EMDR and Brainspotting Intensives
EMDR has a particular relationship with time. Processing builds momentum — and the standard fifty-minute session frequently ends right at the point where something is genuinely moving. You close down, you go back to your day, and next week you rebuild the runway. An intensive gives the processing room to complete — and Brainspotting, which works in a related way, can be run in the same format.
Why EMDR and Brainspotting suit the intensive format
EMDR uses repetitive right-and-left stimulation — eye movement, sound, or rhythmic tapping — to let different parts of the brain communicate and resolve what's stuck. Brainspotting works the same way in this respect: once processing is underway, it isn't a conversation you can neatly pause.
In a four-hour block there's time to prepare properly, process a full target, and land somewhere settled before you leave, rather than stopping mid-way because the clock says so. That applies whichever of the two we use: Brainspotting is more open and more internally directed, led by the body rather than a protocol, and it also benefits from being given room.
What we do first
I practice Attachment-Focused EMDR, which means we don't dive straight at the worst thing. We start with Resource Tapping — building internal steadiness you can actually feel — so that when we approach the difficult material, you have something to stand on.
In an intensive there's time to do that properly instead of spending three weekly sessions on preparation.
A caution worth stating
EMDR is well established for post-traumatic stress, but it isn't a single-session fix and no honest therapist will promise you an outcome.
What I can tell you is what we'll do, how we'll pace it, and how we'll know if it's working. The same is true of Brainspotting intensives. Intensives run $290–$900 by session length. Self-pay; superbills provided.
This might be the right fit if
- You've started EMDR or Brainspotting elsewhere and it kept stalling out at the end of the hour.
- There's a specific event — an accident, an assault, a medical experience, a loss — you want to address.
- You're coming from outside the East Bay and want concentrated in-person work.
- You want to know the shape of the commitment up front rather than an open-ended weekly arrangement.
Wondering if your work would move faster this way?
Start with a free 15-minute consultation.