EMDR Therapy

$250/hr including breaks throughout each day

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Backed by global, evidence-based research (see below), extended-day EMDR Intensives allow exponentially deepened efficacy and efficiency of EMDR for healing trauma.   Intensives can be supplemental to another ongoing therapeutic process, in collaboration with an established therapist on the client's team.  This allows for a deeper focus on the reprocessing itself, without reliance on transferrence - and can bring a fresh perspective to work the client is doing already. If seeking an intensive as a standalone process, Heather will require several weeks of lead-up sessions and several weeks of follow-up sessions, and these can be provided by your regular therapist or Heather.  

During a several-day intensive, you are the only client Heather sees, allowing her to completely focus on your process.   A specially designed schedule for each client, each extended day includes interval breaks for restorative rest, movement, assessment of progress, and collaboratively honing our goals for the next segment.   When appropriate, walking in nature can afford a reset of the nervous system between sets and passive bilateral installation of new insights - supporting critical distance from memory content through an immersive sensory experience outdoors.  

If choosing a retreat setting at an inn or air bnb, Heather  provides virtual sessions which you attend in your chosen setting - releasing you from the need to drive and allowing you to take resting breaks throughout each day's work.  When an established therapy practice or neutral meeting space is available to reserve in advance, Heather may meet you there each day.    For some clients, the retreat option allows a deeper commitment to your process, with more ease and greater "Window of Presence" to the work itself - away from the responsibilities, triggers, or pressures of every-day life.   When this feels right for the individual, that in turn can afford deeper and more restful sleep, which supports the organic neurobiological design of the sleep-state: continuing the work of the day through passive reprocessing of REM / rapid eye movement. 

In any intensive structure, each new day we track changes from the day before, scaling the "SUD" (subjective unit of disturbance) for memories or negative core beliefs;  log insights from any overnight dreams you remember (often vivid with imagery and metaphor in this phase of work), and refocus goals for the day ahead.  We have the ability to pick up right were we left off, without the extra time taken away for opening and closing (as with single session formats, which often leave only 20min in the middle for the reprocessing EMDR phase itself).   Staying with the work in this way allows clients the opportunity to witness their own process with more immediate awareness, further reinforcing the critical distance from trauma experiences earned through EMDR  - in other words, clients get even more opportunity to notice and celebrate their progress in real time.

When the client wishes to have family members or loved ones in close proximity, they may stay in the same retreat location with / nearby the client - creating a more supportive and safe environment away from home stressors between sessions, and making it possible to add conjoint sessions as indicated, for the clinician to offer psychoeducation about how to best support the client through this phase of work.