Begin designing an EMDR intensive by defining the clients you intend to serve, the clinical scope you can support, the treatment structure, and the preparation and follow-up surrounding it. A clear first offering gives you something concrete to examine and refine.
You may have many ideas: longer sessions, half-days, multiday work, or a practice eventually organized around intensives. You do not need to build all of them at once.
Start with the work you know well
Consider your most meaningful client experiences. Where do you feel clinically engaged? Which presentations are within your competence? What conditions help you work with depth, flexibility, and attention?
An ideal-client description becomes useful when it guides real decisions. It should help you recognize fit, identify questions for further assessment, and describe your offering accurately. A demographic profile alone rarely answers those questions.
Also consider who would require expertise or resources beyond your current model. Defining those limits helps shape preparation, referral options, and the questions you bring to consultation.
Choose one working structure
You can begin with a proposed extended-session or multiday format. Treat it as a working design that needs scrutiny, not a promise that every client will receive the same amount of processing.
Consider the whole arc: assessment, preparation, the intensive itself, breaks, closure, integration, and follow-up. Identify which parts occur inside the concentrated treatment window and which require separate time.
For an IFS-informed approach, you may also want to consider how your structure leaves room to attend to protective responses and changing needs. Time on the calendar should support clinical judgment rather than dictate it.
Include your own capacity in the design
What can you sustain across a longer day? What do you need before and after intensive work? How much administrative and collaborative time will the offering create?
These questions belong in the initial design. A model that depends on your constant overextension is asking for revision before you launch it.
You may decide to offer occasional intensive days within an existing practice. You may want a gradual transition. There is room to develop a model around your actual circumstances.
Put the idea on one page
Draft a simple blueprint with your intended client population, proposed format, screening questions, preparation and integration structure, clinician support needs, and unresolved decisions.
The unresolved section is important. It shows where further consultation, education, or operational work is needed. A clear list of questions is useful progress.
In Designing + Launching EMDR Intensives, we begin with this kind of offering design and then work through the client experience, communication, and implementation. The goal is to develop a model that draws on your strengths and serves the clients you work best with.
Explore the three-month intensive cohort.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to begin with a multiday intensive?
No. A first offering may involve extended sessions or another concentrated format. The appropriate design depends on your clinical competence, client population, resources, and capacity.
Do I need to copy another therapist's schedule?
No. Another model can provide useful ideas, but your offering needs to fit your clients and the way you practice.
What should I bring to consultation about a new offering?
Bring your proposed population, a draft structure, and the decisions you are unsure about. Existing intake or preparation materials can also help.
Does the cohort help therapists who have not launched yet?
Yes. It supports developing or refining an offering. Participants must meet the program's EMDR training and experience prerequisites.
More Reading:
What is EMDR Intensive Consultation?
Healing Your Own Attachment Wounds: Why It Matters for Therapists
The Self-Led Therapist: Why Therapist Internal Work Is a Clinical Responsibility in Trauma Therapy
About the Author
This post was written by Morgan Levine, LCSW, EMDRIA Approved Consultant specializing in IFS-Informed EMDR and EMDR 5-day Intensives — including in-person immersive retreats and virtual multi-day formats in Chester County, PA and Tulum, MX.
She works with therapists, healers, and caregivers who are self-reflective and have already done meaningful healing work and are ready to go deeper in a multi-day intensive format.
