How my approach to EMDR therapy has evolved (and what it means for you)
If you've been searching for an EMDR therapist in Connecticut, you've probably noticed that most practices offer one format: weekly 50-minute sessions, or a set intensive package. For a long time, that's how I structured my work too.
And it helped people. I still believe in those formats.
But somewhere along the way, I started noticing that the most meaningful work wasn't always happening inside the tidy container I'd built for it. Sometimes it was happening in a regular weekly session when something cracked open unexpectedly. Sometimes a client needed three hours one week to do deeper work but a 50 minute session the next week to help integrate insights. Sometimes the intensive I'd planned needed to go somewhere completely different as we got into the work.
Instead of fitting clients into a prescribed structure, I’ve started getting curious and collaborating with clients to create a flexible structure and format to therapy that allows healing to unfold the way it needs to.
What this actually means
This isn't code for "winging it." I want to be clear about that.
A flexible approach means I've stopped trying to fit your healing into a predetermined format, and started letting your nervous system lead. The clinical framework is still there. EMDR and using egostate parts work is still the foundation. But how we use our time together is something we figure out based on what's actually happening for you, not what the schedule says “should” happen.
Some weeks that looks like a traditional 50-minute session. Some weeks it looks like a longer stretch of processing time because something big surfaced and you need space to move through it, not just get started and stop. Sometimes it's a hybrid: check-in and resourcing, then dropping into deeper work as the session finds its rhythm.
The thread that runs through all of it is the same: following what your body and nervous system are telling us, not forcing the work into a shape that doesn't fit.
Why I moved away from a strictly structured intensive format
Honestly? My clients taught me.
I kept seeing what happened when we had to stop because the clock said so, when something important was just beginning to move and we had to set it down. I also saw what happened when I tried to hold someone to a long intensive format on a day when their window of tolerance was narrower than usual, when their nervous system needed something smaller and more contained.
Healing isn't linear. But the systems we build around therapy often assume it is.
I wanted my practice, based in New Britain, CT and serving clients across Connecticut and New England, to actually reflect what I know to be true: that bodies heal on their own timeline, that the same person can need something completely different from week to week, and that good therapy means tracking all of that in real time, not just in theory.
Do you still offer EMDR intensives?
Yes. Absolutely.
If you're someone who does better with longer dedicated blocks of time, who wants to go deep without the stop-and-start of weekly sessions, that's still very much available. EMDR intensives work incredibly well for a lot of people, and I haven't walked away from them.
What's changed is that I'm no longer holding them as the only way. We might do an intensive to kick things off, then shift to weekly sessions as you integrate. We might start weekly and move into longer stretches when the work calls for it. We might blend formats in a way that doesn't have a clean name but fits exactly what you need.
What I'm offering now is more like a custom fit than a set menu. The structure exists to serve you, not the other way around.
Is flexible EMDR therapy right for me?
If you've been in therapy before and feel like you understand yourself deeply but still can't get your body to catch up, this approach was built with you in mind.
You don't need a rigid protocol. You need someone who can read the room, follow the thread, and stay with you through the messy middle without losing the plot.
You might be a good fit if:
You've done talk therapy and feel like you've hit a ceiling
You want the depth of EMDR work
Your schedule or nervous system capacity varies week to week
You're in Connecticut or New England and looking for a therapist who can work with your actual life, not around it
Your nervous system doesn't run on a schedule. Your healing doesn't have to either.
If this resonates and you're curious what a more fluid, responsive approach to EMDR therapy might look like for you, I'd love to talk.
Book a free consultation to explore what working together could look like.