EMDR Intensives in Milwaukee, WI
A focused, accelerated approach to EMDR trauma therapy — with Kristen Holmes, MS, LPC, EMDRIA-trained therapist at Shoreside Therapies.
In-person EMDR Intensives in Whitefish Bay.
You've done the work. You've sat in weekly therapy for months — maybe years. You've talked it through, journaled about it, told the story so many times you could recite it like a grocery list. And it still has its hooks in you.
That's not a failure of effort. It's a feature of how trauma actually lives in the body.
EMDR Intensives are designed for people who are tired of the slow drip. Instead of one hour a week trying to crack open something massive and then stitching yourself back together for the rest of the week, an intensive gives you the time, space, and momentum to actually move through it.
Kristen Holmes, MS, LPC, runs EMDR Intensives at Shoreside Therapies — in person at our Whitefish Bay office.
What Is an EMDR Intensive?
An EMDR Intensive is a condensed, focused block of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy delivered over consecutive hours, days, or a long weekend — instead of a single 50-minute session per week.
Standard EMDR is highly effective. It's also one of the most well-researched trauma treatments in the world. The catch is the format: traditional EMDR can take months of weekly sessions to move the needle on a single traumatic memory, partly because each session has to spend 10–15 minutes warming up an/d another 10 minutes closing down before you walk back out into your real life.
In an EMDR Intensive, you skip the on-ramp / off-ramp tax. You spend several hours actually processing — which is when the brain does its rewiring work — instead of starting and stopping every week.
The result: research suggests EMDR Intensive therapy can produce in days what often takes six months or more of weekly therapy.
Who Are EMDR Intensives For?
EMDR Intensives tend to be a strong fit if any of this sounds familiar:
* You're a high-performing professional, parent, or caregiver who can't fit weekly therapy around everything else — but you could clear a weekend.
* You've been in therapy before, possibly for a long time, and you're frustrated by how slowly trauma work moves.
* You experienced a single significant event (a car accident, an assault, a medical trauma, a sudden loss) and the symptoms haven't faded the way you expected.
* You're navigating complex trauma — childhood adversity, attachment wounds, layered grief — and weekly sessions feel like trying to drain a lake with a teaspoon.
* You're heading into a major life transition (new baby, marriage, divorce, big career move) and you want to walk in unburdened.
* You've been searching for EMDR specialists or EMDR trauma therapy near you and need a focused option worth travelling to.
* You're a therapist or other helping professional who needs your own healing without a months-long commitment squeezed into your schedule.
EMDR Intensives aren't a fit for everyone. If you're in active crisis, struggling with active substance use, or don't yet have basic stabilization tools in place, traditional weekly therapy is the safer starting point. Kristen will walk through this with you in the consultation — and if an intensive isn't right, she'll point you toward what is.
EMDR Intensives for Complex Trauma
If you're navigating complex trauma — childhood adversity, attachment wounds, repeated relational rupture, layered grief, or the kind of long-running stress that has been sitting in your body for years — weekly therapy can feel like trying to drain a lake with a teaspoon. You finally start to open something up, and then the session ends and you go pick up the kids.
EMDR for complex trauma is different than EMDR for a single-incident event. Complex trauma involves multiple, often interrelated targets — and the work needs space to actually move through them without slamming the brakes every 50 minutes. That's where the intensive format earns its keep.
Kristen's approach to complex trauma in an EMDR Intensive includes:
* A trauma map — identifying which memories are most active right now and which can wait
* Extended preparation and resourcing so your nervous system has the tools to hold the work
* Somatic and polyvagal-informed pacing — slowing down when the body says "too much," leaning in when it says "more"
* Multiple reprocessing sessions across consecutive days, so what you opened on Friday doesn't have to be re-held all week before you can come back to it
* An integration session at the end so you leave with a plan, not just an experience
Many of Kristen's clients have done years of weekly therapy before deciding to do an intensive for complex trauma. They didn't fail at therapy. The format just couldn't hold what they were carrying.
Somatic and Polyvagal-Informed EMDR: Why Shoreside Therapies' Approach Is Different
EMDR alone is powerful. But trauma doesn't just live in the memory — it lives in the body and the nervous system. That's why Kristen practices a somatic, polyvagal-informed EMDR, weaving in nervous system regulation and body-based work alongside the reprocessing protocol.
Polyvagal Theory (developed by Dr. Stephen Porges) maps how your autonomic nervous system shifts among three states: ventral vagal (calm, connected), sympathetic (fight-or-flight), and dorsal vagal (shutdown, freeze). When trauma keeps you stuck in fight-or-flight or shutdown, no amount of "thinking your way out of it" actually works — because the part of your brain that knows you're safe has gone offline.
