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Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a trauma treatment modality that clients are requesting by name right now, and most clinicians still haven’t heard of it. In a recent episode of Self Careapist Therapist Podcast, I sat down with Laney Rosenzweig, the licensed marriage and family therapist who developed ART after nearly three decades in the field.

Whether you’re deeply committed to EMDR, trained in another trauma modality, or just trying to figure out what your clients need for complex trauma, this episode is worth your full attention. I’ll walk through the key points from our conversation below.

What Is Accelerated Resolution Therapy?

ART is a structured, therapist-directed trauma treatment that uses horizontal eye movements combined with a scripted protocol. Laney developed it in 2007 after taking EMDR training and deciding that free association wasn’t working for her clients the way she needed it to. She wanted a method that was directive, time-limited, and resolution-focused from the first session.

The core mechanism: the therapist guides the client through the target memory or image using eye movements, then removes the associated sensations, and replaces the imagery with something the client chooses. By the end of a session, clients are often able to talk about a traumatic experience without it carrying emotional charge. Laney calls this process moving the memory from images and sensations into words.

She described it this way in our conversation: when someone has been through something like sexual abuse, they often can’t even say the word for what happened. After an ART session, that word becomes neutral language. The sensory load is gone.

How ART Compares to EMDR

Laney trained in EMDR first and loves the bilateral eye movement as a mechanism. What she changed is almost everything around it.

• ART does not use free association. The therapist keeps the client on-target rather than following wherever the mind goes.
• ART uses a structured script. Clinicians follow a consistent protocol so the brain knows what to expect across sessions.
• ART does not require a large therapeutic foundation before processing. Laney described using buy-in through sensation work early in treatment rather than building rapport over many sessions first.
• ART is designed to produce resolution, often in a single session, for specific presenting issues including trauma, OCD, phobias, and grief.

Her analogy for the difference: EMDR is like telling a client to find a book somewhere on the third floor and letting them wander. ART hands them a map and walks them to the shelf.

She was also direct about her disagreement with some of Francine Shapiro’s original EMDR guidelines.

Who Is ART For?

Laney’s answer to who is not a good candidate for ART was short: anyone who doesn’t want it. She works with children, adolescents, and adults. She has case examples involving OCD, ADHD, phobias, and complex trauma. There is even a case in her book, Too Good to Be True, involving a dog named Toby.

She did note that clients with a borderline presentation may need some additional care at the start of treatment because the speed of change can feel disorienting. But ART’s built-in buy-in mechanism, using eye movements to quickly shift physical sensations like headaches or tension, helps establish trust rapidly.

On the other end of the age range, she described working with young children by having them follow a toy with their eyes. The mechanism is the same; the delivery adapts.

The Role of Metaphor in ART

One of the most interesting parts of our conversation was how Laney uses metaphor inside the ART protocol. When a sensation doesn’t shift easily, she might ask a client to convert it to a picture and then work with the picture instead. Problems can become images; images can become problems. This flexibility is built into the model.

She gave an example of a perfectionism script: the client imagines boarding a train headed to Perfection. The conductor announces there’s no such stop and everyone gets off at Good Enough. Clients report that this lands differently than cognitive reframing alone, because they’re experiencing the shift in imagery rather than being told to think differently.

ART Training: What the Path Looks Like

Laney has built a training infrastructure that is worth knowing about in some detail, because it’s structured differently from most post-graduate training models.

Basic Training (3 Days)

• Open to licensed therapists only (with rare exceptions for advanced master’s students approaching licensure)
• Friday, Saturday, Sunday format; clinicians can use ART with clients starting Monday
• Morning lecture and instruction; afternoon practicum with a 3-to-1 therapist-to-trainee ratio
• Each trainee gets an ART-trained therapist working directly with their small group
• Free intro sessions available every fourth Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern at artworks.com

Advanced Training (3 Days)

• Requires 30 completed ART sessions after basic training
• Introduces abbreviated session formats and expanded scripts for specialty populations including ADHD
• No 3-to-1 support ratio; trainees work more independently because they already know the core protocol

Credentialing and Ongoing Learning

• Izzart.org handles credentialing, conferences, and ongoing consultation
• Izzart members receive free re-audits of basic training for life (first year free for non-members)
• Twice-yearly Inquiring Minds presentations on specialized ART applications such as dissociation
• Monthly consult groups for basic and advanced practitioners

Laney’s quality control is part of the training model itself. She requires video submission to become a certified ART trainer. If someone doesn’t pass on video, she invites them to do it live with her instead of losing them.

What Clinicians Ask About ART

Laney has been asked this in every context imaginable, and her framing to clients is intentionally simple: your brain does all the work; I am the guide. She uses a handout that explains the process before clients even sit down, including a note that she may say things that seem confusing because she is working to access the limbic system, not the reasoning cortex.

She screens prospective clients briefly by phone to assess self-motivation. She has used this approach with children as young as four or five using modified eye movement techniques, and with adults in their 70s. When someone wants to keep talking instead of processing, she gives them a choice: we can do talk therapy, or you can feel better. She reports that clients choose feeling better.

Why ART Gets Called Magic

Laney is 73, had a stroke a few years ago that affected her voice and her right side, and still sees clients, trains therapists, runs consult groups, and does conferences. She describes getting withdrawal symptoms when she goes too long without doing ART. The reason, she says, is the high she feels watching clients change in a single session. She believes the endorphin release is real, both for the client and for the therapist watching it happen.

She wrote the governor of Connecticut when she developed ART. That one letter eventually led to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health becoming one of ART’s earliest institutional partners. Word of mouth did the rest. And something, she says, wants this method out in the world.

Where to Learn More

• Website and training registration: artworks.com or acceleratedresolutiontheory.com
• Free intro sessions: fourth Wednesday of the month, 6 p.m. Eastern
• Credentialing and conferences: Is ART
• Laney’s book: Too Good to Be True, available on Amazon

Listen to the full conversation with Laney Rosenzweig on Self Careapist Therapist Podcast, available on all major platforms and at selfcareapist.com.