A real case study of a 68-year-old woman whose memory and cognitive scores improved from severely impaired to above average after two sessions of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART).
How Trauma Hijacks Memory and Thinking
Trauma affects more than emotions and bodily reactions. It can change how the brain works. Long-term stress can leave the amygdala and the limbic system in a constant state of alarm, while reducing activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for planning and executive functioning. Cortisol and other stress hormones disrupt the hippocampus, the region where memories are filed and organized. Thoughts can grow foggy, memories can be fragmented and disorganized, and intrusive images can flash into the mind without warning.
Symptoms resulting from post-traumatic stress can mimic neurological decline. Such was the case for one 68-year-old woman following a traumatic event. After Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) helped to resolve her trauma, clarity and cognitive function came back in a way that felt like a miracle.
When Trauma Mimics Cognitive Decline
A Case Study: Cognitive Improvement After Treating Trauma
In 2024, a woman began experiencing troubling memory lapses. After leaving church, she drove familiar streets yet lost all sense of place; she stopped and rang her husband, in tears. Weeks later, she stood at a fuel pump and realized she no longer knew her own zip code. Later, she also found that her grandchildren’s names were becoming difficult to recall.
Concerned, she met with a neurologist who diagnosed her with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Over the next year and a half, she saw two neurologists, completed more than 80 tests — including MRIs, spinal taps, and memory assessments and worked closely with a cognitive therapist. Nevertheless, her symptoms persisted.
In July 2025, her neurologist offered a breakthrough insight. The doctor concluded that her memory issues were not indicative of dementia. They were PTSD’s aftereffects from a distressing event that occurred two years prior. In July 2023, as the woman sat on her porch with her husband, a car traveling at 100 mph lost control, collided with their house, and struck them both. Even though they lived, the psychological effects were severe, impairing her cognitive function.
After learning about the promising results of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), her husband scheduled a session with Laney Rosenzweig, the founder of ART, to address the underlying trauma.
In August 2025, during two sessions, the woman made an exciting discovery after her first ART session.
“The ART method seemed simple, but at the end, I was shocked at my new-found clarity. A prime example happened at the end of the session when I easily recalled the 4 descriptive adjectives that I had chosen to describe how I felt at the beginning of the session. I could not have done that before ART. I felt freer and more calm than I had for the last 18 months. My memory was back.”
Encouraged by the changes she felt, her cognitive therapist repeated the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test; the same one she had failed months earlier.
The Hopkins Verbal Learning Test Report:
Objective Cognitive Testing Results (HVLT-R)
The memory tests in the chart below compare results from February, 2025, with August, 2025. Both tests were administered by the same cognitive therapist. In February, the memory tests show mild, moderate, or severe levels of memory impairment in all areas. In late August, six months later, results transformed to average or above average in all areas.
The Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) (forms 1 and 4) were administered to assess new learning, working memory, and delayed short-term memory. The results for both charts were compared to normative data for older-aged adults between the ages of 55 and 69 years old. The female client’s data is contained in the following table (scores that are bolded and italicized are indicative of a performance >1.5 standard deviations below the mean).
“My results showed mild, moderate, or severe levels of memory impairment in all areas. In late August, 2025, I felt so much better that I asked her if I could stop seeing her. She replied, “Let’s do a follow up test.” We were both shocked and amazed—in six months, my results had transformed to average or above average in all areas!”
As she later told Laney:
“You were right. When we first talked, you said, ‘ART works!’ I totally agree.”
Laney surmised that once the trauma symptoms eased, the client’s memory function improved. Through ART’s connective process, she helped the client reduce accident-related triggers and support clearer recall.
Her story raises a compelling question: Can healing trauma actually restore or even enhance cognition?
The Memory Reset Following ART
In this woman’s case, only two ART sessions focused on distressing images were needed to yield noticeable cognitive improvement.
Six months later, her Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT) results had upgraded from “severely impaired” to “above average,” which is not something that happens very often in memory rehabilitation.
Her progress emphasizes two critical details:
- The damage wasn’t permanent. Her mental abilities were still there, but they were affected by what happened after the trauma.
- Removing the emotional weight improved her brain function. Her brain’s natural processing power returned once her nervous system was no longer hijacked.
Why ART May Support Cognitive Recovery
Studies on Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) reveal that its methodical, image-based approach not only lessens emotional distress but also enhances cognitive and attentional control.
- Imagery Reprocessing: ART uses Voluntary Image Replacement (VIR) to replace distressing images with positive ones. This has been shown to significantly decrease intrusive imagery and distress in individuals with PTSD (Kip et al., 2012; Kip et al., 2016).
- Reduced Hyperarousal: Clinical trials demonstrate that ART resulted in reductions in physiological arousal and PTSD symptom severity within 1–5 sessions, indicating a direct calming effect on the nervous system (Kip et al., 2013; Tofani & Wheeler, 2021).
What this may indicate:
A 2022 systematic review in Frontiers in Psychology found that trauma-focused psychological interventions can actually improve cognitive functioning and memory in people with PTSD, suggesting that when trauma is resolved, clarity and mental capacity often follow (Susanty et al., 2022).
In other words, ART can help calm the nervous system, allowing the brain to think, focus, and remember the way it was always meant to. The mind isn’t always losing its ability to think; sometimes it’s just protecting itself. In this case, Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) helped make that change possible by calming the emotional noise of trauma and letting the brain get back to being clear, focused, and calm.