ART & HOCI Therapy Intensives in Eden Prairie, MN
Fast-Acting, Deep-Reaching Trauma Therapy — In a Format Built for Real Progress
What if you could do more in a few focused hours than you've done in months of weekly sessions?
That's not a marketing claim. That's what Accelerated Resolution Therapy was designed to do.
ART moves differently than most trauma therapies. It's fast — often producing meaningful relief in just a few sessions. It doesn't require you to retell your story in detail. And when you combine it with the depth of the Healing Our Core Issues (HOCI) model and give it the extended, uninterrupted time of an intensive format, what's possible is genuinely different.
If you're an adult who is ready to stop circling the same pain and actually move through it, an ART + HOCI intensive might be exactly what's been missing.
A Quick Word on ART and HOCI
If you're not familiar with these approaches, here's the short version — and you can read more on our Accelerated Resolution Therapy page.
Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an evidence-based therapy that uses guided eye movements to help your brain reprocess distressing memories and emotional experiences. Unlike some trauma therapies, ART doesn't require you to retell your story in detail or re-experience what happened. Instead, it works directly with the imagery and body sensations connected to painful memories — changing the way those memories are stored so they lose their charge. ART is recognized by the American Psychological Association and has been shown to reduce symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and more, often in just one to five sessions.
The Healing Our Core Issues (HOCI) model goes a layer deeper. HOCI is a framework for understanding the underlying belief patterns, attachment wounds, and emotional deficits that develop early in life and quietly shape how we relate to ourselves and others for decades. While ART clears the charge on specific memories and experiences, HOCI helps you understand why those experiences landed so hard — and who you want to be on the other side of healing them.
Together, they create something rare: both rapid symptom relief and deep, meaning-making change.
Why an Intensive Format Makes ART Even More Effective
ART is already one of the more time-efficient trauma therapies available. An intensive takes that further.
In a 50-minute weekly session, you're often just hitting your stride when it's time to close. There's warm-up, there's processing, and then there's careful closure — and with complex trauma or layered experiences, that cycle can take a long time to accumulate into real change.
In an intensive, you have two to three uninterrupted hours. That means:
You can work through more than one target memory or stressor in a single session
You don't lose momentum to the week between appointments
ART's natural arc — preparation, processing, rescripting, resolution — can complete fully, without stopping in the middle of something important
HOCI integration can happen in real time, not as an afterthought at the end of a too-short hour
For many clients, an ART + HOCI intensive creates shifts in a single day that would have taken months to build in weekly therapy. That's not always the case — complex trauma takes what it takes — but the intensive format removes one of the biggest obstacles to real progress: time.
What Your Intensive Experience Looks Like
Before your intensive — pre-intensive session Before your intensive, you and Elisabeth will meet to clarify your goals, explore your history, and identify the areas where you most want to experience relief or growth. This conversation is important — it shapes the entire arc of your intensive so that the time you invest is focused in the right direction.
During your intensive Your intensive runs two to three hours. Elisabeth will guide you through ART processing in a paced, supportive environment — addressing specific memories, emotional experiences, or belief patterns using guided eye movements and visualization. HOCI themes are woven throughout, helping you connect what you're processing to the deeper patterns it's part of.
You won't be pushed. The pace is yours. ART doesn't require you to stay in distress — the protocol moves through it, and Elisabeth's role is to support you through that movement with care and clinical skill.
After your intensive — post-intensive session Your post-intensive session is where the integration happens. You and Elisabeth will reflect on what shifted, talk through what you're noticing, and map out what continued support — whether that's ongoing weekly therapy, additional intensives, or simply time to let the work settle — looks like for you going forward.