Somatic work brings the body into the room. Instead of staying in your head, you'll learn to track sensations, notice where emotion is physically present, and use that information to guide reprocessing. The combination of EMDR + somatic + polyvagal isn't just a technique — it's a way of doing trauma work that respects the fact that you are a body, not a brain on a stick.
By layering somatic and polyvagal-informed practices into your EMDR Intensive, Kristen helps you not only reprocess what got stuck — but also build the felt-sense capacity to come back to ventral vagal (calm, connected) faster, more often, and more reliably. You leave with the work done and the tools to keep doing it.
How EMDR Therapy Actually Works
EMDR was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s and is now considered a frontline treatment for PTSD by the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The core idea: when something traumatic happens, the brain doesn't always process it the way it processes ordinary memories. Instead, the experience gets stuck — frozen in place with the original sights, sounds, body sensations, and beliefs intact. That's why a smell, a tone of voice, or a particular kind of sky can yank you back into a moment that happened a decade ago.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation — usually eye movements, tapping, or alternating sounds — to help your brain finish processing what got stuck. You're not erasing the memory. You're putting it where it belongs: in the past, no longer running your nervous system from underground.
Your EMDR Intensive with Kristen Holmes, MS LPC
Kristen Holmes, MS, LPC, is an EMDRIA-trained therapist and trauma specialist at Shoreside Therapies. Her work draws on EMDR alongside Polyvagal Theory and somatic practices, so you're not just reprocessing memories — you're learning how to come back into your body and recognize what your nervous system has been telling you all along.
Kristen works especially well with:
* High-performing professionals running on fumes
* Midlife women navigating identity shifts, grief, perimenopause, or hormonal change
* Adults with ADHD whose brains and bodies don't fit conventional therapy models
* Folks who've tried "just talk" therapy and need something that works deeper
Her style is warm, grounded, and a little wry — clinical when it needs to be, real when it counts. You won't be lying on a couch dissecting your childhood for hours. You'll be doing actual neurological work, with someone who can hold the weight of it with you.
Want to hear more? Kristen walks you through it.
In this episode of Without the Couch, Kristen Holmes explains what an EMDR Intensive actually feels like, who it helps most, and why a weekly hour isn't always enough to finish the work.
Prefer audio? Listen to the episode.
What an EMDR Intensive Actually Looks Like
Every EMDR Intensive is built around the client. Below is a typical structure — Kristen customizes the schedule, length, and pacing based on what you're working on and what your nervous system can hold.
Phase 1 — Consultation & Intake
Before you commit to anything, you'll have a free 15-minute consultation with our intake coordinator, Caitie, to make sure an EMDR Intensive is the right next step. If it is, you'll schedule a longer intake session with Kristen to map your history, current symptoms, and goals.
Phase 2 — Preparation & Resourcing (2–3 hours)
Before any reprocessing happens, Kristen will walk you through nervous system regulation tools — grounding, breathwork, bilateral tapping, and "safe place" imagery — that you'll use throughout the intensive and long after. Think of this phase as building your toolkit before opening the door.
Phase 3 — Reprocessing (the bulk of the intensive)
This is the work. Depending on your plan, this can be:
- A half-day EMDR Intensive (3 hours) — best for a single, contained target.
- A 2-day EMDR Intensive (6 hours total) — deeper work on a specific theme or event.
- A 3-day EMDR Intensive (9 hours total) — for layered trauma or complex history.
Sessions break naturally for movement, lunch, hydration, and integration. You're not staring at a clock — you're following the work.
Phase 4 — Integration & Aftercare
The final session is dedicated to closing down: assessing what shifted, capturing your insights, and building an aftercare plan. Many clients return to weekly therapy with their primary therapist (or with someone at Shoreside) afterward to integrate what changed.
How Much Does an EMDR Intensive Cost?
EMDR Intensives at Shoreside are private pay. We don't bill insurance for intensives for two reasons: insurance plans don't recognize the format, and requiring a mental health diagnosis on your record can affect future life and disability insurance eligibility.
Immediate Openings
This includes your consultation, all reprocessing time, an integration session, a personalized resource workbook, and follow-up materials.
A note on cost: it helps to look at an EMDR Intensive next to the bigger picture. When you add up months of weekly sessions plus the time, travel, and emotional bandwidth each one takes, the overall investment is often comparable. That said — money is real, and we’ll happily walk you through whether this is the right fit before you commit a dollar.
Ready to Book a Consultation?
