EMDR Intensives

What is intensive therapy?

Intensive therapy is an alternative to the traditional model of weekly therapy. Instead of meeting for an hour every week, we meet fewer times for longer sessions. This is designed to fit with your needs and schedule, and can range from meeting for 90 minutes at a time, to whole days.

We work on a focused issue in order to make changes quickly. With weekly sessions, a certain amount of each session is given to checking in at the beginning and wrapping things up at the end. By working intensively we save this time and so can be more efficient.

The main therapy model used is EMDR, with other models being brought in where needed. Intensives can be either in person in York or online.

Why choose an EMDR Intensive?

  1. You know you want to access therapy and change things, but the weekly therapy model just doesn’t fit into your life at the moment. Booking out a longer chunk of time every so often would feel a lot more manageable than trying to find an hour every week away from all your other commitments and responsibilities.

  2. You want to make changes quickly. Perhaps you don’t want to wait months to see the benefits of traditional weekly therapy. You might have an upcoming event, or you might just be sick of carrying the things that have been troubling you. You want to speed up the process and move forward with your life.

What does the research say?

1

Intensive trauma therapy has been shown to provide similar, or even better outcomes than weekly therapy for people with PTSD, but much more quickly. Learn more here.

2

EMDR delivered in an intensive format has been shown to offer significant reductions in distress, and is well tolerated, with minimal drop out. Learn more here and here.

3

Benefits from intensive EMDR therapy can be similar to those from weekly EMDR, but achieved much more quickly. Learn more here and here.

When is intensive therapy not a good fit?

The Intensive model isn’t always a good fit. It can be more tiring than weekly therapy, and it’s important that you have the resources to manage it. It might not be the right time if:

  1. You are so distressed that you find yourself regularly using self-harm to cope, or are feeling suicidal.

  2. Life feels really unstable at the moment and you don’t have a solid support network around you.

  3. Your difficulties feel out of control and you don’t have the tools to manage them, e.g. you are having regular and uncontrollable flashbacks or panic attacks and don’t feel you have any coping strategies. You might need to develop skills to manage these experiences first, before coming to Intensive therapy.

Curious?

If you’d like more information or to discuss whether an Intensive might the right choice for you, please get in touch.