The Grief Therapy Intensive
Los Angeles, CA & Alaska
When weekly or traditional therapy doesn’t feel like enough.
Accelerated 1-3 day therapy intensive with a Certified Grief Therapist.
You wake up in the morning, open your eyes and within seconds the reality of everything that has happened hits you. They’re not here anymore. The tears quickly follow, the uncontrollable sobs coming from the deep pain in your chest that feels like it’s going to rip in two. This is no metaphor, the physical pain is real. You start questioning: how am I ever going to be able to live beyond this? How could I possibly have a reason to get out of bed and continue on with my day? What is even the point any more? The world looks and feels like a completely different place, something so unrecognizable. You aren’t even curious what this world is like without them.
Then one day, in the midst of sobbing or feeling like there is nothing left within you, the thought comes up, what if there is a way to live through this pain, to learn to be with it and not hate the world that took so much from you. You start to wonder if reaching out for support or connection could be worth a try. You do some googling or talk to some friends and somehow find your way to this page.
Welcome.
I am so sorry for the circumstances that brought you here, but I am glad you have made it this far. While I cannot promise you that your life will get back to the way it was (is that even possible?), I can 100% assure you this is a gentle and safe space to land. I’m here with you. We can move through this together.
A Virtual Grief Retreat
When you are looking for a space to bring your honest and raw grief and are not looking for something to be “fixed”.
Put on your comfy clothes, bring your tea and let everyone know you are unavailable for a few days.
The Grief Therapy Intensive is 1-3 days of intentional focus for deep connection and care when you need it the most. With Narrative Exposure, EMDR, and Somatic approaches, you are given the tools and space to hold grief and love simultaneously without the pain feeling like it’s taking over. And this does not mean letting go of or moving on from the person who died.
What is a Therapy Intensive?
A Therapy Intensive is an accelerated form of therapy designed to help you go deeper and get results faster. Traditional therapy is structured around a weekly 1 hour session, but what if you could set aside 1-3 dedicated days to really immerse yourself in the work and experience life changing results. Therapy Intensives are an emerging, evidence-based therapy approach becoming popular for their effectiveness, efficiency and long term impact.
Typically in a 1 hour session, there are at least 5-10 minutes of “check-in” at the start of the session and usually, 5-10 minutes spent on grounding or “checking out” at the end of a session - Leaving only 30-40 minutes for deep therapeutic work. Therapy Intensives are different. One 3-hour Therapy Intensive day allows for 2.5 hours of depth work. That’s the equivalent of five 1 hour sessions or more than a month of therapy - in a single day!
What does the process look like for a Therapy Intensive?
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to ask questions and see if a therapy intensive is the right fit for your situation and needs. We will also determine what length of an intensive (1, 2 or 3 days) is appropriate for you depending on what you hope to accomplish and how the intensives are structured.
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Consultation
The Grief Therapy Intensive Workbook
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The Grief Therapy Intensive Workbook includes assessments and activities to prepare for the Intensive. The workbook allows you keep a record of progress on your treatment goals before, during, and after our sessions. The workbook also provides me with important information and insight to provide the best therapy intensive experience for you.
In this 90-minute session, we will review your workbook and identify your unique hopes and goals for your therapy intensive. We will identify some specific areas of focus such as painful memories, feelings, images that you are desiring relief from.
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Pre-Interview
Intensive Days (1-3 days)
We will meet virtually in a designated space for our time together. Therapy Intensive days will be scheduled for 1-3 days, for 3 hours each day. These days will be specifically curated to your needs and treatment goals and will include personalized resources and activities.
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In this 90-minute session, we will debrief the intensive experience and reflect on areas of insight, relief, and transformation. We will discuss your next steps for continued support and healing. This is usually scheduled 3-4 weeks following your therapy intensive.
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Post-Interview
Is a Therapy Intensive right for me?
Therapy Intensives are a good fit for people who are ready for relief now.
You are ready to commit to a multiple hour or multiple day process to dive deep into a specific area, goal or experience. In this case, an unexpected or traumatic loss.
It feels possible to dedicate a protected time and space with needed support during your Intensive days.
You want support and relief from the intrusive thoughts or painful memories, but weekly appointments feel difficult to arrange right now. (or you want to add an intensive in addition to your weekly appointments to address this specific area)
You are not in acute crisis and have the ability to tap into grounding techniques during and after deep processing work.
Still curious if The Grief Therapy Intensive is right for you? Send me a message and let’s chat.
I’m worried that if I work through the pain of everything that happened, that I will lose what I have left of them.
