Why Choose an EMDR Intensive?

Weekly therapy can be incredibly helpful. For many people, it is the right place to start.

But sometimes one hour at a time starts to feel too slow.

This is especially true if you already have insight, you can talk about your patterns really well, and yet your nervous system still reacts like the old story is happening now. In those cases, an EMDR intensive can offer something a standard weekly session often cannot: enough time to actually settle in, do the work, and close in a grounded way.

EMDR has long been practiced in longer sessions than the standard therapy hour. EMDRIA notes that a typical EMDR session lasts 60 to 90 minutes, and Francine Shapiro’s early writing on EMDR cited research in which some trauma treatment was completed in three 90-minute sessions. That does not mean every person needs 90-minute sessions, but it does support the idea that EMDR was never meant to be squeezed into a rushed format.

In a weekly 60-minute session, there is often only so much room. You arrive, settle, orient, check in, begin to access the material, and then it is almost time to make sure you are grounded enough to leave. That can still be good therapy. But it can also create a stop-and-start rhythm that feels frustrating when you are trying to do deeper reprocessing.

An intensive allows for more continuity. There is more space to prepare, more time to stay with the work once your system gets there, and more room to close carefully instead of ending right when something meaningful is starting to move. For the right client, that can make EMDR feel less fragmented and more effective. EMDRIA also describes EMDR as a therapy that may take one or several sessions to process a traumatic experience, with typical sessions in that 60–90 minute range.

This is also one reason EMDR intensives are often offered outside of insurance. Insurance billing is generally built around standard psychotherapy time units. CMS guidance, for example, centers psychotherapy coding around shorter session structures, with 90837 used for 53+ minutes, and sessions that extend to 90 minutes or longer requiring additional coding rules and documentation of medical necessity. In real life, intensive work often includes preparation, pacing, breaks, and follow-up integration support that do not fit neatly into the usual insurance framework.

So it is not that weekly therapy is bad. Not at all. It is that some work benefits from more space.

If you are someone who feels stuck in loops that you already understand intellectually, if talking about it has only gotten you so far, or if you want a more focused and immersive format, an EMDR intensive may be a better fit than one hour a week.

That is why I offer them.

If you are curious about whether an EMDR intensive could make sense for you, reach out through my website contact form. I will respond within 24 hours.