What Is an EMDR Intensive (and Is It Right for Me?)
If you’ve been feeling stuck, like you’ve done therapy before but can’t seem to move past certain memories, patterns, or sensations, you’re not alone. Sometimes healing requires more space, focus, and depth than weekly therapy can offer. That’s where EMDR intensives can make a difference.
What Is an EMDR Intensive?
An EMDR intensive is a focused, extended therapy experience designed to help you move through trauma and emotional blocks more efficiently and deeply. Instead of meeting for 50-minute weekly sessions, you meet for longer sessions (often 3–5 hours over one or more days).
This allows you to stay in the healing process long enough to make traction, without the stop-and-start rhythm of traditional weekly therapy.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) works by helping your brain and body reprocess memories that feel “stuck,” allowing you to experience them with more distance and less distress. In an intensive, this process happens in a supported, contained way that honors your nervous system’s pace.
Why Someone Might Choose an EMDR Intensive
People come to EMDR intensives for different reasons. You might consider one if:
You feel stuck in weekly therapy and want to go deeper.
You’re managing anxiety, trauma, or patterns that keep looping.
You want focused healing during a transition such as after a loss, breakup, or stressful event.
You have limited time or a difficult schedyle but want to make meaningful progress.
Many clients describe EMDR intensives as a way to “get unstuck” and finally move past things they’ve carried for years.
What an EMDR Intensive Looks Like
Each intensive is individualized, but generally includes three parts:
Preparation: We start by identifying your goals and creating a plan that supports your needs. We’ll explore grounding tools and build trust so your system feels supported before we start reprocessing. This can be done within the intensive itself, or with pre-intensive sessions, often that are 90 minutes.
Processing Sessions: During the intensive itself, we’ll work in longer blocks of EMDR, integrating somatic awareness and resourcing to keep your body regulated. We will focus on specific targets, and I do not guarantee a specific outcome.
Integration & Follow-Up: After processing, we take time to help your mind and body integrate what came up at the end of the intensive, and we can schedule an optional follow up to process the changes if you do not work with an individual therapist.
An intensive does not mean needing to heal everything all at once (that is not possible!). It is a focused time for healing, without life’s interruptions.
How EMDR Intensives Support Healing
You might already know a specific event or struggle that you can’t get past. Or you might feel stuck in an area that you aren’t sure how to move through. EMDR intensives can help with both.
Specific trauma’s and events
Body image and food struggles
Vicarious trauma or workplace stress
Relational trauma and attachment wounds
Other area’s that feel “stuck”
Clients often notice more clarity, emotional balance, and self-trust after an intensive, not because everything is “fixed,” but because they’ve begun to process what is in their past.
Is an EMDR Intensive Right for You?
An intensive might be a good fit if:
You have a specific issue or memory you want to work through.
You’ve done therapy before but feel stuck in the same place.
You want a focused period of healing with time for rest and reflection afterward.
If you’re not sure, that’s okay. In our consultation, we can explore whether an intensive, weekly therapy, or a combination of both feels right for you.
Support for Deep Healing
In my practice, I take a trauma-informed, relational approach, integrating EMDR with somatic and parts work to help you feel grounded and safe throughout the process. My role is to help you move through what’s been hard, not by forcing change, but by creating the conditions where healing can naturally unfold.
If you’ve been feeling ready for something more focused, or simply curious about what this might look like, I’d be honored to connect.
Offering EMDR Intensives in Seattle, WA and telehealth options for clients across Washington and Massachusetts.
Contact me to learn more or schedule a consultation.
