Gaithersburg, Germantown, and Frederick, MD and online throughout Maryland
Are you tired of your past or recent experience(s) haunting you and want quick relief?
Or, are you a parent (special needs, adoptive, PANS/PANDAS) who has been traumatized by your child’s behavior?
Experience a workplace trauma?
We help adoptive/foster parents and caregivers of children with chronic illness or mental illness (PANS/PANDAS, PDA, autism, etc.) If you feel as thought you are in burnout or experience verbal/emotional abuse daily, you are in the right place! We can provide a short-term, group PTSD prevention protocol used by the Green Cross for natural disasters or collective traumas.
What are EMDR Trauma Intensives or Bootcamps?
An EMDR intensives is an accelerated form of EMDR therapy. Instead of attending weekly therapy sessions over the course of months or years, you can get personalized support in a matter or 3 days to 2 weeks.
Intensives saves both time and money, as to achieve the same results usually requires months of sessions, which adds up in $$ and in time out of your busy schedule.
Generally, we offer two or more hours of therapy on the same day bringing faster results for those who are tired of suffering and need fast relief. Intensives can be organized based on the client and therapist availability. Partial insurance coverage for Cigna clients is available for the first hour of each session day, additional time is self-pay only.
Example of potential intensive schedules, designed to match the client and therapist’s schedule and desires:
- Intake + two hour sessions daily for one week
- Intake + three hours a day for 3-4 days
- Intake session + 2 days of 4-hour therapy sessions
- Intake + two hours of EMDR therapy, one day a week for 6-8 weeks
- Bootcamp model: 2-3 times a week for one or two weeks
- Additional time available for complex or multiple traumatic/ongoing incidences
- Group or employee PTSD prevention- one day, 2-3 hours
Isn’t weekly therapy “just as good?”
Trauma Intensives provide accelerated healing and faster results:
- Rapid Progress:
EMDR intensives allow for more concentrated work on specific challenges, enabling individuals to dive deeper into their healing process and potentially achieve faster relief from trauma-related symptoms. If you need to work on a recent event, assault, or experience, PTSD prevention can occur in just one day. No gimmicks, it’s used with the Green Cross and Dr. Nacho Jarero all over the world. - Reduced Overall Therapy Time:
By compressing multiple sessions into a shorter period, EMDR intensives can help individuals experience relief and healing in days or weeks instead of months or years of traditional therapy. In typical weekly sessions, 10-15 minutes are spent in a “check in” time that may divert some time away from the EMDR work. With extended sessions, the client simply continues without interruption and allows the reprocessing to continue instead of wrapping up at the hour. There are less starts and stops.
Deep Emotional Processing:
The intensive format allows for deeper and more sustained therapeutic work, often leading to faster progress and more profound therapeutic outcomes.
Lasting Results:
The comprehensive nature of this approach facilitates lasting results, providing individuals with valuable tools to navigate future challenges effectively.
Please email Sara Rodriguez, LCSW-C at creativecounselingconnections@yahoo.com for more information or call 301-740-6050.
Prolonged Trauma
This type of trauma refers to adverse experiences that occurred in the past over a long period of time. It also refers to the same theme of experiences (ie: bullying) that happened as isolated events, multiple times in the past (ex: elementary, high school and again in college). These traumas have left lasting imprints on an individual’s mental and emotional well-being. Examples include childhood abuse, neglect, or exposure to prolonged adverse circumstances such as war or systemic oppression.
Key characteristics of past, prolonged trauma:
- The traumatic events are no longer occurring but continue to affect the individual through triggers, flashbacks, or unresolved emotions.
- Symptoms often manifest as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, or difficulties in forming healthy relationships.
- Healing often involves revisiting and processing these past experiences through therapies like EMDR, which help to reprocess and integrate these memories in a way that reduces their emotional charge.
Ongoing Trauma
This refers to trauma that is actively happening or recurring in an individual’s life. Examples include domestic violence, ongoing abuse, living in a war zone, or enduring chronic stressors such as illness, poverty or systemic racism.
Key characteristics of current, ongoing trauma:
- The individual is still exposed to the traumatic events, with no end in the immediate future.
- Symptoms may include hypervigilance, difficulty concentrating, heightened anxiety, or physical health issues.
- Interventions often focus on creating safety and stability first, addressing immediate needs, and providing tools to regulate the nervous system so that the right-fit EMDR protocols can be introduced appropriately and effectively.
Why This Distinction Matters
Understanding whether a person is dealing with past or ongoing trauma helps inform the approach to care. For those experiencing ongoing trauma, creating a sense of safety and stability is the priority – remember, sometimes the most stabilizing thing for someone is the EMDR! For those processing prolonged trauma, may be able to jump into EMDR reprocessing a bit sooner while maintaining safety.
At Creative Counseling Connections, we’re committed to empowering mental health both types of trauma effectively with the EMDR Protocols. If you’d like to learn more about how EMDR therapy can be tailored to these different needs, we’d be happy to help.
Contact Sara Rodriguez, LCSW-C at creativecounselingconnections@yahoo.com or 301-740-6050.