Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched and effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from single trauma incidents, complex trauma, anxiety, depression, attachment wounds, and other distressing life experiences.

EMDR therapy works to connect the memory to what’s called the “adaptive neural network.” Traumatic memories are stored in their own encapsulated neural networks in the brain, these memories become “stuck”, resulting in high levels of anxiety, fear, and distress when the memory becomes triggered. Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, beliefs, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.”

Fortunately, our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, other times they cannot be effectively processed without help.

EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The memories don’t go away, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved. This helps the memory become part of a narrative memory with less visceral activation and power over someone’s system.

Living with the fall out of trauma is difficult and discouraging. Feeling trapped and imprisoned by your past can soon become your way of life and functioning. Despite your best efforts and even possible multiple attempts with therapy, you are still struggling. Too often, unhelpful coping strategies such as avoidance or “checking out” become the normal way of living. These patterns can be deeply ingrained and difficult to work through in typical one-hour therapy sessions.

An intensive therapy model allows us to work through complex and counterproductive protective strategies more efficiently without the concern of running out of time. With the focused time, we are able to move into reprocessing the underlying trauma memories more efficiently. Longer therapy sessions actually allow us to get to the traumas in less time overall.

At Mosaic, we offer EMDR Mini-Intensives in clusters of three hours. We also offer 1-Day and 2-Day EMDR Intensives.

EMDR Intensives include personalized treatment plans that give clients faster access to therapy services and are designed to support quicker symptom relief.

Not everyone is best served by EMDR Intensives. However, the Intensive model can be life-changing for many people. You may benefit from Intensives if you're a busy parent or working professional who needs help now and doesn't have time for weekly therapy.

Whatever the reason that weekly sessions won’t work for you, EMDR Intensives are designed to treat your symptoms quickly and effectively.

EMDR Intensives might be beneficial to you if you're currently doing traditional EMDR and struggling to get through certain stuck points in one-hour sessions.

Furthermore, some clients living with complex traumas, dissociative tendencies, or strong “protector parts” find they can process better with longer session times.

EMDR Intensives can be beneficial if you've already done a lot of talk therapy and know your stuck points.

Lastly, you may know what you need from EMDR therapy and would prefer to put several hours or days aside to focus on healing rather than delay or spread it out over more time.