Blog | Rindie Eagle, MA, LPCC

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Written by Lauren Faylor

It’s been a year since the devastating wildfires swept across Maui, Hawaii, on August 8th, 2023. Fueled by dry conditions and strong winds, these fires caused unimaginable destruction and heartbreak. Homes, businesses, and the natural beauty that defines Maui were severely damaged, leaving the island scarred both physically and emotionally.
The Impact of the Wildfires
The wildfires were like a “perfect storm,” driven by severe drought and strong winds. They spread quickly and were impossible to control, forcing many residents to evacuate with little notice, leaving behind their belongings and memories. Entire neighborhoods were reduced to ashes, and the loss of life added to the profound grief. Beyond the immediate damage, the fires left lasting challenges. Roads, power lines, and water supplies were heavily damaged, and many people lost their jobs as businesses were destroyed. The tourism industry, vital to Maui’s economy, also suffered a huge blow. On top of that, the trauma from the fires highlighted a desperate need for more mental health resources.
Training ART Therapists in Maui
In February, a team of dedicated professionals led by Dr. Wendi Waits, held the first Basic ART training on Maui. This training came at a crucial time, as the island was still recovering from the wildfires that claimed over 100 lives and ruined thousands of buildings. These fires not only destroyed the landscape but also deepened issues such as housing shortages and social divides. Many residents of Lahaina felt abandoned by the organizations that were supposed to protect them, leading to

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Lauren Faylor

Lauren Faylor is the blog writer, social media and marketing coordinator for Accelerated Resolution Therapy. She is deeply passionate about mental health and dedicated to creating content that educates, raises awareness, and ensures that others feel seen and heard.
If you have suggestions for blog topics or stories of ART in your practice, please reach out.

Articles written by Lauren Faylor

The Mind-Body Connection: Releasing Trauma from the Body
Why Isn’t Talk therapy Helping
Trauma Affects Everyone
How can you Increase your Window of Tolerance
Treating OCD with Accelerated Resolution Therapy
Men’s Mental Health-How Can ART Help?
Accelerated Resolution Therapy Supports Maui’s Recovery from 2023 Wildfire Trauma

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

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Written by Lauren Faylor
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a challenging mental health condition that affects millions of people around the world. Traditionally, treatments like Exposure Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) have been the main therapies to manage OCD symptoms. These were the methods Dr. Mark Chamberlain had been using in his practice. However, in his groundbreaking keynote presentation titled “ART for OCD – Using Accelerated Resolution Therapy to Treat Obsessive-Compulsive Struggles,” delivered at the 2024 IS-ART Conference, Dr. Chamberlain explores Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) as a faster, more effective, and more enjoyable approach to treating OCD.
Traditional Treatments for OCD- Why They Fall Short
Exposure Therapy, ACT, and CBT are well-established treatments for OCD, but they often require significant time and effort and can be ineffective. Dr. Chamberlain, a seasoned clinician, expressed his frustration with these traditional methods, saying, “I was getting too old to treat OCD because it takes so long.” He felt these methods were like “hacking at the branches” rather than addressing the core issues. This realization led him to explore ART, a therapy that allowed him to work more directly and effectively with scenes and sensations rather than with cognitions.
The Core of OCD Struggles
Dr. Chamberlain acknowledges that Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves rigid, ingrained coping patterns rather than troubling scenes, which are often typical of PTSD.
People with OCD experience intrusive thoughts and engage in repetitive behaviors such as excessive hand-washing, checking locks, or counting. These behaviors are attempts to alleviate anxiety and prevent feared

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

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Written by Lauren Faylor

As June honors Men’s Mental Health Month, the topic of men’s mental health has begun to gain the attention it desperately needs. The issues and statistics surrounding men’s mental health are concerning, with depression and suicide as leading causes of death among men. In the United States alone, six million men suffer from depression annually. Men die by suicide at a rate four times higher than women, and they are also more likely to engage in substance misuse and other dangerous coping behaviors.
Despite the progress of increasing awareness, a significant barrier remains: stigma. Stigma can manifest in various ways, from societal perceptions to internalized shame, and it plays a crucial role in why men often hesitate to seek help for their mental health issues.
Understanding Stigma
The stigma surrounding men’s mental health is multifaceted. It includes social stigma, self-stigma, professional stigma, and cultural stigma.

Social stigma refers to negative attitudes and beliefs about individuals with mental health issues, often rooted in misconceptions that these individuals are weak or have flawed character.
Self-stigma occurs when individuals internalize these societal attitudes, leading to feelings of shame and inadequacy.
Professional stigma involves healthcare providers who may unintentionally perpetuate these negative beliefs, preventing men from getting the help they need.
Cultural stigma encompasses the various ways different cultures perceive and handle mental health issues.

