EMDR in Intensives
The deep work, with enough time to finish it.
If you've done EMDR in weekly sessions, you know the rhythm: you get somewhere real, the memory starts to move, and then time is up. You spend the week holding what got stirred, come back, spend half the next session finding your way down again. It works. It's also slow in a way that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the clock.
An EMDR intensive removes the clock.
What an EMDR intensive looks like here
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps your nervous system reprocess experiences that got stuck, and turn the volume down on their intensity, rather than just talking about them. And EMDR is exactly the kind of work the weekly clock is hardest on. In weekly sessions, we often have to close a target back up half-processed because the hour is ending, and your system knows the difference between paused and finished.
In an intensive, EMDR gets to work the way it was designed to. We open a target and stay with it: set after set of bilateral stimulation, following wherever your brain needs to go. When the memory links to something older, we follow that memory network too, because that's usually where the root is. And instead of closing a target down unfinished, we keep going until it's fully reprocessed, until you can bring it up and your body stays quiet. Reprocessing that would stretch across months of weekly sessions can happen in a day or two, not because we rush, but because we get to reach closure without getting interrupted.
I'm EMDRIA trained and I've been doing this work with kids and adults for years through my weekly practice. Room to Breathe exists because I kept watching the deep work run out of hour.
What people bring to EMDR intensives
- A single stuck memory that weekly sessions keep circling
- Complex trauma with more than one root
- An upcoming event your body is already dreading, a court date, a medical procedure, a wedding, a birth
- Grief that has layers
- Patterns you can name but can't seem to move
- Work you started with another therapist and want to go deeper on. I'm glad to coordinate with your ongoing therapist; an intensive adds to weekly therapy, it doesn't replace it.
Where and how
In-person EMDR intensives happen at my office in Henrico, VA, just off Parham Road and minutes from Richmond's West End. Telehealth intensives are available if you're anywhere in Virginia, North Carolina, or South Carolina, and yes, EMDR works well over video when it's set up right.
Traveling to Richmond for an intensive? Many clients do. The multi-day format is built for exactly that, and I'm happy to point you toward places to stay nearby.
For some clients, ketamine assistance is an option in partnership with Journey Clinical, who handles all medical screening and prescribing. Learn how ketamine-assisted intensives work here.
Formats and investment
Intensives come in three lengths: The Deep Breath (half day), The Long Exhale (full day), and Open Air (multi-day). EMDR can anchor any of them, woven with whatever else your plan calls for. Current pricing is on the Services page. Room to Breathe is private pay; you'll receive a Good Faith Estimate before we begin.
If you're ready to do the work and tired of running out of time to do it in, let's talk.
Finally, come up for air.
Intensives are not crisis care. If you're in crisis right now, call or text 988 and come find me on the other side.