Latest / The Trauma Therapist / Guest Host: Brooke Bralove interviewing Brynn Rangel. Rapid Healing with Accelerated Resolution Therapy
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Welcome to the special guest host series of The Trauma
- 0:06Speaker 1: Therapist Podcast, where I'm going to be handing over the
- 0:09Speaker 1: mic to some incredible guest hosts. In each episode, you'll
- 0:13Speaker 1: hear fresh perspectives and unique insights to inform and inspire
- 0:17Speaker 1: you in all the while keeping the heart of this
- 0:19Speaker 1: podcast alive. So sit back and enjoy.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Welcome to The Trauma Therapist Podcast. I'm your guest host,
- 0:30Speaker 2: Brooke Braylove. I'm a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and
- 0:34Speaker 2: master Accelerated Resolution Therapy practitioner in the Washington, DC area.
- 0:40Speaker 2: My guest today is Bren Rangel, a licensed behavior analyst,
- 0:44Speaker 2: trauma resolution specialist, and coach with over twenty years of
- 0:48Speaker 2: clinical experience. Brinn offers virtual healing across all fifty states.
- 0:54Speaker 2: As a practitioner of accelerated resolution therapy, the Cortina Method,
- 0:59Speaker 2: and Acceptance and Commitment therapy. Brinn specializes in helping clients
- 1:03Speaker 2: navigate trauma, anxiety, depression, and personal growth challenges, and she
- 1:09Speaker 2: is a welcome addition to Brooke Breylipsigo Therapy. So welcome, Brinn.
- 1:15Speaker 2: So excited you're here today.
- 1:17Speaker 3: Thank you, Brooke. I'm so happy to be here as well, so.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Let's get right into it. Can you tell me what
- 1:23Speaker 2: is accelerated resolution therapy.
- 1:26Speaker 3: Accelerated resolution therapy is an evidence based treatment modality that
- 1:31Speaker 3: was designed by Lanny Rosenswag back in two thousand and seven.
- 1:36Speaker 3: Lani had attended EMDR training and thought she could take
- 1:41Speaker 3: this to the next level. And as you and I
- 1:44Speaker 3: both know, she definitely has. Art uses rapid eye movements,
- 1:50Speaker 3: bilateral stimulation, and voluntary image replacement to help create divergent
- 1:56Speaker 3: experiences in the brain and create new neural networks to
- 1:59Speaker 3: decrease any maybe unwanted or distressing symptoms that someone might
- 2:03Speaker 3: be having.
- 2:04Speaker 2: And so, why are rapid eye movements used in art?
- 2:07Speaker 2: What's the science behind that?
- 2:09Speaker 3: Absolutely so, science has shown us that this rapid eye
- 2:14Speaker 3: movement mimics what we experience in rem sleep, that moving
- 2:18Speaker 3: back and forth of the eyes, stimulating both hemispheres of
- 2:22Speaker 3: the brain. It also has a really calming effect, and
- 2:26Speaker 3: it helps people be able to access information that maybe
- 2:30Speaker 3: they otherwise may not have process out feelings and sensations.
- 2:34Speaker 3: And even some people find it so calming that they
- 2:37Speaker 3: might even get sleepy.
- 2:39Speaker 2: It's definitely happened in a few sessions, and so what
- 2:44Speaker 2: kinds of issues does our treat.
- 2:47Speaker 3: It treats a wide range of challenges that people are facing,
- 2:53Speaker 3: so best known potentially for trauma, right, big tea and
- 2:58Speaker 3: little tea, phobia, guilt, shame, anxiety, depression, basically any situation
- 3:06Speaker 3: where someone is on a consistent basis running into something
- 3:12Speaker 3: either distressing or getting in the way of the life
- 3:15Speaker 3: that they would like to be living. Art can address
- 3:18Speaker 3: things from the past, and it can also prepare and
- 3:21Speaker 3: address things for the brain for the future.
- 3:24Speaker 2: Right and tell me about you know what ages are like?
