What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. It was created by Dr. Francine Shapiro. It is a type of therapy that helps people process and heal from traumatic or distressing events/experiences. When something deeply unsettling happens, your brain might struggle to process the event completely. This can leave you feeling stuck, with memories, thoughts, and/or feelings about the event. Then these symptoms can continue to affect your daily life.
EMDR is going to help you change where the memory is processed in the brain and how it is processed. EMDR helps desensitize the distress and helps you see the event differently and therefore, can help you see yourself, others, and/or the world differently/more adaptively. EMDR will not get rid of the memory. It will not get rid of any emotions and facts about the event/experience that you need to be effective. EMDR therapy, rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the distressing issue, allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.
During an EMDR session, you will be asked to focus on a specific memory while simultaneously doing and paying attention to something else at various lengths of time and speeds i.e. moving your eyes back and forth, self bilateral tapping, holding bilateral tappers/buzzies, or listening to alternating beeps. This process helps your brain process the memory without getting overwhelmed, reducing the emotional impact of the memory over time. It also helps turn on and connect both hemispheres of the brain. It allows you to take in adaptive information about the event.
EMDR therapy does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or completing homework between sessions. Instead, I will guide you in session through the memory and various parts of it (thoughts, emotions, sensory details, physical sensations, and/or scenes) while you focus on the external stimuli (like the eye movements or tapping). Over time, the memory becomes less distressing and the thoughts, emotions, sensory details, physical sensations, and/or scenes related to the memory can reduce in intensity and can change to become more adaptive. It is an art and a science, meaning, it is evidenced-based and structured. However, it is also a collaboration between you and I regarding what we work on, when, and how. The pace of this therapy is personalized to fit your needs.
I am level 1 and level 2 trained by an EMDRIA (EMDR International Association) approved training company. I am also a certified EMDR therapist, also through EMDRIA. What this means is that I have done at least 52 hours of training, that included practicums to apply and practice skills that I learned. This also means that I have done at least 30 hours of consultation with an EMDRIA approved EMDR consultant to help me with my cases/clients I was using EMDR with. I utilize EMDR for more than just trauma. There are EMDR protocols that can be successfully used for treating phobias, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), chemical addictions, negative self-talk, low self-esteem, and many other various addictive behaviors including Eating Disorders.
What are EMDR Intensive Sessions?
What are the benefits and what would this look like?
We would meet for 3-7 hours on one day to do nothing but EMDR therapy. This would typically be on a Saturday or Sunday. Virtually or in-person. 3 hours would be 9am-12pm and the 7 hours would be 9am-4pm, with a 1 hour lunch break on our own at 12pm. We would also do 5 minute breaks every hour. Some clients need more than one day of intensive EMDR, if they have complex PTSD and/or many trauma targets.
A half day or full day of an Intensive session is the equivalent to 6-12 one-hour weekly therapy sessions. Typical sessions are 45-55 minutes but they really only allow for 20-30 minutes of the reprocessing of trauma memories/targets because the 1 st 5-15 minutes are used to do the opening (house keeping stuff and catching up) and the last 5-10 minutes should be used for the closing (debriefing and grounding to help transition you from the session back to your life).
Intensives get you relief faster when you don’t have the time, finances, and/or patience for years of weekly therapy. If we haven’t already or you don’t have already these: We will do a full assessment. We will then create and install/resource as many grounding tools as you need to effectively get through the trauma reprocessing. We will target plan/treatment plan the trauma memories/targets and triggers that you want to work on. These are Phases 1 and 2 of EMDR (EMDR has 8 phases).
The cost is $150 an hour. If you have a health insurance that we are in network with, the 1st hour will be billed to them/we can use your insurance. It is then your responsibility to pay out of pocket for the other hours. If all self-pay, 3 hours would be $450 total and the 7 hour day would be $900 in total to cover the 6 treatment hours (1 hour is for lunch and at no charge). And we can do (agreed upon beforehand) payment plans. This type of EMDR will include a workbook that I will provide you.
To begin EMDR Therapy Intensive Sessions, please reach out to Asia Place, LPCC-S, CDCA or call our office 614-360-2600.
