What is a Therapy Intensive: A Curated Way to Heal

In this article, let's explore:

• What is a Therapy Intensive (what and why)

• Traditional Therapy vs Intensives (and research)

• How Intensives Look Like

• Is Therapy Intensives For Me

What is a Therapy Intensive?

Therapy Intensives are personalized and targeted healing sessions that offer extended hours of treatment over a few days for gentle and rapid transformation. Think of a curated retreat that offers dynamic and innovative ways for you to heal and yet gentle and kind to your nervous system. 

Therapy intensives vary in session and experience duration. My holistic therapy intensives range from two to four days with varied times of 90 minutes to 4 hours per day. Practitioners who offer this service understand that healing is not a one-fits-all; no two people are alike. And, your experience should be tailored to your need and style rather than a cookie cutter program you must adhere to.

Individuals who are a good fit for therapy intensives may be as follows:

• You’re someone who prefers not to go on weekly therapy sessions or just don’t have the time for it.

• You’re in therapy & love your therapist but you’re seeking movement in your healing journey.

• You’re going through life transitions: grief, infertility, career change, and overwhelming stress and needs to decompress without the commitment of being in therapy.

• If you want to get to know your inner child and heal old wounds.

• If you’re interested in witnessing and healing your ancestral/generational scars.

This is not an exhaustible list but I think you get the sense that therapy intensives have low commitment (as far as time) but have massive impact on your well-being.

Traditional Therapy vs Intensives

This is not a space to bad-mouth traditional therapy as it continues to be a good-fit for many people. By definition, traditional therapy is seeing your therapist for 50-60 minutes per week, at least in the beginning. The modalities and approaches that therapists use can be a dizzy-ing topic as there are many innovative therapists that continue to offer the traditional therapy model.

Even before offering intensives, I offer 90 minute sessions to clients for a few weeks before moving to an hour sessions. I value my clients’ time and mine, but also can emphathize that people who come to me are in pain or have been living someone else’s life and they need relief right now, not in 3 months.

Traditional therapy can be cost effective for some people especially when they are able to see an in-network therapist. If you don’t mind the time you spent in therapy, this may be a good fit for you. The traditional therapy model is like a loop of maze for me as a therapist. You may progress a bit in a session and then you go deeper the next, and before you know it, one hour is up. This is why I prefer to work in extended hours, it saves time, and it relieves you, the client, in a gentle but rapid way.

Intensives allow processing and space for healing to take place in a short amount of time. My intensives are a combination of hypnotherapy, evidence-based practices such as EMDR or brainspotting, creative arts (collaging, art, psychodrama), and somatic care. All these are tailored to your needs. You don’t follow me; my job is to attune to your personality and style.

Research shows that intensives resulted in long-term outcomes in the treatment of PTSD (BMC Psychiatry, March 2024)and in addition, when intensive therapy was used in patients with bipolar disorder, 64% had higher recovery rate compared to the control group (Archives of General Psychiatry, April 2007).

Therapy intensives offer immersive, extended and creative ways to heal.

Interested if this is a good fit for you, book a free consult here.

How Intensives Look Like

Intensives look different to different practitioners. Intensives can range from 90 minutes to several hours in a day. Therapist Intensives can serve individuals, groups and couples. 

I will speak about my own therapy intensives as there are many variations depending on the practitioner you ask. I curate my intensives by learning about the client first during the pre-intensive interview. In this interview, here are some questions that I’m curious about:

• What is your targeted goal for the intensives?

• What are your hobbies?

• How do you learn?

• Who is inspirational to you?

• What brings you calm? Triggers?

• Suicidality & Mental Health History

• Experience in therapy

You might be wondering if you can stand being alone with your therapist for four hours. These four hours can be sliced in two sessions within the day. For example: 9am-11am, break, resume at 1-3pm. You will be surprised how time flies. Many people didn’t expect to see their therapist for months at a time or even years, but here they are. You have the power to choose the type of therapy that works for you. In fact, unless I’m your therapist, you are free to continue to see your own therapist.

What Therapy Intensives Can Do For You

Therapy Intensives save you not just time but the pain of wasting your time living out of your body or living someone else’s life. If you constantly lament that you have no time to work out, see the therapist, read your favorite book, it’s time to carve time for you so you can finally have more time to do the things you love.

The most interesting thing about human beings who live a life of being at a mercy to reacting to what’s happening around them is that they constantly beacon for more time. Time is running out or I’m chasing time, is the mantra. Interestingly, when you stop and recalibrate your mind and body to heal and grow, time appears.

In the work of neuroscientist, Lisa Feldman Barrett, she used the term body budget to explain this phenomenon. In simple terms, your reaction to life: emotionally, physically, and chemically can either give you more energy or zap the life out of you. Don’t work harder to chase time. Stop, learn about yourself, feed your hungry parts and watch yourself grow.

Are therapy Intensives a fix-all solution? Unfortunately, if you find yourself always asking that question, this may give you a clue why you’re looking at the wrong places. There is no fix-all solution. You can liken yourself to a car that has been running for some time, may need a number of repairs, and plenty of TLC. Going to traditional therapy is looking at each car part, the exhaust valve-taking care of that; the starter-taking care of that; the oil pan-taking care of that and so on and so forth. Therapy Intensive is like a tune-up for your car. At the end, you can drive it again with so much ease. But, cars need regular oil-change so as not to break down way before its time; this is your job.

If you’re interested in learning more about my Holistic Therapy Intensives, you can book a free consult here.

Here is my flyer for your information-

Final Thoughts

There are many roads to your healing and recovery, therapy intensives is one option. If you’re looking for a retreat style of healing, curated, targeted to your goal with in depth and rapid transformation, therapy intensives may be for you.

The cost of therapy intensives may feel out of your reach but consider the time you’ve spent feeling anxious, depressed, or overwhelmed with stress, and how all these have affected your relationships. Only you can answer if your investment is worth your while.

I believe whatever you choose, you deserve to be the fullest expression of yourself.