- 3:28Speaker 2: What does it work with kids? Or tell me about that.
- 3:32Speaker 3: That's such a great question, and we hear this a lot.
- 3:35Speaker 3: Does it work for kids as well as adults? It
- 3:37Speaker 3: absolutely does. It runs the gamut. We have seen research
- 3:42Speaker 3: wise that art is effective in children as young as five,
- 3:46Speaker 3: all the way up to any age you can possibly imagine.
- 3:50Speaker 3: It's actually wonderful for kids and adolescents. And the best
- 3:54Speaker 3: part is if we address these things from an early age,
- 3:57Speaker 3: then we save someone decades and decad of distress.
- 4:03Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite things is that it really
- 4:05Speaker 2: can kind of replace talk therapy in many ways. And
- 4:10Speaker 2: you know, talk therapy is amazing but sometimes I get referrals,
- 4:14Speaker 2: and I know you do from other therapists who've kind
- 4:16Speaker 2: of hit a wall with a patient and they need
- 4:19Speaker 2: to help the patient get unstuck, and so they'll send
- 4:22Speaker 2: them our way and will help them get unstuck and
- 4:25Speaker 2: then they can just continue on in their therapy if
- 4:27Speaker 2: they want. Yeah, So what actually makes ART different than
- 4:32Speaker 2: other trauma treatments.
- 4:35Speaker 3: One of the things that people need to know is
- 4:37Speaker 3: that in ART it is not a requirement to speak
- 4:41Speaker 3: any type of trauma out loud. So that's a big difference.
- 4:45Speaker 3: And we have found that when people do speak potential
- 4:48Speaker 3: trauma out loud, that that can actually create synapses in
- 4:53Speaker 3: the brain that go even deeper, get even stronger, and
- 4:57Speaker 3: create more of an issue. So the fact that people
- 4:59Speaker 3: can come and feel comfortable knowing they can share as
- 5:01Speaker 3: much or as little as they like, that is a huge, huge,
- 5:05Speaker 3: huge difference and benefits to ART itself. Other benefits and
- 5:10Speaker 3: differences with ART are that people come in and they're
- 5:16Speaker 3: able for the first time to engage in a process
- 5:21Speaker 3: where they're able to access information that is inside their
- 5:25Speaker 3: brain in a way that is not just through those
- 5:28Speaker 3: distressing type of experiences. So with again the voluntary image replacement.
- 5:35Speaker 3: Those voluntary images are positive images, so the brain gets
- 5:38Speaker 3: a chance to create a whole new experience and thus
- 5:43Speaker 3: break those distressing triggers and allow that information to calm
- 5:50Speaker 3: down and become much more accessible now in a positive way.
- 5:54Speaker 2: I know you and I both like to call ART
- 5:57Speaker 2: and R on Stairwell is yets, what are the main
- 6:00Speaker 2: differences between ARE and EMDER?
- 6:03Speaker 3: Absolutely so to my understanding, EMDR does also use rapid
- 6:09Speaker 3: eye movement or bilateral stimulation, and the difference is that
- 6:15Speaker 3: in EMDR someone does have to speak the trauma out loud,
- 6:20Speaker 3: so potentially reliving those distressing images, emotions and things at
- 6:26Speaker 3: a higher level. In addition, EMDR has that then desensitization
- 6:32Speaker 3: part of their protocol. ART does not end there. With
- 6:36Speaker 3: the voluntary image replacement and the positization that happens, not
- 6:42Speaker 3: only do those distressing images, sensations, feelings in the body
- 6:46Speaker 3: calm down, but also now we're able to get brained
- 6:52Speaker 3: to a space where it's functioning optimally. And that's a
- 6:56Speaker 3: huge difference also with ART. Every session and resolution, no
- 7:01Speaker 3: matter what step of the protocol we get to in
- 7:04Speaker 3: a visit, we're able to put a bow on it.
