Aura Morris, LCSW
Trauma Intensives
EMDR Intensives in Atlanta
Learn How We Use EMDR to Accelerate Healing in our Intensives in our Buckhead and Alpharetta Offices
What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is an excellent, evidence based therapy for clearing trauma symptoms, including intrusive thoughts, memories, automatic reactions, emotions, and body sensations tied to past stressful or traumatic events. It is a structured tool that is used in a specific way to clear trauma quickly.
How is EMDR Used in our Trauma Intensives
EMDR Intensives are getting to be more popular, as EMDR to fully clear a memory can take more than one session. In a standard session, you spend 10 minutes checking in, 30 minutes opening up a heavy, painful memory, and the final 10 minutes trying to regulate your nervous system so you can safely drive home or return to work. Not only is this inefficient, but it can be difficult for clients to activate traumatic memories and then just have to hold them partially processed for 2-3 weeks. In an EMDR Intensive, we can keep processing until the memory is completely clear and you feel calm, grounded, and empowered, without interruption. In an EMDR Intensive, we can accomplish months of work in 1-3 days time.
Will I be mostly doing EMDR in my intensive?
Every person and nervous system is unique. We offer 3 types of intensive offerings. While some client's will do mostly EMDR for the entire duration of their intensive, many will end up doing some combination of EMDR, IFS, and other somatic techniques to allow their stuck points to clear most effectively and efficiently. During the intake and the first hour or so of your intensive, we will do a thorough assessment and decide together which tools to use. If you have a strong preference for EMDR or IFS, I will be glad to take that into account, and then generally I make the best recommendation for you that I can based on how your system is responding to the preparatory work. Luckily, EMDR and IFS (my two favorite tools) work together amazingly well, so we can bring in either as needed as we work.
Choose Your Intensive Format
To best support your history, goals, and schedule, we offer EMDR processing within three distinct structures:
1. Multi-Day Custom Intensives
An immersive, multi-day deep dive into trauma resolution. This format gives your brain and body the time needed to safely unpack complex trauma, clear out multiple interconnected memory networks, and deeply integrate a newfound sense of safety.
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Best for: Processing complex trauma, attachment wounds, or major life shifts.
2. Joint Client/Therapist Intensives
A collaborative, single-day accelerator designed to support your ongoing weekly therapy. If you already have an EMDR or IFS therapist and you hit a stubborn roadblock or a memory network, you can step into our intensive container to clear the hurdle, then return to regular sessions with your therapist to continue your work.
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Best for: Individuals with an established EMDR/IFS therapist who need help moving past a stuck point
3. Single-Day Holistic Intensives
A focused, full-day immersion designed to target a specific emotional blockage or singular traumatic event. We spend part of the time working with EMDR and/or IFS and part of the time doing integrative work with another modality of your choice, such as Reiki, TRE, or ketamine.
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Best for: Breaking through a specific and difficult target, a large body of work that feels ancestral in nature, or chronic mental block.
Rewire How Your Past Affects Your Present
You do not have to spend months or years slowly chipping away at distressing memories. Let's design a custom intensive format that respects your time and allows your brain's natural healing mechanism to do its work.