Can Accelerated Resolution Therapy Reduce Work Stress and Burnout?
Understanding Work Stress and Burnout
The modern workplace is fast-paced, demanding, and often unforgiving. Employees across industries—corporate leaders, healthcare professionals, educators, and frontline workers—face increasing levels of stress. When left unmanaged, chronic stress can progress into burnout, a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion that impacts productivity, health, and quality of life.
Burnout is not simply “being tired.” It involves a deeper sense of depletion, loss of motivation, and emotional detachment. The World Health Organization officially recognizes burnout as an occupational phenomenon, emphasizing its significance in today’s world. It often manifests through symptoms such as difficulty concentrating, persistent fatigue, cynicism, and reduced performance at work.
Traditional stress management approaches, such as mindfulness, therapy, and workplace wellness programs, can help. However, for many people, the unresolved emotional strain and underlying trauma related to workplace stress remain unaddressed. This is where Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) can provide unique benefits.
What is Accelerated Resolution Therapy?
Accelerated Resolution Therapy is a relatively new, evidence-based form of psychotherapy designed to bring quick relief from psychological stress, trauma, and emotional pain. ART uses guided eye movements combined with imagery rescripting techniques, allowing individuals to reprocess stressful or traumatic memories in a safe and effective way.
Unlike traditional therapy that may require months or years of work, ART often delivers significant relief in just a few sessions. Clients remain fully aware and in control, but the therapy helps reframe distressing memories and reduce the emotional charge associated with them. The memory remains, but the pain tied to it softens, allowing space for new, healthier emotional responses.
For individuals struggling with work-related stress and burnout, ART can shift how the brain processes overwhelming pressures, giving them a chance to recover more fully and return to work with renewed resilience.
How Work Stress Becomes Stored in the Body and Mind
Stress is not just a mental experience—it is stored within the nervous system and body. When someone faces chronic workplace pressure, the body remains in a heightened state of alert. Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline flood the system, preparing the body for survival rather than balance.
Over time, this state of hyperactivation wears down the mind and body. Stressful workplace experiences—such as a difficult boss, unrealistic deadlines, or a toxic organizational culture—can create “stuck” responses in the brain. Even when the stressful situation has passed, the nervous system may continue to react as though the threat is still present.
This is one reason why burnout can feel so hard to escape. The brain and body are locked into a stress cycle, unable to regulate back to calm. ART helps disrupt this cycle by reprocessing stressful memories and allowing the nervous system to reset.
How ART Helps Reduce Work Stress
ART is especially effective for reducing work stress because it targets both the cognitive and physiological aspects of stress responses. Here’s how:
Rescripting stressful experiences: Employees often replay difficult workplace moments, such as conflicts, mistakes, or high-pressure events. ART allows clients to reimagine these experiences in a way that removes the emotional intensity while retaining the memory.
Reducing physical symptoms: Stress often comes with headaches, muscle tension, and insomnia. ART calms the nervous system, which can lead to reductions in physical stress symptoms.
Increasing clarity and focus: Chronic stress fogs the brain and makes it harder to concentrate. ART helps clear mental clutter, making it easier to focus and perform at work.
Restoring emotional resilience: When stress no longer feels overwhelming, individuals regain a sense of balance and emotional stability.
The beauty of ART is that it does not require individuals to talk through every detail of their stress. Instead, it provides a safe and efficient way to process and move forward.
ART for Burnout Recovery
Burnout goes beyond daily stress. It is the cumulative effect of prolonged workplace strain, often coupled with a sense of helplessness. Once burnout sets in, traditional advice like “take a vacation” or “practice self-care” often feels insufficient. That’s because burnout affects deeper layers of identity, motivation, and emotional well-being.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy helps address burnout at its root by:
Releasing the weight of chronic stress memories that feed exhaustion and negativity.
Allowing for emotional reset, so individuals can reconnect with their sense of purpose.
Rebuilding coping capacity by helping the nervous system regulate more effectively.
Restoring motivation and hope, which are often the first casualties of burnout.
ART does not replace organizational change, but it gives individuals the inner tools to recover, adapt, and protect their mental health.
Why ART is Different from Other Stress-Reduction Methods
Workplace wellness programs often focus on surface-level solutions such as meditation breaks, yoga, or mindfulness apps. While these tools are helpful, they often fail to resolve the deeper emotional imprints of stress.
ART stands out because:
It’s fast: Relief often comes within one to five sessions.
It’s permanent: Once stressful memories are reprocessed, the relief tends to last.
It works without endless retelling: Clients do not need to recount every detail of stressful experiences.
It combines body and mind healing: ART integrates physiological calming with cognitive restructuring.
For professionals who feel they’ve “tried everything” to manage stress, ART can offer a new path forward.
ART for Professionals in High-Stress Industries
Certain industries are more prone to stress and burnout. ART has shown particular promise for professionals such as:
Healthcare workers facing high patient loads and emotional strain.
First responders managing life-or-death pressure.
Educators balancing heavy workloads with limited resources.
Corporate executives and managers navigating constant demands and responsibility.
Attorneys and financial professionals dealing with high stakes and long hours.
ART offers these professionals a way to continue their work with greater emotional stability and resilience.
Taking the First Step Toward Stress Relief
If you are experiencing work stress or burnout, know that you do not need to face it alone. Accelerated Resolution Therapy offers an innovative, research-backed solution to help you reset, recover, and thrive.
Whether you are exhausted, overwhelmed, or simply searching for a healthier balance in your professional life, ART may be the breakthrough you need. By addressing the root causes of stress and reprogramming the brain’s responses, ART helps free you from cycles of burnout and opens the door to resilience and renewed energy.
Final Thoughts
Work stress and burnout are not just part of modern work culture—they are pressing public health challenges. Left untreated, they erode mental health, relationships, and productivity. Accelerated Resolution Therapy provides an evidence-based, efficient, and hopeful way to break free from these cycles.
If you are ready to reduce work stress and recover from burnout, I invite you to take the first step today.
👉 Start your journey with Accelerated Resolution Therapy by completing my intake form here.
Peer-Reviewed Sources
American Psychological Association. (2019). Work, Stress, and Health. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
Blount, T., et al. (2014). Accelerated Resolution Therapy for treatment of pain secondary to symptoms of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Military Medicine.
Kip, K. E., et al. (2016). Evaluation of Accelerated Resolution Therapy for treatment of symptoms of PTSD in veterans. Military Medicine.
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry.
WHO. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases.