EMDR Intensives for Adults & Couples | Newington, CT
Virtual in CT, MA, RI
a clear, structured path toward deeper trauma and relationship healing – offered in person and virtually
What if therapy had more room?
Weekly therapy can be incredibly valuable.
But sometimes 50 minutes just isn’t enough time to settle in, reach the heart of the work, process what comes up, and close with intention.
EMDR Intensives create more room.
More time to prepare, more time to follow what emerges, and more flexibility to slow down, pause, or shift course as needed.
The goal isn’t to fit more trauma into one session. It’s to give meaningful work enough space to unfold.
More time doesn’t mean pushing harder. It means we don’t have to rush.
What Exactly is an EMDR Intensive?
What we can work on…
An EMDR Intensive can focus on a specific experience, a recurring trigger, a relationship wound, or a pattern that still feels stuck even when you understand it intellectually.
We might work with childhood or relational trauma, grief and loss, medical experiences, shame, rejection, attachment wounds, burnout, difficult transitions, or a memory that still carries more emotional weight than you want it to.
For couples, the work may focus on a rupture, betrayal, attachment injury, or repetitive cycle that keeps getting activated between you.
You don’t need to arrive with the “perfect” target already figured out. You bring what feels stuck, and we’ll identify together where the work needs to begin.
Why more time makes a bigger impact…
In a traditional therapy hour, there’s a lot to fit in: settling into the session, accessing the work, processing, and then making sure you’re grounded enough to return to your day.
Just as we reach something important, it’s time to stop.
An EMDR Intensive gives us something different: continuity.
With fewer interruptions, there’s more time to stay with the work once your nervous system is ready, follow connections as they emerge, and allow processing to unfold without repeatedly starting and stopping.
No one is watching the clock.
That doesn’t mean we spend hours pushing through difficult material. The extra time gives us room to pause, regulate, take breaks, and integrate along the way.
The value isn’t “more therapy in one day.” It’s having enough time to do the work differently.
EMDR Intensives for Adults
You’ve already done a lot of the work. You understand where your patterns came from. You can name your triggers, recognize the protective responses, and explain exactly why you react the way you do.
And yet, knowing hasn’t fully changed how it feels.
EMDR Intensives offer a dedicated space to work with what may still be held at an emotional, somatic, or nervous-system level.
We can focus deeply on a particular experience or pattern without needing to fit the work into the edges of a traditional therapy hour.
This format can be especially valuable when you’re ready for focused trauma work, have limited room for weekly appointments, or you just know that starting and stopping every 50 minutes isn’t how you work best.
You don’t have to be in crisis to be ready for deeper work.
EMDR Intensives for Couples
Sometimes couples know exactly what keeps happening between them, and yet, they still can’t seem to stop it.
The same wound gets touched, the same protective responses show up, and suddenly you’re having a the same fight all over again.
EMDR Intensives give couples more time to slow that cycle down and work with what’s underneath it.
Depending on your needs, we may focus on attachment injuries, betrayal or loss of trust, past experiences that continue to shape the relationship, or the individual triggers each partner brings into the dynamic.
The goal isn’t to decide who is right. It’s to help both partners understand and process what keeps getting activated so there is more room for safety, connection, and choice.
Changing the pattern means working with what the pattern is protecting.
Not sure whether an intensive is the right format for you?
Let’s figure that out together.
Why trust me with your intensive experience?
Deep work requires more than knowing how to follow an EMDR protocol. It requires knowing when to move forward, when to slow down, what your nervous system is communicating, and how to adapt the work to the person (or relationship) in front of me.
I’m a licensed clinical social worker and EMDR therapist with more than 14 years of experience working with trauma, neurodivergence, relationships, and complex nervous systems.
My approach is warm, direct, deeply individualized, and neurodivergent-affirming. I don’t believe good trauma therapy means pushing you past your limits in the name of progress. And I bring my full self, and my personality, into the experience.
An intensive with me is thoughtfully prepared and intentionally paced. You’ll have my full attention, clinical expertise, and plenty of room to be a human while we do meaningful work together.
MOST COMMON QUESTIONS
01. Is an EMDR Intensive more intense than regular EMDR?
Not necessarily. This is actually one of the biggest misconceptions about intensives.
“Intensive” refers to the extended format, not to pushing you harder or asking you to tolerate more distress.
Having more time actually allows us to slow down. We can prepare thoroughly, take breaks, regulate when needed, follow what emerges, and close intentionally rather than trying to fit everything into a 50-minute window.
More time doesn’t mean more pressure. It means more room.
02. Can one EMDR Intensive really make a difference?
It can. Some people experience meaningful shifts after a single intensive, while others benefit from multiple intensives or continued therapy afterward.
Trauma, nervous systems, and relationships are complex, so no ethical therapist can guarantee a particular outcome or timeline.
What an intensive can provide is several hours of focused, uninterrupted therapeutic work around something that has been keeping you stuck, without repeatedly having to stop and restart from week to week.
03. What actually happens during a 3-hour intensive?
You will not spend three straight hours processing traumatic memories.
Your intensive is intentionally structured around your goals and capacity and may include preparation, resourcing, identifying targets, EMDR processing, breaks, regulation, reflection, and integration.
We’ll continuously adjust the pace based on what you need. There is no prize for getting through the most material. We’re looking for meaningful work, not maximum intensity.
04. Can I do an intensive if I already have a therapist?
Absolutely. You do not need to leave your current therapist to work with me for an EMDR Intensive.
Intensives can be used as an adjunct to ongoing therapy when there is a particular experience, trigger, or pattern you’d like dedicated time to address.
With your permission, I can also collaborate with your existing therapist when clinically appropriate so the intensive fits thoughtfully into your larger treatment.
05. Are EMDR Intensives available virtually?
Yes. I offer virtual EMDR Intensives to clients located in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, as well as in-person intensives in Newington, Connecticut.
We’ll talk beforehand about your environment, privacy, technology, regulation supports, and anything else needed to make virtual intensive work feel comfortable and contained.
06. How will I feel after an EMDR Intensive?
Everyone responds differently. You may notice relief, greater distance from something that previously felt highly charged, new insights, emotional shifts, fatigue, or continued processing in the hours and days afterward.
We leave time at the end of your intensive to intentionally transition out of the work and discuss what to expect afterward. You’ll also leave with an integration plan and clear recommendations for what comes next. That might mean allowing the work to settle, returning to your regular therapist, or considering additional EMDR work.
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