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Accelerated Resolution Therapy in Sacramento, CA

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an evidence-based trauma therapy that combines elements of EMDR, image rescripting, and exposure to produce rapid symptom resolution — often in significantly fewer sessions than traditional trauma-focused protocols. ART is recognized by SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and is increasingly used for PTSD, depression, anxiety, grief, and trauma-shaped conditions where other treatments have been tried unsuccessfully or where the typical 12-16 session course of PE or CPT isn’t feasible. At our Cal DSS-licensed residential program in Roseville, our clinical team delivers ART alongside other evidence-based trauma-focused approaches. We admit and treat directly.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy was developed by Laney Rosenzweig in 2008, drawing on elements of EMDR while introducing distinct image-rescripting and voluntary memory replacement components. The evidence base has grown substantially over the past decade, with strong support for PTSD treatment, including military and combat-related PTSD, complex trauma, depression with trauma history, anxiety with traumatic origin, and prolonged grief.

What makes ART clinically distinctive is the pace of symptom resolution. While Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy typically require 12-16 sessions, ART often produces meaningful clinical change in 1-5 sessions. The protocol uses smooth, side-to-side eye movements (similar to EMDR) while the trauma memory is held in working memory, but adds a voluntary image-replacement component — the disturbing imagery is replaced with neutral or positive imagery the person chooses. The clinical effect is reduction or elimination of the emotional and physiological responses associated with the trauma memory, often without the same time-intensive exposure work other trauma therapies require.

ART works particularly well for adults whose schedule, treatment ambivalence, or cumulative trauma history makes the typical PE or CPT course difficult. It is also useful as an adjunctive intervention within a broader trauma-informed treatment plan — addressing specific trauma memories or symptom clusters within a longer arc of complex trauma recovery.

Conditions We Treat With ART

ART has the strongest evidence base in trauma-shaped conditions and is integrated into trauma-focused treatment across our residential program.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

ART has growing evidence support for PTSD across trauma types — single-incident, military and combat, sexual assault, and interpersonal violence. The voluntary image-replacement component often makes ART more tolerable than other exposure-based approaches for adults with significant avoidance. Learn about residential PTSD treatment.

Complex Trauma

For adults with complex PTSD from prolonged interpersonal trauma, ART is often used to address specific trauma memories within a broader treatment plan. The pace of symptom resolution makes it possible to address multiple trauma memories during a residential stay rather than across years of outpatient work.

Depression With Trauma History

Many adults with major depression or persistent depressive disorder have significant trauma histories that shape both presentation and treatment response. ART addresses the trauma memories underlying the depressive picture, often producing improvement in depressive symptoms alongside the trauma-specific work. Learn about residential depression treatment.

Prolonged Grief and Traumatic Loss

For adults with prolonged grief disorder or grief shaped by traumatic loss — sudden death, suicide, homicide, accident — ART has growing evidence support for processing the traumatic aspects of the loss alongside the grief work itself.

Anxiety With Traumatic Origin

Specific phobias, panic, and anxiety disorders that have clear traumatic origins respond to ART addressing the originating event. Often integrated with other anxiety treatment approaches. Learn about residential anxiety treatment.

Performance and Sleep Issues With Traumatic Roots

Performance anxiety, sleep disturbance, and nightmares that have clear connection to specific traumatic events often respond to ART targeting the underlying memories rather than continued symptom management.

Related Conditions

Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Substance use disorder involves a pattern of substance use that causes significant impairment or distress, often co-occurring with mental health conditions.

PTSD Treatment

Post-traumatic stress disorder develops after exposure to traumatic events and involves intrusive memories, hyperarousal, avoidance, and negative mood shifts.

Schizophrenia Treatment

Schizophrenia involves persistent symptoms across positive (hallucinations, delusions), negative (flat affect, withdrawal), and cognitive domains.

Schizoaffective Disorder Treatment

Schizoaffective disorder combines features of schizophrenia (psychotic symptoms) with significant mood symptoms (depressive or bipolar).

Personality Disorder Treatment

Personality disorders are persistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that significantly impact relationships, work, and self-concept.

Psychotic Disorder Treatment

Psychotic disorders involve disruptions in thinking, perception, and reality-testing — including hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thought patterns.

