Evidence-based
Trauma Processing
Narrative Therapy
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)
Supportive & Effective
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a highly researched and effective form of psychotherapy designed to help people heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR focuses on reprocessing traumatic memories to make them less distressing. It uses bilateral stimulation—often involving guided eye movements, but sometimes tones or taps—to activate the brain's natural healing process, similar to what happens during REM sleep. This process allows the brain to fully process the memory, integrating it into a less emotionally charged and more adaptive perspective. Ultimately, EMDR helps individuals shift from feeling stuck in the past to experiencing freedom and resilience in the present.
Key Principles
Bilateral Stimulation: The therapy uses guided, alternating stimuli (like eye movements, tones, or taps) to help the brain process distressing memories.
Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) Model: EMDR assumes the brain is naturally designed to heal, but trauma blocks the processing of disturbing experiences.
Focus on the Memory Network: The goal is to fully reprocess the specific, unresolved memory linked to a person's current emotional distress.
Standardized Eight-Phase Protocol: Treatment follows a structured, systematic set of steps to ensure safety, preparation, and effective memory reprocessing.
ART: Accelerated Resolution Therapy
ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy) is a unique, client-centered approach that effectively addresses the emotional challenges stemming from trauma, anxiety, and phobias. Similar to EMDR, ART uses smooth, guided eye movements to help the client replace emotionally painful images and sensations associated with a memory with positive, desirable images, a process called "voluntary memory replacement." The key difference is that ART is generally completed in significantly fewer sessions—often just one to four—and does not require the client to talk in detail about the painful events. This rapid, non-disclosing method allows individuals to swiftly process trauma and distress, leading to relief from symptoms like anxiety and emotional pain while leaving the factual memory intact.
Key Principles
Voluntary Memory Replacement (VMR): The core technique where clients actively replace the distressing imagery of a traumatic memory with a positive or neutral alternative.
Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements (SPEM): ART uses continuous, calm eye movements as a form of bilateral stimulation to help desensitize and reprocess the memory.
Minimal Verbal Disclosure: The therapy is brief and non-invasive, allowing the client to resolve the trauma without needing to recount the painful details repeatedly.
Focus on Sensations and Emotions: The therapist guides the client to identify and shift the negative physical sensations and emotions linked to the memory, which leads to rapid relief.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy is is a respectful and non-blaming approach that views individuals as separate from their problems. It is based on the idea that our lives are shaped by the stories (narratives) we tell about ourselves and our experiences, and that problems persist when people become dominated by a "problem-saturated story" about their identity. The therapist works collaboratively with the client to externalize the problem, separating it from the person, and then helps the client discover and internalize alternative, empowering stories about their competence, skills, and values. It is an approach that recognizes the power of the stories we tell about ourselves and our experiences. By rewriting or co-authoring these new narratives, clients actively participate in creating their story, reclaim their agency and create new possibilities for their lives.
Key Principles
Externalizing the Problem: The client and therapist work together to treat the problem as a separate entity that exists outside of the person.
Deconstruction: The therapy helps clients take apart the dominant, negative stories they hold to reveal their origins and how they limit life possibilities.
Searching for Unique Outcomes: Intentionally looks for exceptions to the problem-saturated story—moments when the problem did not fully dominate the person's life.
Thickening the Alternative Story: The focus shifts to amplifying and strengthening the newly discovered positive stories of competence, hope, and resilience.