EMDR Intensives

An accelerated treatment approach for significant and lasting change in a condensed format.

Why EMDR?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a well-researched and evidence-based therapy that supports people in healing from a wide range of psychological challenges and difficult life experiences.

Originally developed to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), EMDR has proven to be highly effective in addressing a range of issues, including challenges with emotional regulation, adverse reactions related to historical events and relationships, anxieties, and phobias. It can also help strengthen emotional resources, such as confidence and self-esteem, and enhance performance in sports or other competitive contexts.

At its core, EMDR helps process past adverse experiences or formative memories that have led to unhelpful beliefs, patterns of behaviours, or emotional experiences by reorganizing how these memories are stored in the brain. EMDR allows you to shift from feeling stuck in negative emotions to developing more balanced perspectives and responses.

At Inward Bound, members of our team offer EMDR in two formats:

  1. In the context of ongoing therapy, with sessions at whatever frequency you and your therapist decide is beneficial and manageable for you.

  2. As an EMDR intensive.

EMDR INTENSIVES

Unlike many other forms of therapy, EMDR does not benefit from time between sessions to practice new skills or participate in homework activities, making it ideal for an intensive approach. This condensed approach can make it especially helpful in the face of life’s demands—such as time, finances, travel, and emotional energy—which can make it challenging to fully engage in traditional therapy and see progress as quickly as we would like.

That’s why we have several clinicians who offer EMDR Intensive Therapy, designed to help you make meaningful progress in a shorter, more focused timeframe. This approach is personalized to meet your unique needs, enabling us to work in-depth and efficiently, so you can maximize your time and investment.

Continue reading for more details about our EMDR Intensives, or click here to visit Our Team page and choose a therapist whose profile says “offers EMDR Intensive therapy” to book a free consultation.

Varied intensity to meet your needs

Whether you prefer multiple days in a row or in a series of smaller chunks of time, we can create a plan that suits you. During our consultation call, we can explore what type of structure may best fit your needs.

  • More Intense: Over one or multiple consecutive days, ranging from 4-6 hours per day (great for those travelling from out of town). This allows dedicated time, free from the noise of day-to-day demands, to delve deeply into the work and make significant change quickly.

  • Ongoing Clusters: Scheduled in 3 or 4 hour increments spanning over a period of time as discussed in your consultation. This approach blends the focus and structure of an intensive with more flexibility for other day-to-day demands.

The goal is symptom resolution

In your intensive, we’ll identify the specific memories or experiences that may be contributing to your current struggles. Using focused attention and bilateral stimulation, we’ll guide your brain in reprocessing these memories, so you can gain clarity, reduce emotional distress, and move forward with greater ease.

What about an intensive in the context of ongoing therapy?

EMDR can be highly effective in removing blocks and barriers to seeing the progress and change towards your goals in your therapeutic process. Combining an intensive with your ongoing therapy can be a very helpful addition.

If you’re already working with a therapist and would like to participate in an intensive, we are happy to collaborate with your therapist to complement your ongoing work.

If you don’t have an ongoing therapist but are curious about a hybrid model of ongoing and intensive therapy, we are happy to discuss how our team members may be able to support you. 

No matter what you’re struggling with,

we can help you uncover and address what’s behind the challenges you’re facing.