THERAPY INTENSIVES
More time for the work.
Sometimes a traditional therapy hour is exactly what's needed, and other times we're just getting to the heart of something when it's time to stop. Intensives create more room. Instead of fitting the work into a single session, we have extended time together to slow down, understand what's happening, follow where it leads, and give it space to land before we finish. This isn't about doing therapy faster. It's about having the time to do the work differently.
What is a therapy intensive?
An intensive is a longer, more focused stretch of therapeutic work, which might mean a few hours together (3 hours), a full day (6 hours), or work spread across several days (up to 3 days).
There's no standard intensive and no set structure you're expected to follow. Depending on what we're working with, I may draw on EMDR, expressive arts, sandtray, image-making, writing, music, movement, neuroscience-informed perspectives, and relational and depth-oriented talk therapy, with grounding and integration woven throughout. We might move between talking, creating, processing, and simply letting something sit. The approaches are always chosen around you rather than the other way around.
Why an Intensive?
An intensive gives us more continuity. In weekly therapy, we often spend the first part of a session reconnecting with where we left off, and sometimes the hour ends just as something opens up. That format serves many things well, but for certain kinds of grief, trauma, and deeply held material, it can keep circling without quite landing.
Having additional time makes it possible to slow down without watching the clock, stay with a thought, feeling, memory, image, or experience longer, follow connections as they emerge, and spend more time with EMDR or experiential work without rushing toward an ending. It also gives us room to move between verbal and nonverbal processing, take breaks when needed, return to the work, and leave time for grounding and integration before you go.
There's no expectation that you accomplish a certain amount or have a major breakthrough. The additional time simply gives the work more room.
A Different Pace, Not a Faster One
Intensives are sometimes described as a way to speed up therapy, but that's not how I think about it. More time doesn't mean pushing harder. Usually it means the opposite. We can slow down, pause, notice what's happening in your body and your nervous system, change direction, or make something and sit with it and return to it later. There's no agenda to force change or get somewhere before you're ready.
The point is enough time, support, and flexibility for meaningful work, at your pace.
What Might We Work On
Much of what we'd address in ongoing therapy, especially when you want focused time around one experience, transition, or loss.
Relationship changes or endings
Caregiving
Major life transitions
Roles or identities that once felt like an important part of who you were
Experiences you understand intellectually but that still feel unresolved
A particular EMDR target, or a cluster of related experiences
Something you've been circling in therapy and want uninterrupted time to explore
Trauma and medical trauma
Cancer, hereditary cancer risk, serious or chronic illness
Medical procedures or difficult healthcare experiences
Grief and loss, including traumatic and anticipatory grief
Ambiguous loss
Identity changes
Changes in your body, health, or abilities
Sometimes the focus is specific. Sometimes it's harder to name, and you just know there's something underneath what's happening now that you'd like more time to understand.
Intensives can work for children, adolescents, adults, and families, as long as the format fits the person, the goals, and where they are developmentally.
An intensive may be a good fit if you want more time than a session allows, have something specific you'd like to focus on, or keep finding that weekly sessions end right as you're getting somewhere. It can also work if weekly appointments are hard to fit into your life, if you're already in therapy and want dedicated time for one part of the work, or if you've done a lot of therapy and feel ready to come at something from a different direction. You don't have to be in crisis for an intensive to make sense. Sometimes you just need more than an hour.
Many people who choose an intensive recognize themselves in some version of this: you've done meaningful therapy before and aren't starting from zero. You function well in your work and relationships, but there's a layer underneath that insight alone hasn't reached. You can name your patterns clearly, how you grieve, how you protect yourself, how you talk to yourself, but the understanding hasn't changed things at the rate you hoped.
Intensive work isn't right for everyone, and readiness matters.
Our first conversation is a real discussion of fit, timing, and format, and if an intensive isn't the right match for where you are, I'll say so directly and we'll talk about what is.
Children, Adolescents, and Families
Intensive work with young people looks different than it does with adults, because development matters. For a child, longer doesn't mean sitting in therapy for more hours. It means movement, expressive arts, sandtray, play, snacks and breaks, caregiver involvement, and shifts in pacing throughout the day.
Family intensives create more time to work with something that has touched the whole family, whether that's a loss, trauma, an illness, or a major transition. The format is always shaped around developmental needs, attention, regulation, and what we're working toward together.
What the Day Might Look Like
Every intensive is built around you: your history, your nervous system, and what it's ready for. There is no generic program, and no two intensives look the same.
We start by checking in, grounding, and getting oriented to what feels most important that day, and from there we may move between EMDR, expressive arts, sandtray, and talk therapy depending on what comes up. Longer work needs room to breathe, so breaks for food, movement, quiet, or just stepping outside are part of it.
We leave time at the end to notice what shifted, what still feels open, and what might need continued support. I want us to close the day intentionally, so you're not walking out with everything wide open. The structure is there to hold the work, not to control it.
Intensives are available to current clients, former clients, and in some situations people who aren't in ongoing therapy with me.
Not everyone needs an intensive, and longer isn't automatically better, so part of the consultation is figuring out what actually makes sense for you.
Investment:
Intensives are priced individually based on the amount of time and number of days planned, starting at $825. The pre-intensive consultation and the post-intensive session are billed separately at the individual session rate.
Intensives are private-pay and generally not eligible for insurance reimbursement. HSA and FSA funds may apply.
Getting Started
A complimentary 15-minute call
A real conversation about fit and readiness and whether this makes sense for where you are, with no obligation and no pressure.
A 1-hour pre-intensive consultation
In person or virtual. This is time to understand your history, what you'd like to work on, what supports you already have, and what your nervous system is ready for, so the intensive can be built around you. For younger clients and families, it's also where we plan caregiver involvement.
The intensive itself
We decide together on the focus, how much time makes sense, whether it happens in one stretch or across a few days, and what preparation might help.
A post-intensive session
One to two weeks after we finish. Every intensive ends with one. It's a chance to check in on what's settled, what's surfaced, and what support you might want as you go forward.
Where Intensives Take Place
Intensives are held in person at Tessera in Minnetonka. I'm also open to traveling for an intensive in states where I'm licensed and/or have privileges. That's arranged case by case, and travel is reflected in the fee, so if you're interested, reach out and we can talk about whether it's possible for your location and what it would involve.
Is An Intensive Right for You?
Start with a free 15-minute call to talk about what you're looking for, ask questions, and explore whether an intensive makes sense for where you are.