EMDR intensive therapy is a powerful, transformational model that allows us to create a protected, nurturing space in which to do a lot of healing in a compacted period of time.

It can sometimes be difficult to attend weekly therapy sessions for myriad reasons. Sometimes it’s as simple as, “I can block time out from work for an appointment every few months, but every WEEK? No way.” Or the thought of adding yet another weekly commitment amidst already overloaded schedules feels more overwhelming than supportive.

Sometimes the things we want to work on in therapy are so complex and painful, it feels impossible to imagine opening them again and again every week, only to close them back up so you can go back to work, parenting, life.

Sometimes you just want to feel better, fast.

In an EMDR intensive, we compact multiple sessions into one or two days, reducing the amount of time spent opening and closing multiple weekly sessions, thereby dramatically increasing the percentage of our time together spent on active therapeutic work and accelerating your progress and healing.

Benefits of the intensive model:

• Our time together is more focused. While orienting and catch up is an important part of the weekly model, it’s virtually eliminated in the intensive model. Our agenda for the day has been established ahead of time and we can get right to work.

• We can often get through a significant piece of work. While weekly EMDR requires opening and closing a piece of work over a period of weeks or months, intensives allow us the length of time needed to make dramatic progress in one intensive.

• For single event traumas that occurred during adulthood (eg car crash, traumatic childbirth), we may be able to complete the entire EMDR process in an intensive and you may not need further therapy around the issue (though I recommend everyone have some kind of follow-up therapeutic support, even if temporary).

• More time to allow deep processing. In 50 minute sessions, the clinician will sometimes use strategies to limit depth of processing if the content might be too difficult to safely close up within the limits of the session (eg we hit the deepest core of our work with only 20 minutes left in session and I need to pull you back a bit so you don’t leave session with difficult content left wide open). We do not have this limitation in an intensive, as we have plenty of time to allow whatever processing needs to happen.

• In EMDR treatment, sometimes symptoms get a little worse before they get better. Making more progress in one intensive reduces this part of the treatment process.

  ***Important: None of this is to say the intensive model is better for everyone. Weekly or biweekly sessions work beautifully and can in some cases be more appropriate and supportive. Part of the purpose of doing a thorough assessment before proceeding with an intensive is developing recommendations specific to you.

  One more note: Some folks feel intimidated by the idea of doing EMDR for so long in one go. Totally understandable! EMDR can be intense. My priority as a clinician is always protecting safety and doing whatever I can to make the process feel tolerable for you (I have a lot of tricks for this). I do not see any value in pushing you into places that make you feel re-traumatized. I want you to want to do EMDR again! So while intensives are a lot of work and you will absolutely feel tired afterward, it should not be torture and my goal is you leave the intensive already feeling better.

What to expect from an EMDR intensive:

1. For new clients only, I send multiple assessments and screenings to be completed by you before we meet. While these assessments can take some time (typically no more than an hour total), they allow me some initial information to focus our initial visit. We then schedule an hour long assessment/planning appointment to get a clearer picture of history and to identify targets we will work on in the intensive. Existing clients will have already completed this and we can schedule the intensive session directly.

2. We schedule the intensive. Options for scheduling are half day (4 hours), full day (6 hours), or two days (12 hours). The session begins with practicing the grounding skills we reviewed in the first meeting to increase your sense of calm, safety and control, then the majority of the session is spent reprocessing the identified cluster of memories, emotions, cognitions and somatic experiences. I include Brainspotting and Ego-State Therapy in addition to breaks for verbal processing throughout as needed. The final fifteen to thirty minutes are spent closing the session and assessing for additional needs. Brief breaks are integrated as needed and a lunch break is included in full day sessions.

3. You follow up with me or your individual therapist for a 55 minute session within a month.

Intensive session pricing:

• Initial hour long intake: $250

• Half-day intensive (4 hours): $1,200

• Full-day intensive (6 hours): $1,800

• Two-day intensive (12 hours): $3,600

• A 50% deposit is due at time of scheduling to secure your appointment.

• The remaining 50% will be due 24 hours before your scheduled intensive.

• Sometimes you will decide the work you want to complete in that session/day is complete before the full time has been used. Payment is for the time reserved for the session regardless of whether full allotted time is used.