Virtual EMDR Intensive in Canada · for birth trauma after an unplanned c‑section
Stop replaying your cesarean.
18 hours of focused EMDR, so you can walk into a future pregnancy, or honestly just a regular Tuesday, without bracing for impact.
You didn’t grow a whole person and cross into motherhood just to be told the only thing that matters is that you’re both healthy. This is for mothers who’ve already talked about it, thought about it, tried to file it away, and are still carrying it.
$4,000 CAD · payment plans available · usually claimable on extended health · licensed in BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, PE, NL, YT and NT
Right now, the loop hasn’t stopped.
- Your body is still in that room.The operating table, the shift in the air, the thing nobody acknowledged. That isn’t something wrong with you. It’s what unprocessed trauma does: it can’t tell then from now.
- You’ve minimized it.“The baby’s healthy, that’s what matters.” So you filed the rest away. Your body didn’t.
- Another pregnancy feels like a threat, not a plan.VBAC planning feels frantic. A repeat cesarean already feels like failing twice. And sex might feel loaded in a way you haven’t said out loud.
- You’ve talked about it.With a therapist, your partner, your friends. It helped you understand what happened. It didn’t move it.
- Nobody really gets it.You’re tired of explaining why an unplanned cesarean sits between the birth world and the medical world, belonging to neither.
What it can look like when the weight comes off
Not “you’ll feel better.” Small, specific, everyday moments. These are patterns I’ve seen in my practice, not promises; every nervous system moves at its own pace.
- Someone asks about your birth at the playground, and you just answer. No shutting down, no leaving your body.
- Thinking about another pregnancy starts to feel like a plan, not a threat.
- The memory stops behaving like an emergency. It happened. It doesn’t have to keep happening.
- You make your next birth decision, VBAC or repeat cesarean, from your own knowing, not from fear or the birth hierarchy.
- The voice that said you failed loses its grip. Not because you argued with it, but because the processing did its work.
- You stop defending that your cesarean was still a threshold. Both things get to be true.
Not more talking about it. Processing it.
What is an EMDR intensive? An EMDR intensive is trauma therapy in a concentrated format: many hours of EMDR in a short, contained window, instead of one 50-minute session a week for months. Mine is 18 hours, fully virtual across Canada, built for birth trauma and cesarean birth trauma.
You don’t need to retell the story one more time, or logic your way out of the shame, or wait and hope time softens it. You need something that reaches where the memory is actually stored.
When something overwhelming happens too fast to process, in a room where everyone is focused on the clinical outcome, the brain files it wrong. It doesn’t get stored as the past. It stays live. That’s the loop.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one of the most researched trauma treatments there is. Through bilateral stimulation and guided processing, it helps your brain move that memory from “still happening” to “happened.”
The intensive format means you’re not starting and stopping across months of 50-minute sessions, warming up and cooling down every week. We do concentrated work in a contained window.
I use a paced, nervous-system-first approach to EMDR, not the older bulldozer style that can leave you flooded. Integration, not endurance, is the point.
Hi, I’m Jess
I planned a home birth. I have a cesarean scar.
I had the midwife. The playlist. The copal burning for 24 hours. I had it mapped out in a way that felt right in my body, like I really understood what birth was asking of me. And then I was on an operating table.
Afterward I went looking for a community that could hold both things at once, and found an unspoken rule instead. If birth is sacred, be suspicious of hospitals. If you trust Western medicine, birth is just a clinical event. I couldn’t do either.
I’m a licensed therapist who has worked in hospital emergency mental health, and a mother whose birth went sideways. Birth is a threshold, one of the biggest passages a body can move through, and sometimes in that exact moment, you also need a surgeon. Those aren’t opposing facts.
My cesarean was almost six years ago. EMDR resolved the trauma response. The “who am I now?” question took longer, and it’s a big part of why I do this work. When you work with me, you’re not educating your therapist from scratch.
How it works
18 hours, start to finish
Intake
We map your history, your nervous system, your specific birth and what you want to feel different. It’s also where trust gets built, so you’re never processing with a stranger. We don’t rush this part.
Preparation
Before any processing, we build what your nervous system needs to do this safely: grounding, stabilizing, and a clear picture of what’s coming. Your capacity sets the pace, not the calendar.