- 7:08Speaker 3: People walk out of the office and it is nice
- 7:11Speaker 3: and tidy for them. They're not walking out feeling raw
- 7:15Speaker 3: or feeling like something was opened and left wide open.
- 7:19Speaker 3: So those are some of the major differences.
- 7:22Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't I don't know about you, but I
- 7:24Speaker 2: get such immense joy and satisfaction from literally watching someone
- 7:32Speaker 2: go from practically having a panic attack, you know, in
- 7:35Speaker 2: my office, to just watching their whole body the get lighter,
- 7:40Speaker 2: and that smile comes, and it's it's I think it's
- 7:44Speaker 2: just incredible to watch like a real time.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Yes, yes it is.
- 7:49Speaker 2: Can you give me an example from sort of start
- 7:52Speaker 2: to finish of I don't know, one of your biggest
- 7:55Speaker 2: successes with ART a sort of specific client obviously no details,
- 8:00Speaker 2: but you know, what does what does treatment look like?
- 8:04Speaker 3: Absolutely? That's another good question. Something to mention is that
- 8:09Speaker 3: research wise, ART is found to have efficacy in as
- 8:14Speaker 3: little as one to five sessions, with that average of
- 8:18Speaker 3: about three and a half. I would say we always
- 8:22Speaker 3: expect movement, improvement and resolution in that window, and it
- 8:28Speaker 3: is incredible the amount of times that we see resolution
- 8:31Speaker 3: happen in as little as one visit. I had someone
- 8:34Speaker 3: who came to me had a trauma regarding some incident
- 8:39Speaker 3: with driving, and in one visit with using the eye
- 8:44Speaker 3: movements to watch that quote unquote old movie from the event,
- 8:49Speaker 3: process out any of the feelings and sensations associated with it,
- 8:53Speaker 3: create a new movie, one that has was positive and
- 8:56Speaker 3: created a new neuro network, and then utilize art to
- 9:01Speaker 3: then have the brain engage in future scenarios, looking ahead
- 9:05Speaker 3: to situations that they were likely to be in again
- 9:08Speaker 3: in the future. And that was all it took, and
- 9:11Speaker 3: she is happily driving down that highway on a regular
- 9:13Speaker 3: basis to and from work and everywhere else she needs
- 9:15Speaker 3: to go.
- 9:17Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say driving Koba, I think you and
- 9:20Speaker 2: I have both had a lot of success with and
- 9:22Speaker 2: it's just so great to see that, you know, they
- 9:25Speaker 2: used to you know, not be able to get in
- 9:27Speaker 2: their car, not be able to go ridge, and then
- 9:30Speaker 2: hearing from them like a week later that they've been
- 9:33Speaker 2: jetting around town in the car. So how does someone
- 9:38Speaker 2: know if they're a good candidate for her?
- 9:40Speaker 3: The criteria is nothing extreme, simply can you hold an
- 9:47Speaker 3: idea or thought? Are you able to move your eyes
- 9:50Speaker 3: back and forth? Which is ideal, But again we have
- 9:54Speaker 3: other ways of creating that bilateral simulation if needed. And
- 9:58Speaker 3: also someone who is genuinely motivated wants things to get better,
- 10:04Speaker 3: wants things to be different. Those are some of the
- 10:07Speaker 3: biggest criteria for knowing whether or not you're a good candidate.
- 10:13Speaker 2: And what do you specifically really like about using art?
- 10:17Speaker 2: Why would a therapist like to be trained in here?
- 10:22Speaker 3: Oh? Wow, so many reasons. First and foremost of course,
- 10:27Speaker 3: and we've already alluded to this, that feeling you get
- 10:31Speaker 3: watching someone transform before your eyes, watching people experience relief
- 10:36Speaker 3: for the first time, watching people find agency, especially with
- 10:40Speaker 3: those who have potentially complex, complex pts, decades and decades
- 10:46Speaker 3: worth of trauma for the first time. Saying things like
- 10:49Speaker 3: I actually got to decide, or I had control in
- 10:52Speaker 3: that situation, or I don't have to feel that way
- 10:55Speaker 3: anymore is absolutely mind blowing. So I think that's the
- 10:59Speaker 3: first thing to say. Also, the implementation of art is
- 11:04Speaker 3: a light process, and it is really amazing to be
- 11:09Speaker 3: able to help that person access the information and also
- 11:14Speaker 3: work within the feelings and sensations of the body. So
- 11:17Speaker 3: it's a really nice balance between multiple modalities brought into.
