EMDR Therapy Intensives for Women in Santa Monica & Across California
You’ve done talk therapy. You’ve tried to think your way through healing. Now it’s time for deep, focused EMDR that helps your body finally feel safe, without years of weekly sessions.
When Early Emotional Neglect Shapes Adult Relationships
When things feel tense or emotionally charged, you don’t fall apart… you shift into doing. You stay productive. You handle it and keep moving.
You’ve learned to rely on yourself, even when it costs you peace.
For many women, this didn’t start in adulthood. It formed early in relationships where emotional closeness felt inconsistent, overwhelming, or unsafe.
Some grew up with a physically absent parent. Others had a caregiver who was present, but emotionally unavailable. So your nervous system learned to stay alert, self-sufficient, and guarded… not because something was wrong with you, but because it had to.
What once helped you survive may now be costing you ease, connection, and a felt sense of safety.
This page exists because insight alone isn’t enough to undo a pattern your nervous system learned to rely on.
Signs of Emotional Burnout in High-Functioning Women
You’re responsible. The one people rely on. You’ve learned how to keep going no matter what’s happening inside. You get things done at work, in your family, in your relationships, yet something still feels off.
Maybe you:
Feel deeply affected by other people’s tone, distance, or silence
Replay conversations long after they’re over
Take things personally even when you tell yourself not to
Stay busy, productive, or helpful to avoid slowing down
Lean on habits, routines, or substances to take the edge off when things feel like too much
Feel strangely alone, even when you’re surrounded by people
Achieve milestones… and feel empty almost immediately afterward
You may not call this trauma. You might call it being tired, sensitive, or “anxious.”
What This Could Look Like Instead
Imagine waking up and not feeling thrown off by someone else’s mood, distance, or reaction.
Instead of managing your emotions all day, you feel steadier inside…more grounded and less reactive.
With EMDR, many clients notice:
Less emotional reactivity in relationships
More ease in their body
A deeper sense of internal safety
Clearer boundaries
Reduced overthinking
Feeling connected without feeling overwhelmed
Trusting themselves instead of staying in survival mode
Not because life becomes perfect, but because your nervous system no longer has to stay on high alert.
Why EMDR Therapy Intensives Work Faster Than Weekly Therapy
A Different Rhythm for Real Change
Weekly therapy can be helpful, but for many high-achieving, emotionally self-reliant women, it often feels like a stop-and-go process.
You open something tender.
Then life takes over again.
EMDR Therapy Intensives offer focused, uninterrupted time for your nervous system to stay with the healing process long enough to actually settle, shift, and integrate.
Instead of starting over each week, we work with continuity allowing deeper processing in a shorter timeframe.
For many women, this ends up saving time, emotional energy, and long-term financial investment, because the work is concentrated, intentional, and designed for real movement.
This isn’t about rushing healing.
It’s about giving your nervous system the support it needs to heal.
How EMDR Therapy Intensives Heals Trauma at the Nervous System Level
You may already understand where your patterns came from.
But knowing the story doesn’t always change how your body reacts.
That’s because attachment wounds aren’t just stored as memories…they’re stored as nervous system responses.
When something today feels like:
Rejection
Distance
Disconnection
Uncertainty
Not being prioritized
Your body can react as if the original wound is happening again.
EMDR Therapy helps your nervous system update those old emotional memories.
While you gently focus on past experiences, your brain processes them in a new way, so they no longer feel like they’re happening right now.
The memory doesn’t disappear, but the emotional charge softens.
Over time, your body learns: That was then. This is now.
And you can begin to respond from your adult self instead of reacting from the old wound.
Why EMDR Therapy Intensives Work Especially Well For
High-Achieving & Hyper-Independent Women
Many of the women I work with are capable, responsible, and emotionally self-reliant.
They’ve learned how to keep going no matter what’s happening inside.
That didn’t come from nowhere.
It often comes from early experiences where emotional support wasn’t consistent, predictable, or safe.
So their nervous systems learned to stay alert, self-sufficient, and guarded.
Over time, that survival strength can turn into:
Hyper-independence
Difficulty asking for help
Staying productive even when exhausted
Holding everything together on the outside
Feeling emotionally alone on the inside
EMDR Therapy Intensives work well for women like you because this kind of healing doesn’t happen in quick check-ins.
It happens when your nervous system is given focused, uninterrupted time to soften, process, and recalibrate.
Instead of touching the surface week after week, we work at the level where your body originally learned how to survive —so real, embodied relief can take hold.
This work isn’t about becoming “less strong.”
It’s about finally feeling safe enough to rest.
I’m Olivia, & I Get It!
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, EMDR Certified Therapist & Certified Wellness Coach in Santa Monica, CA
I work with women who learned how to hold it together early.