Other Conditions Treated

Beyond named diagnoses, residential mental health care can support adults with adjustment disorders, acute stress reactions, and complex co-occurring patterns.

OCD Treatment

Obsessive-compulsive disorder involves intrusive, unwanted thoughts and repetitive behaviors or mental acts that can consume hours of each day.

Mood Disorder Treatment

Mood disorders are conditions that primarily affect emotional state, including depression, bipolar disorder, and related diagnoses.

Persistent Depressive Disorder Treatment

Persistent depressive disorder is chronic depression lasting two years or more — often less acute than major depression but more pervasive.

Major Depressive Disorder Treatment

Major depressive disorder involves episodes of severe depressive symptoms lasting two weeks or longer, often recurring across the lifespan.

Depressive Disorder Treatment

Depressive disorders involve persistent low mood, loss of interest, and shifts in sleep, energy, and the capacity to function.

Co-Occurring Disorder Treatment

Co-occurring disorders — also called dual diagnosis — describe living with both a mental health condition and a substance use disorder at the same time.

Bipolar Disorder Treatment

Bipolar disorder involves shifts between depressive and elevated mood states that can disrupt sleep, judgment, and daily functioning.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental condition affecting communication, sensory processing, and social interaction in adults.

Social Anxiety Treatment

Social anxiety disorder is the persistent fear of being judged or scrutinized in social situations — strong enough to shape work, relationships, and daily choices.

Anxiety Disorder Treatment

Anxiety disorders involve persistent, excessive worry and physical tension that interfere with sleep, work, and daily functioning.

Adult ADHD Treatment

Adult ADHD affects attention, planning, impulse control, and emotional regulation across work, relationships, and daily life.

Our Treatment Approach

Our clinical team delivers ART alongside other evidence-based trauma-focused approaches — Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing Therapy, EMDR-aligned work — with the specific protocol matched to the individual’s presentation, trauma history, and treatment history. Every treatment plan is built and led by our Clinical Director, with medical oversight from our Medical Director.

How ART Works Clinically

ART operates through a specific protocol combining elements from several evidence-based trauma therapies. The person holds the trauma memory in working memory while the clinician guides smooth, side-to-side eye movements similar to EMDR — the bilateral stimulation appears to facilitate the brain’s natural reprocessing capacity. The voluntary image-replacement component then allows the person to actively choose to replace disturbing imagery with neutral or positive imagery. The factual memory remains, but the emotional and physiological charge typically reduces or resolves. The protocol is structured and reproducible across clinicians trained in ART.

Why ART Often Works Faster Than PE or CPT

Standard trauma-focused therapies — Prolonged Exposure, Cognitive Processing Therapy — typically require 12-16 sessions to produce significant symptom change. ART often produces meaningful resolution in 1-5 sessions. The mechanism is not fully understood, but the combination of bilateral stimulation, voluntary image replacement, and the structured protocol appears to engage the brain’s reprocessing systems more efficiently than the cognitive restructuring or extended exposure approaches alone. This makes ART particularly valuable in residential settings where multiple trauma memories can be addressed within the 30-day window.

ART at Sacramento Mental Health

Treatment begins with the comprehensive assessment — identifying the trauma history, mapping the symptom picture, and determining the appropriate trauma-focused approach (ART, PE, CPT, EMDR-aligned, or combination). For adults with significant trauma history, our clinical team often uses ART to address specific trauma memories during the residential stay, integrated with the broader treatment work for the primary diagnosis. Discharge planning includes coordination with outpatient trauma-focused therapy for continued work after residential.

When ART-Inclusive Residential Treatment Is the Right Step

ART is integrated alongside other trauma-focused approaches in our residential program. Adults whose primary need is residential mental health treatment benefit from ART being available within the treatment options.

PTSD requiring trauma-focused therapy
Complex PTSD with multiple trauma memories to address
Depression or anxiety with significant trauma history
Prolonged grief or traumatic loss
Adults for whom typical PE or CPT course isn’t feasible
Adults who have started but not completed previous trauma-focused therapy

Explore Treatment Approaches

Trauma-Informed Therapy

Trauma-informed therapy creates the safety and structure needed to address post-traumatic stress, complex trauma, and related conditions.

