EMDR Therapy & Intensive

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
for Trauma and Healing in Leesburg, Virginia

If you’re feeling stuck – held back by anxiety, painful memories, or patterns that no longer serve you – progress can feel out of reach. Sometimes, even with insight and support, it can seem like something deeper is keeping you from moving forward.

At MLB Therapy in Leesburg, Virginia, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is designed to help you process that stuck emotional material and finally feel some relief!

EMDR is a powerful, research-backed therapy used to help people heal from trauma, anxiety, low self-esteem, and other emotionally distressing experiences. It uses bilateral stimulation – often guided eye movements – to help the brain reprocess stuck memories and emotional patterns that are keeping you from feeling grounded and whole. EMDR can help move stuck emotional material quickly – often in fewer sessions than traditional talk therapy.

While EMDR may sound a bit unconventional at first, it’s one of the most studied and recommended trauma treatments in the world today, endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), among others.

EMDR vs. Talk Therapy: What’s the Difference?

While talk therapy can be incredibly helpful, EMDR takes a more targeted, brain-based approach. It doesn’t require you to talk through every detail of a traumatic event. Instead, EMDR works directly with the nervous system to shift how memories are stored—helping you find resolution without re-traumatization.

It’s especially useful if you’ve felt “stuck” in other forms of therapy or if your symptoms feel rooted in something you can’t quite explain.

What to Expect in Your EMDR Therapy

In an EMDR session, we’ll guide you to focus on a specific memory or emotional “target” and ask a series of questions about the kinds of beliefs that developed from this experience. Before your EMDR session, you will be provided with helpful coping and grounding strategies to ensure that you have an effective EMDR experience. We will collaborate to develop a treatment plan that makes the most sense given your identified goals.

Then, through a pattern of eye movements, the EMDR process creates new neural pathways and associations, allowing negative stuck memories to find movement and be reprocessed in a healthier, more adaptive way. MLB Therapy has extensive training and expertise in advanced EMDR treatments to match your therapy goals.

You may start with thoughts like “I’m not safe” or “I’m not good enough,” and through the process, begin to feel calmer, more grounded, and even develop new beliefs like “I can handle this” or “I am worthy.”

Need Accelerated Healing? Try an EMDR Intensive

This focused, accelerated format allows us to target the root of your pain and begin processing it in a matter of days, not months. With support and structure, you can break free from past patterns and start responding to life from a place of clarity, calm, and intention.

EMDR Intensives offer a concentrated therapeutic experience designed to help you make meaningful progress in a shorter amount of time. These extended sessions typically last 2 to 4 hours and can take place over one or multiple days, often over a weekend for greater flexibility.

In fact, many people think of Therapy Intensives like a retreat. For that week you can unplug, take time off work, get a babysitter, or even stay in a hotel. This time is completely dedicated to you so you can focus on healing, reflecting, and reconnecting.

Because the time is uninterrupted and highly focused, EMDR Intensives can often achieve in days what might take weeks or months in traditional weekly sessions. They’re especially helpful for clients with busy schedules, a desire to work through something more quickly, or those feeling stuck in the pacing of weekly therapy.

We offer two types of intensives: standard EMDR Intensives, which focus on personal trauma and stuck emotional patterns, and EMDR Parenting Intensives, which are tailored for parents who want to explore how their past experiences may be affecting their parenting approach, co-parenting or relationship with their child.

  • Our standard EMDR Intensives are ideal for individuals navigating the effects of trauma, anxiety, or depression, particularly after a recent loss, crisis, or major life stressor. With a clear focus and personalized goals, these intensives create the space for deeper processing, greater clarity, and lasting change.
  • Through EMDR Parenting Intensives, we explore how unresolved trauma, old belief systems, or emotional reactivity may be interfering with your ability to set boundaries, stay present, and parent from your values, not your past. While many parents come in hoping to fix their child’s behavior, the real magic happens when parents begin to shift their patterns. We work with one parent of a co-parenting relationship. This is deep work, but if you’re ready to model change instead of demand it, the ripple effects can be transformational!

The Intensive Process

Step 1: Pre-Screening Phone Call

We’ll start with a quick conversation to learn more about what’s bringing you in and see if an EMDR intensive might be a good option to explore.

Step 2: Pre-Intake Consultation

This session offers a more in-depth assessment of your goals, history, and current needs. We’ll take time to ensure that an EMDR intensive is clinically appropriate and tailored to your specific situation.

