Cancer patients and survivors can sometimes experience a preoccupation with their cancer getting worse or coming back. This can be debilitating and keep them from being able to appreciate the life they have now or even notice it, even when they are cancer free. They feel stuck in the traumatic memories associated with their cancer: the memory of finding out they had cancer, the past or ongoing pain and disomfort, irreversible physical changes and limitations, and the grief and loss they've experienced related to those changes.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is a unique approach to psychotherapy. The ART Therapist guides the client to replace the negative images in the mind that cause the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress with positive images of the client’s choosing. And this is done quickly, most often within one session! Once the negative images have been replaced by positive ones, the triggers will be gone. Nightmares and repeated intrusive thoughts will stop* and clients can focus on the reality of their present life.
ART combines the enormous power of eye movements to allow voluntary changes in the client’s mind with well-established therapies like Gestalt, Psychodynamic Therapy and Guided Imagery. Within the ART protocol, the eye movements, along with other ART enhancements, make these therapies work much faster and more effectively than traditional talk therapy.*
Patients with cancer and survivors can "keep the memory, but loose the pain" of their past experiences by creating their own positive images such as enjoying time spent with loved ones or being in a beautiful place and use eye movements to reprocess these memories, relieiving the associated trauma and creating a sense of peace and well-being. Physical sensations that come up during ART are also processed out by sets of eye movements, and clients often feel energized and a lessening of current tension or pain in their body, allowing them to be more present.
ART can also be used for clients to visualize themselves going through a typical day when their anxiety about a recurrence or other stress comes up and can practice seeing themselves responding calmly to going in for a check-up with their oncologist or receiving the results of a scan, and they can reinforce these images with calming eye movements. They can end their session by visualizing themselves healthy and happy as they cross a bridge into their future life, again using sets of eye movements to reinforce positive images and sensations.
ART may not prevent a cancer recurrence, but it can help alleviate the constant fear of this happening so people can enjoy their lives and their loved ones.
*taken from the Accelearted Reslution Therapy website
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