Relapse Prevention

Relapse prevention focuses on identifying triggers, building coping strategies, and maintaining long-term recovery after intensive treatment.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy supports deeper work on the patterns underneath mental health symptoms through individual and group sessions.

Motivational Interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a client-centered approach that helps resolve ambivalence about behavioral change, often used in substance use treatment.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

Mindfulness-based stress reduction trains attention and present-moment awareness as a counterweight to anxious rumination.

Life Skills

Life skills programming supports adults in rebuilding routines, executive function, and daily-living competencies that mental health symptoms have disrupted.

Holistic Therapy

Holistic therapy supports nervous-system regulation alongside clinical work through yoga, music, movement, and mindfulness practices.

Family Program

Family programming supports family members through education, communication coaching, and structured sessions during a loved one's residential treatment.

Exposure and Response Prevention

Exposure and response prevention is the gold-standard treatment for OCD — gradually exposing the individual to feared situations while preventing the compulsive response.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy combines cognitive techniques with mindfulness skills to support emotion regulation and distress tolerance.

Comprehensive Assessment

Comprehensive assessment identifies the specific mental health conditions, co-occurring concerns, and treatment history needed to build a personalized care plan.

Behavior Modification

Behavior modification uses structured techniques to identify, replace, and reinforce behavioral patterns affecting mental health and daily functioning.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy focuses on values-driven action rather than fighting difficult thoughts and feelings head-on.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy

Accelerated resolution therapy uses eye movements and imagery techniques to help process traumatic memories — often achieving results in fewer sessions than EMDR.

Why Choose the Mental Health Treatment and Stabilization Center of Sacramento

Choosing where to admit yourself or a family member for residential trauma-focused treatment is a particularly consequential decision because effective trauma work requires specific clinical training and the willingness to deliver evidence-based protocols rather than generic trauma discussion. The right program needs clinicians trained in ART alongside the other gold-standard trauma-focused approaches (PE, CPT, EMDR-aligned), the broader trauma-informed framework that supports all trauma work, and the willingness to match the modality to the presentation rather than applying one approach uniformly. Here is what makes our Roseville program the right fit for adults benefiting from ART-inclusive trauma care across Greater Sacramento and Placer County.

ART-Trained Clinical Team

Our clinical team is trained in ART alongside other evidence-based trauma-focused therapies — so the protocol matches the presentation rather than being applied generically.

Multiple Trauma Memories Addressable in One Residential Stay

The pace of ART’s symptom resolution often makes it possible to address multiple trauma memories during a 30-day residential stay rather than across years of outpatient work.

Integrated Trauma-Informed Approach

ART is delivered within the broader trauma-informed framework that shapes every aspect of treatment, from clinical language to environmental structure to the integration with other modalities.

Direct Provider, Not a Referral Service

We admit and treat adults directly at our Cal DSS-licensed residential facility. Families don’t have to navigate a referral chain or wait for someone else to call back. Cal DSS Facility License #315920208 reflects state-verified clinical, safety, and operational standards.

Placer County’s Residential Mental Health Home

Most residential mental health programs in Northern California are clustered in Sacramento proper. Our Roseville location gives Placer County residents — Rocklin, Lincoln, Loomis, Auburn — a residential option without a long drive across the county line.

Next Steps

Where you are in this matters. Find the path that fits where you are right now.

If you're ready to talk

A 15-minute call with our admissions team is the fastest way to get clarity. We’ll cover symptoms, fit, coverage, and timeline.

Call (916) 527-9606

If you're not sure residential treatment is right

Many people start by sitting with the question of whether residential care is the right next step. A comprehensive clinical assessment is the most reliable way to find out — it maps the diagnostic picture, severity, any co-occurring conditions, and the level of care that actually fits.

Learn how the comprehensive assessment works

If you're researching for a loved one

Bringing residential treatment into a family conversation is hard. Start by meeting the clinical team who would actually treat your loved one, and seeing how admissions handles family involvement.

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Coverage and Payment

Sacramento Mental Health works with families to make residential mental health care accessible. Call (916) 527-9606 to discuss coverage and payment options with our admissions team.

