Heal in 1 Week, Not 1 Year—Try a Therapy Intensive This Summer
If you’ve ever thought, “I just don’t have time for therapy” or “I’ve been in therapy for years, and I still feel stuck,” you’re not alone. Many people want support, healing, and clarity—but the idea of committing to therapy week after week for months (or years) feels overwhelming, impossible, or simply not enough.
That’s where therapy intensives come in. Instead of stretching out your healing process over months, you can dive deep—really deep—and create powerful change in a focused, accelerated timeframe.
What Is a Therapy Intensive?
A therapy intensive is a deep-dive healing experience designed to help you make more progress in a few days than you might make in months of traditional weekly sessions. It’s a concentrated approach that allows you to focus solely on your emotional wellness—without the stress of daily life interrupting your momentum.
Instead of 50-minute sessions spread out over weeks, intensives involve several hours of therapy per day, over the course of one or more consecutive days. This allows your brain and body to stay in the healing zone long enough to do meaningful, lasting work.
Think of it as emotional surgery—instead of putting a Band-Aid on old wounds, you’re going in, cleaning them out, and giving yourself the space to truly heal.
At Spilove Psychotherapy, our intensives are customized for each client and may include a blend of trauma-informed modalities, such as:
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
A powerful trauma therapy that uses bilateral stimulation to help your brain reprocess distressing memories so they no longer feel overwhelming. EMDR helps shift the emotional charge around past events, allowing you to integrate them in a new, less reactive way.
Parts Work (Internal Family Systems-Informed)
Many of us have “parts” that developed as a response to trauma, stress, or unmet needs—like the perfectionist, the inner critic, or the avoidant protector. Parts work helps you understand these internal voices and bring compassion, not judgment, to your inner world. Intensives allow us to go beyond surface-level insight and begin to harmonize your internal system.
Inner Child Work
When you’ve experienced emotional neglect, relational trauma, or unmet needs during childhood, those wounds often carry forward into adulthood. Inner child work allows you to reconnect with, nurture, and reparent younger parts of yourself who didn’t get what they needed. During an intensive, we can identify the wounded child parts that are still running the show—and begin healing those unmet needs.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP)
For clients who are appropriate candidates and interested in exploring a psychedelic-assisted model of healing, we also offer Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) as part of select intensives. KAP can allow for deeper emotional access, a temporary loosening of inner defenses, and powerful reprocessing of trauma and stuck beliefs. KAP sessions are always conducted in a safe, guided, and supportive setting with trained professionals..
Who Are Intensives For?
Busy professionals or parents who want to make meaningful progress without the ongoing time commitment of weekly therapy
Clients feeling stuck in their healing journey, who’ve done therapy before but can’t seem to move forward
People at a crossroads—a breakup, a life change, a loss, or an emotional crisis—who need to reset and recenter
Trauma survivors looking for a structured, supportive way to reprocess past experiences and reduce their emotional charge
Why Try an Intensive This Summer?
Summer is more than just a season—it’s an energetic shift. It’s a time when nature encourages us to slow down, shed what’s heavy, and make space for something new. With longer days, a break from school routines, and often more flexibility in schedules, summer presents a unique opportunity to focus on your emotional wellbeing in a way that’s hard to prioritize during the rest of the year. If you’ve been feeling stuck, burnt out, emotionally exhausted, or like you’re circling the same patterns over and over again—this is your invitation to do something different.
✔ Hit Pause and Recenter
Life doesn’t always offer us natural moments to pause—but a therapy intensive creates that pause. It’s a chance to step out of your day-to-day responsibilities and give yourself uninterrupted time to focus on your mental health, your healing, and your growth.
✔ Get Unstuck
Whether you’ve been in therapy before or this is your first time seeking support, many clients come to intensives feeling like they’re hitting a wall. They’ve done “the work,” but something still hasn’t clicked. Intensives are designed to break through long-standing emotional blocks in a focused, supportive, and contained way. Instead of nibbling around the edges, we go straight to the core.
✔ Try Something Deeper
Summer invites us to be more connected—to nature, to our bodies, and to our emotional truth. If you’ve felt like traditional therapy isn’t going deep enough or fast enough, an intensive offers a more immersive approach. With access to EMDR, parts work, inner child healing, and even Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), intensives create space for deeper shifts in less time.
✔ Use Time Off Meaningfully
Have a vacation week you haven’t planned yet? A long weekend? Remote flexibility? Use it to invest in yourself in a way that will ripple outward into every part of your life. Unlike a quick getaway that offers temporary relief, a therapy intensive gives you lasting clarity, emotional relief, and a reset you can actually feel.
✔ Start Fall with Momentum
By doing deep healing work in the summer, you set yourself up to enter the fall with more emotional regulation, groundedness, and direction. Imagine beginning September not with a vague sense of “I need to get it together,” but with the clarity of knowing you already have.
Whether you’re overwhelmed by emotions you can’t explain, tired of self-sabotage, or just craving a space to reconnect with who you really are—summer is the perfect time to come home to yourself.
What Happens During an Intensive?
When people hear the word intensive, they sometimes imagine something overwhelming. But in reality, a therapy intensive is gentle, paced, and designed around your nervous system’s unique capacity to process and heal.
It’s not about pushing you harder—it’s about creating uninterrupted time and safe space for the deeper healing that’s often impossible in short, weekly sessions.
Each intensive is tailored to you.
