EMDR Intensive Therapy in Seattle, Washington & online throughout Washington & Oregon & 40 other states via PsyPact
Concentrated therapy to accelerate healing & growth
An intensive gives you unhurried time to process trauma, heal negative beliefs, or remove blocks to performance goals
Does it feel like weekly 50-minute therapy sessions simply haven’t been enough to help you live the life you want?
You’ve been at this therapy thing for a while now, but you feel like you spend every session updating your therapist on another piece of the puzzle they’re missing to really help you. And now, it’s been weeks—or months—and you don’t feel any better than when you started therapy.
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You’ve been meaning to get into weekly therapy for a while now, but your schedule has been so hectic and demanding that another weekly commitment feels overwhelming—more like a chore than something supportive you actually want to do. And why make the effort to reach out, when you’ll just be sitting on a waitlist for weeks?
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You need help—a lot of it—right now. Life is unbearable, you can’t manage these symptoms anymore, you’re white-knuckling your way through your days, and you don’t have the time to spend months or even years in traditional weekly therapy to feel better.
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You are new to therapy, and the idea of a therapy intensive just makes intuitive sense to you.
The traditional model of weekly therapy is shifting to meet your needs first.
Now more than ever, we need flexibility in how we get support.
Do you want to try a new form of therapy?
Intensives can:
Concentrate months of change into a few days
Fit into your busy schedule with minimal disruption
Provide immediate relief from intense or overwhelming symptoms
Help you reach your goals in a fraction of the time—which means less money spent and less time spent suffering
EMDR Intensive FAQ
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EMDR intensives are personalized treatment formats that allow you to skip the waitlist through faster access to select spots. Intensives are designed to match your preferred schedule and timeline for your treatment goals.
EMDR intensives allow you to move through your concerns and reduce your symptoms in a more succinct and focused way, without the repeated weekly interruptions common in traditional therapy. Sessions during an intensive last 3-4 hours per day (1.5-2hrs at a time) for multiple days.
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An intensive format decreases the overall course of treatment because of time not spent on:
checking in at the beginning of every session
addressing weekly crises and concerns that pull attention away from your primary goals
focusing on stabilizing and coping skills that that you won’t need after you’ve healed
assisting you in regaining composure at the end of a session that is too short to fully resolve an issue
Because they reduce your time in treatment, intensives tend to be more cost-effective than traditional weekly therapy. Intensives can also be ideal if you have difficulty taking time away from work or other responsibilities during business hours each week. Many people choose an intensive because they’re in pain, and they don’t want to wait weeks, months, or years to find relief and improve their lives.
To tell you the truth, the weekly-session model of therapy is a medicalized model that became popular because it’s convenient for insurance companies, large mental health clinics, and stable caseloads; it was never designed with your needs in mind. An intensive is a more efficient, effective, and evolved way to do therapy.
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Before we get to the intensive EMDR work, we’ll meet for a Pre-Intensive Interview to determine the goal(s) of the time we’ll have together. We’ll analyze what your life looks like now, including current stressors, your support system, and your strategies for coping with big emotions and uncomfortable physical sensations. We’ll also identify places where you want relief, growth, or to take a big step forward.
During the intensive itself, we will simultaneously work on decreasing the pain you’re feeling while also increasing your ability to connect with more enjoyable feelings, thoughts, and memories. We do this with deep-level brain processing in EMDR, and learning which specific coping strategies work best for you.
After the EMDR intensive, we’ll meet for a Post-Intensive interview to reflect on what you processed and learned, what was most meaningful to you, and how you can allow these new insights and shifts to permeate more of your life moving forward.
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You want to experience deep therapeutic work that can change your life quickly.
You’ve had a painful, uncomfortable, or traumatizing experience that is still impacting you today.
You have some time off work or school coming up, and you want to use some of it for a mental spa day.
You have done EMDR before and found it helpful for healing and moving through life without feeling weighed down.
You want to prepare yourself for a big life event (a wedding, moving somewhere new, becoming a parent, starting at a new job or school).
You already go to weekly therapy and you feel stuck, or like you’re on the verge of a breakthrough that you don’t want to miss out on.
Intensives can be a powerful supplement to your weekly therapy. I’m happy to consult with your existing therapist before and after our work together, to make sure you get the maximum benefit.
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A growing body of research shows that intensive application of trauma-focused therapy is well-tolerated in patients with PTSD, enabling faster symptom reduction with similar, or even better, results than weekly therapy. It also reduces the risk that patients drop out prematurely.
Intensive EMDR treatment is both feasible and indicative of reliable improvement in PTSD symptoms in a short time-frame.
An intensive program using EMDR is a potentially safe and effective treatment alternative for complex PTSD.
The economic advantage of intensive therapy is compelling. Compared to other trauma treatment, the intensive format may decrease treatment time significantly.
A therapy intensive is like a Disney FastPass—you get a VIP experience, skipping the lines of traditional therapy waitlists and accelerating your healing.
