For Referring Clinicians
For therapists who don't practice EMDR, IFS, or Brainspotting — a collaborative intensive pathway with Nancy Phung-Smith, LMFT. Your client does the deep trauma processing here, then returns to you to integrate it.
Nancy Phung-Smith, LMFT 131818 — EMDRIA Certified
Why refer
Many of your clients have read about EMDR. They've asked about it. They sense there's something — a memory, a pattern, a body response — that talk therapy alone hasn't reached. An intensive offers a focused, time-bound container to move through that material, without disrupting the therapeutic relationship they have with you.
Intensives are designed as a parallel, time-limited engagement. Your client remains your client.
Half-day, full-day, or multi-day formats focused on a specific event, pattern, or stuck point.
A clinical summary returns with your client so the integration work continues seamlessly in your sessions.
The Modalities
Each intensive is sequenced with the modality — or combination — best matched to your client's presentation, nervous system, and goals.
An evidence-based protocol that helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories at a neurobiological level. Particularly suited for single-incident trauma, attachment wounds, and intrusive memories that talk alone hasn't resolved.
A parts-based approach that gently meets protectors and exiles. Effective for clients who feel internally divided, self-critical, or who describe 'a part of me' that keeps them stuck despite insight.
A somatic, brain-body modality that accesses material held below conscious awareness — useful when a client knows something is 'there' but can't put words to it, or when traditional cognitive approaches plateau.
The Pathway
Your client mentions EMDR or you sense an intensive could move something the weekly format can't. You share this referral.
A 30-minute consult — clinician-to-clinician or with your client — to assess fit, discuss history, and align on goals.
We define a clear target: a specific memory, pattern, or somatic stuck point. Resourcing and stabilization happen before processing.
Half-day, full-day, or multi-day. Sustained, titrated processing using EMDR, IFS, and/or Brainspotting.
A written clinical summary and integration recommendations come back with your client — so you can continue the work in weekly sessions.
Example Referrals
A 38-year-old client you've worked with for 18 months has made meaningful gains around her relationship patterns, but a single childhood incident keeps surfacing in dreams and won't shift through cognitive work.
A 2-day EMDR intensive targeting that specific memory. She returns to your weekly sessions with the charge reduced — ready to integrate the relational learnings she'd already begun with you.
A new-ish client has read about EMDR online and keeps asking if it's right for him. You're not trained in it, and don't want to lose the rapport you've built.
A clinician consultation, then a half-day Brainspotting + EMDR intensive. He continues weekly therapy with you throughout — the intensive is an adjunct, not a transfer.
Your client describes a 'wall' — she knows something is there from childhood but can't access it. Talk therapy circles it. Her nervous system tightens whenever it's approached.
A multi-day intensive sequencing IFS and Brainspotting to gently approach what's been protectively held. Pacing is titrated; safety is the priority.
Is It a Fit?
A quick decision tree for the moments you're weighing whether an adjunct intensive could support the work you're already doing.
Keep going. Revisit if a plateau appears.
Collaboration, not handoff
Our clients benefit when we stop working in isolation. Building a small, trusted referral community around each person — therapists, specialists, modalities — is how meaningful change becomes durable change.
You stay the primary therapeutic relationship. I hold a focused, time-bound container for the trauma processing — then hand the thread back to you.
With your client's consent: a pre-intensive call to align on goals, and a written summary after. We talk like colleagues, not like a black box.
Referring isn't outsourcing — it's expanding the team around your client. The best outcomes happen when therapists trust each other and share what we know.
"The strongest therapeutic outcomes I've seen aren't from one brilliant clinician — they're from a small, trusted circle of clinicians who collaborate around one human."
Collaborative Care
Trauma processing opens material. Integration is what makes it durable — and integration belongs in the relationship your client already trusts.
After the intensive, your client returns with reduced reactivity, new somatic awareness, and often a clearer sense of what they want to work on next. You receive a concise clinical summary covering targets addressed, resourcing used, and integration recommendations.
The goal isn't to replace your work. It's to give it more room to land.
For Referring Clinicians
Begin a Referral
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute clinician consultation to discuss fit, goals, and the right format.