Regina Abayev, JD, LMFT · Hermosa Beach, CA
Accelerated
Resolution
Therapy
Relief that works from the first session.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy is a structured, evidence-based treatment that works by changing how the brain stores the images and physical sensations attached to distressing memories. Most clients experience meaningful relief in one to five sessions.
What Is ART
A different kind
of processing
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an evidence-based treatment developed to help people process traumatic memories, anxiety, phobias, and emotional pain at the level of the brain and body, not just through conversation. Where traditional talk therapy works through narrative and insight, ART targets how distressing experiences are physically stored, the images, sensations, and fear responses that persist long after the original event.
Many clients who come to ART in Hermosa Beach and greater Los Angeles have already done serious work in therapy. They have insight. They understand why they feel the way they do. What has not changed is the body's response. A particular situation still triggers panic. A memory still lands with the same force it always did. The emotional reactivity is still there, running beneath the thinking. ART is particularly effective for exactly this presentation: the high-functioning person who can analyze their experience clearly and still cannot move past it.
You keep the facts of what happened. You lose the painful sting attached to them.
The most distinctive feature of ART is Voluntary Image Replacement. The brain does not erase the memory. It updates how the memory is stored. What felt like living inside a recurring horror film becomes something you can look at with distance and clarity. This process is grounded in the neuroscience of memory reconsolidation — the brief window after a memory is recalled during which it can be modified before restabilizing in long-term storage.
In this practice, ART is used early in treatment when a specific incident, phobia, or trauma is creating a barrier to progress, and it is used alongside ongoing psychodynamic work when the body has not followed where the mind has already gone. For some clients, targeted ART sessions address a single issue in one to three sessions. For others, it is one tool within a longer course of work. The approach is determined by what you are dealing with and what the clinical picture requires.
How It Works
What happens
in a session
During a session, you will be asked to visualize a specific memory or stressful situation while following a series of guided eye movements. This process is believed to work similarly to what happens during REM sleep, when the eyes move naturally and the brain processes the day's experiences. The eye movements help bridge the logical and emotional parts of the brain, reducing the vividness and intensity of the stored memory while it is being recalled.
Sessions are structured. We identify together what to work on, whether that is a specific memory, a fear response, a performance block, or something more diffuse. It is common for one area to connect to another, and those threads can be addressed in the same session or returned to later. Nothing proceeds without your direction.
Identify what to work on
We identify together the specific memory, fear, or stressful situation to focus on. This could be a single event, a recurring fear response, a performance block, or accumulated stress around a particular area of your life. You do not need to narrate it in detail to begin.
Process with guided eye movements
You visualize the memory or situation while following my hand with your eyes. The eye movements facilitate processing of the physical sensations and emotional responses stored in the memory. You remain fully awake and in control. Nothing proceeds without your direction.
Voluntary Image Replacement
Once the distress has cleared, you replace the original image with one of your choosing. The memory remains intact. The visceral reaction to it does not. Most clients notice a significant shift within the session itself, and the change is durable.
Areas of Treatment
What I treat
with ART
Accelerated Resolution Therapy in Los Angeles is used to treat a wide range of presentations. These are the issues addressed most frequently in this practice.
Betrayal & Infidelity Trauma
After discovering an affair, the mind replays. The images return without warning. Talking about it helps intellectually and changes very little of the visceral experience. ART works directly on the intrusive imagery and physical activation that talk therapy struggles to touch.
Performance & Achievement Anxiety
A deal that fell through, a presentation that went badly, a public moment that did not go the way it needed to. That memory becomes the reference point anxiety keeps returning to. ART processes the stored fear so it stops running the show going forward.
Financial Anxiety & Scarcity Patterns
Fear around money that is disproportionate to the current situation often traces back to specific earlier experiences. Avoidance, risk paralysis, compulsive behavior around finances. ART works on the emotional charge underneath those patterns rather than just the behavior on the surface.
Phobias & Acute Fear Responses
Fear of flying, needles, medical procedures, specific situations. Where the fear is attached to a particular memory or experience, ART can clear it quickly. Many phobias resolve in one to three sessions.
Grief & Complicated Loss
Grief that gets stuck often involves a specific image — the end of an illness, a final conversation, a moment of rupture, or an accumulation of regret about what could have been. ART helps shift the focus from what was lost to what the relationship or experience actually held.
Workplace Trauma & Moral Injury
Being laid off. Having to let people go. Working in an environment that was hostile or demeaning. Making decisions that affected people's lives and livelihoods in ways that still sit heavily. ART addresses the emotional weight of those experiences, not just the story told about them.
Intrusive Imagery & Nightmares
Recurring dreams, unwanted images that surface during the day, the inability to stop returning mentally to a specific moment. ART works directly on the image itself, which is where these experiences live.
Body-Based Stress Symptoms
Chronic tension, a stomach that never settles, physical responses that appear in specific situations and have no clear medical explanation. When the body is carrying what the mind has not fully processed, ART can reach it.
Early Experiences Still Driving the Present
Shame, rejection, or painful experiences from earlier in life that still shape how you move through relationships, work, and the world. ART works well alongside ongoing depth work when these memories are too charged to approach through conversation alone.
