Fast-track your healing journey.
EMDR Therapy Intensives
What is an EMDR Intensive?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that helps people heal from the effects of overwhelming life experiences.
EMDR Intensives help people to feel better faster by completing this healing in a compact amount of time. Instead of weekly 50-minute sessions that can take months or years to complete, an EMDR Intensive allows you to work through and release your stuck symptoms in a matter of days.
An EMDR Intensive will help you feel better now
Some people view an EMDR intensive like “therapy-surgery”, or a therapy retreat. Instead of having to set aside time for a weekly appointment for months (or years), an EMDR Intensive takes a few days and you are done.
EMDR Intensives are great for…
▸ Anxiety and depression
▸ PTSD and Complex Trauma
▸ Panic attacks & phobias
▸ Limiting beliefs
▸ Recent traumatic events (EMDR intensives can help avoid experiencing PTSD)
▸ Traumatic car accident, fire, or natural disaster
▸ Victim of a crime, including sexual assault
▸ Grief and loss, recent and past grief
▸ Childhood trauma or attachment trauma
EMDR Intensives aren’t great for…
▸ Active suicidality: You are having thoughts about hurting yourself or others – and have means or a plan to do so.
▸ Severe Dissociation: Some dissociation is okay, as I have extensive experience with dissociative disorders.
▸ When you don’t have your basic needs (food, shelter, safety) met. This may block processing or hinder results.
What are the Benefits of an EMDR Intensive?
Feel Better Quickly, Days not Years
Not only is an EMDR Intensive condensed in terms of length of treatment (days, not months), it also requires less therapy time overall to achieve the same results. Many clients start to experience a shift within a few hours of starting.
Get to the Core of the Issue
The difficult truth: Your pain will keep happening unless we heal the core issue. The EMDR Intensive container provides you a focused, concentrated space to identify the root, and then unravel the layers of trauma to provide lasting relief.
Give Your Pain the Attention it Needs
Have you ever been talking to your therapist and right when you get to the main point of your issue, the time is up? Doing an EMDR Intensive allows your pain to be held in the space it needs, instead of needing to repeatedly pause.
Research shows that EMDR intensives are as effective as weekly EMDR sessions – both in decreasing upsetting symptoms and achieving lasting results.
MEET YOUR CLINICAL STRATEGIST
Alli Christie Disney
EMDR Intensive Specialist [ she/her ]
As a therapist immersed in the world of trauma-focused therapy, I have spent most of my career with an ear to the ground in pursuit of the most effective and transformative ways to help you heal your pain.
With advanced training in EMDR, Intensives, and other modalities, I can help you uncover the true root of your issue, saving you months of talking about your struggles without relief.
Through our work together you will experience:
▸ Clear Direction
No more guesswork or talking in circles. I identify the real root and keep us on track to help it be cleared for good.
▸ Clinical Leadership
You (finally) don’t have to drive if you don’t want to. You can trust that I’ll lead our EMDR Intensive where it needs to go for the best results.
▸ Unshakable Presence
Disturbing memories you’ve never told anyone? Overwhelming emotions? Critical feedback for me? I’m here for all of it.
Through our work together, you’ll cultivate powerful self-trust, leave insecurity in the dust, and become an unstoppable force for good.
Which Therapy Intensive Approach is Right for You?
Targeted EMDR Intensive
$1.8k PER DAY
1–3 days | 6 hrs per day
▸ Best For: Specific themes, individual events, or a specific time period that was traumatic or stressful such as single-incident trauma (i.e. car accident, shooting, assault, bad break up) or stressors that spanned weeks or months.
▸ How It Works: We clarify your goals, target the core issue and distressing memories, and then we do targeted work to heal it utilizing EMDR. We keep our day(s) focused on a single goal so you end your EMDR Intensive experiencing significant relief.
Comprehensive Intensive
$1.8k PER DAY
Starts at 5-7 days | frequency varies
▸ Best For: Tackling every significant category of unresolved pain and healing it at the root. Such as life-long limiting beliefs, disturbing themes, developmental trauma, areas where you feel stuck, and stressors that spanned years.
▸ How It Works: I help you identify every significant category of unresolved pain, and create a comprehensive treatment plan. Then we do the work to heal all of it utilizing EMDR. You walk out on your last day, and you are FREE.
What Does a Typical EMDR Intensive Day Look Like?
