When 50 minutes a week isn’t enough to reach the roots.
Deep Work, Accelerated: Therapy Intensives in Leesburg, VA
JUMP-START THE HEALING PROCESS
Therapy intensives are an alternative to traditional weekly therapy. Instead of meeting routinely for 50 minutes once a week for an indefinite amount of time, intensives provide highly-focused, unhurried time for you to address a specific concern or goal.
A therapy intensive can look like a 3-hour session in one day or 3-hour sessions over several consecutive days. This lets us dive deeper into the therapeutic process without interruption, which can lead to faster relief.
Intensives can be more efficient because they allow targeted, concentrated focus on an issue. Ultimately, they may be a more cost-effective path for some folks as they aren't in therapy for months or years, saving on the cost of regular travel, childcare, or time off.
For the Busy Professional:
Your schedule is constantly full, and your brain is always running. You don’t have the bandwidth for the slow drip of weekly appointments and need a format that respects your time while hitting the target directly.
For the Targeted Deep-Dive:
You may already have a therapist you love for weekly support, but you’ve realized that 50 minutes isn't enough to safely unpack and process deep-seated trauma. An intensive allows you to do the heavy lifting of EMDR in a dedicated, protected container before returning to your regular care.
You may be ready for an intensive if you:
- Feel "stuck" in regular weekly therapy
- Often leave sessions feeling frustrated you're on the cusp of a breakthrough but run out of time
- Struggle to let yourself "go there" and feel painful feelings knowing you'll have to box them up until your next session
- Have a busy schedule and can't commit to the slower, prolonged pace of weekly therapy
- Spend your therapy hour each week updating on life between sessions instead of addressing root issues
Traditional Therapy vs. Intensive Therapy
In a typical 50-minute session, you may spend the first 10 minutes checking in and the last 10 minutes winding down before heading back to the rest of your day. That leaves only about 30 minutes for the deeper work. In weekly therapy, we often spend our time processing the week between sessions.
In an intensive, we stop treading water and start diving.
A single 3-hour intensive can equate to more than a month of weekly therapy. You save the time and emotional energy of 20+ commutes into deep trauma work, allowing you to get back to your life sooner.
Moving from "Managing" to "Reprocessing" Without the Weekly Reset
Why EMDR Thrives in an Intensive Format
While talk therapy helps you understand your story, EMDR in an intensive format helps your brain re-file it. When we work in extended blocks, we capitalize on neural momentum.
- Continuous Processing: We skip the weekly check-in. This leaves hours of uninterrupted time for your brain to stay in the processing phase until the distress actually shifts.
- Safety in Immersion: The hardest part of trauma work is opening the box and having to close it quickly to go back to work or life outside the session. Intensives allow you to stay with the experience until your nervous system feels settled.
- Reprocessing, Not Just Managing: By staying with the momentum, your brain can finally file traumatic memories away as past events, rather than things that feel like they are still happening today. Done. Over. Instead of "in progress."
1. THE DISCOVERY SESSION
In this 90-minute session, we'll determine your goal(s) for the intensive and prepare for it. We'll look at your support system, stressors, and coping strategies.
2. THE INTENSIVE CUSTOM WORKBOOK
Before your intensive, you'll receive a personalized digital workbook with assessments and activities to help us prepare. This is your roadmap to ensure every hour of our time together is spent on what matters most.
3. THE INTENSIVE EXPERIENCE
Your intensive will include targeted treatment as well as resourcing activities like guided imagery, movement, meditation, and a self-care plan, all tailored to you.
4. POST-INTENSIVE INTEGRATION
In this 90-minute session, we'll process your intensive experience. We'll discuss insights you gained and reflect on aspects that were most meaningful to you.
For Fellow Therapists
Adjunct EMDR for Your Clients
Have a client who's stuck in their work with you due to developmental or single-incident trauma? I love collaborating with other providers and using EMDR intensives to bridge the gap. You keep the bond with your client; I spend 1-3 days with them doing the heavy lifting of targeted reprocessing. At the end, they transition back to you for ongoing care. Think of it as a specialized tool for your clinical toolkit.
How We Collaborate
- Secure ROI/Case Consultation before we begin
- Targeted focus on one stuck target or theme
- Seamless hand-off back to you with an integration summary
Choosing a dedicated format for the work you need and deserve.
Investment & Logistics
Therapy intensives are a front-loaded investment of time and resources. By condensing months of traditional therapy into a few days, you reduce the long-term overhead of healing, meaning, minimizing things like time away from work, the cost of childcare, and the emotional exhaustion of the weekly reset.
The Reset | $1500+
Equivalent to approximately 1 month of weekly therapy.
A focused, half-day container to move past a specific stuck point.
- Comprehensive Pre-Intensive Discovery Session (90 mins)
- Intensive Workbook with Customized Self-Care Plan
- 3-hour Intensive Reprocessing Session
- Post-Intensive Integration Session (90 mins)
The Deep Dive | $2200+
Equivalent to approximately 2-3 months of weekly therapy.