The Impact on Men
Traditional masculine norms often discourage men from expressing vulnerability or seeking help, reinforcing the idea that they should be stoic and self-reliant. This cultural expectation can lead men to hide their

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

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Amazing things are still happening in your brain even after an Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) session!
Through ART, your brain rescripts traumatic images so that you leave with a ‘positized’ version of your traumatic memory. The term “positiziation” refers to what ART Developer, Laney Rosenzweig calls the process of transforming a negative memory into a more positive one. Through a process called ‘reconsolidation’, your brain changes how your memories are stored so that you can form new beliefs and perspectives. Researchers call this “rescripting.”
Your brain is creating new connections that didn’t exist before!
ART stimulates your brain’s innate capability to process and integrate traumatic memories. Some believe the changes that occur with ART may be likened to changes made during the Rapid Eye Movement sleep phase when your brain consolidates memories and works through emotions. This process makes traumatic memories less distressing and stores them in a more adaptive and integrated way in the brain.
Even after just one ART session, you’ll often experience a whole new lease on life. You’ll feel more energetic, hopeful, and inspired. However, remember, even after the session, your brain is still working to “positize”, reconsolidate, and rescript for long-lasting results.
Positive Things You Can Do for Yourself after an ART session

Indulge in Relaxation:

Before your ART session, you might have been living in a state of hyperarousal, as your amygdala has been overactive.
Now that you’ve calmed this part of your brain, you’ll be able to rest deeply. The bilateral eye movements you performed during your session, a key component

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In her book “Come Passion, The Soulful ART of Healing Trauma,” Colleen Clark, RCSW, highlights the importance of delivering Psychoeducation to clients alongside ART sessions. Psychoeducation in trauma therapy involves explaining the client’s mental diagnosis and treatment choices to both the client and their family, helping them understand and cope with the illness by providing useful information and raising awareness.
When therapists and clients use trauma-informed Psychoeducation as part of their treatment plan, it can serve as a helpful map of where to go. In trauma therapy, Psychoeducation helps you recognize commonalities, makes you feel less alone, and reduces the shame you may feel around your trauma symptoms. You become more comfortable discussing your treatment with people in your life.
What are the benefits of Psychoeducation?
In the lens of trauma therapy, psychoeducation equips you with language, knowledge, and skills to discuss your experience with yourself and the people in your life. It also:

Helps you understand your journey: Knowledge is power. Understanding the “whats” and “whys” of trauma treatment increases your adherence to the process. You can see the roadmap and where you’re going.
Reduces shame: When there is an explanation behind your feelings and actions, you feel less judgment toward yourself. You understand that what happened to you is not your fault. What you’re experiencing is often a common and shared response to trauma among other survivors.
Increases hope: When you comprehend that trauma treatment will change your brain and make room for healing, you’re filled with a new-found sense of hope. Colleen states that

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If you’ve ever felt butterflies in your stomach over an upcoming event, you’re well aware of the mind-body connection and how emotions can appear in different parts of the body. Our bodies can carry the weight of our memories, emotions, and trauma. The idea of stored emotions manifesting physically in our systems is not a new hypothesis; it’s a scientific observation with tangible effects. Modern scientific research frequently explores the link between mental and physical health and the mind-body connection. Meanwhile, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has studied the connection between emotions and the body for over two thousand years.
Understanding how stress hormones or states like hyperarousal and disassociation contribute to the physical imprints of emotional trauma is pivotal. The mind-body connection suggests that emotional states can dictate our health, physical comfort, and gene expressions.
To grasp trauma and stored emotions, we must look into how our bodies hold onto past experiences and ways to let them go. It is necessary to explore the somatic element of emotions, how the body holds on to the past, and modalities that can release it. As trauma affects parts of the brain that are preverbal, Accelerated Resolution Therapy explores bodily approaches to healing that are inaccessible through talk and other traditional therapies.

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

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

Written by Imported Blogs

If you’ve ever felt butterflies in your stomach over an upcoming event, you’re well aware of the mind-body connection and how emotions can appear in different parts of the body. Our bodies can carry the weight of our memories, emotions, and trauma. The idea of stored emotions manifesting physically in our systems is not a new hypothesis; it’s a scientific observation with tangible effects. Modern scientific research frequently explores the link between mental and physical health and the mind-body connection. Meanwhile, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has studied the connection between emotions and the body for over two thousand years.
Understanding how stress hormones or states like hyperarousal and disassociation contribute to the physical imprints of emotional trauma is pivotal. The mind-body connection suggests that emotional states can dictate our health, physical comfort, and gene expressions.
To grasp trauma and stored emotions, we must look into how our bodies hold onto past experiences and ways to let them go. It is necessary to explore the somatic element of emotions, how the body holds on to the past, and modalities that can release it. As trauma affects parts of the brain that are preverbal, Accelerated Resolution Therapy explores bodily approaches to healing that are inaccessible through talk and other traditional therapies.

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

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

Written by Imported Blogs

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,

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

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Often, the symptoms of trauma and ADHD are so similar they can be mistaken for each other. Their comparable symptoms often make it difficult to diagnose the source. . With so much overlap, it begs the question: Does trauma contribute to ADHD?
ADHD diagnoses have been on the rise throughout the past few years. Millions of children and adults are being diagnosed with ADHD, and the numbers continue to rise. What has contributed to the growing numbers? A possible contribution could be that we are becoming more aware of the nuances of the condition and are becoming better at recognizing and treating it accurately.
As we understand more about the neurodevelopmental condition, we can see that genetic, neurobiological, and environmental factors are at play. However, some studies indicate that children with ADHD are more likely to have trauma histories, experiencing a traumatic event, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or Complex trauma. While everyone’s exposure and experience are different, research suggests that childhood trauma could affect the development of ADHD and vice versa.
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.

Link to Original Post - ART Blog

From Around the Web

Accelerated Resolution Therapy Supports Maui’s Recovery from 2023 Wildfire Trauma

Treating OCD with Accelerated Resolution Therapy

Men’s Mental Health-How can ART Help?

What Should You Do After An ART Therapy Session?

Trauma-Informed Psychoeducation in ART

The Mind-Body Connection: Releasing Trauma from the Body

The Mind-Body Connection: Releasing Trauma from the Body

Is it yours? How You May Be Affected by Intergenerational Trauma

Does trauma affect ADHD?

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