Before we begin, we’ll have a consultation to discuss what you’re hoping to get out of the experience—whether it’s relief from trauma symptoms, clarity around a difficult decision, healing from childhood wounds, or a full emotional reset. Here’s what you can expect over the course of your intensive:
Pre-Intensive Preparation
You’ll start with a consultation session where we’ll:
Explore your goals and intentions
Review your history and identify key areas of focus Introduce you to the modalities we may use (like EMDR, parts work, KAP, and inner child work)
Discuss how to care for yourself before, during, and after the intensive
This preparation ensures that you’re emotionally resourced and know exactly what to expect. You don’t need to do anything alone—we’ll guide you every step of the way.
Day 1—Orientation, Grounding, and Mapping the Work
We begin with:
Nervous system grounding and resourcing
Establishing safety and trust
Mapping your internal world—parts, memories, and patterns
Clarifying your healing goals for the intensive
Identifying one or more key emotional targets (memories, experiences, beliefs)
Think of this as setting the foundation for the days to come—building a safe container before going deeper
Day 2–4: Deep Processing + Integration
These days include 2–4 hours of therapy each day (with breaks), centered around:
EMDR reprocessing of significant memories or patterns that continue to cause pain
Parts work, helping you connect with and understand internal protectors, critics, exiles, and younger parts
Inner child healing: tending to the needs, wounds, and unmet longings of your younger self
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP), if included in your plan, to support breakthroughs and deepen self-connection
Final Day—Integration and Looking Ahead
We close with:
Integration of what you’ve uncovered or released
Naming any shifts in perspective, feeling, or belief
Building a personalized plan for post-intensive care and ongoing support
Identifying next steps—whether you want to return to weekly therapy, try another intensive later on, or continue solo
What You Won’t Experience—
A pressure to “get over it” quickly
Exposure without regulation
Being pushed further than your system is ready for
A one-size-fits-all approach
This is your intensive, and it moves at the pace your body and mind can safely tolerate.
You’ll be supported with warmth, compassion, and tools to help you stay connected to yourself throughout the process.
What Can You Expect to Walk Away With?
It’s hard to describe what happens when you finally have the time, space, and support to go inward without distraction—but one thing is clear: something shifts. Clients often walk away from therapy intensives feeling lighter, clearer, more grounded, and more connected to themselves than they’ve felt in years—sometimes ever. Healing won’t erase your past, but it will change how your past lives inside of you.
Here’s what many clients walk away with after an intensive:
Relief from symptoms like anxiety, intrusive thoughts, shame, or emotional overwhelm
Clarity about your past and why you respond the way you do
Compassion for your inner child, your nervous system, and your coping strategies
Momentum to move forward—whether in life, relationships, or career
Tools to help you stay grounded and regulated after the intensive ends
It’s not magic—but it is powerful. Clients often describe their intensive as the breakthrough they didn’t know they needed.
Ready to Try Something Deeper?
If you’ve made it this far, something in you is likely craving change.
Maybe you’ve been stuck in the same cycles—relationships that drain you, anxiety that won’t quiet down, or old wounds that still sting when no one else can see. Maybe you’ve been managing, coping, functioning—but not really living.
And maybe you’ve tried therapy before. Maybe you’ve even gained insight, picked up a few coping tools, or felt brief moments of relief… but the core pain still lingers.
That doesn’t mean you’re broken.
It means you’re ready for something deeper.
A therapy intensive isn’t a quick fix—but it is a powerful catalyst. It creates the space you need to feel, process, and actually move through what’s been weighing you down.
Whether you're recovering from trauma, grieving a loss, navigating a major life change, or simply feeling emotionally exhausted—an intensive gives you a chance to pause, tune in, and come home to yourself.
This is your invitation to:
Stop waiting for the “right time” to prioritize yourself
Try a new approach that honors your pace and your depth
Commit to healing in a way that aligns with your life, not around it
Shift out of survival mode and into self-connection
Give your inner world the time and attention it’s been asking for
You don’t need to wait another year to feel better. You can begin healing in just one week.
This summer, give yourself the gift of clarity, emotional freedom, and deep healing.
You’ve waited long enough. Let’s go deeper—together.
Let’s Talk.
We offer free 15-minute phone consultations to explore whether an intensive is right for you. There’s no pressure and no expectation—just a space to ask questions, share what’s going on, and learn how this process could support your healing.
If it’s a fit, we’ll collaborate on designing an intensive that meets your unique needs. And if it’s not the right time, we’ll help guide you toward whatever next step might serve you best.
Because your healing matters. And you don’t have to figure it all out alone.
About the Author
Julia Castagna, M.S., LPC, is a seasoned trauma therapist licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She earned her Master of Science in Counseling from Villanova University and currently serves as the Assistant Clinical Director at Spilove Psychotherapy. Julia specializes in addressing complex trauma, including generational trauma, through a variety of therapeutic approaches such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and mindfulness. More recently, ketamine-assisted therapy.
With a profound understanding of the dynamics of trauma, Julia is adept at fostering resilience, identifying emotional triggers, and building personalized coping strategies for her clients. Her approach is compassionate and client-centered, focusing on creating a safe space where individuals can explore their emotions and begin their journey towards healing.
Besides her clinical expertise, Julia's role as Assistant Clinical Director allows her to influence therapeutic practices and innovations within her team, ensuring that the care provided is both effective and empathetic. If you are ready to reclaim joy and fulfillment in your life, connect with Julia for virtual sessions available across Pennsylvania and New Jersey!
Other Therapy Services We Offer in Bryn Mawr and Philadelphia
Our experienced therapists offer a range of mental health services to support your well-being. Our offerings include Ketamine-assisted Psychotherapy, LGBTQIA+ therapy, and specialized treatment for eating disorders. We also provide couples therapy, EMDR therapy, and trauma intensives.
Additionally, we offer DBT skills groups for those looking to build emotional regulation strategies.
For those seeking guidance outside of traditional therapy, we provide in-person life coaching in Pennsylvania and virtual coaching services nationwide.