A Specialized Application
ART for test
and exam anxiety
Keep the knowledge.
Lose the stress.
For candidates preparing for the Bar exam, LSAT, MCAT, and similar high-stakes assessments, ART offers a targeted, fast-acting intervention. The preparation is there. ART removes what is getting in the way of accessing it.
Why does timing matter for ART and exam prep?
ART works quickly, but the brain still needs time to fully integrate the changes. The neurological rewrite that happens in session continues to settle over the following nights of sleep. Doing a session three to seven days before an exam gives the brain enough time to consolidate the new, neutralized response before the exam date arrives.
That window also gives you a chance to test the changes in real time. In the days after a session, most clients notice that the situations that previously triggered panic — opening a study guide, thinking about the clock — no longer fire the same alarm. That observation builds genuine confidence before walking into the room.
What is the ideal session schedule before a major exam?
The recommended schedule is two sessions:
- First session: one to two weeks before the exam. This addresses the primary fear response and any underlying memories driving it.
- Second session: three to four days before the exam. This reinforces the new state and addresses anything that surfaced after the first session.
This timing ensures the neurological changes have had time to integrate while keeping the work fresh enough to be fully active on exam day.
Why not do a session the night before?
Two reasons. First, some people feel a heavy sense of relaxation immediately after a session. That is a normal part of processing, but it is not a state you want going into complex recall. Second, the night before an exam is already high-adrenaline. You want to walk in having already experienced your new, calm state for several days, not encountering it for the first time in a high-stakes environment.
The goal is to arrive at the exam having already noticed that the old triggers are no longer firing. That real-time evidence is what makes the difference.
What does an ART session for test anxiety actually target?
We do not talk about the test in the abstract. We find the specific images driving the anxiety: sitting at the desk, seeing a question you do not recognize, watching the clock. We identify the physical response that accompanies those images and process it directly using eye movements.
Voluntary Image Replacement then replaces the image of freezing or blanking with an image of staying focused and methodical. By the time you sit for the actual exam, the brain perceives the environment as a familiar, neutral task rather than a threat.
It is also common for test anxiety to connect to earlier experiences — a specific failure, a parent's criticism, a childhood moment of public shame. When that comes up, we address it in the same session or return to it, depending on what the work requires.
Does ART work for general performance anxiety, not just exams?
Yes. The same approach applies to presentations, depositions, board meetings, pitches, or any high-stakes situation where anxiety is interfering with access to preparation and skill. The target changes. The process is the same.
What to Expect
The practical
details
ART does not require you to narrate your experience in detail. If there are things you prefer to keep private, you can process them internally while the eye movements are guided. You share only the general situation and whatever physical sensations arise.
ART works as a standalone treatment or alongside ongoing depth work. For clients already in longer-term therapy, it is frequently brought in to address specific memories or fear responses that have been resistant to a purely conversational approach. The two work well together.
ART sessions are available in-person in Hermosa Beach and via telehealth throughout California.
Common Questions
Frequently asked
questions
Will I lose the memory entirely?
No. ART does not erase memories. What changes is the emotional charge attached to them. Clients describe it as going from living inside a horror movie to being able to look at a photograph of what happened. The knowledge stays. The visceral sting of it goes.
Do I have to tell you what happened?
No. You process the memory privately, in your own mind, while I guide the eye movements. You only need to share the general situation and whatever physical sensations come up. Many clients who have talked their trauma to death in previous therapy find this the most significant part of how ART works differently.
What if I am not a visual person?
The brain processes images constantly, whether or not you consciously experience yourself as visual. A vague sense of something, a feeling in the chest, a general impression — that is enough for the work to proceed. You do not need a clear picture. You need to be present, and I will guide the rest.
How can one session fix years of pain?
It does not fix years of pain. It processes the specific memory or fear that has been keeping that pain active. Think of it as removing a splinter that has been causing an infection. The relief is fast because we are addressing the source directly rather than managing the symptoms around it.
Will I feel exhausted afterward?
Some clients feel a kind of heavy relaxation after a session, particularly after processing something significant. Most report feeling lighter overall. You can drive home and return to your day.
Is this the same as hypnosis?
No. You are fully awake, aware, and in control throughout. You can pause or stop the eye movements at any point. Nothing happens without your direction. ART is not hypnosis and does not involve any altered state of consciousness.
How is ART different from EMDR?
Both use eye movements and draw on similar neuroscience. The key difference is in structure and focus. EMDR uses a more free-associative approach that can leave a session incomplete if strong emotions arise. ART keeps attention on the physical sensations throughout, which makes it more contained and typically faster. Clients who have found EMDR too activating or have stalled in it often do well with ART.
How We Work Together
Three ways to
engage with ART
ART is flexible in how it fits into your life and your existing work. Depending on what you are dealing with and how you want to approach it, there are three formats available.
Client Experiences
In their
own words
Ready when
you are
The goal of ART is straightforward: keep the knowledge of what happened, lose the pain attached to it. If that sounds like what you have been looking for, schedule a consultation to discuss whether it is the right fit.