Erica Kyne Counselor LCSW

01/12/2025

Treating Trauma: Exposure Therapy versus Accelerated Resolution Therapy

“What is Prolonged Exposure Therapy?

Prolonged Exposure therapy is often used in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to encourage individuals to face specific traumatic events “head on”, overriding the patient’s tendency to avoid anything that reminds them of the trauma.
These sessions are often very anxiety-producing. A therapist must work intensely to ensure a safe environment is provided for the client while the client learns about how their trauma manifests in day-to-day life and helpful coping mechanisms for when it arises.

Harper noted how potentially painful, difficult, and retraumatizing prolonged exposure therapy was for the client. This seemed counterintuitive to her role as a practitioner whose job it is to arrange a safe space to encourage the healing process. She found PE did not suit her style and looked for a more compassionate and less invasive way of working with clients.

How is ART different from Prolonged Exposure Therapy?

Like Prolonged Exposure Therapy, ART uses Imaginal Exposure, where the patient is required to recall the traumatic instance over and over again as part of continuous Exposure. Unlike prolonged Exposure Therapy, the patient is not required to share out loud the details of their experience. When discomfort and physiological sensations occur, the therapist may use a number of different effective therapies or rapid eye movement to reduce the sensation.

Next, the therapist will engage the patient in imagery rescripting. In this stage the patient will imagine a new, more attractive way to visualize their event as if they were the director of their own movie, exercising their ability to rewrite the ending using one of ART’s many metaphorical scripted interventions. The combination of eye movements and the memory rewrites allows memory to become changeable in a short amount of time, while the old, traumatic memories are weakened. As a result, cognitive distortions that occur from the trauma are counterbalanced and emotional numbing, hypervigilance, fear, and avoidance are eliminated or greatly reduced.

Unlike Prolonged Exposure therapy, the process can be done without “homework” and no continuous exposure to triggering events as assignments. Results can be found in as little as one to five sessions, unlike the standard once a week for three months in PE.

Harper recounts in her talk the personal success through practicing ART in her own life, reaching levels of peace she had not experienced before. In her practice, she witnessed her clients, including victims of animal attacks, injuries, and sexual assault, regain peace, strength, and hope for the future, all without the potentially uncomfortable retraumatization from Prolonged Exposure therapy.”

Watch Yolanda Harper’s Tedx talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXhOts-IjxI&t=277

From: The Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery

09/18/2024

A beautiful book about Accelerated Resolution Therapy!

Come PassionThe Soulful ART of Healing Trauma- by Colleen E. ClarkColleen E. Clark’s Come Passion: The Soulful ART of Healing Trauma isn’t simply a manual

04/01/2024

"How do emotions get trapped?
We’ve all experienced overwhelming emotions that seemed to outweigh our capacity to handle them in the moment. As a result, these feelings can get stuck and never fully processed or expressed. It’s like the emotional system hitting pause on a scary scene, leaving the emotions suspended in our body, unresolved, lurking, with nowhere to go.

Fight, Flight, Freeze State
Trauma has no sense of time, locking you in a perpetual “now” that’s saturated with panic or dread. Those stuck in a freeze state after a traumatic event sometimes feel a deep shame for not fighting back, their bodies trapped in patterns of immobility as if the danger never passed.

Disassociation
When you experience going numb in the middle of chaos—that’s disassociation. It serves as an emergency shield, dulling sensations, and emotions to protect you during trauma. But what starts as a temporary suppression can morph into a habit. Disassociation can become a default state whenever challenging emotions arise, further complicating the process of fully understanding and dealing with them.

Improper Memory Storage
Trauma can change how your brain works, especially your memory and ability to remember things. Instead of storing traumatic memories properly, our brain might turn them into pictures or body feelings. When something reminds us of the trauma, our brain might disconnect or replay the event, challenging recovery.

Hypervigilance, Overactive Nervous System, Stress Hormones
Picture your brain’s alarm system, the amygdala, stuck in a near-constant state of activity —that’s hypervigilance. It’s the brain gearing up for a never-ending battle, keeping your nervous system dialed up to eleven. This constant state of alert isn’t just tiring—it’s your new normal, born from a system thrown out of whack by relentless stress.

