The Birth Trauma Intensive
Los Angeles, CA & Alaska
When you are ready for relief now rather than months from now.
A therapeutic deep dive in just 1-3 days with a certified perinatal therapist who specializes in birth trauma.
When your birth experience did not go as planned and you find yourself replaying the day over and over again in your mind wondering how and why things went the way they did.
Your brain keeps taking you back to that birth space and your heart starts racing or you feel especially anxious or sad. You are questioning if certain interventions were necessary and notice yourself frequently replaying comments and conversations from medical staff.
You are feeling disconnected from your body and finding it difficult to be present with the people around you. You might be having nightmares about the labor or birth, feeling like your body failed you or questioning “is it possible to feel violated during birth?”
All of these thoughts and feelings might also make you feel like you are struggling to bond with your baby and that makes the guilt and shame show up big time.
These thoughts and feelings are not unusual after a scary or traumatic experience. Your brain and your body are trying to process an extremely stressful event while caring for a new baby, recovering physically and doing so on very little sleep.
Whether your birth was weeks, months or even years ago, this does not have to be a loop or reality you are stuck in.
A virtual therapeutic retreat
This is a time and space to invest in you.
Grab your favorite blanket, a cozy drink, definitely some good snacks and let everyone know you are unavailable for a few days. This is a space to exhale, truly be seen and move through the pain of what you went through and what you lost.
Along with evidence-based therapy modalities and doing “the work”, The Birth Trauma Intensive is designed for deep connection and care when you need it the most. This is a time to invest in yourself so you can show up in a much more present way than feels possible right now.
Most importantly - The Birth Trauma Intensive is uniquely designed to provide space to care for your healing body and care for your baby. We make sure to schedule space for rest, food, movement, and nursing or pumping if that is part of your routine.
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!
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, a stressful, unexpected, or traumatic birth experience.
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 and 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 experience)
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 Birth Trauma Intensive is right for you? Send me a message and let’s chat.
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 Birth Trauma Intensive Workbook
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The Birth Trauma 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.
3
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 growth and healing. This is usually scheduled 3-4 weeks following your therapy intensive.
5
Post-Interview
Not just a place to process what happened, but a dedicated space to breathe, rest, and remember what safety feels like in your body.
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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Insurance companies restrict therapy session length to 60 mins and require certain therapeutic approaches and interventions. Because of this, Therapy Intensives are not covered by insurance.
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Yes, very much so. The non-birthing partner who is present for the birth can experience symptoms of traumatic stress as well and very often get overlooked due to caring for the birthing person and baby. You absolutely have a space here as well to process the traumatic birth and everything you went through as the support person.
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100% yes. I would specifically recommend reaching out if this is an experience you have gone through. I have extensive experience and training supporting those who have gone through the devastating loss of their babies at various stages. You are not alone in this. This space is here for you.
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Each intensive is personally set up to meet the needs of each client, but you can expect elements of IFS (parts work), NET (narrative exposure), somatic practices (movement and breath work) and other evidence-based modalities. We also 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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A number of situations can become traumatic depending on various circumstances. Some experiences that have become traumatic for many are emergency c-section, postpartum hemorrhage, severe pre-eclampsia, failed pain medication or poor response to anesthesia, premature birth or stillbirth, unexpected NICU admission, severe tears, fetal anomaly diagnosis during pregnancy, hyperemesis gravidarum, etc.
If you find yourself relating to anything mentioned above, please reach out. Your feelings about your experience are your own and they are real, regardless of how it compares to someone else’s.
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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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Yes! If your little one is younger than 6 months and it is most ideal to have them with you, they are welcome to be present during our virtual session. If your little one is older than 6 months and is a bit more active, it may be most ideal to arrange some support during the time of the intensive to ensure you get time to fully focus on you and your needs.
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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 Birth Trauma 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 for your healing. Check out more information about each Intensive package below.
The Birth Trauma 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 birth 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 birth experience
you have a strong support system and resources available outside of the intensive
you are looking for a concentrated starting point for your trauma work
you have already done some therapy or processing and would like to focus on a specific area
you would benefit from stepping out of your usual routine and having dedicated therapeutic space
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 birth trauma.
This format may be helpful when:
there are multiple aspects of the birth experience you would like to address
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 the experience
you anticipate needing additional space for integration and stabilization
you would like a more extended period of focused support
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 for processing, grounding and integration. It offers the most extended period of focused therapeutic support and may be appropriate when there is more complex material to address.
This format may be considered when:
there are multiple or layered traumatic experiences related to pregnancy, birth, or the postpartum period
the birth experience involved significant medical trauma or a prolonged period of fear, helplessness, or uncertainty
there are several interconnected experiences that you would like to explore
you would benefit from additional space for somatic and emotional processing
you have specific therapeutic goals that are likely to require more than one concentrated day
having several days of dedicated therapeutic support feels more containing and supportive for you
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.
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).
