An important question when adding EMDR Intensives to your practice is how supervision will work.

Intensives are enjoyable ways of working, but by their very nature are faster-paced than weekly sessions – so supervision requires extra consideration.

A suggested format

Supervisors all work differently, but when I’m offering supervision for an EMDR intensive I offer shorter pro-rata sessions. I recommend three 30-minute slots: one before the intensive (after the initial assessment has been completed), one mid-way through the intensive, and one afterwards.

Cases may require 60 minutes rather than 30, especially early on when you are transitioning from weekly to intensive ways of working. The longer supervision sessions need to be built into your EMDR intensive package pricing and timetabling – so that you feel able to allow the space and finances for this.

Pre-intensive supervision

A pre-intensive supervision slot allows you to consider together:

• The assessment information gathered
• The emerging formulation and reasoning for why the intensive model is clinically justified
• The client’s stability and therefore which phase of EMDR you are using your intensive time for. Whilst technically an EMDR intensive can be used for any of the eight phases, I personally find that clients are keen to use it for phase-four processing, and that it’s a good use of the condensed therapy time together if this is possible. Supervision is a good place to consider pacing phases 1–3 for an individual client, and whether these should be delivered weekly for a while before booking the intensive days.
• Any practical issues such as whether you or the client has a lot on (and therefore when to time the intensive), how to use breaks during the longer sessions, and between-session care for the client and therapist.

This step alone often reduces anxiety for EMDR therapists transitioning into EMDR intensive offerings. It helps to build confidence that you’re using the same EMDR principles, just within a different (but safe) format.

Supervision during the intensive

You might not need a long supervision session during the intensive. Personally, when I’m offering them myself, I like to book a 30-minute supervision session after day one of three. I find that getting space to work through supervision questions early helps pave the way for a smoother final two days.

Post-intensive supervision

Clinically this is helpful for considering ‘what next’ for the client — adding new insights to your formulation and making a recommendation, whether that’s for further weekly sessions, another intensive block for an issue that emerged, or supporting integration through one or two follow-up sessions before ending treatment.

Post-intensive supervision can also be a helpful place to reflect on the intensive therapy process and allow you to make adjustments to your EMDR intensive package accordingly. For example, you will learn how you get on with working in longer blocks yourself. You may need to consider what breaks you need and how to introduce these during processing so that you can retain clear focus and connection to self-energy for the full duration.

What next

EMDR intensives are growing in popularity, and emerging evidence shows them to have a low drop-out rate and to be equally effective as weekly EMDR. However, they do require consideration of how to set them up, how to work in this way (because they’re physically intensive to deliver), how to arrange supervision that fits, and how to price them so all your needs are factored in to do this work safely.

If you would like to book a Get Going Session to discuss how to set up your own EMDR intensives, please do book in with me - I’d love to hear about your practice, plans, and how to help you get started.

Dr Claire Plumbly is an EMDR Consultant who has been offering EMDR intensives since 2021.  Book supervision with Dr Claire Plumbly here

If you want inspiration for how to structure an EMDR intensive package take a look at the ones offered by her practice Plum Psychology here

References

Hurley, E. C. (2018). Effective treatment of veterans with PTSD: Comparison between intensive daily and weekly EMDR approaches. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1458. 

van Woudenberg, C., Voorendonk, E. M., Bongaerts, H., Zoet, H. A., Verhagen, M., de Jongh, A., & Voorendonk, J. (2018). Effectiveness of an intensive treatment programme combining prolonged exposure and EMDR therapy for severe PTSD. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 9(1)