What is a Therapy Intensive?

Why a Therapy Intensive Might Be Just What You Need

When most people think of therapy, they picture a one-hour session, once a week. And for many situations, that’s a great option. But when you’re carrying deep pain, past trauma, or emotional wounds and painful patterns that keep showing up, traditional therapy can sometimes feel like it’s moving too slowly. That’s when a therapy intensive can make a real difference. Healing takes time, but that doesn’t mean it has to take forever. A therapy intensive offers a unique opportunity to make real, lasting progress in a shorter period of time than you would in weekly sessions.

What Is a Therapy Intensive?

A therapy intensive is usually a half or full day, sometimes several days in a row, where you work closely with a therapist on a specific issue or set of challenges. It’s a way to give yourself a safe, supported space to really go deep without having to cut the conversation short after 50 minutes. If weekly therapy is like watering your garden a little every few days, an intensive is like giving it a deep soak and adding in missing nutrients. Intensives are the kind of therapy that really reaches the roots through clarity, healing, and release.

Why Would Someone Do an Intensive?

Here are a few reasons you might choose an intensive:

1. You’re Stuck

If you've been in therapy but feel like you're spinning your wheels, an intensive can help you dig deeper and break through blocks that are hard to get to in a 50-minute session.

2. Life Is Busy

Some people don’t have the time (or mental space) to do therapy every week. An intensive can be a way to get real progress in a shorter timeframe.

3. You’ve Been Through Something Big

Whether it’s trauma, loss, a major transition, or even burnout, some things need more time and space to process than what traditional therapy can offer.

4. You Want a Jump Start

Starting therapy with an intensive can give you a strong foundation. It’s a way to go deep quickly, and then continue with less frequent sessions afterward.

What Happens During an Intensive?

This depends on your goals, but generally you will:

Have a thorough intake that covers your history, goals, and places you feel stuck
Learn and practice tools and coping skills
Engage in depth oriented exercises that help you fully process emotions and let go of old patterns
Get real-time support and feedback when difficult emotions or questions arise
Go much deeper on an issue than you have in weekly sessions
Target the past, present, and future
Have space for breaks and integration
Create an aftercare plan so that you can keep your momentum going

I will weave in EMDR, somatic work, parts work/IFS, experiential exercises, and mindfulness-based practices during the intensives. The therapeutic exercises are paced so that they aren’t too overwhelming and the trauma focused therapies move beyond just talking or crying about the past. Click here to learn more about the types of therapy that we might do during your intensive. This isn’t about re-living trauma. It’s about giving it the time, tools, and support it needs so you can finally start healing.

Why This Can Be So Helpful for Trauma

Trauma doesn’t live on the surface. It’s stored deep in the brain, body, and nervous system. You may not even consciously remember everything, but your body does. This is why trauma shows up in ways you don’t always expect:

Anxiety or panic
Feeling stuck or numb
Relationship struggles
Trouble sleeping or focusing
Being easily overwhelmed or sensitive
Patterns you can’t seem to change
Numbing out with food, porn, relationships, or substances

In weekly therapy, just as you begin to touch something painful or important, the session ends and and you're left trying to hold it all together until next time. In between sessions, you probably find yourself reverting back to old coping mechanisms because you don’t have enough support in between. That can leave you feeling like therapy doesn’t work, you’re a failure or will never get better, or can even feel re-traumatizing.

A therapy intensive gives you the time and space to gently explore and process trauma without rushing. It allows your nervous system to settle, your story to unfold, and your healing to deepen in a safe, controlled environment.

“But I Don’t Think I Have Trauma…”

You’re not alone. A lot of people hesitate when they hear the word trauma. It might sound too big, too dramatic, or like something that only applies to other people who have had it worse.

But here’s the truth: Trauma isn’t just what happened to you, it’s how your nervous system was affected by what happened. It’s what your body and brain had to do to cope when something was overwhelming, scary, or emotionally too much to handle at the time. Sometimes, trauma develops simply because our brain wasn’t able to fully process what happened at the time, not because we viewed it as traumatic or not.

Examples of trauma can include:

Growing up in a household where emotions weren't safe to express
Being consistently criticized, ignored, or pressured to be perfect
Experiencing bullying, breakups, or betrayal
Feeling like you had to be the “strong one” all the time
Living with chronic stress, illness, or instability
Having your needs minimized or dismissed, even unintentionally
Losing your sense of stability and safety through job or financial loss, moving, a medical event, or losing someone

You don’t have to have a dramatic story to be deeply affected. And if parts of your past still impact how you feel, connect, or cope today, then those experiences matter. A therapy intensive isn’t just for people with trauma. It’s for anyone who wants to feel more free, more connected, and more at peace with themselves.

Is it Overwhelming?

That’s a common fear and valid concern. While the process is emotional, most people find it relieving and empowering. You’re guided every step of the way by a trained therapist who understands trauma and how to work with it gently and effectively. You’re in charge of the pace, and breaks are always part of the process. This isn’t a bootcamp. It’s about creating space for healing, not pushing past your limits.

People have compared intensives to emotional surgery. However, the therapeutic exercises are paced, breaks are built in, and it’s all done with care and thoughtfulness to how much your brain and body can process at one time.

Why Does a Longer Session Help?

Sometimes, memories need more than 50 minutes to be fully worked through. One experience might be tied to a numbing out behavior, a negative belief about you or the world, other memories, or fears about the future. Longer sessions allow us to reach all aspects of the issue instead of breaking it into multiple sessions over weeks or months. “Dropping in” to deeper issues during a session takes time and emotional security. This is why sometimes you finally get to the heart of the matter and you’re 30-40 minutes into a session, and it’s time to start closing up.

Often your brain knows you’ve got something scheduled after the session, even if you aren’t actively thinking about it. You’ve got kids to take care of, work to go back to, or an event later that day. The brain can subconsciously stifle things so that you don’t open up something big and then risk being too emotional or drained later. An intensive gives the “tincture of time” where your brain and body can finally relax and fully open up because it knows you don’t have anything scheduled right after.

We create the schedule so that the work you did that day has a stopping point and you end in a grounded place. The next day, we get to come back to right where you left off and there isn’t the same amount of “dropping in time” that happens when you come to weekly therapy.

Ready When You Are

If any part of this resonates with you, if you're tired of carrying the weight alone, or if you’re simply curious about what a therapy intensive might look like for you, I’d be honored to talk with you. Healing takes time, but that doesn’t mean it has to take forever. You deserve more than just coping. You deserve real healing. You're welcome to reach out for a free consultation, ask questions, or just explore whether this could be a good fit. When you’re ready, I’m here.

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