The ones who became capable, responsible, and emotionally self-reliant and not because life was easy, but because emotional support wasn’t always consistent or safe.
Many of my clients don’t struggle because they lack insight. They struggle because their nervous systems learned to survive.
They overthink.
They stay busy.
They minimize their needs.
They push through exhaustion.
And underneath it all, they’re tired of carrying so much alone.
As a trauma-informed therapist and EMDR clinician, I don’t just help women understand their patterns, I help them feel safer in their bodies.
Because real change doesn’t happen through logic alone. It happens when the nervous system finally learns: I don’t have to stay on guard anymore.
My approach is grounded, compassionate, and focused on helping you move out of survival mode and into a steadier, more connected way of living.
Not by becoming “stronger,”but by finally feeling safe enough to soften.
EMDR Intensive Specialties in Santa Monica
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EMDR Therapy Intensives
If you’ve done years of therapy but still feel stuck, EMDR Intensives give your nervous system the space it needs for real relief and breakthrough moments weekly therapy can’t always reach.
Learn More → Accelerator EMDR Intensives
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EMDR Therapy Intensives for Trauma & Emotional Exhaustion
Healing for the parts of you that had to grow up too fast.
Intensives help you gently release emotional pain from childhood abandonment, emotional neglect, and mother-wound patterns so you can finally feel safe in your own body.
Learn More → Trauma & Childhood Wounds
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EMDR Therapy Intensives for Anxiety & Overthinking
When your mind won’t quiet down, Intensives help your body release the fear beneath the overthinking — so you can finally feel calm, grounded, and clear.
Learn More → Anxiety EMDR Intensives
Therapy doesn’t have to feel confusing.
Reach out.
A gentle 15-minute call to understand what you’re carrying and what relief would feel like.
Choose Your Intensive.
Select a 1-day, 3-day, or 5-day EMDR Intensive. Receive your prep guide and feel grounded before we begin.
Do the Deep Work.
Focused EMDR sessions (3–6 hours/day) so your body can release what weekly therapy never reached.
Integrate & Rise.
Walk away clearer, calmer, and more connected… without the emotional weight you’ve been carrying alone.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Nothing is wrong with you.
You aren’t damaged or broken. Your body did exactly what it needed to survive and now it’s ready for something different.
→ Learn More About EMDR Intensives
→ Schedule a Consultation
"Emotions are messengers. We suffer when we silence them."
LET’S MAKE THIS EASY
Frequently Asked Questions
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An EMDR Intensive is a concentrated format of EMDR therapy where we do in one to five days what might normally take months of weekly sessions.
It provides uninterrupted time to move through the entire EMDR process — preparation, resourcing, reprocessing, and integration — without stopping right when things begin to open.
Many high-achieving women prefer this model because they want clarity sooner, they process quickly, and they’re tired of feeling stuck in the same patterns.
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Weekly EMDR gives you support in 50–55 minute sessions.
EMDR Intensives give you my full presence, steady pacing, and enough spaciousness to actually finish what your nervous system starts.
Here’s the difference in real life:
Weekly EMDR:
10–15 minutes to settle in
You open something up
Time’s up — your system shuts back down
You return next week starting from scratch
EMDR Intensives:
We keep going while your nervous system is open and ready
No rush, no stopping mid-process
You stay in momentum, which creates deeper emotional release
You leave with meaningful change, not half-processed pain
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Intensives are especially helpful for women who:
Grew up being the Achiever, the Helper, or the Hyper-Independent one
Feel exhausted from performing strength
Process things quickly but feel stuck emotionally
Feel “fine on paper” but overwhelmed inside
Are tired of overthinking, people-pleasing, or keeping everything together
Want relief now instead of waiting months
Are navigating mother wounds, attachment injuries, or burnout
Prefer depth, efficiency, and structure
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EMDR Intensives can support healing from:
Childhood emotional neglect
Mother wounds & attachment trauma
Anxiety & overthinking
Burnout and hyper-independence
Perfectionism and people-pleasing
Grief, heartbreak, and relationship patterns
Feeling “not enough,” unseen, or misunderstood
Emotional reactivity, triggers, and shame
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Choose an EMDR Intensive if you:
Want meaningful change faster
Prefer deep work over months of weekly talking
Feel stuck repeating the same emotional patterns
Have a demanding career and need a focused format
Are ready for emotional relief and nervous system clarity
Aren’t interested in spending years in therapy
Choose weekly therapy if you:
Prefer slower pacing
Need ongoing support and stabilization
Aren’t ready to look at certain wounds yet
I’ll help you decide during your consultation.
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My current rate is $250 per 60-minute session. EMDR Intensives (3, 6, or 9 hours) are also available for clients seeking faster progress and deeper emotional relief. I don’t want finances to be the reason you can’t start. If you’re interested, we can explore options that fit your needs.
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