I hear you. The last thing you want is for them to feel even farther away. It’s so hard when it feels like the only way to stay connected is by feeling that physical reminder, that lump in your gut, that the love for them was and is so real. We are not going to be working toward erasing your grief or “healing from” from your grief, rather we are going to become more familiar with your unique grief. We are going to learn to recognize the waves coming at you and make it possible to ride them without them drowning you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Great question! Yes, Therapy Intensives are evidence-based and the evidence of their effectiveness is only increasing. Research shows that Therapy Intensives are equally effective to weekly therapy, but results are seen in a week rather than after months. Also, Intensives have a 95% completion rate where as people are more likely to drop out of weekly therapy. Check out a few research articles here » 1, 2,3
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Your intensive is personally set up to meet the needs you have right now, but you can expect elements of IFS (parts work), NET (narrative exposure), EMDR and somatic practices (movement and breath work) and other evidence-based modalities. We take breaks for movement, food and rest. Rather than expecting this to be a marathon of clinical intensity, think of it more like a retreat that will be both deep processing and care and rest for you and your body.
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Regardless of how long ago you experienced your loss, your grief is still with you and always will be. If you are on this page and considering support options, this may be the the time that works well for you and that is the most important part.
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Insurance companies restrict therapy session length to 60 mins and require certain therapeutic approaches and interventions and diagnoses. Because of this, Therapy Intensives are not covered by insurance. We want to ensure you have the say in how you want your therapy structured and not feel the pressure to put a diagnosis on your grief.
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Yes! I am licensed in California and can offer support to you anywhere in the state. I am most familiar with Southern California & Los Angeles and spent the first 17 years of my life there.
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Yes! I am licensed in Alaska and it is home. I can provide support to you wherever you are in the state.
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The consultation is free. A 50% nonrefundable deposit is due once you schedule the actual intensive and the remaining 50% is due on the first day of the intensive.
There are a lot of things that go into deciding which length and format of The Grief Therapy Intensive is right for you. We will consider your individual history, therapeutic goals, current level of support, how much you would like to process, and the amount of time and space that may be helpful at this point. Check out more information about each Intensive package below.
The Grief Therapy Intensive Packages
Half Day Intensive
8 hour Program
6 face to face hours
Personalized workbook, resources and activities.
90-min Pre-Intensive Interview
3 hours Intensive Therapy
90-min Post-Intensive
Investment: $1850.00
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A 1-day intensive offers a concentrated period of therapeutic work focused on a specific set of goals or aspects of your experience.
This format may be a good fit when:
you have a relatively focused therapeutic goal
you would like dedicated time to work on a particular aspect of your grief
you have a strong support system and resources available outside of the intensive
you have already done some therapy or processing and would like to focus on a specific area
you have a recent experience that has activated previously processed grief and you would like a dedicated space to work through that.
2-Day Intensive
11 hour Program
9 face to face hours
Personalized workbook, resources and activities.
90-min Pre-Intensive Interview
6 hours Intensive Therapy
90-min Post-Intensive
Investment: $2750.00
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A 2-day intensive provides additional time to establish therapeutic safety, develop the narrative of your experience, and work more deeply with the emotional and physiological responses connected to your grief.
This format may be helpful when:
you want more time for therapeutic processing than a single day allows
your experience involved several significant or interconnected events
you would benefit from having more time to move between narrative, emotional, and somatic aspects of your experience
you would like a more extended period of focused support
A 2-day intensive can be especially helpful to have space to process between two intensive therapy days.
3-Day Intensive
14 hour Program
12 face to face hours
Personalized workbook, resources and activities.
90-min Pre-Intensive Interview
9 hours Intensive Therapy
90-min Post-Intensive
Investment: $3850.00
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A 3-day intensive is kind of the sweet spot with three dedicated days. It offers the most extended period of focused therapeutic support and may be appropriate when there is more complex material to address or when you would benefit from additional time for preparation, processing, and integration.
This format may be considered when:
there are multiple or layered traumatic experiences related to your grief.
there are several interconnected experiences that you would like to explore
you would benefit from additional space for somatic and emotional processing
This can also be the most ideal set up for deep processing work as it gives enough time to move through the nerves of the therapeutic process, establish safety, engage in deep processing work and then have plenty of time for closure and reflecting.
A 3-day intensive allows for a greater amount of therapeutic time and provides more room to work with complex or layered material without feeling rushed.
The goal is not to fit your experience into a particular intensive length. We want to choose the length and format that provides enough therapeutic space and support for what we need to process together and feels right for where you are right now.
If you're not sure whether a 1-, 2-, or 3-day intensive would be the best fit, no worries! You don't need to figure that out on your own. We can explore that together during the consultation.
A little about me.
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Alaska and California. I’m a certified Grief, Trauma and Perinatal Therapist and I specialize in Traumatic Grief and Birth Trauma. I didn’t come into this field by accident. Many of my own experiences with grief and trauma have made me the therapist I am today. I can say first hand how glad I am that I went through my own healing process and how worth it, it was to take that first step (which even as a therapist is still difficult).