Many people in trauma therapy know that moment.
The one where you finally start talking about the memory you have avoided for months. Your chest tightens, the words start to come, and then you glance at the clock and realize your session is almost over.
Suddenly you have to decide what to do next–do you push the feelings back down until next week, or rush to put the most painful parts into words before time runs out? Facing the memory is hard enough on its own. Accelerated trauma healing is designed so you never have to make that choice.
Accelerated trauma healing is designed with this problem in mind. It takes roughly the same number of hours as six months of weekly therapy and fits them into a few days of long EMDR sessions, so a memory can be worked through from start to finish in one sitting. Studies of intensive formats have been encouraging, even for people with complex symptoms.
Why Accelerated Trauma Healing Can Move Faster Than Weekly Care
A memory that has been stuck for years rarely loosens on a rigid fifty-minute schedule. When a traditional appointment ends in the middle of processing, distressing emotions can remain stirred up for days, and part of the following session often goes toward re-establishing emotional grounding. This emotional “hangover” can make going back to work or school the next day incredibly difficult, forcing you to mask your pain while trying to function normally week after week. Participating in accelerated trauma healing gives you the dedicated time needed to complete difficult emotional work.
Our EMDR intensives typically run as half-day appointments across consecutive days. With accelerated trauma healing, long session blocks give you time to stay with a memory until it settles, ensuring the next session begins while momentum remains active.
What Happens in Your Brain During EMDR
EMDR asks you to hold a painful memory in mind while your eyes follow your therapist’s hand or a light bar. Working memory can only juggle so much at once, and researchers believe splitting it this way is part of why the memory starts to feel less sharp and less upsetting. Each round chips away a little, and accelerated trauma healing gives you many more rounds to work with. EMDR is one of several trauma treatment techniques our clinicians draw on to process difficult experiences, memories, and emotions.
3 Questions to Ask Before Booking an EMDR Intensive
When people call us about accelerated trauma healing, they usually ask some version of these three questions before they commit.
1. Is It Too Much to Handle at Once?
For years, people with intense emotions, self-harm, or a borderline personality disorder diagnosis were often told to spend months on stabilization before touching their trauma. Recent clinical research challenges that assumption. In a 2020 study, people went straight into an eight-day trauma program with no stabilization phase, and their borderline symptoms went down along with their PTSD. Work on a similar program found people with the dissociative subtype of PTSD did about as well as everyone else. A 2022 study of 45 adults with both diagnoses put it plainly:
“Trauma-focused treatment proved to be a feasible and safe treatment for patients diagnosed with both PTSD and BPD.” (European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 2022)
To support emotional stability between intensive sessions, many of our clients like to practice grounding skills learned in DBT group therapy activities.
2. Will the Results Last?
Feeling better after a week is wonderful. But will it last longer than that? According to research, long lasting relief is very likely for most clients. For example, in a 2023 clinical trial with service members and veterans, about half were still in remission from PTSD six months after three weeks of compressed prolonged exposure therapy. Moreover, Norwegian researchers also point to earlier work showing people tend to keep their gains a full year later.
3. Does It Work as Well as Weekly Therapy?
So far, the answer looks like yes. A 2020 review of intensive trauma studies in the Journal of Traumatic Stress found results comparable to weekly care, and more people stuck with treatment to the end.
What the Days of an EMDR Intensive Look Like
Your intensive starts before the first EMDR session. Many clients begin with one of our mental health evaluations, which helps us see what else may be affecting you alongside the trauma. We use what we learn to plan the pace and focus of your accelerated trauma healing, and each day of the intensive usually follows a similar rhythm:
- A check-in to start: You and your therapist decide which memory to begin with, often somewhere that feels manageable.
- Long stretches of EMDR: Most of the appointment goes here, with your therapist watching closely and adjusting as you go.
- Breaks: You will have time to step outside, have a snack, and take a breather.
- Grounding before you leave: The session ends once your body feels settled enough to head home and rest.
Getting Ready for Your Intensive
Trauma work takes energy, and a little planning ahead of time can help you feel more settled once the intensive begins. Our clients often find these steps helpful:
- Keep your evenings free during the intensive and for a day afterward. Processing can leave you tired, and quiet time gives your mind a chance to rest.
- Wear clothes you can sit in comfortably for several hours.
- Ask someone you trust to check in on you each evening, even if it is only a short text.
- Bring a notebook for any thoughts or dreams that come up between sessions so you can share them with your therapist the next day.
Ready to Talk About Accelerated Trauma Healing?
If you’re looking to take the next step in your mental health journey, take heart that our team is here to help. In a confidential consultation at the Center for Effective Treatment, you can tell our team what you have tried so far and get a sense of whether accelerated trauma healing fits where you are right now.
Not sure if accelerated trauma healing or EMDR intensives are the right move for you? That’s totally okay. We offer comprehensive mental health services and are more than willing to help you pinpoint the right treatment plan for you.