EMDR vs. ART: Which Trauma Therapy Is Right for Partner Betrayal?
TL;DR: Both EMDR and ART are evidence-based trauma therapies that use eye movements to help your brain reprocess painful memories. EMDR has been around longer and has more research behind it. But ART was specifically designed to work faster, and the research so far suggests it does. ART typically resolves trauma in 1-5 sessions compared to EMDR’s 6-12, and includes a technique for replacing the disturbing mental images that haunt betrayal trauma survivors. For partner betrayal specifically, ART has some real advantages, especially if you don’t want to describe what happened out loud, you’re dealing with unwanted images (real ones, or ones your brain made up), or you need to heal quickly for work, legal proceedings, or major life decisions.
If you’ve started researching trauma therapy, you’ve probably come across two names: EMDR and ART. Maybe your therapist mentioned one, or you saw them recommended in a support group, or you’ve been Googling at 2am trying to figure out what will help.
Both are legitimate, evidence-based treatments for trauma. Both use eye movements. Both can work remarkably fast compared to traditional talk therapy. But they’re not identical, and understanding the differences can help you make an informed choice.
Here’s what you need to know.
What These Therapies Do
Before we compare them, let’s be clear about what we’re talking about.
Traditional talk therapy works primarily with your conscious mind. You discuss what happened, explore your feelings, develop insight into your patterns, and build coping strategies. This can be valuable to an extent, but trauma isn’t stored in your conscious mind.
Trauma gets “stuck” in your nervous system, in parts of your brain that don’t respond well to logic or conversation.¹ That’s why you can know you’re safe and still feel terrified. Why you can understand that your partner's phone buzzing isn’t a threat, but your body goes into high alert anyway. Why you can talk about what happened for months and still have nightmares.
Both EMDR and ART work differently. They use eye movements to help your brain reprocess the traumatic memory at a deeper level, changing how betrayal trauma is stored so that it stops triggering that alarm-bell response.
The goal isn't to forget what happened. You'll still remember it. But the memory becomes something that happened in the past, not something your body treats like it's happening right now.
EMDR
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It was developed by Francine Shapiro in 1987 and has been extensively researched ever since.² It’s recommended by the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association, the VA, and numerous other organizations as a front-line treatment for PTSD.
How it works:
You hold a disturbing memory in mind while following the therapist's fingers (or another form of bilateral stimulation like tapping or sounds) back and forth. As you do this, your mind naturally starts making connections, linking the traumatic memory to other memories, insights, and more adaptive information.
The therapist doesn't direct where your mind goes. Instead, they create the conditions for your brain to do its own healing, checking in periodically to see what's coming up and guiding you back if you get stuck.
EMDR follows an eight-phase protocol that includes:
History-taking and treatment planning
Preparing you with coping skills
Identifying the specific memories to target
Processing those memories with eye movements
Strengthening positive beliefs about yourself
Checking for any remaining body sensations
Closure and stabilization
Re-evaluation in future sessions
What the research shows:
EMDR has the most extensive research base of any trauma therapy. Meta-analyses consistently show it’s highly effective for PTSD, with results comparable to other evidence-based trauma treatments.³
Some striking findings:
Up to 90% of single-trauma victims no longer had PTSD after just 3 sessions (90 minutes each)⁴
100% of single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple-trauma victims no longer met PTSD criteria after 6 sessions⁵
77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD after 12 sessions⁶
A typical course of EMDR runs 6-12 sessions, though it can be shorter for single-incident trauma or longer for complex trauma.⁷
ART: Designed to Be Faster, And It Is
ART stands for Accelerated Resolution Therapy. It was developed by Laney Rosenzweig in 2008, building on EMDR but with a specific goal: make trauma therapy faster, more efficient, and easier on both client and therapist.⁸
In 2015, SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) recognized ART as an evidence-based treatment for trauma, depression, and related conditions.⁹
How it works:
Like EMDR, you follow eye movements while holding the traumatic memory in mind. But ART differs in some key ways that make it faster and, for many people, easier:
It’s more structured and directive than EMDR. ART uses a set number of eye movements (typically sets of 40) and a specific protocol. You don’t free-associate; you stay focused on the target memory until it's resolved. This keeps sessions efficient and prevents the process from meandering.
Voluntary Image Replacement. This is ART’s signature technique and it’s a game-changer for betrayal trauma. After processing the distressing images, you're guided to replace them with images you choose.¹⁰ The facts stay the same, but the mental picture changes. For example, those intrusive images of your partner with someone else can be replaced with something positive or empowering. The memory remains, but the images that have been torturing you are gone.
You don’t have to describe the trauma out loud. The therapist doesn’t need to know the details.¹¹ You process internally while they guide you through the protocol. EMDR also doesn’t require detailed narration, but the therapist checks in periodically during processing (“What do you notice?”) and you share at least something: an emotion, a body sensation, a brief description. But with ART, the therapist can guide the entire protocol without knowing anything about what you’re seeing or processing. For betrayal trauma, where the details are often painful, humiliating, or just too private to share, this difference matters.
