EMDR Therapy Intensives for Rapid Healing

Have Trauma And Stress Made It Hard To Feel Safe In Your Own Skin?

Do you constantly doubt yourself and worry that you’re not good enough?

Does it feel like something is missing in your life, no matter how many mental health tools you have?

Do you continually end up in relationships that are unhealthy, but you don’t know why?

Perhaps you feel on edge most of the time and you’re constantly flooded with intrusive thoughts. Or maybe you struggle with a lack of confidence. You might be unusually hard on yourself and second-guess everything you do. Deep down, perhaps you wonder if your low self-worth is the result of past hurt in your life. Although you probably want to seek help, you may have found therapy ineffective in the past.

Trauma Can Make Your World Feel Small

When you’re dealing with trauma, it’s normal to feel like you’re invisible and you take up no space in your relationships. Other people might see you as generous, kind, and agreeable because you’re always going out of your way to please others. Perhaps you have trouble putting yourself first. As a result, your world may begin to feel small—you might isolate more and pay no attention to your needs.

If you want to connect with your authentic self without losing your edge, we encourage you to try an EMDR Intensive with Wilcox Wellness. This is a chance to process and resolve the pain of the past in a format that allows for quicker results than traditional therapy.

What’s more, EMDR is equally effective if you want to enhance your performance in sports, the workplace, and creative endeavors. It can help you overcome limiting beliefs and fear of failure, allowing you to live with more pep in your step.

“I am so thankful to you and for our work together in the intensive. You were such a soothing and compassionate presence and surpassed any expectations of what I thought the experience would be like.

I have been having more moments of connection with my children and have been more self-compassionate. I have been unapologetically asking for what I want/need. It feels easy and seamless. I am able to make things happen for myself and have become a lot more aligned with my authentic self and what feels right for me. I am amazed with how differently I feel about myself and those past experiences. It is truly unbelievable that these memories don't bother me anymore.”

- Anonymous Client (shared with permission)

Trauma Is Everywhere, But Many Of Its Sufferers Feel Invisible.

Most traumatic experiences are imprinted on us at a very young age and deeply affect who we are and how we show up in the world. These

Experiences can include:

Experiencing divorce at any age or stage of your life,
Getting bullied at school,
Moving a lot,
Chronic illness or undiagnosed disabilities,
Sexual abuse and harassment,
Feelings of abandonment,
Going through a bad breakup, or
Dealing with grief and loss.
Even growing up in a home with high expectations can be traumatic.

In today’s world, the burden of traumatic stress weighs especially heavily on women. After all, we live in a patriarchal society that doesn’t support our very existence let alone celebrate it. We often fall for the belief that being loud, bold, and hyper-independent will improve our lives. Unfortunately, the desire for hyper-independence often backfires—it makes us bottle up our troubles and convinces us to work through them alone. As a result, many of us suffer from trauma in silence.

We are led to believe that we have to figure it all out by ourselves. But since trauma involves people, places, and things, it naturally follows that healing must involve people, places, and things as well.

This is what an EMDR intensive provides—a chance to process and resolve your trauma and stress with someone who can devote their entire day(s) to you.

To learn more about what EMDR is

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An EMDR Intensive Allows For Quicker Progress Than Traditional Therapy

Like a lot of people, you might not have time for weekly therapy. What’s more, you may find that improvement happens very slowly because of how infrequent sessions are. An EMDR intensive sidesteps this hurdle by taking a break to retreat away from your day-to-day life and immerse yourself in a deeply focused healing process. Intensives are customized to your needs and can ranges from a series of half days or full days at a time.

Think of it this way: when you go to the car mechanic, you don’t go in lots of short, incremental visits. You go to have your car repaired in one trip. EMDR intensives are the same way. They provide a safe container to work through your trauma and stress without any distractions interrupting the flow of treatment.

You get to do it all in one sitting.

Additionally, EMDR works more effectively than ordinary talk therapy. Instead of making you “talk” through your problems, EMDR allows you to get right to the core of your issues and rapidly resolve them. The approach also is very helpful for creatives, artists, and professionals. It can help you boost your confidence, increase your mental fitness, and be on your A-game.

What To Expect In An EMDR Intensive

The process for getting started with Wilcox Wellness is very straightforward. First, we will schedule a 45-minute phone consultation to learn more about you and figure out if an intensive is right for you. You can be located anywhere in the world for the initial phone call.

