EMDR INTENSIVES
A More Concentrated Approach to Therapy—In Less Time
EMDR Intensives provide extended, dedicated time for therapy, allowing more of the work to take place within a concentrated timeframe rather than being divided into traditional weekly sessions.
Whether there is a specific experience you want to address, a longstanding pattern you are ready to work with, or simply a period of time when you are able to prioritize therapy, your intensive is thoughtfully structured around your needs, goals, and readiness.
WHEN AN INTENSIVE MAY BE A GOOD FIT
More Time for the Work, Without Waiting Until Next Week
In traditional weekly therapy, meaningful work sometimes has to pause because the session is ending. An EMDR Intensive provides a longer, dedicated block of time, allowing space for preparation, focused therapeutic work, and integration within the same session.
This format may be especially helpful if you:
Have a specific experience, memory, or concern you want to focus on
Feel ready to dedicate concentrated time to something you have been working through
Have already been in therapy and want focused time to address a particular area
Have a schedule that makes weekly therapy difficult
Prefer longer sessions rather than spreading the work across many weeks
Are navigating a recent event and may benefit from a more focused EMDR protocol
You do not need to know whether an intensive is appropriate for you before reaching out. A consultation can help determine whether an intensive, weekly individual therapy, or another approach may best fit what you are experiencing.
WHAT TO EXPECT
An Intensive Is More Than a Longer EMDR Session
An EMDR Intensive is thoughtfully structured around your goals, history, current needs, and the amount of time available. It still follows the principles and phases of EMDR therapy—there is simply more uninterrupted time to move through the work.
Preparation and Planning
Before the intensive, time is dedicated to understanding what you want to work on, identifying relevant experiences and patterns, and preparing for the work ahead.
Regulation and Awareness
The intensive includes time to build awareness of your nervous system and strengthen your capacity to stay present with what emerges. EMDR is not simply bilateral stimulation or reprocessing.
Focused Processing
When appropriate, extended time allows for focused processing without automatically having to stop because a traditional therapy hour has ended.
Integration and Closing
Time is intentionally reserved to integrate the work, notice what has shifted, and support the transition out of the intensive rather than ending immediately after processing.
A FOCUSED APPROACH FOR DIFFERENT NEEDS
What Can You Work On in an EMDR Intensive?
An intensive can be structured around a specific experience or concern, or around patterns that have been affecting you for much longer. The focus is individualized based on what you are experiencing, what you hope to address, and what is clinically appropriate.
An EMDR Intensive may be used to work with:
A specific memory or experience that continues to affect you
A recent traumatic or distressing event
Longstanding trauma or experiences from earlier in life
Relationship or attachment wounds
Anxiety, fears, or experiences that continue to trigger strong responses
Grief, loss, or significant life transitions
Patterns or beliefs that continue to affect how you feel, relate, or respond
A focused area of work that has already emerged in ongoing therapy
The focus does not have to fit neatly into one category. Part of the consultation and preparation process is determining what to prioritize and how an intensive can be structured around your individual needs.
YOUR INTENSIVE, STRUCTURED AROUND YOU
EMDR Intensives Can Be Customized to Fit Your Needs
There isn’t one standard format for an EMDR Intensive. The amount of time and structure can vary depending on what you want to work on, your clinical needs, and what feels appropriate for you.
Extended EMDR Sessions
Longer sessions provide more uninterrupted time for preparation, processing, and integration than a traditional therapy hour. This may be a good option when you want more time to focus on a specific experience or area of concern without committing to a half or full day.
Half-Day or Full-Day Intensives
A larger block of dedicated time allows therapeutic work to take place within a more concentrated period rather than being divided across multiple weekly appointments. This format can provide additional time for preparation, focused processing, breaks when needed, and integration.
Customized Multi-Day Intensives
For some clients, it may make sense to structure the work across multiple days. This can provide concentrated therapeutic time while allowing the pacing, focus, and amount of work to be individualized around what you are coming in to address.
You don’t need to decide which format you need before reaching out. We can talk about what you’re hoping to work on and determine whether an intensive—and what type of intensive—may be a good fit.
HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
What to Expect When Planning Your EMDR Intensive
An EMDR Intensive offers more concentrated time for therapy, but that doesn’t mean rushing the process. The amount of preparation, reprocessing, and integration will look different for each person and depends on what you are coming in to address.
1. Start With a Consultation
We’ll begin with a brief conversation about what is bringing you in, what you hope to work on, and whether an EMDR Intensive may be a good fit. You don’t need to know what type or length of intensive you need before reaching out.
2. Complete a 90-Minute Intake & Develop Your Plan
If we decide to move forward, we’ll meet for a comprehensive 90-minute intake. This gives us time to understand your history, current concerns, previous therapy experiences, and the specific goals you have for the intensive.
An important part of this process is evaluating your current capacity to stay present and regulated when difficult emotions or memories arise. Even if you have participated in therapy or EMDR before, we still assess what your system needs now and how much preparation may be appropriate before moving into reprocessing.
3. Build the Foundation for Reprocessing
Think of EMDR like building a house. You could begin construction without fully understanding the plans, gathering the right materials, or preparing the foundation—but the process would be much harder than it needs to be.
Preparation serves a similar purpose. We identify the resources, regulation strategies, and supports that can help make reprocessing more tolerable and productive.
How much preparation is needed varies. Someone coming in to work with a recent, specific event may be ready to move into focused reprocessing relatively quickly. Someone addressing longstanding trauma, attachment wounds, or more complex experiences may benefit from more preparation before moving into that phase.
The goal isn’t to delay reprocessing. It’s to make sure we have what we need in place to support the work.
4. Your Intensive Continues at the Pace Your System Needs
The intensive provides extended, uninterrupted time for preparation, reprocessing, and other therapeutic work without automatically having to stop because a traditional therapy hour has ended.
What that time looks like will be different for each person. Depending on your goals and readiness, some of the intensive may be devoted to preparation and stabilization, while other portions may involve reprocessing and integration.
Throughout the intensive, we continue paying attention to how you are responding and adjust the pace as needed, including time for breaks, regulation, and integration.
An intensive provides more dedicated time for therapeutic work, while the pace and structure are continually guided by individual needs and how the system responds.