Twin Cities Therapists Learning New, Faster Method For Treating Trauma, PTSD

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Over the weekend, several Twin Cities therapists were trained in ART, or Accelerated Resolution Therapy. It's an evidence-based therapy that's only a few years old, but in trial research, 70% of service members and veterans say their symptoms of PTSD dramatically decreased.

St. Paul therapist and ART trainer Julia Clowney is guiding these therapists in their own sessions of ART by waving her hand back and forth and asking the client to follow with their eyes.

Through this guided movement, trauma is brought back to life.

"Accelerated Resolution Therapy allows the client to choose to replace some of those traumatic images that cause such distressing effects with more positive images," said Clowney.

These therapists in training say it worked.

"To have been holding some of that for so long -- even as a professional -- and then to be able to release in a training that was unexpected... your body's like 'Ahh thank you!'" said Kassia Coleman, a trauma therapist in St. Paul.

"Some of it caught me off guard," said Soo Moon, a trauma therapist in Maple Grove. "It was just really cathartic and powerful going through that whole process."

The biggest difference from normal therapy techniques is that many people see major breakthroughs immediately.

"You can have a really profound change from a longstanding issue in one session," said Clowney.