The Painful Memory You Can't Stop Replaying... and its Match

Accelerated Resolution Therapy can help take the sting out of those memories that sneak up on you

"I needed this. I can't believe that worked. It is so weird." - A client who processed a painful loss using ART in a virtual session.

There are some events from the past that sneak up on us, replay like a movie in our heads, and make us cringe. They dry out our mouths. They yank us into the past.

A cruel word whipped out at you in public.

A parent standing over you as a child, baring their teeth in anger.

A suitcase packed and leaving with someone you needed to stay.

What's coming to mind for you?

These memories come up in moments they aren't invited to. You're giving the baby a bath or taking out the trash, and suddenly a horrible memory replays in your mind as if it's happening right now. Your pulse quickens, your face flushes. You know it's not real— or, it's not right now— but all of the sensations of that moment are happening to you, right now.

You probably already know what's happening; PTSD has been in the spotlight now for some time in the media, research, and likely on your phone screen. But if you aren't familiar, here's a three-sentence crash course:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder occurs when a traumatic (inescapable, painful, frightening, etc.) event occurs, and is unable to be processed as events are meant to be processed. The event becomes a daily reality rather than a memory. PTSD is treated by "filing" these events in the brain's memory folder, where they belong. A memory can't hurt you; living with unresolved trauma can.

There are many treatments for PTSD. I'm going to put the spotlight on my favorite:

Accelerated Resolution Therapy.

"Thank you. Thank you. It doesn't hurt as much to remember now." - A client navigating recovery from substance dependence after an in-person ART session.

ART treats the traumatic event like a movie. It places you in the seat of the director, however, rather than an actor. In ART, we pull the memory up on purpose (giving you the power that the event has previously taken from you), and re-process it in order to desensitize you to its painful qualities. We re-write the "script" and embellish the memory with positive or neutral qualities, which further shrinks its ability to cause pain in your daily life.

Do you forget the painful event? No. Definitely not.

Does it hurt as much? No. You've filed it properly. It's accessible, but no longer in the way. You're not going to trip on it as you walk through the room or jam your foot into it as you would a child's misplaced lego. Following that metaphor, the memory can now be used to build your story rather than keep you stuck on one part of it.

As an added bonus, ART requires very little talking, making it accessible to people who really don't want to hash out the details of their trauma verbally.

Followers of the therapies currently available to us will be reminded of EMDR. ART employs eye movements, desensitization, and reprocessing in similar ways to EMDR. However, where EMDR often takes multiple sessions to reprocess a memory or cluster of memories, ART aims to get the job done in one fell swoop, resolving one memory or cluster per session. I've seen great success with this in my sessions, and seldom have had a client request to revisit a memory after working on it once. (I am not trained in EMDR, so I acknowledge my knowledge may have some gaps ;-))

As a relationship therapist, being equipped with ART comes in handy. Occasionally, being stuck by trauma creates a huge stuck point within a couple. Being able to work through specific events and freed from them in a short time makes it so that people can work on what they came to see me for: their relationship. I love how this therapy makes room for the couple when a client had previously been siloed in the past.

If you're curious about ART— even if you think it sounds too good to be true— feel free to reach out. Join the thousands of people who have been helped by this incredible therapy.

I’m Kalyn, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I live in Georgia and serve both Georgians and Texans in my practice, KWW Therapy.

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