- 11:23Speaker 2: One Yeah, and what are those modalities?
- 11:27Speaker 3: Like?
- 11:27Speaker 2: What else does art pull on during the protocol because
- 11:31Speaker 2: it is a very clear protocol, which I think is
- 11:34Speaker 2: so great because it can be really predictive. So once
- 11:37Speaker 2: someone has come in for their first art session and
- 11:40Speaker 2: they come back, they've really got it. And in some ways,
- 11:44Speaker 2: I don't know if you've seen this a lot, but
- 11:45Speaker 2: people's brains predict that next step and they're sort of
- 11:49Speaker 2: often running and I'm like, wait, wait, we're not there yet.
- 11:52Speaker 3: Right right, It's really true, and isn't that amazing? Again,
- 11:57Speaker 3: it eludes the fact that we all have that healing
- 12:00Speaker 3: potential inside of us. Right when we show up as
- 12:03Speaker 3: an art practitioner, we're really the guide, but it's the
- 12:06Speaker 3: person's brain that's doing all the work. It's right there.
- 12:09Speaker 3: We're just helping them access it for the first time
- 12:12Speaker 3: or maybe in a different way. That's done through things
- 12:16Speaker 3: like memory reconsolidation, which there's lots of research on, and
- 12:20Speaker 3: also other somatic components, which again you can do lots
- 12:24Speaker 3: of research on, and bringing all those things together creates
- 12:27Speaker 3: this really powerful experience.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Can you explain on why or how a gestalt is used?
- 12:36Speaker 3: Absolutely, when we work with someone who has either had, say,
- 12:43Speaker 3: a past event or is worried about a future event,
- 12:47Speaker 3: and we have found that the route might lie in
- 12:51Speaker 3: either beliefs or experiences of themselves at a different age.
- 12:56Speaker 3: We can then use art end gassult to combine and
- 13:01Speaker 3: have the person access themselves at that other age, give
- 13:05Speaker 3: them new messages that they may not have had at
- 13:08Speaker 3: the time, and then have that learning apply forwards and
- 13:12Speaker 3: again in as little as one visit decades and decades
- 13:15Speaker 3: worth of healing. Now brain's been updated.
- 13:19Speaker 2: Yeah, I really love incorporating the stall org because that's
- 13:23Speaker 2: usually where the deepest sort of childhood trauma I think
- 13:28Speaker 2: gets resolved in really helping this adult version maybe go
- 13:34Speaker 2: back to help that younger version, or give them the
- 13:38Speaker 2: advice they wish they'd had or a better mom or
- 13:42Speaker 2: you know, something like that. And I find that that
- 13:45Speaker 2: part extremely powerful.
- 13:49Speaker 3: Yep, one hundred percent. I was just hanging out with
- 13:52Speaker 3: someone recently and we had a really really great experience
- 13:58Speaker 3: many many decades worth of trauma, childhood trauma, and using
- 14:03Speaker 3: that with art for the first time, got to say
- 14:07Speaker 3: the things that they never had a chance to say,
- 14:10Speaker 3: was able to be their own advocate, their own caregiver,
- 14:13Speaker 3: and moving forward. Light as a feather saying I had
- 14:16Speaker 3: me all along and I can take good care of
- 14:19Speaker 3: myself and I have been and I'm actually a really
- 14:22Speaker 3: nice person.
- 14:24Speaker 2: It's amazing.
