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201 New Bridge Street
Unit 205
Jacksonville, NC 28540
Have Questions?
EMDR Intensives
EMDR Intensives
When You're Ready to Dive Deeper
What if meaningful therapy progress could happen in days, not months?
Healing doesn’t have to happen one hour at a time.
Extended EMDR therapy sessions designed to help you work through trauma and painful experiences with focused, uninterrupted time for healing.
What is an
EMDR Intensive?
EMDR is a structured, evidence-based therapy model that helps people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms. Fun fact… EMDR has also been shown to be effective in treating other challenges as well, including phobias, anxiety, and other distressing life experiences.
In traditional therapy, EMDR typically takes place during weekly one-hour sessions. Rather than revisiting a painful memory or experience for just one hour each week, an EMDR intensive provides the opportunity to take a deeper dive into the work through extended, uninterrupted sessions occurring over several hours or across a few days. If you feel stuck in weekly therapy or want to focus on a specific experience or challenge, an EMDR Intensive may provide the space needed for meaningful progress.
What Are the Benefits of an EMDR Intensive Compared to Weekly EMDR Sessions?
Shortened Treatment Timeline
Because we have uninterrupted time together, we can sometimes reach and process difficult experiences in a single day or a few hours that might otherwise take weeks or months to get to in traditional therapy.
Focus and Momentum
Have you ever had a therapy session where you just got to an important realization, and then the session ended? Or maybe you arrived at therapy already exhausted from the demands of everyday life and you didn’t have the energy to get to the trauma work. In an intensive, we dedicate a focused block of time to the issue you want relief from, allowing us to stay engaged in the work without constantly starting and stopping.
Reduced Disruption to Daily Life
Trauma work can be emotionally demanding. In a weekly format, it can sometimes feel like you are opening something up and then needing to return to everyday life right away. An intensive allows us to move through the work in a more contained timeframe so you can process, integrate, and begin moving forward.
Cost Effectiveness Over Time
While EMDR intensives are an out-of-pocket investment, they can sometimes be more cost-effective in the long run. In traditional therapy, it may take months of weekly sessions to reach and process a specific issue. An intensive allows us to dedicate several hours to that work in a concentrated period of time, which can sometimes reduce the total number of sessions needed overall.
An EMDR Intensive Might Be a Good Fit for You If:
- You are already in therapy, but the pace of weekly sessions or the demands of daily life make it difficult to reach deeper trauma work.
- You find yourself repeatedly bumping into the same pain point and feel ready to face it.
- You want focused, intentional therapy for a specific issue or memory.
- You’ve experienced a traumatic incident (e.g., car accident, pregnancy loss, birth complications, physical/sexual assault, medical trauma, etc.).
- You are a first responder, military member, or medical professional who has experienced a traumatic event and want a focused way to process it while working within the demands of your schedule.
- You are a helping professional (yes, therapists need therapy too!) who is ready to work through personal experiences that may be impacting you.
- You experienced abuse, neglect, or painful childhood or relational experiences and want dedicated time to begin working through them.
- You feel stuck in cycles of anxiety, overthinking, or emotional overwhelm, and coping skills just aren’t enough.
Is an EMDR Intensive Right for Everyone?
EMDR intensives are not the right fit for everyone. Because of this, we begin with an initial consultation to determine whether an intensive approach would be appropriate for your needs. An EMDR Intensive may not be the best fit if:
- You are currently in acute crisis or need immediate stabilization.
- You are looking for ongoing weekly therapy rather than a focused trauma-processing experience.
- You do not feel personally ready and willing to engage in deep, focused work.
If an intensive is not the best fit right now, that is okay. Weekly therapy or a slower-paced approach may be more supportive.
What Does the Research Say about EMDR Intensives?
- A 2025 study and a 2018 study found that intensive trauma treatment programs, including EMDR, led to a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms and reduced treatment dropout rates when compared to traditional weekly therapy.
- A 2017 study found that EMDR Intensives were a safe and effective treatment for those with complex PTSD and four out of the seven participants no longer met the criteria for PTSD following the treatment.
In short, intensive trauma treatment programs have shown large reductions in PTSD symptoms across multiple studies, with many participants maintaining improvement at follow-up.
Investment and Intensive Options
Half Day Intensive
$
600
-
3 hours of therapy
Full Day Intensive
$
1200
-
6 hours of therapy
Two-Day Intensive
$
2400
-
12 total hours of therapy
Three-Day Intensive
$
3600
-
18 total hours of therapy
All EMDR Intensives include a 50-minute post-intensive follow-up session to support integration and next steps. Weekday intensives are offered at the rates listed above. Weekend sessions may be available at a premium rate. Because of the structure and length of EMDR Intensives, insurance companies do not cover this format of therapy. Intensives are therefore only offered as a private pay service.
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