From an Idea to Converting my Private Practice to 100% EMDR Intensives - My Journey with EMDR Intensives

A little over a year ago, I set a goal in my private practice Sea Glass LLC to have 3 intensive sessions for the entire summer. Now, I have just finished converting my practice into offering ONLY EMDR intensive programs. In this post, I'm taking some time to reflect on that evolution and share my journey with you. 

A seed of an idea...

I had the idea of offering intensive sessions since 2019, before I even opened my private practice. I was at an EMDR training on treating pre-verbal trauma with Katie O'Shea in Charlottesville, VA. Katie talked about these intensive therapy sessions that she did using this protocol. That planted the seed for me thinking about how to create that reality for myself. 

I knew step one was opening doors on my solo private practice. Fast forward a few months to September 2019... step one ✅

As I shared on this podcast episode, one of my earliest misconceptions was that it wasn't possible to offer intensive therapy sessions while taking insurance. The goal for 2019 was to be up and running. The goal for 2020 was to start the process of terminating my insurance contracts, and then I could think about offering intensives. 

Pandemic > Goals...

Well, as most of our goals went for 2020...enter a global pandemic and all of my previous goals and plans for the year went out the window. 

My business goals quickly shifted to 1) figure out how to offer telehealth, 2) figure out how to do EMDR via telehealth, 3) figure out how to regulate my nervous system enough to tolerate and hold space for multiple discussions about COVID-19 every day with my clients while also being terrified and 4) make sure that I was working as much as possible to sustain my own financial security because my husband had just been furloughed. 

Finding support and community...

While looking for support around doing EMDR via telehealth, I found Kambria Evans and joined one of her consultation groups for support around EMDR in this new landscape and because when I read her website I thought, this is what I want my practice to evolve into... self pay, intensives, and consultation. 

I quickly found a sense of community that I had long been missing as a therapist and also a place of support and encouragement and some hope. Hope that even amongst the chaos happening in every aspect of the world around me, it was possible to mold my business into something that worked for my needs, however rapidly they were changing. 

I started to learn from others about how they structure their EMDR intensives; what clinical considerations I needed to think about doing intensives; and that there were some other therapists out there who had success billing insurance for intensive sessions. 

Now, circle back to 2020 goal #4 of work as much as possible to provide financial security for my family... by the end of 2020/early 2021 burnout wasn't even a strong enough word to describe how exhausted I was. I knew that I had to find a way to make being a trauma therapist in private practice more sustainable. And, I knew that intensives were the answer. 

Time to experiment...

I set out for summer 2021 to be the experiment. I had heard and seen over many hours of consultation that EMDR intensives were a needed and desired service. I believed that it would work, but as with any new venture... I was nervous so I started out small. 

I started out with a few clients that I had done EMDR with for a long time. I shared with them this new concept of doing longer sessions to give us more time to get through their EMDR treatment goals. They liked this idea too because they also were tired of running out of time during sessions. I started with a few 90 minute sessions and it felt really good. I tried out a few 2 hour sessions. This also felt good to me. I somehow felt less tired after a longer session, which I directly connect with being able to make more progress during the session. 

Creating space for change...

To begin creating space in my schedule and working toward my longer term goal of going off of insurance, I started by ending the insurance contracts with 2 or 3 of my lowest paying and least commonly used insurances. Through this process, I also figured out how to bill insurance for intensives. In insurance language this intensives are "prolonged sessions." I was actually able to bill one of the insurances that I was leaving for intensives and my clients only owed their copay. This was a fantastic opportunity to help my clients wrap up their treatment goals with me before my insurance contract ended and for me to get some more practice with EMDR intensives with clients that I knew well. 

I hadn't had any openings for new clients in months anyway because my schedule was so full. So as I created space in my schedule for intensives, I decided to open up a few spots for new intensive only clients. This allowed me to refine my "pitch" to prospective clients, practice my intensive oriented intake process, conceptualize a new case with an intensive lens and see the process through from beginning to end. I started to develop a gauge for how many intensive sessions I might need with a client to help them resolve a particular type of trauma. I felt the momentum building. 

