Trauma Therapy in Denver: Understanding EMDR vs Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)

Table of Contents

1. What Is EMDR Therapy?
2. Who EMDR Is Best Suited For
3. How EMDR Works: The Science Behind Bilateral Stimulation
4. What Is Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)?
5. How ART Differs from EMDR
6. Benefits of ART Compared to EMDR
7. Similarities Between EMDR and ART
8. What Issues Do EMDR and ART Help Treat?
9. How to Know Which Therapy Is Right for You
10. EMDR and ART in Intensives and Longer Sessions
11. Virtual EMDR and ART: How They Work in Denver
12. Cost, Insurance, and Session Lengths Explained
13. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
14. About Sheila Trabelsi & Path to Growth Therapy
15. Schedule a Session in Denver

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1. What Is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based therapy developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. EMDR helps clients reprocess distressing memories that are “stuck” in the brain, which can cause persistent anxiety, flashbacks, or emotional triggers.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR works directly with how the brain stores trauma, helping clients remember events without being overwhelmed by the emotional intensity.

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2. Who EMDR Is Best Suited For

EMDR is highly effective, but it’s not the best fit for everyone. Because it involves revisiting distressing memories, clients should ideally have:

• Emotional stability: Ability to tolerate and manage strong feelings during and between sessions
• Safe living circumstances: A stable environment where they can integrate therapy safely
• No active suicidal ideation or immediate crisis that requires urgent intervention
• Willingness to feel emotions without dissociating.

Clients who are actively in crisis, experiencing uncontrolled substance use, actively dissociates or lacking emotional support may benefit more from stabilization-focused therapy or ART initially, which allows for gentler, positive-focused processing. Clients who are struggling with triggers to use substances may still benefit from EMDR and ART using certain protocols, but it is encouraged to find a therapist who specializes in substance use disorders to address these directly using these modalities. If you are still actively going through a trauma (i.e domestic violence), these modalities may not be the right treatment for you. Additionally, clients who dissociate can still participate in EMDR with an experienced therapist, who knows how to support you around the potential for dissociation during sessions. These are serious situations that need to be handled with care with an experienced therapist.

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3. How EMDR Works: The Science Behind Bilateral Stimulation

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, usually eye movements, tones, or tapping, to mimic processes during REM sleep, when the brain naturally processes experiences. This helps:

• Integrate fragmented memories
• Reduce emotional intensity of past events
• Create adaptive learning in the brain

During EMDR therapy, the bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tones, or tapping) activates both sides of the brain, allowing stored memories to move from the emotional centers of the brain—like the amygdala, into more adaptive, rational processing areas such as the prefrontal cortex. This helps you reprocess distressing memories without feeling re-traumatized, reducing their emotional charge over time. What once felt overwhelming or stuck begins to feel more neutral and integrated. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR doesn’t require you to relive every detail of your trauma, instead, it focuses on how your body and mind react to those memories and helps your nervous system release the distress. Over time, clients often report feeling calmer, more confident, and less triggered by past experiences, creating space for new patterns of thought and behavior.

💡 Did you know?
Research shows EMDR is effective for trauma, anxiety, phobias, and grief, and can even help with performance anxiety or past life stressors.

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4. What Is Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART)?

ART is a newer, evidence-based therapy developed from EMDR by Laney Rosenzweig, LMFT. While it also uses bilateral stimulation, ART is:

• Structured to resolve a memory or symptom within one session (depending upon the complexity of the issue).
• Creative, allowing clients to “rescript” distressing imagery into positive outcomes
• Empowering, leaving clients feeling lighter and more resolved at session end

Because ART doesn’t require retelling trauma in detail, it can be a safer or more approachable option for clients with emotional sensitivity, ongoing stress, or multiple life pressures.

During Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) sessions, your therapist gently guides you through a series of eye movements and visualization techniques to help your brain “recode” distressing experiences at a neurological level. The process allows you to shift how painful memories are stored, keeping the facts but removing the emotional charge, so you can think about them without being flooded by emotion. ART draws on the brain’s natural ability to heal itself, much like how we process information during REM sleep. Clients often notice relief after just one or a few sessions, making ART a powerful option for issues like anxiety, grief, trauma, and even intrusive images or chronic stress patterns. Because it doesn’t require in-depth retelling of trauma, ART can feel gentler and faster than traditional approaches, especially for those who feel emotionally overwhelmed, have high-stress lifestyles, or simply prefer a results-driven and creative method of healing.

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5. How ART Differs from EMDR

Feature	EMDR	ART
Origin	Dr. Francine Shapiro	Developed from EMDR by Laney Rosenzweig
Session Structure	Multi-phase process over multiple sessions	Often completed in one structured session
Client Role	Requires processing and sometimes verbalizing memories	Creative visualization and imagery
Emotional Containment	May leave client needing time to “process” outside session	Full resolution typically achieved in-session
Best Fit	Complex, multi-event trauma	Single-event trauma, phobias, anxiety, or grief

💡 Callout:
You may have heard people say with EMDR, it often gets worse before it gets better, because it stirs up things when you are processing. You have to contain them at the end of session and there may be intrusive thoughts or dreams that emerge between sessions that need to be contained. ART helps clients leave each session feeling resolved, positive, and empowered — perfect for those who want to experience immediate relief.

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6. Benefits of ART Compared to EMDR

• Faster emotional relief (often 1–3 sessions for single events)
• Gentler processing without verbal retelling
• Encourages creativity and self-empowerment
• Full protocol completion within a session
• Less requirement for prior emotional stability than EMDR
• Many clients prefer ART to EMDR due to time, structure, and overall feeling at the end of the session

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7. Similarities Between EMDR and ART

• Both use bilateral stimulation to process stuck trauma
• Both are evidence-based and supported by research
• Both help clients gain control over intrusive thoughts and memories
• Both can be delivered in virtual sessions or intensives
• Both focus on somatics-sensations in the body
• Both have components that focus on future triggers

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8. What Issues Do EMDR and ART Help Treat?

Both therapies are effective for:

• PTSD and past trauma (single or complex)
• Anxiety and panic
• Depression and mood disorders
• OCD and intrusive thoughts
• Addiction and recovery support
• Grief and loss
• Relationship or attachment trauma
• Performance anxiety

Key difference:
ART is often better for ongoing issues like anxiety, OCD, or addiction because it allows clients to reframe and resolve distressing imagery quickly, even when the trauma is recent or ongoing. EMDR is ideal for multi-layered, past trauma that requires phased processing and is better for traumas that are in the past and not ongoing issues.

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9. How to Know Which Therapy Is Right for You

• ART: Faster symptom relief, less emotional containment required, creative imagery-based, ideal for clients in active life stress.
• EMDR: Deep trauma work over multiple sessions, requires emotional stability, ideal for complex or multi-event trauma.

I help clients in Denver choose the best approach and sometimes blend elements of both for optimal healing.

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10. EMDR and ART in Intensives and Extended Sessions

Extended sessions or intensive formats allow:

• 90–120 minute sessions or multi-hour intensive days
• Faster progress without disrupting your work or life schedule
• Integration of multiple memories in one sitting

Therapy Intensives and extended sessions allow clients uninterupted time to dive deep into healing without the limitations of a standard 50-minute appointment. These focused sessions—ranging from 90 minutes to several hours or even multi-day formats—are ideal for individuals who want to make significant progress in a shorter period of time, have demanding schedules, or prefer immersive work.

During these extended sessions, Path to Growth Therapy can integrate modalities like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), informed IFS (Internal Family Systems) and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) to process trauma, anxiety, grief, or other challenges in a contained, supportive way. Because each intensive is individually tailored to your needs, we’ll structure the time around your specific goals, emotional readiness, and areas of focus. Clients often find that these sessions provide a sense of closure, clarity, and momentum that weekly therapy can take months to achieve.