Energy Blockage
Bradley Nelson, author of “The Emotion Code”, suggests that unresolved emotions can become trapped in the body, potentially causing disruptions in energy flow that lead to health and emotional issues. His book theorizes that these trapped emotions create resonance, influencing nearby tissues. Once an emotion is felt, it can often stay in the body as a ball of energy, affecting a whole person until properly released."
-The Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery

03/08/2024

“Trauma in a person decontexuaized over time, looks like a personality.Trauma in a family deconxtualized over time, looks like family traits. Trauma in a people decontextualized over time looks like culture and it takes time to slow it down so you can begin to discern what’s what.”–Resmaa Menakem

03/06/2024

"It can be hard to imagine that something that happened to our great-grandparents or even further back could still impact us today. Generational trauma, the notion that events from the past could stretch across generations and influence us today seems almost unbelievable.

Understanding and breaking the cycle of generational trauma is complex and must be fully understood before trauma treatment begins. Trauma-informed Accelerated Resolution Therapists recognize the importance of understanding a client’s full background before they move forward with trauma healing.

It’s not just about dealing with our own experiences and memories; it’s also about grappling with our ancestors’ inherited pain and suffering.

“Trauma is commonly intergenerational, so many of our clients are carrying not only what they have experienced in their own lifespans, but also the legacy of the crushing weight of emotional, relational, and psychological pain that has outstripped former generations’ ability to cope effectively.” – Christie Eastman, MA, LPC, NCC , Master ART Therapist and Trainer

How does trauma become inter-generational?
Trauma can have a “trickle-down” effect. It’s not just an individual experience; it can also spill over and affect the next generation. Studies have shown that trauma can be passed down through genetics, affecting the way our bodies and brains respond to stress. But it’s not just about biology – it’s also about how trauma shapes the environment in which the next generation grows up.

A parent who has experienced any type of trauma may have difficulties in providing a calm demeanor for their children. They could experience trouble with emotional regulation, hypervigilance, and constant stress. If a parent is struggling to cope with their trauma, it can affect their ability to support and nurture their child. Down the line, the child may adjust their behavior to prevent triggering the parent, which can create attachment difficulties and the potential risk of developing their own trauma in the future.



“Trauma in a person decontexuaized over time, looks like a personality.Trauma in a family deconxtualized over time, looks like family traits. Trauma in a people decontextualized over time looks like culture and it takes time to slow it down so you can begin to discern what’s what.”–Resmaa Menakem"
- The Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery

02/12/2024

"Why is it often difficult to differentiate between trauma and ADHD?
The common symptoms of ADHD and trauma can often appear in very similar ways. Shared symptoms of both trauma and ADHD include:

Inattention: People with both ADHD and trauma struggle from a lack of focus on tasks or activities, becoming distracted by unrelated and unwanted thoughts or stimuli. They may also struggle to follow through on instructions or organize tasks.
Impulsivity: Impulsive behavior is a hallmark of ADHD and can be frequent in trauma. People with ADHD can often act without thinking about the consequences. They may interrupt others, blurt out answers, or have difficulty waiting their turn. Trauma survivors may partake in risky or anti-social behavior.

Forgetfulness: Individuals with ADHD and trauma often experience memory issues and lose track of personal items or necessary appointments. They may also have difficulty remembering to complete tasks or follow through on commitments.

Difficulty with relationships: The symptoms of ADHD and trauma can also impact relationships, leading to misunderstandings, impulsive reactions, or forgetfulness that affect the ability to maintain connections with others. People who have undergone trauma may experience trust issues and feel misunderstood, driving them to either withdrawal or isolation and struggling to establish suitable boundaries, vacillating between trusting everyone or no one.

Emotional dysregulation: Individuals with ADHD may struggle to regulate their emotions, experiencing mood swings, irritability, or trouble coping with stress. Individuals with a history of trauma may be in survival mode. In this state, most of their mental energy is dedicated to scanning for potential threats, making it challenging to regulate their emotions.

Dissociated feelings: As a protective strategy utilized by the brain and the body, individuals with both ADHD and trauma may “zone out” and shut down when they feel overwhelmed

Negative beliefs about themselves and the world: Those coping with both ADHD and trauma frequently grapple with negative beliefs or feelings about themselves and the world around them. Other symptoms from these conditions create a feedback loop that creates a negative memory bias, contributing to self-doubt, low self-esteem, and pessimistic perceptions of the world.

Co-existing conditions such as Depression and Anxiety: Depression, anxiety disorder, and other comorbid disorders are common in both ADHD and trauma. The coexistence of conditions such as depression and anxiety is a common and intricate aspect of both trauma and ADHD. Individuals navigating these challenges could find themselves contending with overlapping symptoms and complexities. The emotional aftermath of trauma can give rise to depressed feelings and heightened anxiety, complicating the healing process. Similarly, individuals with ADHD may grapple with persistent difficulties in attention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, often leading to feelings of frustration and anxiety."

