"My mind goes blank, talking doesn't help, I don't feel different!"

When our emotional brain is at its strongest, our reasonable mind goes offline, preventing us from connecting with others or accessing the skills, knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and perspectives stored in our wise mind. This can make it challenging for an individual to make progress in counselling and can result in long-term counselling, feelings of frustration and shame, or anger that changes aren't happening fast enough.  Additionally, working with our thinking, or reasonable mind, means we're not working with the part of the brain where the distress is stored, the emotional brain. 

This is why we are very excited about ART - a directive intervention that works with the vagus nerve. It increases a person's window of tolerance and targets distressing content, such as images, sensations, and feelings that are stored in the emotional mind. By using the process of reconsolidation, ART helps move a person to a place of calm and regulation, allowing them to access wise mind and move forward with further problem-solving or skill-building, as needed.