Why Traditional Weekly Therapy May Not Work for Busy People or Those that Want Faster Change
Traditional therapy, while incredibly valuable, often follows a weekly or biweekly model that might not be ideal for people who:
Have unpredictable work schedules or travel frequently.
Find it difficult to open up in just 50 minutes and feel like they’re “starting over” each week.
Feel an urgent need for relief from burnout, anxiety, or a creative block.
Want to make significant progress but struggle with the slow, drawn-out process of traditional therapy.
If you’re someone who needs efficiency without sacrificing depth, therapy intensives offer an alternative that provides meaningful, focused healing in a condensed timeframe.
What Are Therapy Intensives?
Therapy intensives are extended, highly focused sessions designed to help you work through challenges in one or two days instead of months or years of weekly therapy. Instead of piecing together progress over dozens of shorter sessions, intensives allow you to go deep, process more fully, and come out with real movement forward.
These sessions are customized to your needs and use evidence-based approaches like:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing): Highly effective for processing trauma, anxiety, and deeply rooted negative beliefs. Click here to learn more about EMDR.
Internal Family Systems (IFS): Helps you understand and heal different parts of yourself that may be stuck in patterns of self-doubt, perfectionism, or avoidance. Click here to learn more about IFS.
Sensorimor Psychotherapy: A powerful body-based approach for addressing trauma, stress, and emotional pain that words alone can’t fully access. Click here to learn more about Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
Instead of spending months chipping away at the surface, therapy intensives help you get to the root of what’s been holding you back—whether it’s anxiety, relationship struggles, perfectionism, or burnout.
Therapy intensives are not just for trauma survivors
—they’re for anyone who wants deep, efficient healing without the long wait. Here are just a few examples of how intensives can help:
If past experiences are still affecting your present, an intensive can help you process and integrate difficult emotions so you can move forward with more ease.
How Therapy Intensives Work
A therapy intensive typically involves anywhere from 90 minutes up to one or two full days of therapy, designed to immerse you in the healing process and create profound shifts in a short amount of time. Here’s what to expect:
Pre-Intensive Consultation: We’ll discuss your goals, current challenges, and how an intensive can be structured to best serve you.
Customized Therapy Sessions: Using EMDR, IFS, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, we’ll tailor the experience to what you need most—whether that’s trauma processing, reducing anxiety, or reconnecting with your creativity.
Integration & Next Steps: We’ll create a personalized plan so you leave feeling clear, grounded, and ready to apply what you’ve gained to your daily life.
Click here to learn more about therapy intensives.
Who Can Benefit from Therapy Intensives?
Therapy intensives are not just for trauma survivors—they’re for anyone who wants deep, efficient healing without the long wait. Here are just a few examples of how intensives can help:
Burnout & Overwhelm: If you’re exhausted, emotionally drained, and constantly running on empty, an intensive can help you reset, process, and regain clarity on what truly matters.
People-Pleasing & Boundaries: If you struggle to say no, feel guilty for prioritizing yourself, or always put others first, an intensive can help you untangle these patterns and build self-trust.
ADHD & Emotional Regulation: If you feel scattered, overwhelmed, or stuck in cycles of procrastination and self-criticism, intensives can help work through internalized shame and increase self-compassion.
Creativity Blocks & Self-Doubt: If you’re an artist, writer, or entrepreneur feeling stuck, an intensive can help you clear the emotional roadblocks that are keeping you from creating freely.
Anxiety & Trauma Processing: If past experiences are still affecting your present, an intensive can help you process and integrate difficult emotions so you can move forward with more ease.
Why Therapy Intensives Are Not Just Effective—They’re Ethical
Many people wonder: “Can I really process trauma or emotional pain in just one or two days?” The answer is yes—when the approach is intentional, structured, and rooted in research-backed modalities like EMDR, IFS, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
In fact, for many people, intensives can be more ethical than traditional weekly therapy because they allow for deeper, uninterrupted processing rather than leaving clients raw and dysregulated between short sessions. You’re given the time and space to fully engage with the work, rather than stopping just as things start to surface.
The Benefits of Therapy Intensives for Busy Professionals & Creatives
If you’re someone who struggles to fit therapy into your life, here’s why an intensive might be exactly what you need:
✅ Time-Efficient: Instead of months of weekly sessions, you make significant progress in just one or two days.
✅ Deep, Lasting Change: Extended sessions allow for more thorough processing of trauma, anxiety, and emotional blocks.
✅ No Weekly Scheduling Hassle: No need to stress about squeezing therapy into your already busy schedule.
✅ Immediate Relief: Instead of waiting weeks or months to see changes, many people leave an intensive feeling lighter, clearer, and more grounded.
✅ A Full-Body Approach: Traditional talk therapy often stays in the head, but integrating EMDR, IFS, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy helps address emotions at their core—mind and body.
Takeaways
If you’re tired of feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or burned out but don’t have the time for traditional therapy, a therapy intensive might be exactly what you need. Imagine walking away from a single weekend with greater clarity, relief, and a renewed sense of self—ready to move forward with confidence.
Schedule a free consultation today to see if an intensive could be the right path for you. Your time is valuable—let’s make the most of it.
Looking to connect with a therapist who specializes in brain and body-based therapies that can help feel relief in a matter of days?
Reach out today to talk about how intensive therapy with me can help you expedite your healing.
(Washington, D.C. and Virginia residents only)
About the author
Margot Lamson, LICSW, is a licensed psychotherapist offering in-person and virtual therapy in Washington, D.C. and Virginia. She is trained in multiple trauma-focused approaches, including EMDR, IFS, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy to support clients seeking meaningful and lasting healing. Margot also provides intensives, combining evidence-based and holistic techniques, to help clients achieve significant progress and feel better faster in a focused, supportive setting.