What ART + HOCI Intensives Can Help With
This approach is particularly well-suited for adults navigating:
Trauma from assault, abuse, neglect, or other difficult experiences (PTSD)
Complex trauma rooted in childhood — family dynamics, attachment wounds, emotional neglect (C-PTSD)
Anxiety, perfectionism, and the exhaustion of constant self-monitoring
Depression and negative self-talk tied to deep-seated core beliefs
Relationship patterns that keep repeating — in friendships, romantic relationships, or with family
Grief and loss, including grief that feels stuck or complicated
Major life transitions — divorce, becoming a parent, job changes, identity shifts — that are stirring up more than expected
Burnout, especially among caregivers, helping professionals, and high-achieving women who've been running on empty
Sleep disturbances, including nightmares or a nervous system that doesn't easily settle
Phobias, OCD patterns, or intrusive thoughts connected to past experiences
Medical trauma or the emotional aftermath of chronic illness
Performance challenges — creative blocks, fear of failure, productivity struggles rooted in anxiety
An ART + HOCI intensive is also a powerful option if:
You're already in weekly therapy and feel like you're on the edge of a breakthrough — but need more concentrated time to get there
You have time off from work, a transition coming up, or a specific window where you want to invest deeply in yourself
You've done ART before and found it helpful, and you're ready to go deeper
You're approaching a significant life transition — a new chapter, a relationship change, a fresh start — and you want to clear the emotional weight before you step into it
FAQs About ART + HOCI Intensives
-
No. Elisabeth will orient you to how ART works before your intensive begins — and the pre-intensive session is specifically designed to make sure you understand the process and feel ready to engage with it. Some of Elisabeth's most impactful intensive experiences have been with people doing ART for the very first time.
-
Both ART and EMDR use bilateral stimulation — guided eye movements — to help the brain reprocess trauma, and they share some underlying principles. ART is generally more directive and often moves more quickly. It places particular emphasis on imagery and visualization, and it includes a rescripting component that helps you actively change the mental images connected to painful memories — not just reduce their emotional charge. You can read more about this on our ART page or our ART vs. EMDR blog post.
-
No — and this is one of the things that makes ART different. You don't have to retell your story. Elisabeth will ask enough to understand what you're working on, but ART works directly with the imagery and body sensations connected to memories, not through repeated verbal recounting. Many clients find this a genuine relief.
-
It can be, yes — and it may take more than one intensive to address all of what's there. In your pre-intensive session, Elisabeth will be honest with you about what's realistic to address in one extended session and what a longer-term plan might look like. No good clinician promises a single session will fix everything, but many clients with complex histories find that intensives provide movement that weekly therapy alone wasn't generating.
-
Intensives are a premium, focused service — they require more preparation, energy, and schedule flexibility than standard sessions, and they're designed to offer significantly more concentrated value. Intensive sessions are typically $255–300/hour, with packages starting at $510. Elisabeth is an out-of-network provider, but many PPO insurance plans offer reimbursement for psychotherapy. A Superbill is available for all direct-contact therapy services.
-
Intensives are a focused, premium service — they require more time, preparation, and energy than a standard session, and they offer more concentrated value. Intensive sessions are typically $225-270/hour, with packages starting at $450. We are an out-of-network provider, but many PPO insurance plans offer reimbursement for psychotherapy. We can provide a Superbill for all direct-contact therapy services.
-
With a free 15-minute phone consultation with Elisabeth. It's a low-stakes way to connect, share what you're hoping to address, and find out whether an ART + HOCI intensive is the right fit for where you are right now.
Meet Elisabeth: ART + HOCI Intensive Therapist for Adults
Elisabeth Emmerich, MA, LPCC, RPT, is a licensed professional clinical counselor and the owner of Creekside Counseling. She is the only ART-trained therapist at Creekside and has trained extensively in both Accelerated Resolution Therapy and the Healing Our Core Issues model — bringing them together in her intensive work in a way that's both evidence-based and deeply personal.
Elisabeth works with adult women navigating anxiety, trauma, perfectionism, life transitions, and the particular exhaustion of always holding it together. As a mom of three, she brings genuine understanding of what it means to be a high-functioning woman who is also quietly running out of steam — and she creates a space that is warm, practical, and honest.
What sets Elisabeth's intensive work apart is the combination of clinical skill and personal insight she brings to the room. She doesn't do generic. She doesn't rush. And she's not in the business of surface-level change.
If you're ready to do the deeper work — the kind that actually shifts things — Elisabeth would be glad to hear from you.
Creekside Counseling — Therapy Intensives in Eden Prairie, MN
Creekside Counseling is a group private practice in Eden Prairie, MN, specializing in trauma therapy, women's therapy, and evidence-based approaches for lasting change. Our therapists serve clients across the Twin Cities and surrounding communities.
Proudly serving: Eden Prairie, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Wayzata, Edina, Bloomington, Chanhassen, Chaska, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and surrounding suburbs.