If you’re curious about how therapy intensives or extended sessions might support your growth, visit my Therapy Intensives to learn more about the process, what to expect, and how we can design a format that fits your life and healing goals.

💡 Note: Extended sessions and therapy intensives may not fit standard insurance constructs, but superbills or partial reimbursement options are often available.

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11. Virtual EMDR and ART: How They Work in Denver

Virtual therapy is fully effective:

• Guided eye movements via screen
• Auditory or tactile bilateral stimulation
• Creative visualization and rescripting in ART
• Secure telehealth platform ensures privacy and safety

Virtual EMDR and ART sessions offer a convenient and deeply effective way to heal from trauma, anxiety, and stress, right from the comfort of your home or even during a midday break for self-care anywhere in the Denver area or across Colorado. In these sessions, your therapist acts as a guide, helping you access your brain’s natural ability to heal using evidence-based techniques like bilateral stimulation through tapping, eye movements, or auditory tones. Whether you’re processing a single distressing event or working through long-term patterns, your nervous system knows how to move toward resolution when given the right support. Virtual therapy allows you to create a safe, familiar space for this work, removing the commute and helping you stay grounded while doing powerful, focused healing.

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12. Cost, Insurance, and Session Lengths Explained

• EMDR and ART: Standard 50–53 min sessions often covered by insurance
• Extended Sessions & Intensives: Self Pay; inquire about superbills for possible reimbursements
• Number of sessions: Single-event trauma may resolve quickly; complex or ongoing issues may require multiple sessions.

Insurance can be used for therapy if there is medical necessity. This means that you have an active diagnosis that is defined by the DSM and there is significiant impact on daily life. Insurances states that your mental health treatment must be required to resolve a diagnosable condition, rather than simply for self-improvement or personal growth. As a result some goals or issues may not meet criteria for use of insurance. This is often the case for clients who don’t actually qualify for a diagnosis. This is one of many reasons why some providers choose not to work with insurance, due to the limitations placed on a client’s autonomy towards improved well-being.

Insurance also limits their allowable therapy billing codes that were not intended for intensives and extended sessions. ART scripts and EMDR protocols are ideal for 90 minute sessions. Often times ART scripts require 90mins to get through the script and allow for initial check in and wrap up for more comprensive care. These modalities are often tailored by therapists to fit the standard allowance for insurance to accomodate clients’ desire to use their benefits, but at what cost to your care?

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13. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can EMDR or ART be done virtually in Denver?
Yes, both work effectively through secure telehealth.

Who is EMDR not right for?
Clients experiencing active suicidal ideation, extreme emotional instability, or ongoing substance crises may need stabilization therapy first.

How many sessions will I need?
ART can resolve symptoms in as little as 1–3 sessions; EMDR may take multiple sessions depending on complexity.

Does insurance cover these therapies?
Yes, insurance covers EMDR and ART. Speak to your therapist about superbills for potential reimbursements.

Are intensive sessions safe and effective?
Yes. Therapy Intensives allow clients to go deeper and experience accelerated results while fitting busy schedules. Learn more about intensives here.

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14. About Sheila Trabelsi & Path to Growth Therapy

I am a licensed trauma therapist providing EMDR and ART therapy virtually in Denver and across Colorado and Washington, helping clients feel empowered in how they manage their anxiety, move through grief, and heal from single event & past traumas. We tailor your therapy for you. Learn more about our services here.

I also offer coaching and consulting through Trabelsi Coaching and Consulting, supporting therapists to build and grow their practice, emerging leaders to navigate transitions and professional growth and leadership challenges, and individuals who are navigating personal and professional change.

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15. Schedule a Session in Denver

Ready to start healing in Denver? Whether you choose EMDR, ART, or an intensive format, I provide guidance and support tailored to your goals.

👉 Schedule a consultation today to see which therapy is right for you.