I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and a licensed professional counselor who practices in Houston, Texas at the Tarnow Center for Self-Management.
The beauty of ART lies in its simplicity. If you can move your eyes back and forth without pain, and if you can hold a thought, you are a good candidate for ART.
Unlike other forms of talk therapy, the protocol does not require the client to recount the trauma or memory in excruciating detail. All the therapist needs is a snippet of information in case the client gets stuck.
Have you ever tried breathing exercises to calm down and felt like it didn’t work? You might even have
felt like it was making you more anxious or upset. More often than not, this happens when someone is
trying to force a feeling of relaxation (which will never work), is using an improper breathing technique,
or is breathing too quickly.
The work of researcher, John Gottman, PhD, has been influential in the study and understanding of relationships and what causes them to fail or succeed. After 30 years of research, Dr. Gottman has found that only 31% of problems in a relationship are resolvable, meaning 69% of a couple’s conflicts are perpetual issues.
If you’ve experienced trauma, it can be hard to find your old self again. Intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, hypervigilance, and avoidance of things that trigger the memories can affect every part of your life. Persistent feelings of fear or anger can make it difficult to focus or pay attention, leading to difficulties in school or at work. Relationships can suffer as you try to pull back from the world to maintain some semblance of control. People around you may not understand what’s happening, leading to feelings of isolation or abandonment.
