Why the current way we treat PTSD isn't working, and what does
If you've worked in mental health long enough, you've had the conversation. A patient with PTSD cycles through three different therapists over a year, each one working in isolation, covering off their 10 Medicare-funded sessions before referring on. Meanwhile, they're seeing a psychiatrist periodically for medication management, but there's little proactive coordination between that sees deserved progress. The complexity isn't managed, the progress stalls, and another client ends up labelled "treatment resistant" when what they really needed was a system that could handle the severity of their condition.
The numbers tell the story
Standard PTSD treatment using weekly sessions of EMDR or Prolonged Exposure (PE) has a success rate of 40-50%. Dropout rates hover around 22%. That means if you refer a patient, there's a coin-flip chance they'll recover, and you should expect one in five to drop out because the process itself is too distressing to sustain over months.
Then there's the intensive model originally developed by Psytrec in the Netherlands, and pioneered in Australia by the Intensive Trauma Treatment Centre (ITTC). Same evidence-based techniques, EMDR 2.0 and Prolonged Imaginal Exposure, delivered in a different way. Four 90-minute sessions per day across four consecutive days. Total: 24 hours of focused trauma treatment in one week. The loss of diagnosis rate is incredible with a fractional drop-out rate (reach out to access a copy of the literature review).
Not a marginal improvement, a different outcome entirely.
Why intensity changes everything
The intuition behind intensive treatment feels counterintuitive to most clinicians. Surely more distress packed into one week would increase dropout? The research suggests the opposite. Clients see a clear start and end. Progress is visible and rapid. They're in a focused clinical container with multiple therapists rotating in, which prevents avoidance by one clinician, keeps the team accountable to technique, and reduces the therapeutic drift that happens over months of weekly sessions.
There's also the working memory hypothesis. When you overload someone's working memory with traumatic content, eye movements, and simultaneous cognitive tasks, the traumatic memory breaks down and processes more efficiently. Memory resolution happens about 25% faster than traditional EMDR. It sounds brutal on paper. In practice, clients experience less overall distress because it's compressed into days rather than dragged across months.
The system that makes it work
What I've learned from studying this model closely, and working with the team at the Intensive Trauma Treatment Centre (ITTC) in Brisbane, is that intensity alone isn't the answer. It's intensity plus coordination plus technique fidelity. The therapist rotation model, where a client sees 2–4 clinicians across the week, each one bringing their best skill to one technique, keeps everyone honest. You can't drift into supportive counselling when you're switching to a fresh clinician in 90 minutes. The team has a clear goal, to remit the trauma diagnosis promptly.
That focus matters. In my conversations with insurers, the frustration isn't about cost-per-session, it's about costs that don't result in recovery. Some would rather pay for an intensive week that works than fund six months of weekly sessions that might not, ballooning into a huge claim payout eventually.
Australia's opportunity
The exciting part is that Psytrec, in conjunction with ITTC, has agreed to run workshops in Australia in February and March 2027. Ad de Jongh and Suzy Matthijssen, the clinicians behind the research and the model, are bringing the intensive EMDR 2.0 training to Hobart, Brisbane, and Darwin. It's an opportunity to learn from the people who built the world's most effective PTSD treatment model.
If you're a GP, psychologist, or psychiatrist managing complex PTSD feeling challenged by the system, these workshops are worth your time. You'll understand the evidence, the technique, and how to identify which of your patients could actually achieve remission instead of perpetual "management."
Ready to learn more?
Click here to register for the EMDR 2.0 workshops
Workshop dates:
Hobart: Monday 15–16 February 2027
Brisbane: Monday 22–23 February 2027
Darwin: Wednesday 10–11 March 2027Intensive Trauma Treatment Centre (ITTC)
