EMDR Therapy Intensives
Focused, accelerated EMDR for people able & prepared for the work
If you're prepared to do the work but your calendar can't hold a standing weekly appointment for the next year, an EMDR Therapy Intensive condenses what often takes months of weekly sessions into a half day, full day, or weekend of dedicated, uninterrupted work with Erica Smith, LCSW.
Weekly Therapy Isn't Always Built for the Life You're Actually Living
Maybe you've been in therapy for a while and you keep circling the same thing — just as you start to open up, the hour ends and you have to put yourself back together to drive home.
Maybe the standard weekly model has never fit. Between work, caregiving, and everything else, "same time every week for the next year" was never realistic — so you've kept putting the deeper work off.
Maybe you've done the surface work. You have coping skills. You can name what happened to you. And you're tired of managing it. You want to actually move through it.
Or maybe you're carrying something specific — a single event, a loss, a season of your life — and the idea of stretching that across forty-five-minute increments for months feels like death by a thousand cuts.
You don't need more time in the room each week. You need enough time, in one stretch, to finish the thing.
What an EMDR Therapy Intensive With Erica Includes
An Intensive is a complete, custom-built process — not just a long therapy session. Every Intensive includes four parts:
A free 30 min consultation to make sure that therapy in an intensive format is a good fit for you. Should both you and Erica decide to proceed with scheduling, a non-refundable deposit is due to confirm your booking. After the deposit is paid, Erica will email you some assessments to complete in advance of your pre-planning intake session.
A 2-hour pre-planning intake (1 week before). This is where the work gets tailored to you: a thorough exploration of your history, your internal and external resources, what coping skills work for you and what doesn't, and what's gotten in the way of therapy before. We also practice the skills that will support you during the Intensive. This is what lets Erica build a plan specific to you — and it's required before any Intensive work.
Your block of dedicated EMDR therapy. Four to seven hours of focused, uninterrupted reprocessing (lunch breaks aside), held over one to three consecutive days depending on the format you choose.
A 1-hour follow-up (1–2 weeks after). Time to integrate, consolidate, and land what you moved through — so the work holds.
Why this works when weekly therapy stalls — the four things that make it valuable:
The result you're after: meaningful resolution of trauma that's been stuck, not just better management of it.
Whether it'll actually work: EMDR is one of the most-researched trauma treatments available, delivered by a certified EMDR therapist and EMDRIA-Approved Consultant who specializes in this work — with a built-in pre-planning phase specifically designed to set the work up to succeed. No results are guaranteed, yet putting in the work is the first step to change.
How fast: months of progress compressed into days, with a defined start and finish.
What it asks of you: no year-long weekly commitment, no repeated re-openings of painful material across dozens of sessions — one prepared, supported, contained stretch of work.
Formats available: Half-Day, Full-Day, and 3-Day/Weekend Intensives. In person in Raleigh, NC, or fully virtual. People travel to Raleigh for this work, and you can also do it from wherever you are in North Carolina. Those out of state must travel to NC as Erica is only licensed in NC.
An Intensive is designed to increase:
Your sense of resolution and closure
Your capacity to be present in your relationships and your life
The mental and emotional energy you get back
Your momentum — real, felt progress in a short window
An Intensive is designed to decrease:
The months (or years) the same work would take in weekly sessions
The disruption to your schedule, work, and caregiving life
The number of times you have to re-open painful material and put yourself back together afterward
The exhausting daily labor of managing symptoms that haven't actually resolved
What an EMDR Intensive Costs
Half-Day Intensive — $1,575 (~$225/hour)
2-hour pre-planning session
4 consecutive hours of Intensive therapy
1-hour post-Intensive follow-up (1–2 weeks after)
$500 non-refundable deposit due at the pre-planning intake
Full-Day Intensive — $2,160 (~$240/hour)
2-hour pre-planning session
6 consecutive hours of Intensive therapy (+ 1-hour lunch break)
1-hour post-Intensive follow-up (1–2 weeks after)
$1,000 non-refundable deposit due at the pre-planning intake
3-Day / Weekend Intensive — $5,000 (~$238/hour)
2-hour pre-planning session
3 consecutive days of 6 hours of Intensive therapy each (+ daily lunch break)
1-hour post-Intensive follow-up (1–2 weeks after)
$2,500 non-refundable deposit due at the pre-planning intake
Your Questions, Answered
Questions people ask before they book.
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That's often the exact reason an Intensive fits better than weekly therapy. Instead of holding a weekly slot for a year, you commit to a defined window — a half day, full day, or weekend — and do the deep work in one stretch. For a lot of people, an Intensive is the time-saving option.
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EMDR Intensives are self-pay only, because insurance doesn't cover this format. What you're investing in is months of compressed, specialized work with a certified EMDR therapist, plus a custom pre-planning process and follow-up built around you. Full pricing and a Good Faith Estimate are provided so you know exactly what you're committing to before you book.
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You don't have to decide that alone or in advance. The free consult and the required 2-hour pre-planning intake exist specifically to assess fit and prepare you. EMDR is one of the most-researched trauma treatments available, and Erica won't move into Intensive work unless the preparation says you're prepared for it.
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That's fine — many Intensive clients haven't. The pre-planning session walks you through the process, builds your resources, and familiarizes you with how the work feels before you're in the deep end.
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Ideally, yes — Erica recommends that Intensive clients have a primary therapist they see regularly for ongoing support, and with your permission she may check in with them about readiness. An Intensive is designed to complement your existing care, not replace it.
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This is exactly what the preparation phase is for. Before any reprocessing happens, you'll practice the coping and grounding skills that work for you, and the Intensive is structured, paced, and contained around your window of tolerance.
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Many people travel to Raleigh specifically for this work — and Intensives are also offered fully virtually, so you can do this from wherever you are in NC. If you are not located in North Carolina, you will need to travel to NC as Erica is only licensed in the state of NC. Either way, it's scheduled in advance.
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No — and Erica will tell you honestly if it isn't right for you. Intensives require that you have an adaptive coping skills practice in place, and the consult and pre-planning intake are there to make sure the format genuinely serves your needs.
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This work is delivered by Erica K. Smith, MSW, LCSW — founder and clinical director of Whole Mentality, a certified EMDR therapist, and an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant (meaning she's qualified to train and consult with other EMDR therapists, not just practice the model).
Erica built her own approach to EMDR preparation — the Natural Preparation framework — precisely because she believes the preparation phase is where trauma work succeeds or falls apart. That's why every Intensive starts with a full pre-planning session, not a cold jump into the hard stuff.
Her practice is trauma-informed, LGBTQ+ affirming, and identity-conscious by design. You don't have to explain or defend the systemic and lived realities you're carrying into the room — that context is already understood here.
You Don't Have to Carry This for Another Year — Book Your Free Consult
If you've read this far, some part of you is ready to stop managing this and start moving through it. The next step is one short, no-pressure conversation.