If you live in Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, or greater San Diego, and you’ve been struggling with trauma—whether a recent event (acute trauma) or long‐term wounds from childhood, relationships, or overwhelming life events—you might feel stuck. Traditional therapy helps, but sometimes weekly sessions feel like they take too long to move through the pain. That’s where EMDR intensives come in: powerful, concentrated periods of healing that help you reclaim life sooner rather than later.

What is an EMDR Intensive?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a well‐researched trauma therapy that helps your brain reprocess painful or distressing memories so they lose their emotional charge.

An EMDR intensive means doing that work in a compressed format. Instead of meeting once a week for 50–60 minutes over months, you engage in longer sessions (often several hours) over one or more days. This concentrated format allows deeper work, faster progress, and often more immediate relief.

Who Can Benefit from EMDR Intensives in San Diego / Encinitas / Del Mar

EMDR intensives can be especially helpful if you:

Are dealing with complex trauma—such as childhood abuse, neglect, or repeated relational trauma—that has woven itself into your sense of self
Have experienced acute trauma—for example, a recent accident, loss, assault, or sudden life change—that continues to replay in your mind or body
Feel stuck in talk therapy, noticing you want deeper breakthroughs or faster relief
Want to reduce symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, flashbacks or intrusive thoughts more efficiently
Are ready emotionally and logistically to invest time and energy into healing with support

Key Benefits of EMDR Intensives

Here are some of the major benefits people in San Diego have reported when choosing intensives over standard weekly EMDR:

Accelerated Healing
You can compress months of sessions into days → more momentum, less time waiting between sessions for emotional processing. Reference
Deeper Processing
Intensives allow you to work through multiple memories or layers in one immersive experience, rather than being limited by time. This can mean addressing core beliefs, emotional wounds, and physical sensations more fully. Reference
Greater Continuity & Focus
With less gap between sessions, you carry forward the emotional state, the insights, and the therapeutic work more seamlessly. There’s less “starting over” each time. Reference
Potential for Faster Symptom Reduction
Many clients report quicker reductions in PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and other trauma‐related issues after an intensive. Reference
Customized to You
Intensives are often tailored—choosing which memories to target, ensuring appropriate preparation and resources in place, adjusting pacing to your readiness. Experienced clinicians (like those at Nourished Wellness Group) make safety, your capacity, and aftercare a priority.

Considerations & What to Expect

While EMDR intensives have many strengths, they are not for everyone. Before choosing an intensive in Encinitas or San Diego, here are a few things to think through:

Readiness & Stability: You’ll need to have some stabilization skills—grounds, self‐soothing, ability to regulate emotions—since the work can bring up intense feelings. We will work on this in our initial sessions to ensure safety and appropriateness.
Time & Energy Commitment: Intensives require blocks of time, mental and emotional energy, and sometimes follow‐up work outside of sessions.
Support: Having a support system (friends, therapist, safe space) is important. After intense EMDR work, you may need a period of integration.
Cost: Intensives can cost more upfront. Insurance may or may not cover the full amount. It’s worth discussing logistics with your provider (ours at Nourished Wellness Group are happy to help you understand what to expect).

Why Choose Nourished Wellness Group for EMDR Intensives in Encinitas / Solana Beach / Del Mar

Nourished Wellness Group offers EMDR intensives in Encinitas designed specifically for people dealing with trauma, complex trauma, and acute stress. Here’s what sets us apart:

Specialized Trauma & Wellness Team: Providers trained and deeply experienced in EMDR, trauma work, and integration.
Holistic, Client-Centered Approach: We focus not only on symptoms, but on healing beliefs, patterns, emotional regulation, body awareness, and how trauma affects your relationships and daily living.
Local Access & Comfort: For folks in Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach, having a local provider means easier logistics, familiar environment, reduced travel stress, more continuity.
Flexible Delivery: Whether you prefer full-day intensives, multi-day, or tailored multi-hour session blocks, we can work with you to create a format that meets your needs.
Integration & Aftercare Built In: We don’t just “do the processing”—we support you in integrating what you’ve healed, so the changes stick.

How to Know If an Intensive Is Right for You

Here are some guiding questions to help determine if you might benefit from an EMDR intensive in San Diego / Encinitas / Del Mar:

Do you feel frustrated by slow progress in weekly therapy?
Is there a specific traumatic memory or cluster of memories you are ready to address?
Can you clear time (a day or more) where you won’t be overwhelmed by obligations after the work?
Do you have emotional resources and support (therapist, friends/family, self‐care practices)?
Are you fairly stable in your life—no recent crisis so intense that it would derail or overwhelm processing?

If you answered yes to many of those, then an intensive may be an excellent path.

What to Expect at Nourished Wellness Group’s EMDR Intensives

Here’s a rough roadmap of how we at Nourished Wellness Group guide you through an EMDR intensive:

Consultation & Assessment
We begin with a conversation: what experiences you’re carrying, what your goals are, what your current resources and supports look like. We also check if an intensive is clinically appropriate for your situation.
Preparation
Teaching coping skills, grounding, and resourcing. Ensuring you have tools to regulate if emotions increase. Safety planning.
Processing Phases
Applying the 8 phases of EMDR (history / preparation / assessment / desensitization / installation / body scan / closure / reevaluation), but in a concentrated format. We may work on more than one target memory or related negative beliefs in the intensive blocks.
Integration & Aftercare
After the intensive sessions, we’ll have follow‐ups built in: time to rest, processing what's come up outside the sessions, integration work. We also provide resources so you can carry forward what you healed.
Ongoing Support
Whether with us or another trusted clinician, some people return to weekly sessions for maintenance, or schedule “mini intensives” if needed to deepen further.

Getting Started: Next Steps If You’re In Encinitas / Del Mar / Solana Beach

Reach out for a free consultation with us to see if EMDR intensive is the right fit.
Be honest about what you hope to get out of the work.
Reserve space in your schedule. Intensives work best when you can block out distractions.
Plan for self‐care before, during, and after: rest, healthy nutrition, grounding practices.
Commit to integration: the moments after the intensive are just as important as the work inside.

We are honored to do this work alongside you.