EMDR is a widely accepted mental health treatment technique, and it’s been shown in dozens of clinical trials that EMDR is a safe and effective form of therapy. 

Here’s a bit more info from the Cleveland Clinic, too: 

EMDR therapy is very common around the world. In the United States, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense list EMDR as a “best practice” in treating veterans experiencing PTSD. Research on EMDR includes dozens of clinical trials, research studies and academic papers. It has official approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) and government organizations and agencies in the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany, among others.

Usually, EMDR is offered within the traditional therapy model of meeting for 50-60 minutes weekly. (We do still offer traditional EMDR sessions at Conscious Roots Counseling, in case you’re wondering!) An EMDR Intensive is a different model that offers focused, transformative healing through three 3-hour sessions over a pre-determined time period.

Brainspotting is a relatively newer modality, so you may not have heard of it before! It was developed in 2003 by therapist David Grand, who discovered it while working with EMDR.Brainspotting has a growing body of research supporting its effectiveness, and it's gaining traction among trauma-informed therapists. If you're curious whether it might be a good fit for you, it's worth a conversation.

Nope! We can experiment with both and see what feels right for you. Some people find they strongly prefer one over the other; some find that both have their place depending on what they're working on. There's no wrong answer, and you're always in the loop—your therapist will be clear about which modality you're using and why, so you're never just along for the ride. The goal is to find what works best for your system.

Good question! “Intensive” refers to the more concentrated format (longer sessions over a shorter period of time) than in traditional weekly sessions. It doesn’t mean that these sessions are inherently more challenging or upsetting. 

Because Brainspotting and EMDR can involve memories of difficult experiences, it’s normal for some distress to come up throughout the process, but the longer session format also leaves more room for care. Your therapist will help you build the tools to be able to handle your distress, and you’ll work together to feel more stable and less overwhelmed by the time you leave the session.

Talk therapy is valuable, and for many people, it's an important part of the process. But sometimes you can have real insight into your patterns and experiences and still feel stuck. That's because talk therapy primarily engages the thinking, language-based part of your brain, while trauma and deeply held emotional experiences are often stored somewhere older and harder to reach through conversation alone. Brainspotting and EMDR work differently, accessing the brain and nervous system more directly to help process and release what talking hasn't been able to touch.

The Intensive format adds another layer to that. Rather than the slow drip of 50-minute sessions over time, Intensives give you extended, concentrated time to go deep—which means less time spent getting back up to speed each week and more time actually moving through things. 

For a lot of people, that combination of a brain-based modality and a concentrated format means progress that might have taken months or even years can happen in a shorter timeframe.

You might feel relatively neutral or even a bit relieved, but many people feel spacey, tired, or drained after a session. Some people find that Brainspotting sessions are a bit less activating than EMDR sessions, but it depends on the person. Either way, that’s why we recommend making sure that you have a light schedule for the rest of the day after a session.

People often seek out Brainspotting and/or EMDR to help process traumatic experiences or PTSD, but it can also be effective for persistent depression, high anxiety, phobias, relationship triggers, and more. Even if you haven’t experienced a “Big-T Trauma,” your feelings are valid, and therapy can help improve your sense of well-being.

That’s okay! You don't need to come in with a clear agenda or a specific memory in mind. Sometimes people book an Intensive because they've done talk therapy, they've done the work, and yet something still feels stuck. Maybe you're still more anxious than you'd like to be, or you notice patterns in your relationships or reactions that you can't quite explain or shake. That's enough of a reason. Your therapist will work with you to get a sense of what's present for you and help guide you toward a focus, even if it takes a little digging to find it.

Not at all! Intensives are designed to follow your lead, and healing rarely moves in a straight line. You might come in thinking you want to focus on one thing and find that as you start processing, something else surfaces that needs attention too. Across your sessions, there's room to move through more than one area, shift direction if something unexpected comes up, or go deeper on something that felt small at first but turned out to be significant. Your therapist will help you navigate that as you go.

Each session usually includes about an hour and a half of active processing. Before, in between, and after you do this processing, we also work on developing your ability to resource (support) yourself through mindfulness exercises, parts work, learning coping strategies, and much more.

Brainspotting and EMDR should only be administered by a therapist who is specifically trained in those modalities, and that’s exactly who you’ll see at Conscious Roots! 

Your therapist for your Intensive will be Jenny Liu, our founder. She’s a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor-Supervisor (LPCC-S) who completed EMDRIA-Certified EMDR Training and Brainspotting-Certified Training.

Unfortunately, Intensives aren’t (yet!) covered by insurance plans, so this is a self-pay form of therapy. 

After your intake appointment, if we mutually agree that Intensives will be a good fit for you, we schedule EMDR Intensive sessions at $420 per 3 hour session ($140 per hour).

If for any reason we decide together not to move forward, you will only be billed for the intake session ($165).

Absolutely anything shared is fully confidential with rare, strict exceptions we would review regarding safety. The notes we need to take remain secure in our system with all identities kept private. 

If you already have a therapist, it’s ideal for us to be able to check in with them before we begin our work together, but we only do so with written consent from you in advance.

Great! And no, you don’t have to pause. If you’d like us to collaborate with your current therapist, we would love to. We even encourage you to continue seeing your regular therapist in between Intensive sessions with us if that’s possible. 

We consider Intensives an adjunct therapy that can occur while you’re still with your regular therapist—kind of like if you were seeing a couples therapist with your partner while also seeing your own therapist at the same time. 

We are centrally located in the Greater Cincinnati area. Our office is in Blue Ash at 4424 Carver Woods Dr, Suite 100, Cincinnati OH, 45242. 

If you prefer, we can meet virtually for your initial intake session, but all of the following sessions in your Intensive will take place in person.

You can reach out anytime to schedule additional Intensive sessions (think of it as a “tune-up”!) as needed. You can also choose to extend your Intensive experience upfront if you know you’d like to do more than three sessions.

Absolutely. You deserve to feel respected, seen, and understood by your therapist, without fear that they’re going to judge you or your identity. When we work together, you’re free and encouraged to be your authentic self.