If you're already dreading how depleted you'll feel by the time the holidays are over, I want to offer you a different idea before the year runs out.
Maybe you've been telling yourself you'll “deal with it” after the new year.
Maybe you associate winter with slowing down in the worst way — isolation, low mood, short days.
Maybe you've never thought of winter as a season to actually do something for yourself.
Maybe you just need permission to stop waiting for the “right time.”
What if winter isn't the season to get through, but the season to finally do the work?
There's a particular kind of quiet that settles over the Berkshires in winter. The crowds that come for fall foliage are gone. The hills go white. Mornings get still in a way that feels almost deliberate, like the whole landscape is giving you permission to stop moving so fast. I think winter might actually be the best season for retreat-style intensive work, and I don't say that just because it's beautiful (though it really is).
A Season That Mirrors the Work
So much of what I ask clients to do during an intensive is slow down enough to actually feel what's there. That's hard to do when everything around you is buzzing. Winter does some of that work for us:
Less to distract you, fewer demands competing for your attention
A natural invitation to stay indoors, go inward, and be present in your body
A built-in reminder that rest isn't something you have to earn
What a Winter Intensive Looks Like
Depending on what you're looking for, intensives take place at a few different retreat-style venues I love working with in the area, each with its own particular feel, from cozy and tucked-away to a little more open and airy. Some clients also choose to add in complementary support like acupuncture or gentle yoga between sessions, to help the body settle into the stillness of the season. Part of our first conversation is figuring out which setting, and which supports, actually fit what you need.
Why Slowing Down in Winter Isn't a Compromise — It's the Point
There's a cultural story that productivity shouldn't pause, even in the dead of winter. But your nervous system doesn't run on a calendar year. If you've been pushing through exhaustion to make it to a finish line that keeps moving, winter can be the season you finally stop pushing and start processing instead.
You don't have to wait for spring to feel like yourself again.
Booking Winter Dates
Winter retreat-style EMDR intensive dates in the Berkshires are open for booking now. If you've been waiting for the right moment to finally do this kind of deeper work, somewhere quiet, away from your regular life, with nothing demanding your attention but the process itself, this season might be exactly that moment.
Reach out and let's find a date that works.
Rachel Duvall, LICSW, Certified EMDR Intensives Therapist, EMDR Consultant-in-Training
Rachel Duvall is a licensed therapist (LICSW) with over 15 years of experience supporting clients in Boston, New York City and now Great Barrington, MA. She specializes in EMDR therapy and EMDR therapy intensives for women, parents, and LGBTQIA+ struggling with anxiety disorders, trauma, perfectionism, and low self-esteem. Rachel uses evidence-based, somatic, holistic therapy approaches like EMDR and Sensorimotor Therapy to help clients feel calmer and more confident in themselves and their relationships. At Rachel Duvall Psychotherapy, she is committed to providing compassionate, expert care both in-person and online for clients across Massachusetts and Florida.
Rachel provides in-person EMDR intensives and EMDR therapy in Great Barrington, MA, in the Berkshires, in addition to providing trauma therapy online for women and LGBTQIA+ located in the areas of
Boston, MA | Cambridge, MA | Newton, MA | Hingham, MA
Trauma therapy online for residents of Florida including
Miami, FL | Tampa, FL | Sarasota, FL | Orlando, FL