Spread the word...

During the fall of 2021 with my typical September influx of prospective client inquiries, again I only accepted new clients for EMDR intensive sessions. By the end of the year I had done 47 intensive sessions. 🤯 

Also in the fall of 2021 I joined Kambria in the first cohort of the Zero Disturbance Consultation Program. As part of a small cohort, we set out on an 8 month journey focused on transforming our businesses and refining our skills as intensive EMDR therapists. Having support through these transitions has been an essential part of my ability to experiment, reassess and take action in my businesses. This is where I really found the encouragement to separate my consultation services from my therapy services and led to creating Simply Rewire. 

Very soon after seeing the impact on my business and my clients transformation with EMDR intensives, I knew that I had to take this to other EMDR therapists and spread the word about intensives. Intensives are a more effective and efficient structure for me to help my clients heal. The flexibility of the intensive session structure allows for me to be able to do what I need in my business. I also knew that to grow my consultation services and shift into being able to offer trainings, workshops and diversify my revenue streams I needed to go all in on intensives. 

Just keep going...

I decided going into 2022 I would continue with shifting toward doing more EMDR intensives. The next way I cleared some more space in my schedule was re-evaluating treatment goals with several clients. I started with the clients who I thought we were close to the end of therapy and shared with them my plans to shift into exclusively working in the intensive therapy model doing EMDR. 

Some of them continued with me to finish out some goals with intensive sessions. Others agreed that we had completed our goals. Some, I referred out for continued ongoing therapy. 

Since the start of adding intensives to my practice I have continued with only accepting new clients for EMDR intensives. 

Refining my process...

Over the first few months of 2022 I refined my screening and booking process. I created templates to use when responding to prospective clients. I created a form to automate the screening process and reduce my time spent on calls trying to determine if my intensive programs were a good fit for prospective clients. I needed a consistent, reliable and time efficient process to follow.

I decided on focusing my intensive sessions on shorter term therapy, adjunct EMDR, and recent event traumas. My goals with my current EMDR intensive programs are to be able to get clients in and out more quickly; to provide relief and healing within 1-4 intensive (3 hour) sessions; to have the flexibility and space in my schedule to get someone in quickly who has had a recent trauma; and to have the flexibility to adapt and change my schedule as needed. 

The finish line...

During spring 2022 I initiated the process to terminate the last remaining insurance contracts. Again, this led to conversations with my existing clients about the most appropriate next step for their therapy journey. Some we wrapped up our therapy goals. Some I referred out for continued ongoing therapy. Some wanted to shift into intensive focused work going forward. 

As of July 16, I am officially out of network with all insurances AND I am exclusively offering EMDR intensive programs. 🎉🎉🎉

What I bring to you...

Throughout this entire journey, I have challenged my own limiting beliefs around what it means to be a trauma therapist and what it means to be a business owner. I have worked on my money mindset time and time again. I have become more clear on how to experiment and evolve my businesses. All of this of course is an ongoing process. 

As you can probably see by now, I like to take risks with certainty. I like to learn a ton about what I want to do; start with small, low risk experiments; find what works for me; and then ramp it up. 

Everything I do here at Simply Rewire, has been informed by my clinical work as a trauma therapist and my experience as a private practice business owner. I want to share with you what I have learned and hope that it helps you to be able to make informed & empowered decisions in your business and in your clinical work. I would love to help you get to where you want to go feeling connected, supported and equipped. 

As I’m reflecting and writing this, I’m noticing the parallel process that is happening now as I grow Simply Rewire with my journey adding intensives into my private practice. I’ve used intensives to create space in my week and my mind, while maintaining my financial security. I am using a lot of that space to grow my business at Simply Rewire. There is a constant ebb and flow with having more/less availability for intensives and what I’m spending my time on in other areas of business or life. At any time I can turn up or down what I’m committed to. This flexibility feels empowering.