- 14:25Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 14:26Speaker 2: So we've talked about how art can help specific trauma
- 14:31Speaker 2: and phobias and again depression, anxiety, you know, sleep issues, OCD,
- 14:37Speaker 2: that kind of thing. Can you explain how it works
- 14:40Speaker 2: on more mindset things like either performance anxiety or feelings
- 14:45Speaker 2: I mean of not being good enough, for feeling like
- 14:49Speaker 2: a failure. How does that work?
- 14:51Speaker 3: Mmmm? It can work a couple of different ways. So
- 14:56Speaker 3: depending on the route. Potentially some one may have had
- 15:00Speaker 3: an experience that then shaped their mindset, or maybe it's
- 15:04Speaker 3: some type of belief that was developed along the way,
- 15:07Speaker 3: again from an experience or not, maybe some messaging from
- 15:10Speaker 3: another source or maybe even within themselves. ART is able
- 15:15Speaker 3: to target those things. Doesn't have to be necessarily a
- 15:18Speaker 3: past trauma. We're able to then use art to have
- 15:21Speaker 3: brain experience potentially worst case scenario right or those beliefs
- 15:28Speaker 3: and replace them with what would actually be optimal for
- 15:33Speaker 3: that person, what's saying to themselves would be most beneficial
- 15:37Speaker 3: having them experience through their imagination right through the voluntary
- 15:42Speaker 3: image replacement. What it would be like to be successful
- 15:47Speaker 3: up on that stage or in that meeting or asking
- 15:49Speaker 3: for that raise or whatever it happens to be, and
- 15:53Speaker 3: again process how any of the feelings and emotions sensations
- 15:57Speaker 3: that are associated with what they were worried about about
- 16:00Speaker 3: and get them to that really confident place.
- 16:03Speaker 2: So, can you explain how art can be used to
- 16:07Speaker 2: treat chronic illness, chronic extress, chronic pain, and how that
- 16:13Speaker 2: relates to sort of the body brain connection.
- 16:17Speaker 3: We can no longer deny that brain body connection. We
- 16:22Speaker 3: know that those two things are tied. There is no
- 16:24Speaker 3: separating them. Whatever the brain goes through, the body goes through,
- 16:27Speaker 3: and honestly vice versa. We also know there's lots of
- 16:31Speaker 3: research already done that many chronic illnesses, physical pain, other
- 16:36Speaker 3: types of bodily symptoms are tied to emotional, psychological, physical traumas,
- 16:45Speaker 3: and so with art we often see that when we
- 16:48Speaker 3: resolve a trauma, that there's this amazing domino effect that
- 16:52Speaker 3: takes place where people see physical symptoms alleviate as well,
- 16:57Speaker 3: maybe migraines, maybe stomach aches, maybe trouble sleeping, amongst many
- 17:02Speaker 3: other things. Art can also be used to help body
- 17:06Speaker 3: create new connections and alleviate pain, chronic pain, things like that.
- 17:12Speaker 3: It's so powerful that we're able to use this tool
- 17:15Speaker 3: to tap into both brain and body.
- 17:18Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, my favorite example actually to use when
- 17:21Speaker 2: I'm describing art is that I had a woman with
- 17:25Speaker 2: chronic pelvic pain. For us, it's very debilitating, and she
- 17:32Speaker 2: needed to process some physical abuse she'd experienced as a child.
- 17:37Speaker 2: And simply by rescripting that, going through the art protocol
- 17:43Speaker 2: focused on those events, it unlocked her pulvic pain and
- 17:49Speaker 2: she was literally pain free after I think three sessions
- 17:53Speaker 2: just focused on that.
- 17:54Speaker 3: That's amazing.
- 17:55Speaker 2: She was as shocked as I was. It was sort
- 17:59Speaker 2: of early I was doing art, and I was like
- 18:02Speaker 2: so amazed, How well, really incredible.
- 18:08Speaker 3: That's wonderful.
- 18:08Speaker 2: Specific kind of population that you enjoy working with the most.
- 18:14Speaker 2: I mean, I know you work with kids.
- 18:16Speaker 3: I do. I can honestly say that I enjoy it all.
