EMDR Intensive Preparation Guide — Embodied Heart Wellness

You've taken a meaningful step in choosing to do this work. Before we meet for your intensive, I'm inviting you to spend some time with the questions in this guide — not to get it right, but to begin turning toward what you're carrying and what you're hoping to set down.

There are no wrong answers here. You don't need to write in complete sentences, explain yourself, or share more than feels safe. Some questions will land easily. Others might sit with you for a few days. Both are fine.

I'll review this document before we meet and we'll spend the opening hour of your intensive reviewing it together — making sure I understand what matters most to you and beginning to map the territory of our work. That hour is already included in your intensive.

Please complete this at least 48 hours before your intensive begins.

As you move through this guide, you may find that some material feels activating — old feelings, images, or sensations beginning to stir. This is a sign that we're in the right territory. But you don't have to go all the way in right now. Notice what comes up, write what feels accessible, and bring the rest to our session. We'll go there together.

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Basic Information

Your name

Intensive date(s)

Intensive format

Half-day (3 hours) Full-day (6 hours) Two-day (2 × 6 hours)

What Brings You Here

1. In your own words, what are you hoping to work on during this intensive?

Don't worry about saying it perfectly. What feels most important to you — what feels ready to move?

2. How long have you been carrying what you're bringing here?

This might be a specific number of years, or it might feel like always. Either is worth naming.

3. What has already helped — even a little?

Therapy, practices, relationships, movement, time. What has offered even partial relief?

4. What has kept this from shifting, as far as you can tell?

What gets in the way? What pulls you back?

Memory Mapping

You don't need to tell me the full story of any memory right now. What I'm asking for is a short title — just enough for you to know which memory you're referring to, and for us to be able to name it together.

For example: "the car accident at 16," "the night my dad left," "that moment in the meeting," "something in third grade I can't quite name."

5. List the memories or experiences that come to mind — with a short title, the theme or feeling it carries, and where you feel it in your body.

Include a rough sense of when it happened if you can. You can use the format: Title | Theme/feeling | Body sensation | Life stage

6. Is there a memory or experience you've never told anyone about — one that still carries weight?

You don't have to share details here. Just noting its existence is enough.

7. Looking at the memories above — are there any that feel connected? Any thread that seems to run through them?

What You Believe About Yourself

These questions are about the beliefs that live underneath your experiences — the things you've come to conclude about yourself, even when another part of you knows they may not be entirely true. These beliefs tend to feel very true in the body, even when the thinking mind knows better. There are no wrong answers here.

8. When you're struggling most, what do you find yourself believing about yourself?

Finish this sentence in as many ways as feel true: "When things are hard, I believe I am..."

9. What do you believe about your safety in the world or in relationships?

Examples: I'm not safe, I can't trust anyone, I have to do it alone, I'll be abandoned, I'm too much, I'm not enough.

10. What do you believe about your worth or value?

Not what you think you should believe — what actually feels true when you're at your lowest.

11. What do you believe about your responsibility for what has happened to you?

Many people carry a sense of blame, guilt, or shame that wasn't theirs to carry. What lives here for you?

12. What would you most like to believe about yourself — that you don't quite fully believe yet?

This is the direction we're moving. What would feel like freedom?

Your Resources & Nervous System

13. What helps you feel regulated, calm, or resourced?

Movement, breath, nature, people, music, animals, practice — anything that genuinely helps.

14. When something feels overwhelming, what do you typically do?

No judgment here — we're just mapping your nervous system's patterns.

15. Is there anything that makes it hard for you to ask for help or support?

16. Do you have any concerns about what it might feel like to go deeply into this work?

Any fears about what you might find, feel, or lose? Please share them here.

Goals & Intentions

17. What would feel different in your body if this intensive went well?

Not thoughts — sensations. Lighter, looser, more spacious, more solid. What would shift?

18. What would feel different in your daily life?

In your relationships, your work, how you move through the world.

19. What would you most like to believe about yourself when this is complete?

Say it as if it were already true.

20. Is there anything you want me to know going into our time together?

About how you work best, what you need, or what feels important.

Thank you for taking this time.

What you've shared here matters — and I'll read it carefully before we meet.

Please also complete the DES-II Questionnaire if you haven't already. It takes about 5 minutes.

I'll be in touch if I have any questions before your intensive. See you soon.

One more step — the DES-II Questionnaire

Thank you for taking this time.