Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a proven, evidence-based approach that helps people recover from trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other distressing life experiences. EMDR has been shown to help with both single-event trauma (such as accidents or loss) and complex trauma (such as ongoing abuse, neglect, or attachment wounds).

—How EMDR Therapy Works

When we experience trauma, the memory of that event can become “stuck” in the brain. Instead of being processed and stored like a normal memory, it stays trapped with the intense emotions, sensations, and beliefs from the original experience. These unprocessed memories can cause ongoing symptoms — including anxiety, fear, flashbacks, or a sense of being “frozen in time.”

Our brains are naturally wired to heal, but sometimes that healing process gets disrupted. EMDR therapy helps restart that process by guiding the brain to reprocess difficult memories in a safe and supportive way.

—What Happens During EMDR

In EMDR sessions, your therapist helps you gently revisit distressing memories while using bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements, tapping, or sounds). This process helps your brain integrate the memory into a more adaptive, healed state.

The memory itself doesn’t disappear — but the emotional charge attached to it fades. Over time, what once felt overwhelming becomes something you can think about without reliving the pain or fear.

—The Science Behind EMDR

EMDR works by activating communication between key parts of the brain:

The amygdala, which detects danger and triggers the stress response.

The hippocampus, which helps you understand what’s safe and what’s not.

The prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate emotions and make sense of experiences.

Through EMDR therapy, these areas of the brain reconnect, allowing your natural healing process to resume.

—Benefits of EMDR Therapy

Reduced symptoms of PTSD and trauma

Relief from anxiety and depression

Greater emotional regulation and resilience

Healing from attachment wounds and difficult life experiences

A sense of peace and closure around past events

Living with the fall out of trauma is difficult and discouraging. Feeling trapped and imprisoned by your past can soon become your way of life and functioning. Despite your best efforts and even possible multiple attempts with therapy, you are still struggling. Too often, unhelpful coping strategies such as avoidance or “checking out” become the normal way of living. These patterns can be deeply ingrained and difficult to work through in typical one-hour therapy sessions.

An intensive therapy model allows us to work through complex and protective strategies more efficiently without the concern of running out of time. With the focused time, we are able to move into reprocessing the underlying trauma memories more efficiently. Longer therapy sessions actually allow us to get to the traumas in less time overall.

At Mosaic, we offer EMDR Mini-Intensives in clusters of three hours. We also offer 1-Day and 2-Day EMDR Intensives.

EMDR Intensives include personalized treatment plans that give clients faster access to therapy services and are designed to support quicker symptom relief.

Not everyone is best served by EMDR Intensives. However, the Intensive model can be life-changing for many people. You may benefit from Intensives if you're a busy parent or working professional who needs help now and doesn't have time for weekly therapy.

Whatever the reason that weekly sessions won’t work for you, EMDR Intensives are designed to treat your symptoms quickly and effectively.

EMDR Intensives might be beneficial to you if you're currently doing traditional EMDR and struggling to get through certain stuck points in one-hour sessions.

Furthermore, some clients living with complex traumas, dissociative tendencies, or strong “protector parts” find they can process better with longer session times.

EMDR Intensives can be beneficial if you've already done a lot of talk therapy and know your stuck points.

Lastly, you may know what you need from EMDR therapy and would prefer to put several hours or days aside to focus on healing rather than delay or spread it out over more time.