Intensive Therapy
Dedicated Time to Focus on Healing Your Trauma
Intensive therapy is a powerful, transformative, evidence-based approach to healing trauma and mental health concerns.
We offer Intensives for individuals, First Responders, and couples.
What is Intensive Therapy?
Unlike traditional weekly sessions, intensive therapy is a tailored treatment plan that involves multiple sessions over several hours or days.
This concentrated format allows us to directly target the root of your symptoms, and provide you with the tools needed to overcome them.
Intensives have a high rate of success—that is, a reduction in symptoms, and in many cases, remission.
Recent clinical studies demonstrate the efficacy of intensive therapy:
In a five-day inpatient EMDR treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 81% of subjects showed significant improvement in PTSD symptoms, and 20% no longer met criteria for PTSD after treatment. Source
In a recent intensive program treating subjects with severe PTSD, 55% no longer met criteria for PTSD, and 83% reported significant improvement and reduction in symptoms. Source
In another study of Intensive EMDR to treat PTSD patients, 57% lost their diagnosis of PTSD, and 28% went into remission. Source
Benefits of Intensive Therapy
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Accelerated Progress
Due to the concentrated and immersive nature of intensive psychotherapy, individuals may experience faster progress and symptom reduction compared to traditional therapy.
The increased frequency and duration of sessions helps maintain momentum and can lead to more immediate insights and changes.
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Tailored Treatment Plans
Intensive psychotherapy allows for highly individualized treatment plans that can be adjusted to meet the unique needs and preferences of each client. This flexibility ensures that therapy is tailored to address specific issues and therapeutic goals effectively.
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Can Resolve Complex Or Longstanding Issues
Intensive psychotherapy is often beneficial for individuals with complex or deeply ingrained psychological issues that require in-depth exploration and processing. These issues may be rooted in childhood experiences, trauma, personality disorders, or deep-seated patterns of behavior.
Intensive therapy allows for extended exploration of these complexities, making it more likely to achieve breakthroughs and lasting change.
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Can Be Used As An Adjunct Therapy To Your Current Therapy Provider
You do not need to stop seeing your current therapist in order to receive intensive treatment. We can provide the intensive treatment and work with your current provider to discuss how treatment gains can be maintained.
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Can Be Used As An Alternative To Inpatient Treament
For those who are safe/stable and do not require stabilization on medication, intensive outpatient therapy may be an alternative to inpatient treatment.
Our Intensives are for
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Individuals
These Intensives address a broad spectrum of trauma-related mental health concerns, ranging from single-episode trauma to C-PTSD, phobias, performance concerns, attachment or relational trauma, anxiety disorders, Operational Stress Injury, and more.
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First Responders
An exclusive stream tailored specifically for First Responders, addressing your unique trauma experiences and needs, including moral injury and sanctuary trauma.
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Couples
Couple Intensives are beneficial for healing relationship-specific trauma, addressing attachment issues, communication enhancement, skill building, shared loss, and infidelity or a significant breach of trust.
How Intensives Work
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Initial Free Consult Call
This call is to assess whether Intensives would be helpful for your treatment goals. You’ll receive a questionnaire to fill out prior to our call so we can understand your history and current difficulties, and develop a treatment plan.
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Intake Assessment & Schedule Intensive
A 60-90 minute intake assessment will be scheduled to assess your goals, gather your history and current symptoms and to develop a treatment plan. If it is agreed that intensive therapy would be beneficial, we will schedule your intensive sessions.
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Intensive Treatment
We will work together for your scheduled days of Intensive Therapy (full or half days) to achieve your treatment goals.
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Post-Treatment Session
A follow-up session is provided to check-in on your treatment gains and to engage in further debriefing about treatment.