Step 3: Intensive Planning

If it’s determined that you’re a good fit for an EMDR intensive, we’ll begin planning your intensive. The length and structure of the intensive will be based on your unique treatment goals and the focus areas we’ve identified together.

Step 4: Scheduling & Preparation

Before beginning EMDR, you’ll receive a personalized workbook to help you reflect, clarify your goals, and prepare emotionally for the work ahead and other resourcing. We collaborate on treatment planning, goals, pathway and timeline. Once you’re ready, we’ll schedule your intensive.

Step 5: EMDR Sessions

During your intensive, you’ll work with your therapist to reprocess distressing memories, taking the time you need to move through each phase with care. We’ll help you build a coping toolkit with skills and strategies to manage any emotional distress that may arise during the process.

EMDR Advanced Training

At MLB Therapy we continually strive to advance our knowledge of EMDR Therapy through additional training, certifications and continuing education programs.

  • EMDR Basic Training
  • EMDR Certification
  • EMDR Consultant in Training (CIT)
  • Evolved EMDR: Book Club 1:
    • Attachment-Focused EMDR by Laurel Parnell
    • EMDR with Complex Trauma by Thomas Zimmerman
  • EMDR GAP Training:
    • EMDR Therapy Protocols for Early Intervention & Ongoing Traumatic Stress
    • EMDR Protocol for Recent Critical Incidents and Ongoing Traumatic Stress (EMDR-PRECI) by Ignacio Jarero & Lucina Artigas
    • Acute Stress Syndrome Stabilization Individual Procedure (ASSYST-I) by Ignacio Jarero
    • Acute Stress Syndrome Stabilization For Groups (ASSYST-G) by Ignacio Jarero
    • EMDR Integrative Group Treatment Protocol for Ongoing Traumatic Stress (EMDR-IGTP-OTS)
  • FLASH by Dr. Ricky Greenwald
  • Four Blinks
  • EMDR Therapy Butterfly Hug Method for Self-Administered BLS by Ignacio Jarero & Lucina Artigas
  • Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy By Shirley Jean Schmidt, MA, LPC
  • Intensive Design Lab by Steffeny Feld @ Kaleidoscope
  • Intensives and More by Kambria Evans, MED, MA @ Zero Disturbance
  • EMDR Intensives Course by Scaling Up

 

Common Questions About EMDR Intensives

Not necessarily. While an intensive has a higher upfront cost, it’s often more affordable in the long run. By focusing your time without the usual stop-and-start between weekly sessions, an intensive can help you make faster progress, meaning fewer total hours spent in therapy overall.

Therapy is a highly personal process, and outcomes vary from person to person. Some clients achieve their main goal in a single intensive, while others choose to continue therapy to explore what surfaces during the work. While results are not guaranteed, this is an evidence-based treatment model. We’re here to move at your pace and can schedule additional sessions if and when you need them!

Yes. While EMDR intensives are beneficial for many people, they’re not the right fit for everyone. If you’ve recently been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, are experiencing active suicidal or homicidal thoughts, have an untreated substance use disorder, or are struggling with an active eating disorder, we may recommend additional preparation or referral to a specialist with services more specific to your needs.

Yes! You can absolutely continue working with your regular therapist while participating in an EMDR Intensive at MLB Therapy. Many clients come to us specifically for short-term, trauma-focused work while maintaining their ongoing relationship with a primary therapist. We’re happy to collaborate with your current provider (with your consent) to ensure continuity of care and support your overall therapeutic goals.

EMDR Intensives are not covered by insurance. MLB Therapy can provide a list of possible resources that may cover the cost of intensives.

Here’s a helpful guide about Out-of-Network reimbursements

EMDR Intensives are often helpful for clients who want focused support around a specific issue or pattern that’s interfering with daily life. This might include recovering from a traumatic event, working through long-standing anxiety or shame, or feeling stuck in negative self-beliefs. Intensives are also a good fit for people with limited time or those who want to make faster progress than weekly therapy allows.

EMDR Parenting Intensives can be especially useful for parents who notice their past experiences showing up in how they respond to their children and/or co-parent. If you’re struggling with reactivity, guilt, boundary-setting, or co-parenting stress, a Parenting Intensive can help you better understand those patterns and shift toward responses that reflect your values, not your history.