I saw this on the news. I thought they were talking about EMDR at first but they weren't. It is ART, Accelerated Resolution Therapy. I've posted the sound bite below, and the link to USF which confirms pretty much what the news station reported. It sounded like one of those, "if it sounds too good to be true it usually isn't" ads to me. The woman doing the procedure acted as if it were no big deal and when I looked it up online there was an ad for becoming an ART Certified Therapist like it was the New Age movement, it was slightly odd to me, being the skeptic that I am at quick fixes. They reported as a PRE-PTSD treatment but I'm not sure. Any one have any experience with this?
[DLMURL="http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/nursing/dean/?p=1489"]
[/DLMURL]
Researchers from the University of South Florida's College of Nursing believe it can. And they are using part of a $2.1 million U.S. Army grant to prove it.
The treatment is called accelerated resolution therapy. Discovered about four years ago by a Connecticut therapist named Laney Rosenzweig, it involves a therapist rhythmically waving fingers in front of a client's face to induce eye movements similar to those occurring during the deepest part of sleep.
Dissatisfied with other eye-movement therapies she deemed too passive, Rosenzweig says she "discovered something kind of revolutionary" - replacing an individual's existing mental images that can trigger post traumatic stress with other images.
"I call it voluntary memory/image replacement," she says. "If you go back and change the images from the trauma and they are gone, there is nothing to be triggered to."
The therapy came to the attention of USF researchers thanks to the mother of Kevin Kip, head of research for the College of Nursing.
Kip says his mother knew he was looking for "novel methods" to treat psychological trauma. A few years ago, she read an article in a Connecticut newspaper and forwarded it to Kip.
Now USF is poised to help determine if accelerated resolution therapy is a worthy treatment for those suffering as a result of their service.
* * * * *
For years, Jim Lorraine would "jump out of my skin" if suddenly approached on his right side.
The trauma was the result of an auto accident in 1981 and compounded by being in the Air Force treating patients in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti and elsewhere.
But then Lorraine, who retired in 2005 as a lieutenant colonel, experienced something that would change his life.
About seven months ago, Lorraine, then the director of the U.S. Special Operations Command's Care Coalition, was asked by Carrie Elk, one of the therapists studying the therapy, if he knew of any service members suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who might be looking for a treatment.
As director of an organization nationally recognized as a leader in helping wounded, ill, and injured service members and their families, Lorraine says he wanted to check out the therapy first before recommending anyone take part.
"I was skeptical," he says. "Is this a snake oil salesman?"
So he sat down with Rosenzweig and underwent the treatment.
After about 90 minutes, he says, he couldn't recall the traumatic scene that caused him to react so strongly. So he recommended the therapy to some wounded special operations force members. It worked for them as well.
Now Lorraine is a believer.
"I would recommend the treatment," says Lorraine.
* * * * *
[DLMURL="http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/nursing/dean/?p=1489"]
Code:
http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/nursing/dean/?p=1489
Researchers from the University of South Florida's College of Nursing believe it can. And they are using part of a $2.1 million U.S. Army grant to prove it.
The treatment is called accelerated resolution therapy. Discovered about four years ago by a Connecticut therapist named Laney Rosenzweig, it involves a therapist rhythmically waving fingers in front of a client's face to induce eye movements similar to those occurring during the deepest part of sleep.
Dissatisfied with other eye-movement therapies she deemed too passive, Rosenzweig says she "discovered something kind of revolutionary" - replacing an individual's existing mental images that can trigger post traumatic stress with other images.
"I call it voluntary memory/image replacement," she says. "If you go back and change the images from the trauma and they are gone, there is nothing to be triggered to."
The therapy came to the attention of USF researchers thanks to the mother of Kevin Kip, head of research for the College of Nursing.
Kip says his mother knew he was looking for "novel methods" to treat psychological trauma. A few years ago, she read an article in a Connecticut newspaper and forwarded it to Kip.
Now USF is poised to help determine if accelerated resolution therapy is a worthy treatment for those suffering as a result of their service.
* * * * *
For years, Jim Lorraine would "jump out of my skin" if suddenly approached on his right side.
The trauma was the result of an auto accident in 1981 and compounded by being in the Air Force treating patients in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti and elsewhere.
But then Lorraine, who retired in 2005 as a lieutenant colonel, experienced something that would change his life.
About seven months ago, Lorraine, then the director of the U.S. Special Operations Command's Care Coalition, was asked by Carrie Elk, one of the therapists studying the therapy, if he knew of any service members suffering from post traumatic stress disorder who might be looking for a treatment.
As director of an organization nationally recognized as a leader in helping wounded, ill, and injured service members and their families, Lorraine says he wanted to check out the therapy first before recommending anyone take part.
"I was skeptical," he says. "Is this a snake oil salesman?"
So he sat down with Rosenzweig and underwent the treatment.
After about 90 minutes, he says, he couldn't recall the traumatic scene that caused him to react so strongly. So he recommended the therapy to some wounded special operations force members. It worked for them as well.
Now Lorraine is a believer.
"I would recommend the treatment," says Lorraine.
* * * * *