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Trauma, Lost Desire, and ART: A Breakthrough Therapy with Brooke Bralove
Description
Trauma shows up in unexpected ways. Chronic pelvic pain. Lost desire. The inability to tolerate a pelvic exam.
These aren't always about what happened last week sometimes they're about what happened decades ago. In this episode, I talk with Brooke Bralove, a psychotherapist and sex therapist, about Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) a treatment that works differently than traditional talk therapy.
Instead of processing trauma over years, ART can resolve it in 1-5 sessions using rapid eye movement and image replacement. Brooke walks through what actually happens in an ART session and shares patient stories showing how the therapy works on pelvic pain, OCD, and birth trauma. We also talk about desire in long-term relationships and what it takes to rebuild intimacy when spontaneous desire is no longer part of the picture.
Highlights
- ART (Accelerated Resolution Therapy) can resolve trauma in 1-5 sessions using rapid eye movement and image replacement instead of years of talk therapy.
- Childhood trauma often shows up decades later as chronic pelvic pain, sexual pain, or the inability to tolerate intimacy.
- Birth trauma and medical trauma can be processed with ART without having to relive the experience over and over.
- In long-term relationships, you may need to grieve the loss of spontaneous desire before you can build responsive desire.
- Masturbation is often the most important homework in sex therapy because understanding your own body is essential to communicating what you need.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. As we keep learning more about trauma and midlife, we find that we're all dealing with some kind of struggle. By continuing this show, it's my way of helping you learn and find answers.
My goal is to help more women in midlife and women with sexual dysfunction. If you've been enjoying this podcast, please subscribe so that more people can find us.
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