Depending on your preference, Intensive EMDR can be done over 2 or 3 days with a total of hours of therapy ranging between 6 - 12 hours of your stay. There will be regular breaks and plenty of opportunities to rest and recharge. Pricing starts at $1,350 + accommodation costs.

EMDR process

During EMDR therapy eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used to process ‘target memories’ which are selected in the preparation phase. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, she asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his/her eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision.  As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level.  For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.”  Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinicians’ interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.  The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them.  Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.

Research-based

Repeated studies (more than 30) show that by using EMDR therapy, people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the brain’s information-processing system naturally moves toward mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients overcome their traumas and other challenges faster than regular therapies usually accomplish.

More information

If you are interested in EMDR therapy, you may find it helpful to watch the following interview with BBC radio presenter Jameela Jamil, who talks about her own experience of having EMDR therapy. Or, watch the animated videos explaining EMDR for adults and for children (and also this one about children's anger in the aftermath of unresolved trauma).