It’s genuinely faster. This is what the research shows.
What the research shows:
ART has a smaller but impressive research base. The studies consistently show rapid results:
79% of people with PTSD no longer met diagnostic criteria after an average of just 3.8 sessions¹²
In a randomized controlled trial with veterans, ART showed a 61% response rate, comparable to established treatments, but with a 94% completion rate¹³
That completion rate is striking. For context, “standard” trauma treatments like Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure have completion rates of only 60-65%.¹³
That means a third of people drop out before they get better. With ART, almost everyone finishes.
Why? Probably because it’s faster and less grueling. You’re not spending months in treatment. You’re not doing extensive homework between sessions. You’re not narrating your trauma repeatedly.
The average ART treatment is just 3.7 sessions, and up to 83% of people who drop out of other trauma therapies do so before their fifth session.¹³ With ART, most people are done by then.
Here’s the most striking finding: In one study, researchers looked at people who had already tried and failed other trauma treatments — CPT, Prolonged Exposure, the gold standards. 88% of them responded to ART, with large improvement scores.¹⁴
In other words: if other trauma therapy hasn’t worked for you, ART might.
The research is still catching up to the clinical experience. Most ART studies have been conducted by one research team, and there haven’t been head-to-head trials directly comparing ART to EMDR.¹⁵
But the pattern in the data is consistent: ART achieves similar results to established treatments, in fewer sessions, with fewer dropouts.
The Big Differences
| EMDR | ART | |
|---|---|---|
| Developed | 1987 | 2008 |
| Typical sessions needed | 6-12 | 1-5 |
| Session length | 60-90 minutes | 60 minutes |
| Approach | Free-association; follows where your mind goes | Structured protocol; stays focused on target |
| Image replacement | Not a specific component | Core technique (Voluntary Image Replacement) |
| Verbal processing | Check-ins during processing; you share something brief | Minimal; therapist can guide without knowing content |
| Research base | Extensive (40+ years, hundreds of studies) | Growing (15+ years, smaller but promising) |
| Availability | More therapists trained | Fewer therapists trained |
What It Feels Like
Understanding the technical differences is one thing. But what’s it actually like to sit in the chair?
With EMDR:
You’ll recall the traumatic memory while watching the therapist’s fingers move back and forth (or feeling alternating taps, or hearing alternating sounds).
Your mind will start making connections; you might suddenly remember something from childhood, or have a new thought about what happened, or notice a shift in how you feel.
The therapist periodically checks in: “What do you notice now?” You share briefly, then continue. Over time, the memory loses its charge. What felt like a 10 out of 10 in distress might drop to a 2 or 1.
Some people describe it as watching a movie that gradually becomes less vivid and emotionally gripping.
With ART:
You’ll hold the memory in mind, often visualizing it like a scene, while following the therapist's hand movements.
The therapist guides you through specific steps: processing the images, the physical sensations, the emotions.
Then comes the image replacement: you're asked to imagine how you'd like the scene to look, and you “install” that new image using more eye movements.
You leave the session with the facts intact but the disturbing images replaced by ones you chose.
Some people describe it as editing a mental movie: keeping the storyline but changing the pictures.
Why “Quick” Doesn’t Mean “Superficial”
Here’s something important: if the idea of resolving trauma in 1-5 sessions sounds too good to be true, I understand the skepticism.
We’ve been culturally trained to believe that healing takes years, that suffering is part of the process, that quick results must be fake.
But speed doesn't mean superficial. Here’s why these therapies can work faster than traditional talk therapy: they’re working with a different part of the brain.
Talk therapy works with your prefrontal cortex; the thinking, reasoning part. But trauma is stored in the limbic system and other areas that don’t respond to logic.¹⁵
Trauma approaches like EMDR and ART work directly with how the memory is encoded, which is why they can create change that years of talking often can’t.
They’re leveraging how memory works.
When you recall an emotional memory, it briefly becomes “open” to modification; this is called memory reconsolidation.¹⁶
Eye movement therapies take advantage of this window, helping your brain update the memory with new information (like “I’m safe now”) before it gets stored again.
They’re targeting the symptom directly.
Talk therapy often works “around” the trauma: building coping skills, increasing insight, improving relationships. Valuable work, but it doesn’t necessarily change how the traumatic memory is stored. Eye movement therapies go straight to the source.
The goal isn’t to manage your triggers for the rest of your life. It’s for the triggers to stop being triggers. Not because you’ve learned to breathe through them, but because your nervous system no longer registers them as threats.
Why ART May Be Especially Well-Suited for Betrayal Trauma
Partner betrayal is a particular kind of wound. It’s not just that something terrible happened; it's that the person you trusted most, the person who was supposed to be safe, is the one who hurt you.
