IFS-EMDR Intensive Therapy

IFS-EMDR Intensive Therapy in Maryland | Trauma Intensives

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Sometimes an hour isn't enough.

IFS-EMDR integrated intensive therapy for people who are ready to do the deep work — without waiting a week between every step.

Weekly therapy is powerful. For a lot of people, it's exactly the right format.

But for some people — and some kinds of trauma — it isn't.

When the work requires sustained depth, when scheduling makes weekly sessions impossible, or when you've been in therapy before and something keeps stopping just short of where you need to go — an intensive format can change everything.

This is trauma therapy the way trauma often actually needs to be done: with enough time, enough space, and no artificial stopping point when things are just starting to move.

I offer IFS-EMDR integrated intensives in Montgomery County, Maryland — serving clients in the DC metro area, Northern Virginia, Washington DC, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and anywhere within a few hours' drive who are ready to do something real.

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Is This You?

This might be the right fit if:

  • You've been in weekly therapy and feel like you're circling something you can never quite reach

  • You have a demanding schedule that makes consistent weekly appointments nearly impossible

  • You want to do a defined, focused chunk of trauma work — not open-ended weekly sessions

  • You're a therapist who does this work with others and knows it's time to do it for yourself

  • You want to move at a pace that actually matches the urgency you feel about healing

  • You're not looking for a weekly commitment — you want longer, less frequent sessions as your primary therapy format

  • You've tried therapy before and felt like just when something started to open up, time was up

For the Executive, the High Achiever, or anyone who values Privacy

You've built a life that works. Something underneath it doesn't.

You're not in crisis. You're not falling apart. You are, by most measures, doing exceptionally well.

And yet there is something — a pattern you keep returning to, a weight you've been carrying longer than you can remember, a version of yourself that feels just out of reach — that no amount of success has touched.

You've considered therapy. Maybe you've tried it. But the idea of sitting in a waiting room every Tuesday, filing insurance claims, building a years-long relationship with a provider whose schedule doesn't flex around yours — that's not a system that fits your life.

An intensive is different.

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  • No insurance involvement means no claims submitted on your behalf, no information shared with an insurance company, and no outside parties involved in your care. Documentation is kept minimal and discreet — meeting basic standards of care while protecting your privacy. This is concierge-level, private pay mental health care — your care stays between you and me.

  • You're not spending years in weekly appointments gradually working toward something. You come in with intention, we do concentrated, meaningful work in a defined period of time, and you leave with real movement. Some people accomplish more in a single IFS-EMDR intensive than they did in years of weekly therapy sessions. That's not hyperbole — it's what focused, uninterrupted trauma processing makes possible.

  • You already understand that the best outcomes require the best resources. You don't negotiate on the surgeon, the financial advisor, or the attorney. Your nervous system — and what it's been carrying — deserves the same level of serious, expert attention.

  • No rigid weekly schedule. No squeezing healing into a 50-minute window between meetings. We build the format around your life — whether that's a half-day on a Saturday, a series of extended sessions over a few weeks, or a longer biweekly structure that gives you depth without the weekly commitment.

  • Montgomery County — Bethesda, Potomac, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg — and the broader DC metro area, including Northern Virginia and Washington DC itself, is full of people who are extraordinary at what they do and quietly exhausted by what they're carrying. People travel from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia for this kind of private, intensive trauma work. If that's you — wherever you're coming from — this is for you.

For the Person who just wants to Do The Work

Not everyone wants to be in therapy forever. Some people just want to heal.

There's a version of this that doesn't look like lying on a couch for ten years unpacking your childhood piece by piece. Some people are high-functioning, self-aware, and deeply tired of carrying something they know is holding them back. They don't want an ongoing therapeutic relationship. They don't want to talk about the same thing every Tuesday for the next three years. They want to go in, do the work, and come out the other side.

A trauma intensive can be that.

Think of it less like ongoing therapy and more like a dedicated retreat for your nervous system — an immersive, focused healing experience designed to move something that has been stuck, so you can get back to your life lighter than you came in. Accelerated trauma processing in a private, contained setting. A weekend of deep work that moves more than months of weekly sessions.

Some people do a single half-day and walk away with more movement than they got from years of weekly appointments. Some do a few sessions over a month. Some come from out of state — from DC, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware — specifically because they want to do something meaningful and leave it behind them when they go home.

