FAQs about Therapy Intensives

You’ve read about therapy intensives and think the idea sounds interesting, but you still aren’t sure if it’s right for you. Or maybe you still have some questions you want answered before you go through the trouble of finding a therapy intensive. Therapy intensives are a newer format, which can make it harder to find the answers you need. I’ve created this brief Frequently Asked Questions page to hopefully give you the information you need. 

One thing to keep in mind- some of the answers here will vary from therapist to therapist, so be sure to ask the person you want to work with how they handle these. I’ve answered these questions from my standpoint, but as I’ve said before, different counselors do things differently.

What exactly is a therapy intensive anyway?

A therapy intensive is essentially one or more longer therapy sessions that are focused on one particular goal to get more complete healing over a shorter period of time. They generally last 3 or more hours over the course of multiple days. Rather than spending a lot of time talking about what is happening in your life currently (although that is always helpful!), therapy intensives focus on one specific issue or goal. You can read more details about this here. 

Can a therapy intensive help with my issue?

Therapy intensives can help with a large variety of issues. For the most part, if it is something you would go to counseling for, you can do a therapy intensive. People do therapy intensives for a variety of concerns, such as trauma, OCD, navigating a new Autism or ADHD diagnosis, couple’s therapy, parenting concerns, general self-improvement, and more! The main reasons a therapy intensive would not be right would be if your struggles are severe enough that you may need hospitalization or regular ongoing therapy. For those people, they would need to get to a place where it is safe for them to do deep work, but not necessarily have the ongoing care of a therapist. 

Do we have to be done after the therapy intensive?

Not at all! While many clients prefer to do the intensive and then be done, some want to have the therapy intensive as a “jump-start” to ongoing therapy. Weekly therapy can take a while to get to the point where you are really making good progress, often because it takes time to feel safe enough with a therapist and for your therapist to know you well enough to make recommendations. With an intensive, you can spend time at the beginning of therapy getting at the roots of all of your concerns, and still have time to get started on the “so now what?” phase, all over the course of a weekend. And then you can move on to maintaining your progress with regular sessions, that often don’t need to be weekly 

Can I do a therapy intensive with one therapist while continuing to meet with my regular therapist?

Generally speaking, yes! This tends to happen the most with trauma therapy intensives, where a client’s primary therapist doesn’t have training in trauma techniques or isn’t trained in a specific technique that would be beneficial. Often the client doesn’t want to leave their primary therapist, even though they and their counselor agree that the trauma treatment would be helpful. Clients can do a therapy intensive to address the trauma (we often call these “adjunct intensives”) while continuing their regular sessions with their main therapists. Some clients will also take a break from their weekly therapy during the time of their intensive, and return to their primary therapist when the intensive sessions are complete. 

How long is a therapy intensive?

This is another one that varies greatly between therapists. Generally speaking, therapy intensives are offered for 3 hours at a time up to 8 hours at a time, over one to three days. I currently offer 3-hour and 5-hour therapy intensives, over one to three days. This is all in addition to the intake (or pre-intensive) session and the follow-up (or post-intensive) session, which can last 60-90 minutes each. I have more information on how I structure my therapy intensives here.

Do we really do therapy for that long without a break?

Not at all! During intensives, we will take breaks as needed. For shorter intensives, that may mean a few 15-minute breaks to get up and stretch (if we aren’t doing movement-based work already), eat something, get a drink of water, use the restroom, let the dogs out, or whatever else is needed during that time. For longer therapy intensives, we often schedule a 30-minute meal break in addition to shorter breaks. 

How much does a therapy intensive cost?

Cost changes greatly by therapist and depends on their level of training, the area you are in, and more. You can see my costs for different therapy intensive lengths here. 

Why does a therapy intensive cost more than traditional therapy?

Many people notice that the cost per hour of a therapy intensive is often more than an hour of traditional therapy There are many different factors that go into this, but probably the biggest one is the time your therapist spends outside of session preparing for your therapy intensive. Traditional weekly therapy only charges for the time face-to-face in session. With therapy intensives, your therapist is working with you even when you aren’t together. This includes things such as: preparing your personalized workbook, reviewing the workbook, scoring assessments, speaking with your other providers (with your written consent, of course), preparing anything needed for the intensive session, and more. These costs are rolled into the cost of the therapy intensive. 

Keep in mind, many people find that while they may pay more upfront for a therapy intensive, they often don’t need continued ongoing therapy, so their overall costs end up being less than if they were doing traditional therapy once per week for 6 months. 

Can I do more than one therapy intensive?

Absolutely! Some clients prefer the intensive model, so instead of having weekly therapy, they’ll do a therapy intensive once per month, or even per quarter. Some do their first therapy intensive to address one specific issue, and once that’s resolved, they find they want to address a different issue with another therapy intensive. 

How do I know if a therapy intensive is right for me?

There are so many factors that go into this question that it’s hard to answer. Generally speaking, therapy intensives can be helpful for most people. The best way to find out if therapy intensives are right for you is to schedule a free consult with a therapist who offers them to answer your specific questions. 

I hope this helps you find a therapy intensive that works for you. If you have more questions or are feeling ready to schedule a therapy intensive, feel free to click here to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. I’d love to hear more about what you are looking for to see if I can help (or get you to the right person if I can’t). And to read more about therapy intensives that I offer, click here.