BEFORE:
You’ll start with scheduling a free 45-min consultation. I’ll ask about your goals for the EMDR Intensive and provide you with an estimated amount of days for the work. If it’s a good fit, I will offer you my first opening so you can get started.
If you’re traveling to the Denver area for your intensive, I’ll provide recommended accommodations for you to stay near my office.
DURING:
A standard EMDR processing day will be at my office, from 9am-3pm, with an hour for lunch. We’ll identify key goals, resources, and limiting beliefs. Then we identify the target memories underneath. We will do 3 sets of 90-minute processing EMDR sessions. We take as many breaks as you want!
We’ll use the last 30 minutes to help you contain and regulate, and plan for the next day. Subsequent EMDR Intensive days are working on the treatment plan we set up on day one.
AFTER:
I’ll provide a comprehensive summary that contains the EMDR targets we have worked on, and what processing has been completed, identification of any major parts-work we have done, as well as any remaining topics of concern. I will send this EMDR Intensive summary to you and any additional therapists or providers you wish.
If I’m collaborating with your individual or couples therapist, I’ll coordinate a debriefing call with them to help connect your EMDR Intensive experience to your ongoing therapy goals.
For fellow therapists, mental health providers, and colleagues:
If you’re considering referring to me…
My entire practice is devoted to offering day-long EMDR therapy intensives. In addition to using EMDR, I will weave in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Somatic Experiencing (SE) to provide a comprehensive, multi-modality approach for your client. EMDR Intensives are an excellent adjunct to weekly therapy. They can support your clients who can’t get to the root in weekly sessions, or need weekly sessions for ongoing support or skill-building. If you’re trained in EMDR, IFS, or SE, I can apply these modalities to intensive work so that they align with your individual approach.
If you’d like to consult on if a client could be a good fit, please reach out via email: achristie@allichristiecounseling.com or phone: 402.765.8761
If you’re considering working with me as a client…
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an EMDR therapist who could hold the space like you do? EMDR Intensives are the perfect match for the ‘stuff’ you’ve been aware of forever, but have not had the space or time to devote your attention to. Meanwhile, you know that this “stuff” is impacting your life, relationships, and – if we’re honest – even your clinical work.
You hold so much space for your clients. An EMDR Intensive can allow you to have more capacity for both your personal and professional life.
A EMDR Therapy Intensive can be the difference between cultivating grounded self-trust and spending years white-knuckling between anxiety spirals.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Not as intense as they sound! Most clients leave the office at the end of each EMDR Intensive day feeling tired, but deeply accomplished and lighter. EMDR Intensives compress the entire process into a concentrated timeframe, often 3 to 6 hours a day, for 1 to 5 days. This condensed format allows you to delve deeply into your healing journey without the interruptions of the standard once-a-week session model. What makes an EMDR Intensive ‘intensive’ is the increased amount of time all at once; The actual emotional intensity is not increased. (Phew face)
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That’s okay! EMDR can be highly effective without tangible memories. In fact, you’d be surprised how much this is part of the process. We can work with emotions, body sensation, and thoughts. Additionally, I have a vast therapeutic tool kit, so if we get stuck, I can bring in the best approach to continue the process.
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Great! EMDR Intensives are a wonderful complement to regular therapy. They are especially helpful when you have a hard time getting to the ‘deeper roots’ in the shorter session time or because your regular therapy gets taken up with more day-to-day topics. I will collaborate with your therapist before and after your EMDR Intensive so you won’t miss a step.
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During your free 45-min consultation, I’ll ask your goals for the EMDR Intensive and provide you with an estimated amount of days required to get through the amount of material you mention. I will collaborate with you on the best-fit pacing for the intensive. You may start to feel a shift as soon as Day 1. Many of my clients report feeling lighter as soon as a few hours into the EMDR Intensive. Each target we resolve/process is a lifting of a weight you have carried… the more we do, the freer and better you will feel.
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I am licensed in Colorado - meaning you have to be located here when we do the EMDR Intensive, but you do not need to live here. Many clients fly in for a week, considering it a therapy retreat/intensive. I can do ½ day intensives online, but full and multi-day EMDR Intensives are in person. Here is more information about where to stay and what to do if you visit Denver.
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An EMDR Intensive is an investment, but they are ideal for anyone who believes their time is their most precious resource and that their healing is a priority. Because weekly therapy and intensives are two distinct services, it’s hard to compare their cost between them hour to hour, and each has their place in your therapy goals. However, when you consider the potential results in less time, an EMDR Intensive may be ideal for you.