This isn't a shortcut. It's a different door into the same healing — one that works extraordinarily well for people who are ready, motivated, and done waiting.

You don't have to make therapy your personality. You just have to be willing to show up for a few hours and do something real.

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Two Formats. One Goal.

Every intensive begins with a free one-hour consultation — no charge, no commitment. We use that time to get to know each other, talk about your history and what you're hoping to work on, and make sure this format and this relationship are the right fit before anything begins.

From there, we build a structure around what you actually need. There are two distinct ways we can work together.

How Does an IFS-EMDR Intensive Work?

Format 1: The Immersive Intensive

For people who want to dedicate focused blocks of time to deep, concentrated trauma processing.

This is the format most people picture when they think of a therapy intensive. We schedule 3 to 4 hours per day, across one or more days — either within a single week or spread across two weeks, depending on what works for your life and what the work calls for.

This format is designed for sustained, immersive trauma processing. Rather than approaching something, stopping, and returning a week later, we stay in it long enough to actually move through it. There are no rigid break schedules — we work fluidly and take breaks when the work naturally calls for it, not when a clock says to.

This works especially well if you:

  • Want to dedicate a specific period — a weekend, a few days — to deep, focused work

  • Are traveling to Montgomery County from DC, Northern Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, or West Virginia and want to make the most of your time

  • Have a clear target or defined period of trauma you want to move through

  • Are a therapist doing your own healing work and want an immersive, contained experience

  • Want the retreat-style feeling of stepping outside your daily life to do something transformative

Example structures:

  • 3 hours on a Saturday + 3 hours the following Saturday

  • 4 hours over two consecutive days

  • A single 3-4 hour session for a focused, defined trauma target

Not sure which format fits? That's exactly what the free consultation is for. We'll figure it out together.

Private pay only. No insurance. No superbills.

90-minute session: $150, available weekly or twice monthly

2-hour session: $200, available monthly, or twice monthly

3-hour session: $350

4-hour session: $450

Format 2: Extended Sessions, Less Frequently

For people who want deeper ongoing work — without weekly appointments.

Not everyone wants or needs a multi-day intensive block. Some people want the depth that comes from longer sessions, built into a sustainable rhythm over time.

This looks like 90 or 120-minute sessions every other week. You get significantly more time per session than traditional therapy allows — enough to actually get somewhere, stay there, and begin to integrate — while the two-week interval gives your nervous system space to process in between.

This is a genuine alternative to weekly therapy, not a supplement to it. It works well for high-achieving professionals, busy parents, executives, and anyone whose schedule doesn't accommodate a standing weekly appointment but who still wants real, ongoing therapeutic work.

This works especially well if you:

  • Want ongoing therapeutic work but not a weekly commitment

  • Need more than 50 minutes per session to get into the work but aren't ready for a full-day intensive

  • Want to use this as your primary therapy structure — longer, deeper, less often

  • Prefer a sustainable pace of deep work that integrates into your life over time

Example structures:

  • 90 minutes every other week

  • 2 hours once or twice a month

  • A biweekly rhythm that extends over several months

This approach works especially well for:

  • Complex trauma and cPTSD — layered, relational, or developmental trauma that doesn't have a single clear event at its center; the kind that lives in the nervous system and shapes everything

  • Attachment wounds — early experiences of abandonment, neglect, inconsistency, or harm within relationships that were supposed to be safe

  • A specific traumatic event or period — something defined that you want to move through with focus and intention rather than revisiting indefinitely in weekly sessions

  • Anxiety or depression with trauma underneath — when the symptoms are familiar but the source has never been fully addressed in previous therapy

The Approach

IFS + EMDR — Integrated, on Purpose

These aren't two separate modalities running side by side. This is a genuinely integrated approach where Internal Family Systems (IFS) and EMDR inform each other throughout the session.

IFS helps us understand and work with the parts of you that are protecting against the pain — the ones that have kept you functioning, kept you safe, and sometimes kept you stuck. EMDR moves the trauma through the nervous system in a way that talking alone rarely achieves.

Together, they create the conditions for the kind of deep, sustained trauma processing that an intensive format makes possible. This IFS-EMDR integration is particularly powerful for people who have tried EMDR before and felt like something kept blocking it, or who have done talk therapy for years without reaching the deeper material underneath.

Who Is This For?

