A.R.T.
CONSULTATIONS
Reclaim Your Nervous System
Anxiety Reframe Technique
A highly individualised therapeutic process for entrenched physiological, emotional and behavioural patterns
A.R.T. Consultations
A.R.T. works with entrenched physiological, emotional and behavioural patterns that can continue to shape a person’s life, despite a plethora of interventions.
People come to A.R.T. with a very wide range of presentations.
Some experience profound shutdown, inertia, difficulty initiating movement, reduced access to speech, sensory overwhelm or complex neurological and developmental challenges.
Others are articulate, capable and functioning well in many parts of life, yet still find themselves losing access to particular capacities under pressure — clear thought, movement, emotional steadiness, decision-making, rest, connection or choice.
While the presentation may be very different, the underlying sense is that the body is calling the shots - that there is limited choice, control and personal agency.
INITIAL CONSULTATION
ENQUIRETESTIMONIALS FROM A RANGE OF A.R.T. CLIENTS
Where the process begins
Initial Consultation
The process begins with an initial consultation with Holly.
This is an opportunity to discuss what is happening, relevant history, what you would like to change and what has already been tried.
Holly will also introduce you to the A.R.T. approach and begin observing how your body responds to the work itself.
The consultation helps establish the clinical starting point and gives Holly enough information to recommend the most appropriate way forward.
That may be:
Single Sessions - for people who wish to work more gradually or focus on particular areas.
Mini Intensive - where a shorter period of concentrated work appears appropriate.
Full A.R.T. Intensive - where greater continuity and depth are likely to be valuable.
Holly will guide you as clearly as possible about what she believes would be useful. The decision remains yours.
The initial consultation is a standalone appointment and is separate from the eight sessions of a full Intensive.
ENQUIRE
A.R.T. Intensive
A contained period of deep therapeutic work
An A.R.T. Intensive is the most comprehensive way of working individually with Holly.
It is designed for work that benefits from
continuity, trust, close observation, time.
This matters because deeply established patterns are rarely sitting neatly on the surface waiting to be changed.
Some have been present for years. Some may have developed very early in life. Some are obvious and profoundly limiting.
Others sit underneath a person who appears highly capable, only becoming visible under particular kinds of pressure, relationship, fatigue, demand or stillness.
The Intensive gives the work enough space to move beyond what can be seen in a single appointment.
A word about the A.R.T. Intensives from Holly Bridges
The Intensive structure
A full A.R.T. Intensive consists of:
An Initial Intensive session
This establishes the foundation for the concentrated work.
By this stage Holly already has some understanding of your presentation from the preliminary consultation. This session allows her to deepen that understanding, establish the particular rhythm of the work and begin mapping where access opens, narrows or changes.
5 Consecutive daily sessions
These five days form the heart of the Intensive.
Each session develops from what happened before it.
What changes on one day can be observed again the next. Something that emerges after the session, overnight or during ordinary activity can become part of the following day’s work.
This continuity allows Holly to stay close to the process rather than repeatedly seeing isolated snapshots.
2 Follow-up sessions
The follow-up sessions take place after the concentrated phase, once there has been time to return to ordinary life.
They allow Holly to see what has carried forward, what is still changing, what has become easier to access and where further work may be useful.
Why the container matters
Holly describes the Intensive as an hermetic vessel.
A contained period in which the relationship, rhythm and environment remain sufficiently consistent for something deeper to begin revealing itself.
There is an alchemical quality to this work.
A deeply established physiological pattern cannot simply be instructed to disappear. It often needs enough trust, invitation, patience and safety for a different organisation to become possible.
Holly sometimes uses the image of an octopus deep inside a cave. You may glimpse part of it. You may know it is there.
But it is unlikely to emerge because someone reaches in and tries to pull it out. It comes closer when the conditions allow it.
Entrenched patterns can be similar.
They may reveal themselves gradually, sometimes in very subtle ways, once there is enough familiarity for the person to stop trying to perform, explain, manage or produce a particular response.
This is the space that an A.R.T. Intensive creates
A.R.T. is more than learning a series of exercises
A.R.T. uses physical and sensory practices, but the therapeutic work is not simply the performance of those practices.
The practices are the medium.
