A spacious, focused approach to short-term trauma therapy
An EMDR intensive creates more room for meaningful therapeutic work within a focused container. The extended format gives us time to arrive, prepare, identify a workable focus, process, pause, and integrate without repeatedly stopping just as the work begins to unfold.
Why work intensively?
Traditional therapy sessions usually last about 50 minutes. That time can go quickly, especially when part of the session is spent checking in, settling into the work, and preparing to return to your day.
An EMDR intensive gives us a longer stretch of time to stay with the process. This spaciousness may allow for meaningful movement within a shorter period of therapy.
You can also participate in an intensive while continuing to work with your regular therapist. The intensive can focus on a particular trauma or area of distress while your ongoing therapist supports the larger arc of your healing.
Before the intensive
We begin with a free 20-minute consultation. This gives us a chance to talk about what is bringing you to an EMDR intensive and explore whether the format feels like a good fit.
The next step is a 90-minute assessment and preparation session. I learn more about what you hope to work on, the resources and support already available to you, and what may help the process feel workable. Together, we begin shaping an intensive plan around your needs.
Finding a clear and workable focus
Trauma is a time traveler. The past can superimpose itself on the present through symptoms, triggers, painful beliefs, body responses, relationship patterns, and ways of protecting yourself that once took care of you but now might be getting in the way.
We begin with how the past is affecting your life now. A trigger, symptom, or recurring pattern may lead us toward an unhelpful or painful belief about yourself and, eventually, toward a memory connected to it. Sometimes a clear memory emerges. Other times, we begin with a painful belief or body sensation, even when a specific memory isn’t clear.
Memories are often connected within larger networks of experience. As we follow the process, related beliefs, sensations, or memories may come into view. A responsive plan gives us direction while leaving room to follow what your system reveals.
Preparation is part of the work
People arrive with different histories, connections, resources, and relationships to safety. Someone carrying more complex trauma or fewer accessible resources may benefit from spending more time on preparation.
Preparation includes learning how EMDR works, choosing a form of bilateral stimulation—such as alternating eye movements, taps, or sounds—building tools for ongoing consent, strengthening supportive resources, and getting to know the protective responses that may arise.
If EMDR is new to you, you can read more in What Is EMDR Therapy?
This work helps create the conditions for processing to feel supported, collaborative, and possible.
What happens during the intensive?
We begin by arriving, checking in, and reconnecting with the focus we identified together. When you feel ready, we bring a manageable part of the experience into awareness and begin bilateral stimulation.
You may notice images, thoughts, emotions, memories, body sensations, impulses, or shifts in how you understand the experience. We follow what emerges with curiosity.
I remain present and responsive throughout the intensive. I pay attention to you, to my own embodied experience, and to what is happening in the present moment. EMDR offers us a structure. Attunement helps that structure remain responsive, collaborative, and connected.
There will be room for breaks, questions, uncertainty, protective responses, and tending to parts of yourself that may need care. Consent remains alive throughout the session. You can pause, adjust, change direction, or stop. Slowing down or feeling your no can also be part of how the work moves forward.
Closing and integration
We leave time to return fully to the present, notice what feels important, and talk about what may continue unfolding in the hours and days afterward.
Closure gives us space to reconnect with your present life, dream toward the future, and consider what comes next.
Is an EMDR intensive right for you?
I offer virtual EMDR intensives for adults in California. A free 20-minute consultation offers a place to talk about what you hope to work on, learn more about my intensive process, and explore whether this format feels like the right next step.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation.
About the author: Erica Berman, LMFT is a queer trauma therapist, EMDR Certified Therapist, and EMDRIA Approved Consultant. Her work brings together relational, somatic, and trauma-focused approaches.