A Note About Fit

Intensives are a closed therapeutic relationship. This means I work with intensive clients exclusively within this format — I am not also your weekly therapist. We begin with a thorough consultation to make sure this is clinically appropriate and that we're a good fit before any intensive work begins.

The geographic piece is simple: Intensives are open to any adult who is physically located within Maryland at the time of service. In-person sessions take place in Montgomery County, Maryland. Virtual intensive sessions are available to anyone within Maryland state lines at the time of the session — whether you live here full-time, are visiting, or are traveling specifically for this work.

People travel from across the mid-Atlantic region for in-person intensive work — from Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Fairfax, Arlington, Richmond, Delaware, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and beyond. If you're within a few hours and ready to do something real, you're welcome here.

Intensives are a good fit for:

  • Any adult located within Maryland — in-person in Montgomery County or virtually

  • People traveling from the DC metro area, Northern Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia for in-person work

  • High-achieving professionals, executives, and busy adults who want efficient, private, results-oriented trauma work

  • Therapists seeking their own healing — you understand this process, and that can be a profound asset in the work

Intensives are not the right fit for everyone. During our consultation, we'll talk honestly about whether this format, this approach, and this timing make sense for where you are right now. If it isn't the right fit, I'll tell you — and I'll help you think through what might be.A bold reimagining of a timeless brand.

Learn more about Emily

Who You're Working With

I'm Emily Lemke, LCSW-C — a trauma therapist based in Montgomery County, Maryland, specializing in complex trauma, cPTSD, and attachment wounds. My practice is built around the cases that require more than symptom management and the clients who are ready to do the deeper work.

I work from a genuinely integrated IFS and EMDR framework, informed by polyvagal theory, attachment research, and years of clinical experience across community mental health, residential treatment, mobile crisis, inpatient psychiatry, and psychiatric emergency intake. I've spent my career learning what actually moves people — not just what helps them cope.

Intensive work is one of the most meaningful things I do. It creates the conditions that weekly therapy often can't: enough time, enough safety, and enough continuity within a single session for real movement to happen.

Frequently Asked Questions

Logistics & Practicalities

  • In-person intensive sessions take place in Montgomery County, Maryland — centrally located for clients traveling from Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Virtual intensive sessions are available to anyone physically located within Maryland state lines at the time of service, whether you live here or are visiting.

    Many people find that traveling specifically for an intensive deepens the experience — stepping away from daily life and into a space dedicated entirely to this work creates a kind of intentionality that supports the process.

  • Intensives are billed starting at $150/90 minutes — private pay only, with no insurance accepted and no superbills provided. This is intentional: private pay means no insurance claims, no information shared with outside parties, and documentation that is minimal and discreet. Your care stays private.

    Here's what sessions cost:

    • 90-minute session: $150

    • 2-hour session: $200

    • 3-hour session: $350

    • 4-hour session: $450

    A deposit is required to hold your intensive slot, with the remaining balance due before we begin. If cost is a concern, please bring it up — I'd rather have an honest conversation than have it be the reason we never talk.

  • Because intensive slots require significant planning on both ends:

    • More than two weeks' notice: Your deposit may be applied toward a rescheduled intensive within three months.

    • Less than two weeks' notice: The deposit is non-refundable and the full fee applies.

    • No-shows or late arrivals: The full session fee applies. If you arrive late, the session ends at the originally scheduled time.

    • If I need to cancel: You'll have the option to reschedule or receive a full refund including your deposit.

    If something genuinely unforeseen comes up, reach out as soon as possible and we'll figure it out together.

  • We figure that out together in the consultation. Some people come in with a clear, defined trauma target and are well-suited for a focused 3-hour session. Others are working with more layered cPTSD or complex trauma and benefit from a longer format or an ongoing biweekly structure. There's no right answer — just what makes sense for you and what we're working toward.

  • Intensive slots are limited and require more lead time than a standard appointment — especially for clients traveling from out of the area. I'd recommend reaching out as soon as you're considering this. Start with the free consultation and we'll go from there.

Safety & Support Between Sessions

  • Deep trauma processing can bring things up — that's part of the process. Before we begin, we'll talk through what support looks like between sessions, identify your existing coping strategies and support system, and build a safety plan together if that's clinically appropriate. For non-urgent concerns between sessions, you can reach me through our agreed-upon method during business hours and I'll respond within 24-48 hours. Intensive therapy is not designed for continuous between-session support — part of what we do before we begin is make sure you have what you need in the spaces between our work.

