EMDR Intensive
Loosening what’s compacted.
Tending to what’s ready to transform.
Trusting your natural renewal.
Why EMDR Intensive?
Healing from trauma can be compared to restoring a neglected garden, whether it’s been overrun all at once or quietly untended over time. At the centre is the compost heap—the fertile meeting point of what’s been heavy, tangled, or long-stuck. It’s where decomposition becomes transformation; where old material breaks down to nourish what’s next.
Composting is the mind’s natural intelligence at work. Given warmth, air, and time — the right mix of safety, connection, and attention — what was once tangled or unbearable begins to break down. Not destroyed, but changed.
Trauma is what hasn’t yet composted: experience still too dense, too raw, to breathe. EMDR therapy doesn’t force it; it supports conditions that let the mind do what it already knows — to turn waste into nourishment, loss into ground, and what was stuck into soil that can support new life.
In weekly EMDR, you tend the garden gradually — clearing a patch, planting seeds, gently turning part of the compost. It’s steady, thoughtful work that gives your system safety and space to integrate.
An intensive is the same garden, worked in a different rhythm. It’s a stretch of focused time that allows the process to stay active — to keep turning while the soil is warm. With uninterrupted attention and support, your system can move through what would normally take weeks or even months, maintaining the flow that helps transformation complete.
Both nurture growth; they differ mainly in tempo — one steady and cumulative, the other concentrated and continuous.
This can mean:
staying with a memory or pattern until resolution emerges,
building momentum that’s difficult to sustain in weekly slices,
allowing time for your system to integrate the work within a contained arc
When an intensive is unlikely to fit
You may need more time to prepare the soil—focusing on safety, stability, and nervous system regulation before moving into more intensive work. An EMDR intensive may not be suitable if you:
Are in acute crisis or at risk of harm
Struggle to manage intense emotions without external support
Have had recent hospitalisation or major medication changes
Are new to learning to tolerate distress
Need longer-term, open-ended support
Are currently affected by substance use that impacts functioning
Weekly therapy vs EMDR intensive
Weekly EMDR is like tending your garden in steady rhythm—pulling weeds, watering new shoots, and allowing recovery between visits. It’s sustainable, particularly when safety and stability are still taking root.
An EMDR intensive, by contrast, is setting aside time to fully work the soil—turning, clearing, and nourishing what’s ready to shift. It’s immersive and catalytic, often achieving in days what might otherwise take months.
Both rhythms support growth. One is slower and ongoing, the other more focused and immersive. What matters is finding the rhythm that suits you.They can also often be combined.
Curious if an intensive could help? The first consult is a chance to explore that together.
