Introduction to EMDR Intensives: What They Are and How They Work
“This is going to be our last set for today,” I say, after pushing our time just a little longer than I should have. While I usually prefer to have a full 10 minutes after a reprocessing session to help the client come back to the present and soothe the nervous system, on this day I’ve done what I’ve done so many times before - eagerly pushed the boundaries of our time together to help them get just a little more out of the meditative and connected state they’ve achieved with me.
My client sighs, nods in understanding, and as we start to wrap up I find myself thinking one again, “Damn, 50 minutes just isn’t enough time for this.”
As a practicing EMDR therapist since 2017, I’ve had this thought more times than I can count. I’ve even had periods of time where I found myself using EMDR less out of the concern that it just can’t work as well as I want it to within the boundaries of a traditional once-a-week, fifty minutes at a time therapy session.
And yet, I come back to this tool time and time again because the results I see for my clients recovering from childhood abuse, sexual assault, and traumatic grief are just too valuable to avoid. EMDR has helped my clients to sleep through the night, to feel connected to their bodies again, to rediscover their mature and calming inner voice, to feel at peace with the tragedies of their past, and to build an enduring sense of self-compassion that improves almost every area of their lives.
So when I was introduced to the concept of an EMDR Intensive - a depth-oriented, multi-hour (or even multi-day) focused EMDR session, I knew I was going to find a way to offer this service.
What is an EMDR Intensive?
An EMDR intensive is an extended therapy session that gives the client and therapist the time to facilitate an immersive and deep therapeutic experience.
Typically, these sessions are between three to six hours long (don’t worry - they include breaks!). You may meet with your therapist for just one day or up to three days in a row for these sessions.
During the intensive, you and your therapist will focus deeply on one or two traumatic experiences from your past that you would like to reprocess.
The goal of an intensive is that you and your therapist will shift your body and brain’s experience of traumatic memories, reducing symptoms like nightmares, depression, anxiety, or emotional fluctuations, more quickly than you could in a once-a-week format.
How does an EMDR intensive work?
Your EMDR Intensive will usually be a three-step process.
First, you meet with your EMDR therapist for an intake. In this 90 minute session, your therapist will learn more about your background and history and clarify your goals for the intensive. You’ll get a chance to learn more about the process and you may even do some preparatory resourcing. You’ll also set the date and time for your intensive and put down a 50% deposit to reserve your time. Your therapist may also share some preparatory materials with you to get you ready for the intensive experience.
Next is the day of your intensive! This is when you’ll go deep and really do the work.
About a month after your intensive, you’ll meet with your EMDR therapist for a check in. Your therapist will re-do some assessments, check in with you about your experience, and plan an additional intensive if you are interested.
What are the benefits of an EMDR intensive?
Intensives are a time-efficient and depth-oriented technique that can support you in feeling better faster.
During a 50 minute EMDR session, you and your therapist will likely spend the first 5 - 10 minutes checking in and setting up for reprocessing. You’ll also ideally leave 10 minutes at the end of session to soothe the nervous system and discuss some of the takeaways from reprocessing. This ultimately leaves only a little more than 30 minutes of time to reprocess!
That means that in a three hour EMDR intensive, after setting up and checking in, you and your therapist can do the work of five 50-minute sessions!
Intensives are ideal for busy professionals who aren’t able to commit to once-a-week therapy for an extended period of time.
Demanding jobs, frequent travel, and jam-packed schedules can make it challenging to commit to traditional once-a-week therapy sessions. EMDR Intensives allow you to dive deep into therapeutic work in a shorter time frame. This means that you can achieve significant progress with just a few intensive sessions rather than months of weekly appointments.
This not only ensures that therapy fits into your lifestyle, but also minimizes the interruption to your professional and personal life, allowing you to prioritize your mental health without sidelining your career.
Intensives can support clients who are stuck in weekly therapy and want a breakthrough or who have a great therapist that they don’t want to leave but who isn’t trained in EMDR therapy.
If you love working with your therapist but they aren’t trained in EMDR therapy, an EMDR intensive can be a great way to access the benefits of working with an EMDR therapist without having to leave the therapeutic relationship you have already established.
EMDR intensives are often done as an adjunct to individual therapy. Your therapist might recommend EMDR therapy to assist you with moving through a painful memory from the past that is blocking your progress in therapy with them. Working through some key memories from the past can be a great way to move forward in your regular individual sessions.
Intensives can help you to see progress in preparation for a life-event like a wedding, growing your family, or taking on a new creative project.
EMDR Intensives are perfect for folks who are on a strict timetable! In just a few intensive sessions, you can achieve the same amount of progress that might take months in traditional weekly therapy.
Intensives can support clients who are getting married, welcoming a new family member, making a big move, or approaching a major creative project.
For example, I often work with parents who are working to break cycles of abuse, instability, and disconnection in their family. Many of these clients are particularly focused on preparing for parenthood and use EMDR therapy to reprocess events from their childhood that may impact their ability to parent in the way that they want to.