Next, we’ll come up with a customized treatment plan that fits with your schedule. You can choose a series of 2-hour sessions, half-days, one day, or multiple-day session—we keep our scheduling options as flexible as possible and there will be breaks for lunch, movement, getting fresh air, and other necessities. We are happy to provide adjunctive EMDR for anyone already working with a therapist and love collaborating with other providers.

All therapy is provided in Connecticut and many clients travel from out of state and create a self-care retreat by staying for 2-5 days. We provide area accommodation recommendations and a personalized and flexible retreat itinerary based upon your interests (such as spa services, nature hikes, local artisan coffee shops, and the like.)

After all the preliminary work is done, you and your therapist will begin the EMDR process. Your therapist will first spend time helping you prepare for what EMDR is most known for- healing the tough stuff so you can move on with your life. Then your therapist will guide you through gentle bilateral stimulation techniques—such as tapping, holding hand buzzers, or moving your eyes from side to side—to help you desensitize the pain of traumatic memories. In other words, EMDR takes the emotional charge out of trauma. It allows you to recall what happened without feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t erase trauma, but it reduces the emotional pain associated with it. Additionally, EMDR can help you strengthen your mindset and increase performance in work, sport, or creative pursuits. This process can be very fun too!

Your therapist will support you in developing a "return to day-to-day life" plan and schedule a post-intensive interview to follow up on your progress.

Tailoring Your Treatment Plan

Intensives can range from a series of 2 hour sessions to multiple days at a time. They can be spread out over the course of several weeks or conducted on consecutive days, depending on your needs. Although EMDR is the primary vehicle for change, our approach to trauma intensives ultimately comes down to what works best for you. We often integrate music, movement, visualization, and guided meditation into the healing process. We also do a lot of inner-child work focusing on healing your childhood wounds so that they don’t dictate your life anymore. We help remove limiting beliefs that you have about yourself such as "I am not good enough, I am a failure, I must be perfect, and/or I can't handle it" .The goal is to put your healthy, confident adult self back in the driver’s seat instead of letting your child self (the traumatized part of you) or the pressure of society make all your decisions.

For athletes, professionals, and creatives, EMDR helps identify and resolve limiting beliefs, fears, and anxiety to pave the way for optimal performance and success. Often, there are past hidden experiences that are contributing to mental blocks that can be resolved with EMDR therapy. You may not see these experiences as traumatic, per se, however, being able to clear these out can be the missing the link. You have the training, stamina, and skill already, EMDR is the big red ribbon to bring it all together.

Above all, we encourage you to be kind to yourself.

You are not supposed to know all the answers and you don’t have to work through trauma and stress alone. There is so much pressure to excel and perform. While EMDR therapy is hard work, you actually don't have to try too hard. You don't have to be perfect in this space. We are here to walk with you on your journey and take some of the hard work off your shoulders.

After doing an EMDR intensive, we are confident that you will feel so proud of yourself and experience a deeper sense of peace in your life.

You May Have Some Questions About EMDR Intensive Therapy…

Is an intensive really worth all the time and money?

If you add up all the time and money needed for weekly therapy, the cost and effort is usually greater—but the benefits take longer. An EMDR intensive is several EMDR sessions integrated into one block of time. It’s a chance to work through your trauma in a more accelerated format and get quicker results. Please see our rates page for information about the cost of intensive EMDR therapy.

Is EMDR therapy just for trauma and PTSD?

EMDR may be the gold standard for trauma and PTSD treatment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t treat other conditions. Since the goal of EMDR therapy is to reduce emotional pain, the approach can also help with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and many other mental health issues. Additionally, lots of athletes, artists, and business executives [1]use it to remove mental blocks, move past injuries/ unanticipated outcomes, and increase performance and creativity.

[1] EMDR as Treatment Option for Conditions Other Than PTSD: A Systematic Review

Is EMDR intensive therapy safe?

There is extensive research showing that EMDR is safe and effective.[2] What’s more, we assist and screen each client to make sure EMDR intensives are a good fit for them. EMDR isn’t for everyone, as it isn’t crisis work, but for the majority of people it provides excellent results.

[2] Efficacy - EMDR Institute - EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING THERAPY

Experience Deeper Healing Through Intensive Therapy

If you want to put the pain of the past behind you and reconnect with your beautiful and authentic self, we encourage you to try an EMDR intensive with us.

To get started, you can email or call us