4 THINGS TO EXPECT FROM AN EMDR INTENSIVE
EMDR intensives allow the opportunity to progress through your symptoms in a more concise and focused way without the interruption of a 50-minute session. EMDR Intensives last for 4 hours. For some, the idea of an “intensive” may sound intimidating, and that’s understandable! To put your mind at ease, here are five things you can expect from an EMDR Intensive.
A pre-consultation interview is used to assess for candidacy. You will be asked about past diagnoses, history with suicidal thoughts, and more about the incident you want to work through. You will get more education about EMDR and the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model that EMDR is based on.
Personalized treatment assessment is a comprehensive assessment that has you identify and explore all areas of your past, present, and future. This is used by open-ended questions about your family, childhood, addictions, multigenerational family unit, relationship with caregivers, spirituality, gender identity, etc. Numerous pre-assessment is used to assess dissociation, depression, anxiety, trauma, and core beliefs.
Expect a longer session, don’t worry--you won’t be trauma-processing the entire time! You might take a break from processing to do some nervous system regulation strategies such as yoga or breathing exercises, or you might just take a break to get tea and take a walk.
The session will be more efficient. Numerous research studies, feedback from previous EMDR Intensive clients, and data from assessments are showing promising results. Intensive application of trauma-focused therapy seems to be well tolerated in patients with PTSD, enabling faster symptom reduction with similar, or even better, results while reducing the risk that patients drop out prematurely. Learn more here and here. Intensive EMDR treatment is feasible and is indicative of reliable improvement in PTSD symptoms in a very short time frame. Learn more here. An intensive program using EMDR therapy is a potentially safe and effective treatment alternative for complex PTSD. Learn more here.
To learn more or schedule an EMDR Intensive, contact us today!