EMDR Intensive Therapy in Pennsylvania
Deep healing does not always need to take a long time.
Is traditional weekly therapy not working for you?
You’ve built insight into your recurrent issues.
You’ve begun changing your self-talk and implementing better coping skills.
But you still feel a subtle misalignment with the positive thoughts and behaviors you’re consciously implementing.
You still get shaky, uncertain, or irritable when you come across people or situations that you feel like you should’ve figured out by now.
And maybe you get the nagging sense that the 60-minute session limit doesn’t permit you to break through the walls you keep hitting.
You’re in the right place!
Introducing EMDR Intensives
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Therapy intensives are sessions that extend beyond the 60-minute mark, usually to focus on a specific goal or core issue.
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When people begin their personal therapy journey, the typical recommended frequency is weekly or biweekly 60-minute sessions. This frequency is helpful for easing into the habit of discussing emotional and psychological problems, for managing ongoing or unfolding events, for increasing insight, for making gradual and slow change, or for building trust and rapport with your therapist.
Intensive sessions are helpful for when people have a clear grasp of a recurrent issue and are ready for bigger, deeper, and faster relief and change.
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EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress resulting from disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by undergoing EMDR therapy, people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can heal from psychological trauma in a similar way as the body as it recovers from physical trauma.
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Intensive EMDR is delivered in 90-minute, 2-hour, 3-hour, or 4-hour sessions.
EMDR intensives may be indicated for people who have experienced prolonged or chronic stress, or complex/multiple incident trauma.
The eight-phase full protocol of EMDR may be completed more efficiently in the intensive format due to the extended session length. This can encourage prolonged relief and prevent adverse experiences of EMDR.
Regular EMDR is delivered over a biweekly or weekly basis in 60-minute sessions.
Weekly EMDR sessions may be the preference for clients beginning EMDR, clients for whom the 60-minute length provides the depth of relief and change desired, or clients who prefer to work in incremental changes over a longer period of time.
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Research has shown that EMDR intensives allow people experiencing post-traumatic stress (PTSD) to achieve faster symptom reduction, such as decreased intensity of auditory and visual hallucinations, hypervigilance, irritability, depressed mood, and confusion of past and present experience.
Click here and here to read studies on the efficacy of EMDR intensives for people with complex PTSD.
Click here to read a study comparing intensive therapy with weekly therapy for PTSD.
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While EMDR is popularly known to help people recover from the effects of different kinds of trauma and abuse, EMDR can also be an effective treatment for chronic anxiety, persistent depression, obsessions and compulsions, addictions, as well as grief and loss.
Mental health diagnoses and symptom clusters originate as responses to changes or stressors in one’s environment. Because EMDR is an information and memory reprocessing therapy, it is designed to target and help you release and reprocess a wide range of stress reactions that arose in response to something that happened in your life.
EMDR can be helpful for anyone who has experienced the limits of insight-based therapy. A successful treatment can help relieve emotional distress, reformulate negative beliefs, and reduce physiological arousal tied to stressors.
EMDR intensives can help you…
break down thought-based or feeling-based loops that make you feel miserable and unresolved
lessen your reactivity to negative, stressful, or activating events
decrease the amount of time you spend managing your mental health symptoms caused by said stressors
increase the amount of time you are able to actually stay present for the activities and relationships you care about
get more out of your mental health care — weekly/biweekly sessions stop feeling so repetitive because you have intensive sessions for deep change on that core, recurring issue
Let me show you how EMDR intensives are more effective and efficient than weekly EMDR therapy:
Weekly therapy:
10-15 mins checking in and goal setting
20-30 mins processing
10-15 mins stabilizing and closing
The cost of one month of weekly therapy: $600
One 3-hour EMDR intensive therapy session:
10-15 mins checking in and goal setting
150-160 mins processing
10-15 mins stabilizing and closing
The cost of one 3-hour intensive in one day: $650
EMDR Intensive Structure and Fees
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These are my fees for my EMDR intensive packages.
All intensive packages include a 1-hour intake session prior to the intensive as well as a follow-up session a few weeks after the intensive.
EMDR intensives can be highly customized to your schedule, needs, and capacity. Your fee will be a direct reflection of how you would like to structure your intensive healing process over time.
Please speak with me if you would like to create your own custom EMDR intensive package.
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60-min pre-intensive Intake: $216
One 3-hour intensive: $650
60-min post-intensive follow-up: $216
Total: $1,082
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60-min pre-intensive intake: $216
Two 3-hour intensives over two weekdays: $1,300
60-min post-intensive follow-up: $216
Total: $1,732
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60-min pre-intensive intake: $216
Four 90-minute intensives over 4 weeks: $1,300
60-min post-intensive follow-up: $216
Total: $1,732
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90-minute intensive: $325
2-hour intensive: $430
3-hour intensive: $650
4-hour intensive: $860
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These are my sliding scale rates for EMDR intensives.
I am committed to making my services as accessible as possible. I am open to discussing what fee would be reasonable for you.
I also ask that if you are able to pay within a higher tier and are interested in contributing to community care and mutual aid, that you will do so.
The more clients I have who are aware of their stable income and are willing to engage in this redistribution, the more people in need I can support.
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60-min pre-intensive intake: $185
One 3-hour intensive: $600
60-min post-intensive follow-up: $185
Total: $970
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60-min pre-intensive intake: $185
Two 3-hour intensives over two weekdays: $1,200
60-min post-intensive follow-up: $185
Total: $1,570
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60-min pre-intensive intake: $185
Four 90-minute intensives over 4 weeks: $1,200
60-min post-intensive follow-up: $185
Total: $1,570
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90-minute intensive: $300
2-hour intensive: $405
3-hour intensive: $605
4-hour intensive: $805
FAQs about EMDR Intensives
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EMDR intensives are not covered by many insurances at this time. They are an out-of-pocket service which you may pay for via a credit, debit, or HSA/FSA card.
If your health plan offers reimbursements for out-of-pocket services, you may request a superbill from me to attain reimbursement. It is not guaranteed that you will be reimbursed a percentage of the total fee; however, I have seen clients receive up to 50% of their intensive fee back.
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You set a specific intention and focus for the intensive.
It may be a pattern or theme focus (e.g. be less of a perfectionist; trust and open up to others more).
It can be a symptom focus (e.g. decrease panic, improve sleep).
Or, it can be focused on a specific intrusive memory or cluster of memories.
You may gain clarity coupled with somatic releases of the images, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and sensations that keep you stuck.
Then, you may come away with insight into how to get unstuck as well as a felt ability to carry this knowledge out.
Your results will vary based on your ability to regulate through various nervous system states of activation. This will call upon your previous therapeutic work, your emotion regulation skills, and how much support and stability you have currently.
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EMDR intensives can be a helpful adjunct for your regular therapy sessions with your established and trusted provider.
First, discuss your interest in an adjunct EMDR intensive with your primary therapist. You should have your therapist’s agreement that an EMDR intensive will assist your healing and growth process.
Second, reach out to me and state your interest in an EMDR intensive as an adjunct to regular therapy. Let me know about your goals, and we can discuss how you’d like to schedule your intensive.
Third, while you prepare for your EMDR intensive, I will engage in case coordination with your primary therapist prior to and after the intensive.
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Send me an email or a voicemail to let me know you are interested in an intensive. We’ll discuss in our consultation your goals, your previous therapeutic work, and your readiness for an EMDR intensive, as well as any questions you may have.