Jennifer Jenkins-Boitnott, LPC (she/her)
I am a relationally focused, intensive, EMDR therapist.
My foundation for therapy is a client-centered and relational. I believe that you are the expert on yourself and that you already have the capacity for incredible healing and change. I am here to guide you on the path to healing and transforming your life. I am not here as a blank slate to reflect your thoughts and emotions back to you. I am here connecting with you in the moment, attuned to the energy and emotion that is coming up as we go through this experience together. An important part of the healing process is feeling connected, safe and supported.
Completing EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy) training in 2016 transformed my clinical approach in therapy. EMDR provides an adaptive framework with powerful tools to create massive changes in the brain and body. EMDR was instantly the missing piece that I had been seeking to help people feel relief from incredibly stressful and traumatic experiences.
When I find something that feels right to me, I deep dive into learning as much as I can about it. I want to understand it on a deeper level.
Since, 2016 I have continued specializing in EMDR therapy. In 2018 after completing many EMDR therapy sessions, receiving hours consultation and additional advanced EMDR trainings, I became an EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist.
As I became more comfortable I became with the process of EMDR and saw the relief it brought to my clients and myself, the more I wanted to help other therapists learn how to harness the power of EMDR. I continued with additional EMDR sessions, attended additional consultation, and continued learning more about various protocols, complex trauma, dissociation, pre-verbal trauma, childhood trauma and attachment repair. In 2020 I became an EMDRIA EMDR Consultant. Currently, I spend part of my time working with other therapists to develop their EMDR skills and practices at my consultation business Simply Rewire.
I believe in challenging the norms and thinking outside of the box of how things are “supposed to work” and the way things are “supposed to be done.”
In 2020 I learned about taking an intensive approach to EMDR therapy. EMDR therapy is an emotionally intense and powerful approach to therapy. An “intensive” is a longer session (mine are 3 hours). The intensive model of structuring therapy sessions was another transformative moment in my clinical practice. Having more time available in session solved my biggest frustration with EMDR therapy, running out of time. Frequently, in a “standard” 1 hour therapy session, we end up having to shut down the target memory just as soon as it starts to shifts. I thought to myself so many times, if we just had more time during session then we could complete this target memory and we would really be able to see and feel the progress.
Again, I deep dive into things. So I joined a consultation program specifically focused on the clinical and business aspects of working in an intensive format. In 2021, I started experimenting with offering intensive EMDR sessions and it was wildly successful. I saw progress happen during 3 hours of time that I was seeing it take multiple 1 hour sessions (which ends up being months of time in the therapy office). My clients were leaving my office feeling transformed and I was leaving my office feeling more empowered than ever before in my ability to help people heal.
Currently, I am finding the most success in the therapy room through EMDR Intensive Programs. These are sets of intensive sessions (3 hours each) that we schedule during the same week or within a few weeks of each other. During an EMDR Intensive Program, in a few hours and a few days time we can release what is stuck and allow your brain and body to heal and integrate those experiences. Shifting so much in a brief period of time results in feeling like you are leaving my office as a different person, with a new perspective on life.