An EMDR Intensive is a concentrated approach to therapy that allows you to complete months of traditional weekly sessions in just a few days. Instead of the standard 50-minute weekly appointment, we work in multi-hour blocks (typically 3 to 6 hours) over a single day or a series of consecutive days. This format helps you dive deeper and make progress sooner by without the interruptions of daily life.

In weekly therapy, we often spend the first 10 minutes catching up and the last 10 minutes "closing down" the session to ensure you’re grounded enough to drive home or go back to work. In an intensive, we eliminate those transitions. This allows for more time dedicated to actual reprocessing, which often leads to faster relief and more significant breakthroughs.

• People who find it difficult to commit to a recurring weekly appointment.

• Those who have reached a plateau in traditional talk therapy and need a jump-start.

• People looking to process a specific recent event, such as an accident or natural disaster.

• Clients who live in areas without EMDR specialists and prefer to travel for a few days of focused work.

• People who feel stuck.

While every intensive is customized, before EMDR work, we’ll meet for a Pre-Intensive Interview to determine the goal(s) of the time we’ll have together. We’ll analyze what your life looks like now, including current stressors, your support system, and your strategies for coping with big emotions and uncomfortable physical sensations. We’ll also identify places where you want relief, growth, or to take a big step forward.

During the intensive we build in regular breaks for snacks, movement, and nervous system regulation. The goal is to work deeply while ensuring your brain and body feel supported and safe throughout the process.

While the upfront cost is higher than a single session, intensives are often more cost-effective in the long run. By condensing the work, you typically require fewer total hours of therapy to achieve the same results, saving you both time and money over the course of your healing journey

Insurance providers do not cover EMDR Intensives. Most insurance plans cover standard 53-minute sessions, sometimes allowing for sessions twice per week. If you need to use your insurance benefits, it’s best to discuss traditional session options with your therapist, as EMDR Intensives are self-pay only.

A one-day intensive can help you increase performance and confidence, or significantly decrease the devastating effects of a single-event trauma (e.g., negative thoughts, disturbing emotions or body sensations).

While significant healing can occur in a one-day intensive, Complex PTSD deserves more than a half-day of treatment. Many clients experiencing Complex PTSD may continue to work on their trauma histories through monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly half-day intensives.

We’ll start with a free 20-minute consultation so that we can meet and see how we connect, and discuss whether an intensive is a good fit for you. If so, we’ll get your sessions scheduled.

After booking, I will hold the dates for your intensive for one week. You will be charged a non-refundable deposit for half the amount of your intensive cost. By the end of one week, I need completion of your intake paperwork in the client portal to continue holding your scheduled intensive.

Because we are condensing months of work into a short window, the process is emotionally demanding. You may experience "emotional hangovers"—feeling tired, sensitive, or having vivid dreams—as your brain continues to process the material after we finish.

In clinical work, there are no guarantees because everyone’s nervous system responds differently. However, intensives are supported by research and designed to maximize the conditions for change. While I cannot promise a specific "cure," the focused format significantly increases the likelihood of reaching a breakthrough compared to the stop-and-start nature of weekly sessions.