Why I Fell in Love with EMDR - and Why I Started Offering EMDR Intensives

When I first started practicing EMDR, I fell in love with it quickly. There was something remarkable about watching a client process an experience that had stayed stuck for years: connections they'd never made before, memories accessed in a different way, insights that seemed to arrive on their own.

But I also noticed something I didn't expect: I found it hard to stop!

By around the 40-minute mark, something would often start to shift - a client's protective parts stepping back, more trust in the room, a piece finally coming into reach that had felt out of reach all session. And then I had to look at the clock.

It was frustrating to close the work down just as we were getting somewhere, mid-way through processing a memory that, with more time, we might have completed in the same sitting instead of picking it back up a week or two later. Or having reached a piece of insight that would take real effort to reconnect with once the session ended.

Ending a session well matters, of course. EMDR isn't about pushing on for as long as possible, and clients need time to integrate and regulate. But I kept wondering about what might be possible with more time.

The turning point

A few years ago, at an EMDR conference, colleagues presented on their experience with Intensives - sharing what they'd seen work and encouraging the rest of us to try this format - and something in me really clicked. I'd already been drawn to longer sessions and more space for deeper processing - I just hadn't realised there was a whole format built around it, or that other clinicians and researchers were exploring this too.

It felt exciting and validating to find that other people in the field had already been asking the same questions. Therapists and researchers were exploring intensive formats more formally, and the early research on intensive trauma treatment was, and still is, promising.

From curiosity to practice

Soon after, I undertook further advanced EMDR training and supervision to build my skills in this format, then started offering intensives to some of my existing clients. I am so grateful to my clients who trusted me enough to be willing to try something new and still fairly unfamiliar. We went in carefully, with clear goals, adjusting the pace to what each person needed.

And then we saw what was possible. Clients who'd been circling the same theme for months (or years) found real movement. We could stay with a piece of processing long enough for it to actually resolve, instead of setting it aside because the hour was up. There was relief in finishing something that had felt overwhelming, and a kind of quiet pride: "I did that."

And there was something else that I hadn't fully anticipated: the quality of connection that can develop when you spend a concentrated amount of time working together as a team towards a shared goal. Rather than therapy being something we briefly stepped into each week, an intensive created a sense of entering the work together with focus and intention.

What is an EMDR Intensive?

An EMDR Intensive is a concentrated period of therapy: longer sessions, built around specific goals or themes. Instead of spreading the work across weekly or fortnightly one-hour appointments, it might mean several hours over one or more days, or a series of longer sessions across a few weeks.

That extra time doesn't just mean more therapy - it changes the rhythm of the work. There's room to build momentum, stay with something as it unfolds, and work through material without stopping just because the hour's up.

I bring in other approaches alongside EMDR too: parts work/IFS, somatic therapy, attachment-focused work - and every intensive is planned around the client's specific goals and circumstances.

What can an EMDR Intensive look like?

Plan — Clarify goals and develop a personalised intensive plan.

Process — Work in longer, focused sessions using EMDR and other approaches tailored to the client's needs.

Integrate — Allow time to slow down, regulate and make sense of what has emerged.

Move forward — Decide together what comes next - whether that is ongoing therapy, occasional intensive work, or completing therapy.

Who might an EMDR Intensive suit?

An intensive may be particularly helpful for someone who:

●      Has specific traumatic experiences or themes they would like to work on

●      Feels stuck around an issue despite ongoing therapy

●      Wants to focus more deeply on a particular area of their life

●      Prefers longer periods of focused work rather than frequent shorter appointments

●      Has limited availability for regular weekly therapy

●      Is already in therapy and wants a concentrated period of EMDR

●      Would like to make meaningful progress within a defined period of time

●      Is approaching a significant life transition and wants focused support

●      Finds that longer, uninterrupted stretches suit the way they process and work best

Intensives can be used to work with a range of concerns: traumatic experiences, PTSD and complex trauma, attachment and relational wounds, distressing memories, phobias, burnout, grief and loss, anxiety, shame, and patterns that feel stuck or hard to shift through talking therapy alone.

EMDR Intensives are not necessarily suitable for everyone. An intensive involves a significant amount of therapeutic work and requires careful consideration of a person's circumstances, stability and capacity for processing. That's why I offer an assessment session beforehand, so we can work out together whether an intensive is the right fit.

Why I continue to offer EMDR Intensives

One really interesting thing I noticed is that clients who've done intensive work with me haven't wanted to go back to the traditional one-hour format. Some have chosen to use intensives occasionally, coming back only when there's a specific issue to work through or when they have the time and energy for concentrated work. Others have felt ready to finish therapy altogether. And some continue ongoing therapy but have chosen to keep working in a longer sessions format, which typically allows us to reduce session frequency while still doing deep, meaningful work.

None of this means intensives are inherently better than standard therapy - different people need different things at different times, and for many clients, weekly or fortnightly 50-minute sessions are exactly the right structure. What it showed me was that there doesn't need to be only one way of doing therapy.

Making space for different ways of healing

Restructuring my practice around this wasn't an easy decision. I love ongoing therapy - the relationships that build over time, noticing small changes, the trust that develops in a space that grows alongside someone. Moving part of my practice away from that involved a real sense of letting go.

But it felt important to make this option available, because people differ. Some thrive on regular weekly sessions; others find that longer, more concentrated work suits how they think and process far better. I think therapy needs room for both.

Intensives offer the chance to go deeper, keep momentum, and sometimes finish a piece of work that might otherwise have been interrupted. It is a real investment of time, energy and money upfront, and I only offer it because I believe in it and I've seen how powerful and effective this model can be - for the right client, and honestly, for me as the therapist too. Practitioners differ in how they process and work best, just as clients do - and I believe we do better work when we're able to work in a way that actually fits us.

What I find most rewarding is still the same thing that drew me to EMDR in the first place: watching someone shift something that once felt immovable. The relief, the new perspective, the sense of hope and possibility, and sometimes just the pride of getting through something hard.

That's what made me fall in love with EMDR. Intensives are just one more way of getting there.