  • If you are in immediate danger, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. For mental health crises, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) at any time, or text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. Please do not wait for a response from me in an emergency — these resources are available around the clock.

About Intensives

  • Weekly therapy is structured around 60-minute sessions with a week in between. That format works well for a lot of people — but trauma processing often builds momentum within a session, and stopping at the 50-minute mark can mean repeatedly approaching the edge of something without ever moving through it. An IFS-EMDR intensive gives us the time to get there, stay there, and actually complete the work — rather than setting it down and picking it up again seven days later. For people with complex trauma or cPTSD, accelerated trauma processing in an intensive format can move things that years of weekly therapy didn't reach.

  • IFS (Internal Family Systems) and EMDR are two of the most effective trauma modalities available — and they work exceptionally well together. IFS helps us understand and build a relationship with the parts of you that are protecting against pain, so that when we move into EMDR processing, those parts feel safe enough to allow it. Without that groundwork, EMDR can stall. With it, the processing tends to go deeper and resolve more completely. The two are woven together throughout the session — not alternating between approaches, but genuinely integrated.

  • These are two genuinely different structures — and both are real options, not just variations of the same thing.

    The immersive intensive is a concentrated block — typically 3 to 4 hours in a day, scheduled across one or more days. It's designed for people who want to dedicate a defined period to deep, focused trauma processing. This format works especially well for people traveling to Montgomery County from DC, Northern Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, or West Virginia, as well as anyone who wants the retreat-style experience of stepping fully into the work for a contained period of time.

    The extended session format is an ongoing rhythm of longer sessions at a less frequent pace — typically 90 or 120 minutes every other week. This works well as a primary therapy structure for high-achieving professionals, executives, and busy adults who want real ongoing therapeutic work without a weekly commitment — and who need more than 50 minutes per session to actually get somewhere meaningful.

    Not sure which fits your situation? That's exactly what the free consultation is for.

  • Intensive work tends to be most effective for people who have some capacity for self-reflection and emotional regulation — not because you need to be "ready" in a perfect sense, but because the depth and pace of this work requires a foundation of safety. We'll talk through this honestly in your free consultation. If a different starting point makes more sense, I'll tell you.

  • Yes — with coordination. If you're currently in weekly therapy with another provider, I'll want to know about that and may want to be in contact with them, depending on what we're working on. Intensive work alongside an existing therapeutic relationship can be powerful, but it requires thoughtful communication between providers.

  • Intensive therapy is a closed, focused container — the completion of our work together marks the end of our therapeutic relationship, unless we've specifically agreed in writing to continue. If you have an ongoing therapist, I'll provide them with a summary of our work (with your consent) to support continuity of care. If you'd like to work together again later, we'd start fresh with a new consultation to assess where you are at that point.

The Free Consultation

  • The consultation is a full hour at no charge. We'll talk about your history, what brings you to intensive work, what you're hoping to move through, and what format makes sense. We'll also spend time just getting to know each other — the therapeutic relationship matters in intensive work, maybe more than anywhere else. There's no pressure, no commitment, and no performance required. The consultation is a screening in both directions — I'm assessing whether intensive therapy is clinically appropriate for you, and you're deciding whether this feels like the right fit.

  • Come as you are — nothing to prepare. Here's what we'll likely cover:

    • Your previous therapy experience, including any prior EMDR or IFS work

    • What's bringing you to intensive work — what you're hoping to address or move through

    • Your goals and what you're hoping to feel differently on the other side

    • Practical considerations — scheduling, format, travel if applicable, and structure

    You don't need answers to all of these. That's what the conversation is for.

  • No. The consultation is a preliminary conversation to explore whether intensive therapy is the right fit — it doesn't establish a formal therapeutic relationship. If we both decide to move forward, that relationship begins when we complete the intake process and schedule your intensive. The consultation is confidential, but because it isn't a therapy session, the scope of that confidentiality is limited to the consultation itself.

Ready to find out if this is the right fit?

The free one-hour consultation is where we start — no commitment, no pressure, no performance required. Just an honest conversation about where you are and what you need.

People travel from across the DC metro area, Northern Virginia, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia to do this work. If you're ready — wherever you're coming from — I'd love to talk.

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