A two-day experience for those navigating more complex patterns or multiple goals.
- Comprehensive Pre-Intensive Discovery Session (90 mins)
- Intensive Workbook & Customized Self-Care Plan
- 6 hours of Intensive Reprocessing (split over two days)
- Post-Intensive Integration Session (90 mins)
The Transformation | $2900+
Equivalent to approximately 4-5 months of weekly therapy.
A comprehensive three-day retreat-style intensive for deep, systemic change.
- Comprehensive Pre-Intensive Discovery Session (90 mins)
- Intensive Workbook & Customized Self-Care Plan
- 9 hours of Intensive Reprocessing (split over three days)
- Post-Intensive Integration Session (90 mins)
Logistics & Frequently Asked Questions
Is this just a regular session that's longer?
No. While a 90-minute session gives us more room to breathe, an intensive has a unique architecture.
Think of a 90-minute (extended) session like a day-hike. We get on the trail, see some incredible views, but eventually have to get back before dark. We spend a good portion of our time getting to the heart of the hike and then navigating our way back out.
An intensive is like a multi-day backcountry retreat. Because we have 3 to 9 hours, we can set up camp at the root of the issue. We aren't rushing to beat the sunset of a 50-minute clock. We move past life updates and weekly stressors that eat up our time and stay with the work until the distress actually shifts. An intensive isn't just hiking for longer. It's more like an extended trip with both a very specific agenda and expansive room around it.
Do I need to be a current client?
No. We offer these as standalone experiences for residents of Leesburg, Loudoun County, Northern Virginia, and throughout all of Virginia. If you already have a therapist, we simply ask for a Release of Information so we can coordinate your care and ensure a smooth transition back to your primary provider.
Where are intensives held?
I host in-person intensives at my boutique office in the heart of historic Leesburg, VA, serving clients from Waterford, Ashburn, and the surrounding Loudoun County and greater Northern VA area. For those who prefer the comfort of their own home or live further out in Virginia, we can also meet virtually via a secure telehealth platform. We’ll decide together which container feels most supportive for your deep work during our initial consultation.
I don’t live in Leesburg. Can I travel in for an intensive?
Absolutely! Many clients choose to travel to Leesburg or Waterford for a healing retreat experience. Getting out of your daily environment and into a dedicated space can actually deepen the processing. If you are traveling from out of town, I can provide a curated list of local stays and quiet spots in Loudoun County where you can rest and integrate between our sessions.
What if I already have a weekly therapist I love?
We treat the day as a therapeutic retreat. A typical intensive day is broken into manageable blocks of work (often EMDR or parts-focused), interspersed with regulating breaks. This might include guided mindfulness practice, intentional movement, or unhurried time for tea and reflection. We follow your lead. If you need to pause and integrate, we pause. The goal is deep work, not endurance.
Can I use my insurance?
Wildwood is an out-of-network provider. While most insurance companies do not yet reimburse for intensive formats specifically, we can provide a Superbill for your different sessions. We recommend calling your provider to ask about out-of-network mental health benefits for CPT codes 90791 (Discovery Session) and 90837 (53+ minute psychotherapy sessions).
What does a typical "Intensive Day" look like? Are there breaks?
First, of course. At Wildwood, we treat the day as a therapeutic retreat. A typical intensive day is broken into manageable blocks of EMDR work, interspersed with regulating breaks. This might include guided mindfulness practice, intentional movement, or unhurried time for tea and reflection. We follow your lead. If you need to pause and integrate, we pause. The goal is deep work, not endurance.
What is the Intensive Workbook?
This is a curated, digital roadmap sent to you before your Discovery Session. It contains assessments, grounding exercises, and reflection prompts designed to help us hit the ground running. It ensures that every minute of our face-to-face time is spent on deep work, not paperwork.
I’m worried that three days of trauma work will leave me feeling raw. How do we ensure I’m okay to go back to regular life?
This is the most common concern, and it’s why we don't just "do trauma" for six hours straight. We spend the first part of our work building a robust nervous system toolkit. We don't dive into deep reprocessing until we’ve confirmed your body has the capacity to essentially close the container on distressing stuff safely. Because we aren't rushing to fit into a 50-minute window, we have the luxury of time to ensure you leave feeling grounded, integrated, and solid - not raw.
Is progress made in an intensive as sticky as weekly therapy? Won't I just forget everything?
Actually, research suggests the opposite. Because we capitalize on neural momentum, your brain may be able to make deeper, more permanent connections without the interruptions of weekly life. To ensure your progress sticks, every Wildwood Intensive includes a 90-minute Post-Intensive Integration Session. We meet two weeks later to see how the work is landing in your real life and to refine the tools in your customized workbook, to support sustainable change.