See What Our Clients are Saying

Tour Our Facility

The work described on this page happens in a real place. Our 6-bed residential facility in Roseville is built around the principle that residential mental health treatment should feel residential — not institutional. Tour the spaces where the daily clinical work, group programming, and wellness practices actually take place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Accelerated Resolution Therapy?

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an evidence-based trauma therapy developed by Laney Rosenzweig in 2008. ART combines elements of EMDR (bilateral eye movements while trauma memory is held in working memory) with a voluntary image-replacement component that allows the person to actively replace disturbing imagery with neutral or positive imagery. It produces rapid symptom resolution — often in significantly fewer sessions than Prolonged Exposure or Cognitive Processing Therapy.

What conditions does ART treat?

ART has the strongest evidence base in trauma-shaped conditions: PTSD across trauma types (single-incident, military/combat, sexual assault, interpersonal violence), complex PTSD, depression with trauma history, prolonged grief and traumatic loss, anxiety with traumatic origin, and performance or sleep issues with traumatic roots. ART is recognized by SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs.

How is ART different from EMDR?

ART and EMDR share the bilateral eye movement component while the trauma memory is held in working memory. ART differs in adding a voluntary image-replacement component — the person actively chooses to replace disturbing imagery with neutral or positive imagery. ART also typically resolves symptoms faster than EMDR (often 1-5 sessions vs EMDR's typical 8-12 sessions), uses a more structured protocol, and follows different session-by-session pacing.

Why is ART often faster than other trauma therapies?

Standard trauma-focused therapies like Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy typically require 12-16 sessions. ART often produces meaningful symptom resolution in 1-5 sessions. The combination of bilateral stimulation, voluntary image replacement, and the structured protocol appears to engage the brain's reprocessing systems more efficiently than approaches relying on cognitive restructuring or extended exposure alone. The mechanism isn't fully understood, but the clinical results are well-documented.

Does ART erase memory of the trauma?

No. The factual memory of what happened remains. ART changes the emotional and physiological charge associated with the memory — the intrusive imagery, the panic response, the body's activation when the memory surfaces — typically reducing or eliminating these without erasing the cognitive knowledge of the event. Adults completing ART describe being able to recall what happened without the previous emotional or physiological response.

When is ART the right trauma therapy?

ART is particularly valuable for adults whose schedule, treatment ambivalence, or cumulative trauma history makes the typical 12-16 session PE or CPT course difficult; for adults who have started but not completed previous trauma-focused therapy; and for residential settings where multiple trauma memories can be addressed during a 30-day stay. PE and CPT remain first-line per APA and VA/DOD guidelines, with ART increasingly used alongside them.

How long does residential trauma treatment last?

A typical residential stay at Sacramento Mental Health is around 30 days, followed by a coordinated step-down to outpatient trauma-focused therapy through another organization. The residential window allows multiple trauma memories to be addressed when ART is used, with continued outpatient work for ongoing trauma processing and the broader recovery.

How do I discuss coverage and payment for residential treatment?

Coverage for residential mental health care varies significantly by situation. The clearest first step is a brief conversation with our admissions team — they can walk through coverage and payment options specific to your circumstances. Call (916) 527-9606 to discuss.

Get Treatment for Accelerated Resolution Therapy in Sacramento, CA

If a trauma-shaped mental health condition has crossed beyond what outpatient care can hold — or if previous trauma-focused therapy hasn’t produced the expected change — residential treatment with ART and the broader trauma-focused approach is the next step worth considering. Call (916) 527-9606 to talk with our admissions team about a clinical assessment, coverage, and what residential care at our Roseville facility would look like for you or your loved one.

Medically Reviewed By

Dr. Bonnie J. Mitchell DBH, LPCC

Dr. Bonnie Mitchell is a behavioral health leader, clinician, and advocate dedicated to expanding access to compassionate, evidence-based mental health and substance use treatment. She earned her Doctor of Behavioral Health degree from Arizona State University in 2018, holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Counseling for Mental Health, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in California. Throughout her career, Dr. Mitchell has served in executive and clinical leadership roles including Executive Director, Regional Clinical Director, and C-suite behavioral health executive.

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