I did after the accident.”
— Former Client
What is the difference between Accelerated Resolution Therapy and EMDR?
Similarities:
Both use quick eye movements to help you work through your trauma memory.
Both are good to use for resolving trauma and helping people find relief from PTSD.
Differences:
EMDR is better known and researched.
A.R.T. can be especially effective for people who have recurring negative images.
EMDR appears more effective than A.R.T. for working through negative beliefs you have about yourself.
EMDR usually takes longer because it allows you to work through everything you’ve associated with your trauma. In that way, I would say it’s more thorough. Accelerated Resolution Therapy (A.R.T.) is focused particularly on one traumatic event and just that. Because it’s more structured, it doesn’t leave much room for you to think about associations -often making it faster at helping you notice improvement with your traumatic memory.
A.R.T. has you only run through the traumatic experience in your mind twice while doing eye movements. Then you make up what you wish would have happened and imagine that. It is not standard EMDR protocol to imagine what you wish would have happened.
What is an Accelerated Resolution Therapy intensive?
An intensive is a longer therapy session to help you move through your trauma and speed up your results. Who doesn’t want that???? I find it’s hard to make it through the entire script that Accelerated Resolution requires in just 55 minutes. So instead of the traditional 55 minute therapy session that you come in for every week, I offer a 90 minute block of time in order to help you get more done. This lets you spend less time “getting going” at the beginning of session and less time re-regulating at the end of session than if you had 2 sessions for 55 minutes each because everything is encapsulated in the one longer session. It also allows you to take less time from your work week going to and from therapy. You could also choose to do multiple blocks or intensives in order to be able to work on multiple traumatic experiences.
How much does an intensive cost?
I always spend our first 55 minute session discussing what you’re coming to therapy for, any relevant background and symptoms you’re struggling with, and how we might go about addressing your goals. After an initial session, you could decide to do a 90 min intensive (or several) and then I can check in with you to see if you’d like a closing session. Sometimes people feel good enough that they don’t want one!
1 initial session: $175
1 intensive block of 90 min: $265
optional final session: $175
FYI: Insurance will not pay for intensives.
Weekly 55 minutes sessions are also available to be used for Accelerated Resolution Therapy at $175/session.