EMDR processing
Traditionally Monday, Wednesday and Friday of one week. If that’s not possible, 2.5-hour sessions spread over up to 8 weeks. Sessions never get shorter than 2.5 hours, because that’s what the work needs.
Integration
Processing keeps moving after a session ends. You’ll have a workbook built around how EMDR integration actually works, and secure messaging for the 10pm-on-a-Wednesday moments, so nothing sits waiting for the next session.
Follow-up
We look at what’s shifted, tie up anything that surfaced, and map what’s next for you: a next pregnancy, a birth plan, or just a steadier everyday.
Is this the right fit?
It might be, if you
- had an unplanned or emergency cesarean that still sits heavy
- have talked it through and it hasn’t moved
- are thinking about another pregnancy, or are already pregnant
- want focused, contained work over open-ended weekly sessions
- live in BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, PE, NL, YT or NT
Maybe not right now, if you
- are in crisis or need immediate safety support (please call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest emergency department, or call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline)
- need stabilization before trauma processing, which we can start with in weekly sessions
- are looking for coping tools only
- aren’t ready for focused processing work yet, and that’s okay
Your investment
$4,000 CAD
One flat rate for 18 hours of specialized EMDR. No hourly drip, no year-long wait.
- 90-minute intake session (virtual)
- 15 hours of EMDR processing, in one week or over up to 8 weeks
- Integration workbook, yours to keep
- Secure messaging throughout the intensive
- 90-minute follow-up, 2 to 3 weeks after
Payment plans are available, and a deposit holds your spot. This is licensed therapy, so most extended health plans in Canada let you claim it, which means the real out-of-pocket cost is often lower than the sticker. Cancellation is accommodated for medical emergencies.
Questions worth asking before you decide
$4,000 is a lot. How do I know it’s worth it?
It is a lot, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. A few things before you write the number off: this is licensed therapy, so most extended health plans in Canada let you claim it. Payment plans are available. And it’s worth comparing to a year or two of weekly sessions that restart the warm-up every single time. The real question is whether a processed birth and a steadier nervous system are worth it to you, and a consult call is a good place to think that through out loud.
I can’t do three days in one week. Is this still for me?
Yes. The same 15 hours of processing can be spread into 2.5-hour sessions over up to 8 weeks. The session length doesn’t shrink, because 2.5 hours is what the work needs, but the schedule can bend around your actual life.
Was my cesarean “bad enough” for this?
Trauma isn’t measured by how dramatic it looked from the outside, or how close it came to catastrophe, or whether anyone in the room noticed. It’s measured by how your nervous system experienced it. If you’re asking this question, it’s still affecting you. That’s already an answer.
Can this really work over video?
Yes. EMDR adapts well to video, and it’s how I work every day. For mothers it’s often the better setting: no childcare scramble, no commute, no arriving rushed before trauma work, and you go straight from a session into your own rest.
I already have a therapist. Why would I need someone else?
Keep them. General therapy can help you understand what happened. EMDR with someone who works on cesarean birth trauma specifically is built to reach where the memory is stored. The intensive is a contained piece of work, and then you go back to whatever support comes next.
My cesarean was recent. Is it too soon?
Not necessarily. Mothers come to this months after their birth and years after. If you’re struggling now, it’s worth a conversation, and we’ll look at timing together on a consult call.
I’m pregnant and terrified. Is this the right option?
It can be a really good fit. Working through the last birth before the next one means you get to walk into that room from a steadier place. The flexible format can be planned around your due date, and we’ll map the timing together at intake.
Is this only for cesarean birth trauma?
Cesarean birth trauma is my specialty, emergency and unplanned c-sections especially. I also work with mothers after other traumatic births: a birth that went too fast or dragged on for days, a forceps or vacuum delivery, a NICU stay, or a birth where you felt unheard. A free consult call is the place to figure out if the intensive fits your birth.
Can I do an EMDR intensive from anywhere in Canada?
I’m licensed in BC, AB, SK, MB, NB, PE, NL, YT and NT, and the whole intensive happens over secure video. If you live in one of those, you can do it from your own couch.
Don’t let another due date, or another Tuesday, go by wondering when the loop is going to stop.
$4,000 CAD · payment plans available · extended health usually applies