Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an evidence-based eye movement therapy that provides relief from anxiety symptoms, including panic attacks, overthinking, sleep difficulties, and irritability, in as few as 1-5 sessions. For those who have spent years in therapy or tried numerous medications without success, this might sound too good to be true. For some, the idea of a non-talkative therapy might even seem strange or intimidating. I too was skeptical when I first heard of ART, but the results speak for themselves. I’ve seen clients have good quality sleep for the first time in months, find relief from self-critical beliefs, and react more calmly to triggers that would normally send them into a tailspin, often after just one session.
So how does ART heal anxiety so effectively? Read on to learn about the science underlying this amazing approach.
ART Processes Distressing/Traumatic Experiences at the Root of Anxiety
Many folks struggling with anxiety are quick to point out that they’ve never experienced anything traumatic in their lifetime. This may be true, if they view trauma in the typical way it’s depicted in the media - as experiences of abuse, life-threatening car accidents, natural disasters, or war. Many believe that what they’ve experienced in their life isn’t ‘bad enough’ to be considered traumatic. I lean towards Gabor Mate’s definition of trauma:
“Trauma isn’t what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you”
Trauma is also what happens inside you as a result of what didn’t happen for you. It’s your internal reaction to an event or circumstance that overwhelms your ability to cope. Viewed this way, what’s traumatic for one person may not be for another. Trauma can affect us in a multitude of ways, often contributing to difficulties in our relationships, feeling constantly on edge, and experiencing anxiety.
Certainly, experiences of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, car accidents, natural disasters, or wars (what are referred to as ‘Big T Trauma’) are likely to lead to anxiety. But growing up with a caregiver who fails to validate all of your difficult emotions, living in scarcity, being excluded or bullied by peers, facing parents who over-control or invade your privacy - all of these experiences and many more can also contribute to the development of anxiety. There is almost always an event or set of circumstances that underlies your anxiety symptoms, whether you have conscious memory of this or not.
ART helps you process this event (or set of events) using back-and-forth eye movements similar to those seen in REM sleep. Even if you are unaware of what’s at the core of your anxiety, ART techniques have the ability to pull this memory into your conscious awareness. Just like in dreams, the bilateral eye movements used in ART help your brain remove the negative emotional quality and physical sensations from the experience and store it in your memory like other events. ART even goes one step further by allowing you to replace any stuck negative images from the event with more positive ones. Your brain and body can then recognize that the event(s) happened in the past and the danger is now over, so the anxiety and other strong emotions you once experienced as a result of triggers are reduced (see more on this below)..
ART Deactivates the Fear Centre of the Brain
The calming back-and-forth eye movements involved in ART deactivate the amygdala, often referred to as the fear centre of the brain. The amygdala is constantly scanning our environment for signs of danger, and if it detects a threat, a series of stress hormones are released as the ‘fight or flight’ response is activated. Your heart starts to race, your muscles start to tense, and your senses may be heightened as your body prepares you to fight the threat or run like hell. Your resources are also diverted away from brain and body functions that are less critical for your survival: digestion slows and your prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain responsible for logic, reasoning, and decision-making, goes offline. Those with chronic anxiety will be very familiar with these sensations
Because a highly distressing or traumatic experience isn’t processed effectively, your amygdala doesn’t differentiate the memory from something happening in the here and now. When you recall the event, you may experience very similar physiological sensations and emotions to when the event actually occurred. With ART’s bilateral eye movements, the amygdala is calmed, so you can recall and process a difficult memory without feeling completely overwhelmed or shut down. This also allows your prefrontal cortex to come back online, leading to a new perspective and understanding of the experience that isn’t purely based in emotion.
You might actually have more experience with the calming effect of bilateral movements than you’d think. Have you ever felt overwhelmed, anxious, or stuck on a problem, only to go for a walk and feel far more relaxed, present, and in control afterwards? The left-right movement of your legs, swinging arms, and sometimes eyes as you take in your surroundings are partially responsible for this!
One of the best parts about ART is that you will actually learn to use the eye movements for yourself, so you can process out any negative sensations between your sessions. The eye movements can be used to ease a racing heart, release pressure in the head, and relieve body tension, among other benefits.
ART Protects Against Current & Future Triggers
The term ‘trigger’ refers to a person, place, or situation that evokes a strong emotional or physiological reaction because it reminds you (often subconsciously) of something traumatic or painful from your past. Often your reaction will seem out of proportion to the event that caused it, and may be difficult for others to understand. Your fight/flight/freeze response is often activated when triggered because your body is responding as if this traumatic or painful event from your past is happening right here and now.
Through ART processing, these painful events are stored in memory as a regular, non-distressing experience would be. They have a clear narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, and your brain and body knows that it’s something that happened in the past and is now over. This means that your reactions to things that typically would have triggered you will be more balanced, with your prefrontal cortex staying in the driver's seat rather than your fear-based amygdala taking over. The ART process specifically prepares you for current or future potential triggers, and has a clear protocol for addressing any lingering anxiety symptoms.
ART Breaks the Cycle of Avoidance
Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their lifetime, but it’s how you choose to respond to that anxiety that decides how much power it has over you. For those who have been taught important emotion regulation skills by their caregivers, therapist, or any other sources, anxiety tends to be something that comes and goes without much interference in their life. But for others who may have never learned how to label, express, and regulate their emotions, or were taught that certain emotions (like anxiety or anger) aren’t acceptable, they tend to respond to anxiety with avoidance. They avoid the hard conversation, the painful memory, or the challenging situation that provokes their anxiety. They especially avoid actually feeling their anxiety. And while this might provide some short-term relief from discomfort, it actually fuels anxiety in the long-term. When you avoid, you never get the opportunity to approach that hard conversation or try that challenging thing and realize it’s not as terrible as you expected. Or that you can do hard things and feel painful emotions and still be okay.
ART disrupts this cycle by encouraging you to face a difficult memory and experience the challenging sensations that go with it in a safe way. With the support of your therapist and the calming eye movements, you can recall a painful event and experience the tight chest, rapid breathing, and tense muscles that go with it, and come out on the other side in a state of calm. In essence, you’re giving yourself new, safe experiences of emotions that allow for new connections to form in your brain. Connections that say ‘difficult feelings come and go’, ‘anxiety is a natural and safe emotion’, and ‘I am safe now’.
Beyond anxiety and trauma, ART has been shown to be effective with a multitude of other challenges, including grief and loss, depression, and OCD. Interested in learning more about how ART could help in your unique case? Book a consultation call now!
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