EMDR Intensives - Psychotherapy for adults in Vancouver

Sometimes healing benefits from spaciousness.

An EMDR Intensive offers the opportunity to step out of the demands of daily life and dedicate focused time to your healing. Rather than working within a traditional 50-minute therapy session, an intensive creates space to settle into the healing more fully, be with what emerges, and engage in deep therapeutic work without feeling rushed.

For many of our clients, this concentrated EMDR format feels immersive, intentional, and supportive of meaningful progress.

An EMDR Intensive may be a good fit if…

You’re looking for a dedicated block of time to focus on healing, rather than fitting therapy into the margins of a busy life.
You have a specific concern, memory, life transition, or pattern that you’d like to work on more intentionally.
Your schedule makes weekly therapy difficult to commit to, but you’re ready to invest meaningful time in your healing now.
You’re navigating significant stress, overwhelm, trauma symptoms, anxiety, or burnout and would benefit from dedicated, extended support.
You’ve already done therapy before or are currently in weekly therapy and would like an additional focused container for a particular area of growth or healing.
You want the opportunity to engage in several hours of EMDR therapy without feeling rushed by the constraints of a traditional session.

What Is an EMDR Intensive?

An EMDR Intensive is an extended, focused block of therapy time designed to allow for deeper processing without the repeated starts and stops of weekly sessions. Rather than dividing your healing into small, time-pressured increments, an intensive creates the conditions for momentum by allowing enough time to open up complex material, engage fully in the therapeutic process, and still have adequate time for grounding and integration.

How Our Intensives Are Structured

At The Trauma Therapy Group, our EMDR Intensive offering is built around a three-session model designed to hold you fully from start to finish:

Step 1: Pre-Intensive Intake Session (80 minutes)

Before your intensive day, we meet for an extended intake and planning session. This is where we slow down to prepare by reviewing your history, clarifying your goals, building or deepening your stabilization toolkit, and making sure you feel resourced and ready. We’ll work together to map the work so that your intensive day can be focused and effective.

Step 2: The Intensive Day (5 hours)

Your intensive is a five-hour dedicated EMDR session, with 2-3 built-in breaks. With unhurried time on our side, we can move through material more completely, spending adequate time in full processing, rather than having to repeatedly set things aside before resolution. We build in grounding and pacing throughout, so the experience is deep but safe and held.

Step 3: Post-Intensive Integration Session (80 minutes)

After your intensive, we meet again for a dedicated integration session. This is where we consolidate the processing you’ve done, and support your nervous system in integrating the changes. Integration is a core part of the healing and this post-intensive session is often what helps the shifts become lasting. There will also be space in this session to make a plan for ongoing therapeutic maintenance care if desired (e.g., connecting you with a therapist for ongoing monthly sessions – or whichever frequency feels supportive – to support ongoing integration).

What EMDR Intensives Can Help With

EMDR is a highly adaptable approach, and intensives can be used to address a wide range of concerns, including:

Complex or developmental trauma, including early childhood experiences
PTSD and trauma-related symptoms
Anxiety, phobias, and panic
Grief and loss
Attachment wounds and relational trauma
Self-worth, identity, and self-limiting beliefs
Life transitions and stuck points

Intensives may be especially well-suited if you have limited availability for ongoing weekly therapy, are preparing for or integrating a major life event, or maybe have been in therapy before and want to move through something that has felt difficult to shift.

Are EMDR Intensives Right for You?

EMDR Intensives are not a one-size-fits-all approach. In your pre-intensive intake session, we’ll talk through your goals, your history, and whether an intensive format is a good clinical fit for where you are right now.

Intensive work requires a certain degree of stabilization and readiness. The intake session is where we assess and build on stability together, so that your intensive day can be as safe and effective as possible.

Does the Research Support Intensive Therapy?

The short answer: yes. A growing body of evidence suggests that intensive formats are not only effective, but may actually outperform traditional weekly therapy for many people.

Studies show that intensive trauma-focused therapy is well-tolerated, producing faster symptom relief with comparable (or better) outcomes than weekly sessions, and with lower rates of early dropout.
Research specific to EMDR demonstrates that intensive delivery is feasible and associated with meaningful, reliable improvement in PTSD symptoms within a short timeframe.
Intensive EMDR has also shown promise as a safe and effective option for complex PTSD, a population for whom treatment has historically been slow and challenging.
Beyond clinical outcomes, the intensive format carries a practical advantage: compared to traditional treatment, it may significantly reduce overall treatment time, making healing more accessible for those who can’t commit to months of weekly sessions.

Ready to Explore This?

If you’re curious about whether an EMDR Intensive is the right next step in your inner work, we’d love to connect. Booking and current pricing are available through the link below.