- 18:20Speaker 3: I think that for me, just given my background history,
- 18:24Speaker 3: I got my start working with victims of domestic violence
- 18:28Speaker 3: and sexual assault, and so that will always be a
- 18:31Speaker 3: really special place in my heart working with those types
- 18:35Speaker 3: of populations. And then, like you said, working with children
- 18:38Speaker 3: and adolescents is another huge area that I really really enjoy.
- 18:42Speaker 3: But honestly, every person that I come across, I think, Wow,
- 18:46Speaker 3: I can't believe that I have this opportunity to be
- 18:48Speaker 3: on this journey with this person.
- 18:51Speaker 2: Yeah, it really does feel like a gift to be
- 18:53Speaker 2: setting someone watching that profound healing so rapidly. And I
- 18:59Speaker 2: don't know about you, but often sometimes someone will you know,
- 19:04Speaker 2: have a very intrusive image of something violent, for instance,
- 19:08Speaker 2: and then a few minutes later we're able to process
- 19:11Speaker 2: that it out and they'll say to me, where did
- 19:14Speaker 2: that image go?
- 19:15Speaker 3: It's like they go looking for it.
- 19:17Speaker 2: They'll look for it really hard, and at some point
- 19:19Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, you know it's gone. You don't keep torturing.
- 19:24Speaker 2: But disbelief is amazing. And so I don't know how
- 19:29Speaker 2: you feel, but I feel like art is literally the
- 19:32Speaker 2: perfect hybrid of science and magic. No one's based in science,
- 19:39Speaker 2: but what happens when you're with a client, to me
- 19:43Speaker 2: is one hundred percent magic.
- 19:45Speaker 3: Right right, It really really is. And it's bringing together
- 19:48Speaker 3: so many components, right the brain, the science, it's also
- 19:52Speaker 3: that rapport that you build, the experience that you create
- 19:58Speaker 3: with your client. All those layers matter and Also, I
- 20:03Speaker 3: love to just think about where we're at now and
- 20:06Speaker 3: then where we're headed. Because we know a bit about
- 20:09Speaker 3: the brain, and look at what has been created from
- 20:12Speaker 3: what we know. I can't wait to find out all
- 20:14Speaker 3: the things that we don't yet know so that we
- 20:17Speaker 3: can continue to make it better and better and better.
- 20:24Speaker 2: It's okay, Well, thank you so much for being here today.
- 20:31Speaker 2: It was a lot of fun, and I'm just grateful
- 20:34Speaker 2: to you that we're on this journey together really healing
- 20:38Speaker 2: people one at a time.
- 20:40Speaker 3: It was my pleasure for Brook. Thank you so much
- 20:42Speaker 3: for having me. I love partnering with you in this capacity.
- 20:47Speaker 3: I know that we're going to continue to bring this
- 20:50Speaker 3: to as many people as we possibly can. And if
- 20:53Speaker 3: people are interested in finding us, you can visit Brooke
- 20:58Speaker 3: Braylove dot com and follow us on Instagram at Brooke
- 21:02Speaker 3: bray Love Psychotherapy and at Trauma Resolution Specialist.
- 21:09Speaker 2: And what if people if therapists are interested in getting
- 21:12Speaker 2: trained in art or you know, looking for art practitioners,
- 21:16Speaker 2: how do you do that?
- 21:17Speaker 3: Then you can visit Accelerated Resolution Therapy dot com. You
- 21:22Speaker 3: can just do a simple Google search and those websites
- 21:26Speaker 3: will take you to where you need to go, information
- 21:29Speaker 3: about trainings, how to find an art therapist in your area,
- 21:33Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera.
- 21:35Speaker 2: Great, well, thank you so much for being.
- 21:38Speaker 3: Here, thank you for having me, and.
- 21:41Speaker 2: That's it for me, your guest host on the Trauma
- 21:44Speaker 2: Therapist podcast.
- 21:46Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you.
- 22:07Speaker 1: Em commotion