If you’ve read this far, something in your gut is probably already telling you whether an EMDR Intensive is the right next step. The best way to know for sure is a 15-minute call with our intake coordinator, Caitie.
You’ll get to:
- Ask questions about the format, cost, and timing
- Talk through whether Kristen is the right fit for what you’re working on
- Get clear on scheduling, availability, and next steps
Book Your Free EMDR Intensive Consultation
Or call us directly at 414-677-7948. Either way — we’re glad you’re here.
Frequently Asked Questions About EMDR Intensives
Is EMDR Intensive Therapy right for me if I’m already in weekly therapy?
Often, yes. Many clients do an EMDR Intensive in addition to ongoing weekly therapy with another provider. We’ll coordinate with your existing therapist (with your permission) so the work integrates rather than competes.
Can I do an EMDR Intensive online?
No. EMDR Intensives are held in person at our Whitefish Bay office, because the extended format works best with Kristen in the room. Clients travel in from across Wisconsin and neighboring states. Weekly EMDR sessions are still available online for clients in Wisconsin.
How long will it take me to feel better?
Everyone’s experience is different. Some people notice shifts by the end of the intensive, while others go through a settling period over the following weeks as the nervous system continues to integrate. EMDR has a strong research base as a trauma treatment, but no therapist can promise a specific result or timeline — Kristen will talk honestly with you about what to realistically expect for your situation.
Will I have to relive my trauma in detail?
EMDR doesn’t require you to retell your story over and over. You’ll need to identify the memory you’re working on, but most of the processing is internal. You’ll often be invited to “just notice” what comes up — body sensations, fragments of thought, emotion — without narrating every detail aloud.
How is an EMDR Intensive different from a trauma retreat?
Most retreats are group-based, take place in remote locations, and combine therapy with adjacent practices like yoga or breathwork. An EMDR Intensive is one-on-one, clinically focused, and built around a single licensed therapist working specifically on your goals.
What is polyvagal-informed EMDR?
Polyvagal-informed EMDR weaves nervous system regulation work (based on Dr. Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory) into traditional EMDR. It helps you not only reprocess stuck memories but also rebuild your capacity to feel safe, connected, and present in your body. Kristen is trained in this integrated approach.
Can EMDR Intensives help with complex trauma?
Yes. EMDR Intensives are particularly well-suited to complex trauma — childhood adversity, attachment wounds, layered grief, or repeated relational rupture. The intensive format gives space to process multiple, interrelated traumatic memories without the stop-start of weekly sessions, and Kristen pairs the EMDR protocol with somatic and polyvagal-informed pacing to keep the work tolerable for the nervous system.
Does an EMDR Intensive include somatic therapy?
Yes. Kristen integrates somatic (body-based) work into every EMDR Intensive — tracking sensation, noticing where emotion lives physically, and using that information to guide reprocessing. Somatic and polyvagal-informed elements aren’t separate add-ons; they’re built into how she does EMDR.
What if I have more than one traumatic memory to work on?
That’s expected — most trauma isn’t a single event. Kristen will help you map your trauma timeline and prioritize which memories to target during your intensive based on what’s most active right now.
Can I bring a support person?
You can have a support person travel with you and stay nearby, but they won’t be in the therapy room. The intensive itself is private, one-on-one work between you and Kristen.
Do you offer EMDR Intensives for couples?
At this time, EMDR Intensives at Shoreside are designed for individual work. If you and your partner are looking for couples-focused intensive work, contact us and we can talk through options.
What’s your cancellation policy?
Because EMDR Intensives reserve a significant block of Kristen’s calendar, our cancellation policy is structured to be fair to both sides. A 50% deposit is due at the time of scheduling to reserve your dates. If you cancel at least two weeks before your intensive, your deposit is refunded; cancellations made within two weeks of your scheduled dates forfeit the deposit. Specifics are confirmed at the time of scheduling.
Where EMDR Intensives Take Place
EMDR Intensives are held in person at our Whitefish Bay office, 4530 N Oakland Ave, on Milwaukee’s North Shore. The extended format, with hours of reprocessing in one day, works best with your therapist in the room.
Many clients travel in from across Wisconsin and from Illinois, Minnesota and beyond. If you’re coming from out of town, we’re happy to suggest nearby places to stay. Weekly EMDR sessions remain available online for clients located in Wisconsin.
Half-day intensive
(3 hours)
$1200
2-day intensive
(6 hours total)
$2400
3-day intensive
(9 hours total)
$3600
Contact Kristen
Ready to schedule your complimentary 15-minute consultation?
Kristen Holmes, MS, LPC
4530 N Oakland Ave
Whitefish Bay WI 53211