-The Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery

11/29/2023

Accelerated Resolution Therapy
In relation to other therapies, Accelerated Resolution Therapy is newer on the scene of trauma healing and is rapidly gaining attention for its success in quickly treating trauma. ART combines several well-known trauma therapies. The result is resolution in a shorter time, usually in as little as two to five sessions, much quicker than other modalities.

ART employs a bottom-up approach, which involves communicating with the parts of you impacted by trauma by engaging regions of the brain unrelated to language or rational thought.

Your session will focus on bodily sensations, emotions, and sensory perceptions. As you move and relax your body, your mind becomes more receptive to change. Bilateral eye movements are a crucial component in ART for setting the stage for change and creating this relaxation.

In contrast to other trauma therapies that heavily rely on talk therapy and detailed recounting of traumatic events, ART takes a bottom-up approach. It communicates with the affected parts of the brain to promote healing.

-from The Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery

11/28/2023

What is trauma?
Trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing event that has overwhelmed your nervous system beyond its capacity to cope. In times of trauma, your body undergoes a heightened state of alertness, preparing for either a fight-or-flight response, while your brain actively searches for indicators of potential threats. These events take various forms and occur in different settings. Trauma could stem from instances of natural disasters, combat in war zones, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, domestic violence, accidents, and witnessing or experiencing violence. Trauma’s effects can be immediate and long-lasting, affecting your physical health, mental well-being, and emotional stability.

As trauma activates your survival mind, it activates your autonomic nervous system. You may experience physical symptoms like a racing heart, sweating, trembling, difficulty breathing, and fatigue. Mentally, you might feel overwhelmed, confused, or disoriented. Emotionally, you can grapple with intense fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, or a sense of detachment.

Long after the traumatic experience is over, your brain and body are still in states of high alert, searching for potential danger. This long-term existence in survival mode can impact your overall health and well-being. Trauma has the capacity to modify your brain and disrupt its regulation, potentially resulting in mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety disorders, as well as challenges in emotional self-regulation. It can also hinder your ability to form and maintain healthy relationships, function effectively in day-to-day life, and even impact your physical health.

When you understand the definition of trauma and how and why it affects you, you can set the stage for your healing journey and seek out a treatment plan that offers the best, individualized support for you. Finding the best kind of trauma therapy can help you on your road to trauma treatment and serve as a stable sounding board for your recovery.
-from The Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery

09/06/2023

02/23/2023

Our mental health (our brain, our emotions) influences our physical health (how we get sick, how we recover).

Scientists are deciphering how the brain choreographs immune responses, hoping to find treatments for a range of diseases.

02/18/2023

This is a testimonial from the ART website, from someone who tried ART, and is thanking the creator of the therapy, Laney Rosenzweig:

"The reason why I am writing to you is to thank you for saving my life. I was in therapy for twelve years. I was hospitalized several times due to suicidal attempts. It was not until my therapist trained in ART that my healing began.

I am an integrated whole person due to ART. I once had eleven personalities. All of which fully came out in 2009 when I was triggered by PTSD. I was sexually abused throughout my childhood starting at the age of four. Some of which was SRA, which later in life caused the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder.

The process of ART was interesting. My therapist had to work with each personality’s PTSD with ART. Once they had their redirected scene (The Lord always showed up to rescue and comfort them) they were peaceful and slowly slipped away. This occurred eleven times. It was miraculous! What freedom! There was finally silence in my head.

I am now a whole person, because of ART. I no longer suffer with PTSD, anxiety, depression, DID, cutting, night terrors, suicidal ideations and social anxiety. I am embracing life once again. My adult children have started to include me in their lives again and I can enjoy my grandchildren.

I wanted you to know all this because, my psychiatrist believes that it is rare for an individual who suffers with DID to become fully integrated. This therapy needs to go into hospital settings for those who do suffer with DID. It works!

I am so grateful to your brilliant mind to create such a therapy that can set so many minds free from mental health and my therapist for choosing to be trained and use this therapy to free me from my DID! God bless you both!

Best Regards,
B.T."

02/18/2023

https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/accelerated-resolution-therapy

This is a great article about Accelerated Resolution Therapy.

Accelerated resolution therapy, or ART, is a type of therapy that combines principles from several traditional forms of psychotherapy to reduce the effect of trauma and other psychological stressors. Using techniques such as rapid eye movement and image rescripting, this approach works to reconditio...