The deeper work lies in:
- what is selected
- when it is introduced
- how much is used
- what changes
- what resists
- what becomes newly accessible
- what disappears again
- what can be tolerated
- and what the person’s response suggests should happen next
Holly may be observing changes in movement, speech, breathing, attention, sensory experience, emotional response, initiation, fatigue, stillness, interoception, engagement and recovery.
These elements do not necessarily change together.
A person may become more settled physically while remaining mentally alert.
Speech may become easier while a previously unnoticed area of tension appears.
A small change during the session may become much more significant several hours later.
The work develops through this observation.
A.R.T. is highly responsive, relational and individual
Why five consecutive days?
Because the deeper patterns need continuity
Single sessions can be useful and meaningful. They do not, however, create the same therapeutic conditions.
With time between appointments, the person returns fully to ordinary life and familiar patterns. Something that had just begun to emerge may become less accessible again.
Across five consecutive days, the process remains much closer. Trust has time to accumulate. The body becomes increasingly familiar with the work.
Holly becomes increasingly familiar with the person. And there is greater capacity to follow a pattern far enough for something usually hidden to become visible.
Testimonials
"Everything changed when he began your A.R.T. Intensive program. From the very first day, he was engaged - he never complained or asked to stop. The difference was immediate and profound."
"Greater willingness to engage in communication with others, less avoidant, longer sentences, more fluid speech, less stuttering, significantly more eye contact, and faster response time."
"I feel more confident about his future after this experience."
"He literally skips into school"
"It was absolutely magical. I have never seen him so still!"
“I feel like I am in my body for the first time. This has changed my life.”
Will one Intensive be enough?
Sometimes.
For some people, one Intensive creates a substantial shift and gives them enough access, understanding and practical tools to continue independently.
For others, particularly where patterns are longstanding, layered or connected with complex developmental, neurological or physiological histories, further work can be useful.
An Intensive may open an important piece of work without completing every aspect of it.
Another layer may become accessible later.
A particular area may need further consolidation.
Or the person may return months later because life has changed and they are ready to work with something that was previously out of reach.
There is no predetermined number of Intensives.
Holly will be clear about what she is observing and whether she believes further work may be useful.
A.R.T. INTENSIVE
The fee covers the complete eight-session Intensive:
1 x Initial Intensive session
5 x Consecutive daily sessions
2 x Follow-up sessions
It also reflects the work surrounding those appointments: close clinical attention across the process, individual mapping and planning, consideration of what emerges between sessions, and continual adaptation as the clinical picture changes.
An Intensive is therefore not the equivalent of purchasing eight separate appointments.
You are entering a different depth of therapeutic work.
The container itself is part of that work.
LEARN MORE
Mini Intensives
ENQUIREx 3 days
Mini Intensives are offered at Holly’s discretion.
They may be appropriate when someone would benefit from consecutive work but is unable to undertake a full Intensive.
They are also sometimes used with existing clients who have already established a foundation with Holly and would benefit from returning to a shorter period of concentrated work.
A Mini Intensive is not simply a smaller or cheaper version of the full Intensive.
Its structure is determined according to the individual, what has already been established and what the next piece of work appears to require.
Single Sessions
AUD $350
ENQUIREx 1.5 hours
Single sessions remain available for people who prefer to work more gradually, who want focused support, or who are not in a position to undertake an Intensive.
They can be used to work with a particular issue, learn or refine A.R.T. practices, review changes or continue therapeutic work over time.
Some people choose this format because it is what is financially or practically possible for them.
That choice is respected.
The main difference is the depth of container.
With occasional appointments there is less opportunity to remain continuously alongside a pattern as it unfolds, and therefore less capacity to deepen into some of the more hidden or entrenched material.
For some people, that pace is entirely appropriate.
For others, Holly may recommend an Intensive because the continuity itself is clinically important.
Not sure what you need?
You do not need to decide that before you begin.
The first step is an initial consultation.
Holly will take the time to understand what is happening, introduce you to the work and give you a clear recommendation about the options she believes are most appropriate.
You can then decide what feels right for you.
Connected Presence · Patience · Relationship · Safety · Choice
BOOK A SESSION
Anxiety Reframe Technique / A.R.T.
FREE WELCOME GIFT
Sign up to Holly's newsletter
and get immediate access to:
A.R.T. POLYVAGAL - DIGITAL FLIPCHART
'A clear and accessible explanation of the Polyvagal Theory, brought to life with Holly Bridges’ signature stick figures and playful, body-wise illustrations'
Disclaimer