Understanding EMDR Intensives
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What is Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing(EMDR)?
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, and helps people process distressing traumatic events and the associated images, emotions, and beliefs which are stuck or blocked in the emotional part of the brain. By using bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping or audio stimulation, EMDR helps the brain process and overcome the traumatic event by moving the stuck information to the more adaptive area of the brain that deals with logic and sense making. Once the stuck memories have been processed, it can lead to symptom relief. You can read more about EMDR here

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What are EMDR intensives?

EMDR intensives accelerate the EMDR therapy process because several months of therapy is condensed into a few days. This means that EMDR intensives are focused, in-depth and immersive.

One of the most significant advantages of intensive EMDR is the potential for rapid progress. In weekly sessions of therapy, it may take several weeks or months to work through a traumatic or challenging event. In contrast, EMDR intensives condense the timeline into a few days which helps you reach your goals and alleviate trauma symptoms more quickly.

Talking about trauma is overwhelming and triggering. For some people, they feel like they are just surviving in-between weekly therapy sessions and that’s hard when you need to carry on working or being present in your relationships. EMDR intensives offer a powerful approach to trauma therapy, providing individuals with an opportunity to accelerate healing.

It's important to mention that intensive EMDR can be used to treat any issue that standard therapy would treat, not just trauma. They are effective at working through current issues as well issues stemming from your past.

Research has shown intensive formats of EMDR are equally, if not more effective than weekly sessions of EMDR Therapy (see below for links to the research).

Who is suitable for intensive EMDR?

• You are specific about what you want to work on.
  
  
• You have experienced a single event trauma and know that this is what you want to focus on in your therapy.
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• You're fed up of trauma holding you back and you want to reclaim your life and address your trauma symptoms efficiently and quickly.
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• You feel stuck with your grieving process following the loss of a loved one.
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• Your obligations to work, family and other commitments means your time is constrained so you cannot attend ongoing weekly therapy sessions.
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• You’re able to make time for a short period of concentrated therapy work so that the impact on your obligations is minimal.
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• You’re struggling with a quickly-approaching upcoming event and want to work on this e.g. travelling for a holiday.
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• You are already having therapy but feel a bit stuck with your current therapist. Perhaps they are not trauma trained or their way of helping with the trauma has not helped.  You can attend an EMDR intensive as an adjunct to your existing therapy sessions.

Who is not suitable for intensive EMDR?

Timing is everything and it may not be the right time for you to have intensive EMDR if you:
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• Can’t currently cope with difficult situations in your life.
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• Have active suicidal thoughts
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• Are in crisis
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• Have had a recent hospital admission for mental health concerns.

‍What happens during an intensive EMDR session?

Dr Maria Tucknott carries out her intensive EMDR sessions across three half-days in the same week (2.5 hours per day). These can be carried out online, in-person in Hertford or a mixture of both.

During the intensive, Dr Maria Tucknott will work with you on your difficulties using EMDR along with grounding exercises, breathing and reflection in-between processing sessions to ensure an optimal and contained experience. You can read more about the whole process here

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Book an appointment for EMDR Therapy

If you are interested in EMDR in Hertford or intensive EMDR, contact Dr Maria Tucknott today and we can decide what format of EMDR is suitable for you.