How many sessions of ART does it take?

In the published studies of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), participants received between one and five sessions, most often three or four, each lasting roughly 60 to 75 minutes. Those are research averages, mostly among people who completed treatment. Nobody can tell you how many sessions you will need before assessing you, and anyone who promises a number is guessing.

What the studies report

Why those numbers are not a promise

There are good reasons not to read “three to four sessions” as “three to four sessions for me.”

• They are averages. An average of 3.7 includes people who needed one session and people who needed five, and says nothing about which you would be.
• The studies were short by design. The protocols studied used one to five sessions, so the research cannot tell you how often people need more than that.
• Several figures count only completers. In one veteran study, 71.6% completed treatment (Pang et al. 2023). In another, completion was 52.2% among veterans in a homeless shelter and 81.9% among community veterans (Kip et al. 2016). Session averages for completers leave out everyone who stopped.
• Study participants were selected. People with some conditions were screened out or referred elsewhere. The who ART is not for page covers this.
• The evidence base is small. The only systematic review found five studies and said “more high-quality studies are needed” (Storey et al. 2024).

Why it varies from person to person

The research does not break this down in detail, so this part is clinical judgment rather than a study finding. In my experience the main things that affect the number of sessions are:

• One event or many. A single incident is a different job from years of repeated trauma. Where trauma was prolonged or repeated, it usually takes longer.
• How many distinct scenes need work. The researchers wrote that up to three scenes can be processed in a one-hour session, but some scenes take a whole session on their own.
• What else is going on. Current stress, sleep, health, substance use and whether you are safe right now all affect the pace.
• What you want from therapy. Some people come for one memory. Others want broader work once the sharpest memories have eased.

I will not quote a number of sessions before I understand your situation. After an assessment I can tell you how I would suggest starting and when we should review whether it is working.

How long each session lasts

In the studies, sessions lasted about 60 to 75 minutes (Kip et al. 2012). An ongoing Mayo Clinic grief trial uses sessions of 60 to 90 minutes (Tofthagen et al. 2025, protocol). In my practice, ART sessions often run longer than a standard 50-minute session. We agree the length in advance, so there are no surprises about when we finish.

Session length can matter for insurance. Some plans limit how long a covered psychotherapy session can be. TRICARE, for example, covers individual psychotherapy sessions up to 60 minutes outside a crisis (TRICARE Overseas Program guidelines). If you plan to use insurance, check with your plan about session length, and see the ART and insurance page.

How this compares with other therapies

ART is often described as brief. It is tempting to set its session averages against those of other trauma therapies, but that comparison is not sound: the studies involved different people, different outcome measures and different rules about how many sessions were allowed, and no published trial has compared ART head to head with cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure or EMDR. The trauma therapies compared page describes the typical course for each without ranking them on speed.

If you want to know what a sensible starting plan would look like for you, get started.