Compassionate. Accelerated. Effective.
EMDR Intensive Program
Therapy is shifting to meet your needs
The EMDR Intensive Program is an alternative to traditional weekly/biweekly therapy sessions. With the EMDR Intensive Program, therapy is compacted into one or two days—typically 3-6 hours per day—to focus on healing from difficulties of the past that contribute to challenges in the present. In many ways, this is a more compassionate and effective way to provide treatment since positive results happen sooner. This time is designed specifically for you, allowing us to develop a safe and compassionate relationship for you to achieve your therapy goals while experiencing less distress around traumatic events or adverse life experiences. This program is not just for trauma, it is also used for performance enhancement to excel in areas such as athletics, business, and relationships.
The EMDR Intensive Program gives you exclusive access to appointments reserved for the Intensive Program, which means you can get started right away, drastically reducing the initial wait time. I offer EMDR Intensives for people I am currently providing treatment with when they are needing focused treatment, as well as new clients who prefer to work intensively to progress towards their goals quicker.
Why consider the EMDR Intensive Program:
For some, the idea of the “EMDR Intensive Program” may sound intimidating, and that’s understandable! To put your mind at ease, here are five things to consider about the EMDR Intensive Program.
Why take months, when it can take days: Intensive sessions can eliminate weeks or months of living with trauma symptoms, and with the toll this takes on work, relationships, marriages, parenting and general wellbeing. This is why it is considered a more compassionate approach to healing from trauma, there is no need to prolong your suffering. The work is certainly INTENSE, but so is the healing!
Focused treatment: When therapy is spread out over weeks and months it is inevitable that there are interruptions in trauma recovery due to every day life events and unforeseen crises. These interruptions are more likely to be avoided with intensive therapy as we focus on a specific difficulty for the Intensive.
More Efficient: No need to take extra time off every week from life’s demands to attend treatment.
Cost Effective: While there is a larger upfront cost, the shorter duration of treatment overall can save money. Since the time spent settling into and wrapping up each session is cut back significantly, more of your time is spent on trauma recovery and therefore fewer total hours are likely overall.
Less Chance of Destabilization: In between session, clients are faced with the challenge of managing difficult emotions and memories that arise as a result of therapy. Because the time between sessions is decreased, so too is the distress connected with difficult memories.
What to expect at the EMDR Intensive Program:
The EMDR Intensive Program isn’t for everyone. Sometimes taking a slower approach to healing is faster. At our initial meetings I will focus on the history of the difficulty that you are hoping to work on in treatment and gauge your readiness for the EMDR Intensive Program. This will include your completion of paperwork containing important information about you and the difficulty you are wanting to work through. I will also help you understand the EMDR Intensive Program and explain EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model that EMDR is based upon.
DEVELOP NEW SKILLS AND RESOURCES:
I will help you develop skills and resources to use inside and outside of the Intensive EMDR Program to help you manage any distress that you may experience. These are aimed at helping you cope with “real life” by learning to manage stress and better regulate emotions.
BREAKS DURING THE THERAPY WHENEVER IT’S NEEDED:
The EMDR Intensive Program can last hours and sometimes even days at a time, but don’t worry–you won’t be processing trauma the entire time! You might take a break from processing to talk about something important that you are experiencing or understanding, or focus on an activity to help you regulate your nervous system such as stretching, walking or breathing exercises or you might just want to take a break to get tea. Whatever the reason, you are in charge of this process and your treatment.
Is this treatment right for me?
While many clients are good candidates for an intensive, some may do better with an ongoing therapeutic relationship. Clients with long-term childhood abuse or neglect or who have had years of traumatic events, are typically not advised to access the EMDR Intensive Program without having had counselling with me or another therapist previously. Clients with this type of history can make progress on specific memories from their past with the knowledge that ongoing treatment is likely most beneficial.
Fees:
Half-day (3 hours) EMDR Intensive Program:
- This is double a typical EMDR session
Full-Day (6 hours) EMDR Intensive Program:
This includes a 3 hour session in the morning, a one hour break for lunch and another 3 hour session in the afternoon for a total of 7 hours of the day. These sessions are scheduled on Saturdays or Sundays.
Multi-day EMDR Intensive Program:
- 1.5 days will include one Saturday (6 hours) and an additional half day Sunday (3 hours)
- 2 days will include two Saturdays and Sundays (6 hours each day)
*Note: 50% of the total cost is due at the time of scheduling the appointment and the remainder of the cost is due at the time of your first appointment.
**Insurance may not cover the EMDR Intensive Program, please check with your insurance provider**