EMDR intensives can help with…
Trauma related to assault, abuse, or overwhelming single-incident events (PTSD)
Painful childhood experiences, including neglect, attachment trauma, and more (C-PTSD)
Self-esteem concerns
Stress, anxiety, phobias, OCD
Depression and negative self-talk
Medical trauma, including recovery from accidents/injuries and chronic pain/illness
Burnout in helping professionals
Performance and creativity enhancement
Addictions
…and more
What are the fees for intensive therapy?
Personalized Brainspotting & EMDR intensives are half-day to multi-day programs that include a customized treatment plan specific to your goals. Fees are based on your unique needs and the program we design to fit them. All feels are communicated ahead of time with the No Surprises Act.
Intensive sessions are typically $400-$500 per hour, and may be eligible for partial reimbursement by using out-of-network benefits (see FAQ below for more information).
Intensive packages (intake session + 3-hr intensive session) start at $1550*
I offer free phone or Zoom consultations to discuss your needs and interest in a personalized intensive program
*For current clients who want to add a therapy intensive to their care, please note your rate may be different.
How is intensive therapy more cost-effective and time-efficient than weekly therapy?
Weekly therapy typically includes:
10-15 minutes of checking in from the last session
20-30 minutes of EMDR processing
10-15 minutes of closing the session
You might spend a month working one specific stressor, costing around $1400 for the 4 weekly therapy sessions.
But realistically, stuff comes up between sessions, so you don’t always want to work on Brainspotting or EMDR processing in the next session, and the focus might shift significantly week-to-week.
So in reality, you might actually be in therapy for multiple months ($1400 x # of months) and still not fully resolve the stressor you’re dealing with right now.
Intensive therapy, on the other hand, typically includes:
10-15 minutes of checking in and establishing a focus for the session
160-210 minutes of EMDR processing
10-15 minutes closing the session
It’s common to fully resolve one or multiple stressors within half of a day, costing around $2000. Two to three hours of Brainspotting or EMDR processing is equivalent to at least double that amount of traditional talk therapy—so you’re doing more work in less time. You’ll need less therapy overall.
The main point? You feel better sooner.
You spend less money on therapy. You spend less time on symptom-managing medications (that weren’t really working anyways). You don’t have to keep taking time off work or paying for childcare to attend your sessions.
More EMDR Intensive FAQs
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This is a premium service. I charge higher fees due to the increased work, energy demands, and schedule flexibility required to offer intensives. Intensives also provide more value for you than traditional weekly therapy, and the investment reflects that.
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Sometimes. Many insurance plans (typically PPOs) will reimburse a portion of the cost of psychotherapy. For insurance purposes, I am considered an out-of-network provider.
I recommend you speak with your insurance company ahead of time to learn the exact details of your policy, including what out-of-network benefits are available, and if your insurance will reimburse several hours of therapy in one day or one week. You can call the customer service number on the back of your insurance card to find this information.
I can provide you with a superbill for all direct contact therapy services included in your intensive. This is what you will submit to your insurance for reimbursement. Please note that the insurance company requires a diagnosis code as a reason for treatment. If you have questions, let me know. I’m happy to provide more information to help with this process.
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A one-day intensive can help you increase performance and confidence, or significantly decrease the devastating effects of a single-event trauma (e.g., negative thoughts, disturbing emotions or body sensations).
While significant healing can occur in a one-day intensive, Complex PTSD deserves more than a half-day of treatment. Many clients experiencing Complex PTSD may continue to work on their trauma histories through monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly half-day intensives.
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Participating in a two- or three-day intensive can create powerful change more efficiently than weekly 50-minute sessions, or even a half-day intensive. This could mean working through multiple stressors or issues, or laying a solid foundation for healing from Complex PTSD. During your initial consultation, we’ll identify what format is best for you.
Multi-day intensive sessions are similar to going on a personal retreat. It’s best to allow time outside of sessions to be unscheduled or filled only with self-care activities like exercise, body work (acupuncture or massage), and creative expression (drawing painting, cooking, etc.).
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Intensives can be scheduled online or in-person. Please note that, due to licensure laws, I can only work with you if you are in the state of Oregon or Washington. In-person intensives can take place at my office in Seattle, WA, or in Portland, OR. There are multiple options for accommodations and dining if you are coming from out of town; I’m happy to provide referrals and recommendations.
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You just need to be physically in the state of Washington or Oregon at the time of our work together. If you are out-of-state, you can travel to Washington or Oregon for the intensive. Some people like traveling for the intensive, as it adds to the experience of having a get-away to purely focus on healing and growth.
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We’ll start with a free 20-minute consultation so that we can meet and see how we connect, and discuss whether an intensive is a good fit for you. If so, we’ll get your sessions scheduled.
After booking, I will hold the dates for your intensive for one week. You will be charged a non-refundable deposit for half the amount of your intensive cost. By the end of one week, I need completion of your intake paperwork in the client portal to continue holding your scheduled intensive.
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Trauma intensives give us more time in each session so we can go deeper, faster, and make more progress on important goals without long gaps between meetings. Some studies show this approach can reduce PTSD symptoms more quickly, but it’s still a fairly new adaptation of therapy, so research is ongoing and results can vary.
Because we’re spending significant time on difficult topics, you might feel emotionally drained, tired, or more sensitive for a few days afterward. I’ll check in with you regularly during our time together and make adjustments to keep things safe and manageable.