Can you do ART without talking about the trauma?

Yes. In Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) you do not have to describe your trauma to the therapist. The developer’s organization says clients “don’t need to talk to the therapist about any details of the trauma” and “can choose whether or not to share their most distressing memories.” What you do still have to do is bring the memory to mind briefly during the eye-movement sets. Not saying it is different from not thinking about it.

For some people, this is the fact that decides whether they start therapy at all. So it is worth being precise about what it means.

What “no need to talk about it” actually means

In ART, the recall happens in your head. Researchers describe it as recalling the event “verbally or non-verbally” for a short period of about 30 to 45 seconds, while noticing the sensations, thoughts and emotions that come with it (Kip et al. 2014). You can keep every detail private. The clinician works from what you report about your body and your distress level, not from a spoken account.

Researchers linked to ART’s development list “no requirement for narration” among its features (Kip & Diamond 2018), and the only systematic review of ART notes that the client “does not need to talk about their traumatic experiences with the therapist” (Storey et al. 2024).

Why it matters

• Shame and privacy. Some experiences are hard to say to anyone, including a therapist. Not having to describe them removes one barrier.
• Not re-traumatizing the listener, or yourself. Some people worry about what saying it out loud will do to them. Others worry about burdening the person hearing it.
• Things you cannot yet put into words. Some memories are more images and sensations than sentences. ART works with what you notice, not with how well you can narrate it.
• Work that involves confidential material. People in the military, law enforcement and similar roles sometimes carry memories they are not free to describe in detail.

You are also welcome to talk about it if you want to. Some people find they want to say more as sessions go on. That is your choice, not a requirement either way.

ART is not the only option that works this way

It would be misleading to present “no need to talk about it” as unique to ART. The VA says of EMDR: “in most cases you will not be asked to talk about the details of your trauma. But you will be asked to think about your trauma in session” (VA, EMDR). EMDR has much stronger guideline support than ART for PTSD.

Other well-supported therapies handle it differently. In cognitive processing therapy, writing a detailed account of the trauma is optional. In written exposure therapy you write about the trauma in detail but do not have to say it aloud. Prolonged exposure, by contrast, does involve describing the trauma aloud in detail. The trauma therapies compared page sets these side by side.

What you do still need to share

Not describing the trauma is not the same as saying nothing. For the work to be safe and useful, your clinician needs some information:

• A rough label for the memory. Something like “the accident” or “what happened in 2019” is enough, so you both know which memory you are working on.
• Your distress rating. A number on a 10-point scale, starting with a baseline at the beginning of the session.
• What you notice in your body. Tightness, heat, nausea, a racing heart. This is what guides the eye-movement sets.
• Whether the image has changed. During the replacement step, you say whether the new scene is holding and whether the original picture still comes back.
• Your health and history. At the assessment: eye problems, heart or breathing conditions, migraines, head injury, current medications and alcohol or drug use. The developer’s organization lists these among the things a clinician should consider before ART (Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery).
• Whether you are safe now. If the trauma is ongoing, or you are having thoughts of harming yourself, that needs to be said. It changes what the first priority is.

None of that requires telling the story. It is closer to a pilot reporting instrument readings than to a confession.

How this works with me

I am trained in ART and in EMDR, and in both I work without requiring a detailed account. If you would rather keep the details private, say so at the start and I will work around it. If there are things you want to tell me later, that door stays open. Read what the first appointment covers or get started.