Intensive Therapy Options
Full-Day Intensives
Full-day intensives are beneficial for the following
Recent traumatic events
Developmental trauma (childhood abuse)
Attachment concerns
Relationship issues
Emotional regulation issues i.e. panic, anxiety, and phobias
Operational Stress Injuries
CPTSD/PTSD
Grief/loss
Details
Can be conducted over 1-5 days
6 Hours of intensive therapy per day including breaks
Treatment starts at $1500.00 CAD/day
Half-Day Intensives
half-day intensives are beneficial for the following
Difficult incident at work
Performance and self esteem challenges
Can speed up the healing process of a single event trauma and/or life events that are causing distress
Recent traumatic incident
Stabilization of symptoms
Working toward the goal of trauma resolution, but you may not be ready yet
Details
Can be conducted over 1-5 days
3-4 Hours of intensive therapy per day including breaks
Treatment starts at $750.00 CAD/day
Book your free consult call now to learn more about Intensive Therapy, move forward in the process, and to reserve your desired dates.
Frequently Asked Questions
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While the goal is to significantly reduce the identified trauma, no therapist can guarantee those results.
What is accomplished during an intensive session is dependent on the presenting trauma history, presenting concerns, and how you respond to the treatment.
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You are able to self-refer.
If you are working with another therapist, it is helpful to have them reach out to provide additional information to develop appropriate treatment plans (but not necessary).
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Intensive therapy that can be emotionally, mentally, and physically draining. Individuals are encouraged to practice self-care pre/post sessions. Self-care plans will be developed as part of your treatment.
If you have a therapist that you see regularly, it is recommended that you continue to schedule appointments with them pre/post intensives.
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Intensives can be completed in-person or virtually depending on your preference.
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The primary aim of inpatient programs is to ensure safety and stabilization. These programs typically provide a range of activities, such as group therapy, individual, therapy and wellness activities, which supports with stabilizing symptoms and providing strategies for symptom management. Because these programs focus on stabilizing symptoms, these programs usually do not lead to the complete resolution of trauma.
In cases where inpatient programs do address trauma resolution, the intensity of this work is often insufficient to fully resolve the trauma.
In contrast, intensive therapy sessions are solely dedicated to the process of trauma resolution throughout the day. Once trauma has been resolved, individuals no longer have to deal with associated symptoms.
For those who are safe and stable enough to avoid inpatient treatment, intensive trauma therapy provides a concentrated approach to treating symptoms at their source.
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Not every hour of therapy is emotionally taxing. The majority of individuals are capable of participating.
The schedule is developed collaboratively and is tailored to your needs.
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We understand that due to some professions you may be unable to disclose the content of your trauma. We also understand some traumas are too difficult to speak of.
EMDR therapy does not require you telling the therapist all the details of your trauma in order to heal from it.
The therapist will work with you to think about the memory in a way that allows you to resolve the traumatic memory.
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Not everyone is ready/suitable for intensive trauma treatment, for example, individuals who are:
Not safe/stable in their mental health symptoms
Are at current risk for their own safety, and/or
Are unable to refrain from substances to complete the intensive treatment.
Individuals that are highly dissociative may not be appropriate for intensive therapy, however, this will be assessed in the intake interview.
Stabilization intensives/services may be better suited to prepare you for intensive trauma treatment, which we provide.
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Some of our therapists do provide individual therapy in addition to intensives.
Whether or not ongoing treatment can be provided with be dependent on the availability of the therapist.
You will be provided with follow-up sessions post-intensive. The number of follow-up sessions will be determined at the end of your intensive treatment.
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Most traditional talk therapies can last for 2-3 years. At a rate of an average $200 per session x 52 weeks (usually trauma-informed talk therapy is done weekly) x 2.5 (average between 2 and 3 years) = $26,000
Using our approach, and depending on your goals and timeline, you could start and complete treatment within a week(s) or a couple months and you could save upwards of $10,000 or more in the process, despite spending more per hour.
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You are responsible for finding your own accommodation. There are many hotels and Airbnb’s in the area.
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Please note if you have booked a full-day intensive or multiple day intensive, a two week cancellation policy is in effect.
Half-day or full-day intensives require one week notice to avoid a cancellation fee.
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We are not available 24/7 and we are unable to respond to crisis situations.
If you are experiencing a crisis, having thoughts of harming yourself or others please call 911 or go immediately to the emergency department of your local hospital.