Jennifer Freyd’s research on betrayal trauma shows that this type of violation has unique effects on the brain and body. High-betrayal traumas predict more dissociation, more physical symptoms, and more difficulty processing than traumas that don’t involve betrayal by someone you depended on.¹⁷
This has implications for which treatment might work better:
The images are often the worst part. Betrayal trauma involves intrusive mental images: seeing your partner with someone else, imagining what happened, replaying the moment of discovery over and over.
These images can be more tormenting than the facts themselves. ART’s Voluntary Image Replacement technique directly addresses this. You can eliminate those specific images from your mind and replace them with something you choose.
EMDR doesn’t have an equivalent technique — it desensitizes you to the images but doesn’t replace them.
You may not want to describe the details. Some of what happened may feel too painful, too humiliating, or too private to say out loud.
Maybe it involves sexual details. Maybe you’re ashamed. Maybe it’s just too raw.
Neither therapy requires you to narrate your trauma in detail, but ART takes this further.
With EMDR, the therapist checks in periodically during processing and you share at least something (an emotion, a sensation, a brief mention).
With ART, you can process the entire memory without the therapist knowing anything about what you’re seeing. The protocol is explicitly designed this way.
You may need to function quickly. If you’re facing a custody battle, divorce proceedings, major career decisions, or just need to be present for your kids, etc., you might not have 3-4 months for treatment.
ART’s 1-5 session model means you can potentially resolve the acute trauma symptoms in a matter of weeks, not months. That’s what the research shows is possible.
Your nervous system needs to learn you’re safe. Both therapies help with this, but ART’s structured, efficient approach means you spend less total time activated and in distress. You get to resolution faster, which means less overall suffering through the treatment process itself.
Which One Should You Choose?
Both EMDR and ART are legitimate, evidence-based options. But they’re not identical, and for betrayal trauma specifically, ART has some meaningful advantages.
ART is likely the better choice if:
You want the fastest possible resolution (1-5 sessions vs. 6-12)
You’re dealing with intrusive images you want gone, not just dulled
You’d prefer to share as little as possible about what you’re processing
You need to function quickly for legal proceedings, custody situations, work, or your kids
You’ve tried other trauma therapy and it didn’t work
You like structured, efficient approaches and don’t want to spend months in treatment
EMDR might be preferable if:
You want the approach with the longest track record and most extensive research base
You prefer a more open, exploratory therapeutic process
You have complex trauma with many layers that might benefit from free association
ART isn’t available in your area (EMDR is more widely practiced)
You’ve tried ART and it didn't fully resolve your symptoms
The honest reality: For most people with betrayal trauma, especially those in acute distress who need to function in their lives, ART’s speed, efficiency, and image replacement technique make it a compelling first choice.
The research suggests it works as well as established treatments but gets you there faster with less suffering along the way.
That said, both approaches are vastly better than trying to talk your way through trauma for years.
Either one, with a well-trained therapist, can give you what you actually need: freedom from the symptoms that are running your life.
Some therapists are trained in both and may use elements of each, or start with one approach and transition to another based on what’s working for you.
The Bottom Line
ART's efficiency isn’t a gimmick. It’s a real advantage.
The intrusive thoughts, the hyper-vigilance, the sleepless nights, the inability to focus or feel like yourself, these can resolve. Not in years. In weeks.
The memory of what happened will stay with you. But it can become just that: a memory. Something that happened in the past. Not something you’re still living through every day.
That's what’s possible. And it’s available to you.
References
- van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score. Viking.
- Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Chen, Y. R., et al. (2014). Efficacy of EMDR for PTSD: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 9(8), e103676.
- Rothbaum, B. O. (1997). EMDR in treatment of PTSD sexual assault victims. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 61(3), 317-334.
- Marcus, S., Marquis, P., & Sakai, C. (1997). Controlled study of EMDR in an HMO setting. Psychotherapy, 34, 307-315.
- Carlson, J. G., et al. (1998). EMDR for combat-related PTSD. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 11(1), 3-24.
- National Center for PTSD. (2024). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for PTSD. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
- Rosenzweig, L. (2008). Development of Accelerated Resolution Therapy. Rosenzweig Center for Rapid Recovery.
- SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices. (2015). Accelerated Resolution Therapy.
- Kip, K. E., et al. (2014). ART: An innovative intervention for PTSD. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 20(1), 70-83.
- Waits, W., et al. (2017). Accelerated Resolution Therapy: A review. Current Psychiatry Reports, 19(3), 18.
- Kip, K. E., et al. (2012). Brief treatment of PTSD by use of ART. Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 115-134.
- Kip, K. E., et al. (2013). RCT of ART for combat-related PTSD. Military Medicine, 178(12), 1298-1309.
- Psychiatric Times. (2024). Accelerated Resolution Therapy for PTSD.
- Storey, L., et al. (2024). ART for PTSD in adults: A systematic review. PLOS Mental Health, 1(1), e0000123.
- Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the Emotional Brain. Routledge.
- Freyd, J. J., Klest, B., & Allard, C. B. (2005). Betrayal trauma. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 6(3), 83-104.