Grief therapy intensives in Gig Harbor and across Washington
Extended therapy services to help you navigate the unimaginable grief that comes after painful loss. Intensives for grief provide safe, healing space to learn about your unique grief, build coping skills that honor your grief experience and learn ways to live forward with your grief.
Grief has a way of knocking us right off our feet and reorienting to the world that doesn’t make sense anymore can feel impossible.
A therapy intensive for grief is an extended therapy session or package of sessions designed for your unique situation. With unhurried time, we begin the work of beginning to process your loss, learn about your grief and explore way to navigate this grief in ways that work for you and honor your grief.
As a grief specialist, I often work with clients on a traditional 45-minute cadence which can be helpful for ongoing processing and support in navigating living with loss. Grief intensives allow you a peaceful, safe space to dive deeper in a focused way—which can be incredibly supportive when navigating early and complex grief experiences.
Common topics addressed in a therapy intensive for grief
Common topics addressed in a therapy intensive for grief:
Telling the story of your person and your loss
Processing traumatic or sudden loss
Processing anticipatory loss and grief
Exploring how your grief is showing up (emotional, physical, cognitive, social, behavioral, spiritual)
Learning ways we can move through grief (emphasizing your unique path versus a prescriptive “stage” theory)
Unpacking grief within families
Planning for holidays, grief anniversaries and other major or milestone dates
Ways to keep connected with your loved one in your grief
Processing grief of what could have or should have been
Disenfranchised grief: grief not recognized by others in your community
Building a coping toolbox
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A therapy intensive is an extended therapy session. In this modern approach to therapy you experience an opportunity to engage in therapy over the course of several hours and/or days.
These extended sessions allow for unhurried time to receive in-depth support grounded in your current needs, goals and circumstances. Often clients who engage in intensives find they are able to move into their healing and towards their goals at an accelerated pace.
Some clients have likened therapy intensives to the FastPass at Disney—skipping the waitlist for weekly services and jumping right into the main event.
Intensives offer you the ability to set the pacing for your work in a way that is unique for your needs, not based on what can be accomplished in a 50 minute session (which actually is simply an arbitrary number of minutes designated by medical insurance companies).
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You may be drawn to the format of a therapy intensive due to schedule constraints (unpredictable work schedules, childcare considerations, etc) that make traditional 50-minute weekly sessions challenging.
You may notice that 50 minutes is not enough time to dive into what brings you to therapy or that you lose traction between sessions.
An intensive/extended therapy approach allows you to take an unhurried approach to critically important life circumstances, healing and goals.
Therapy Intensives also can jump-start your progress towards your goals. By creating distraction-free, focused time, you are providing your brain, body and spirit the room to dive deep while creating momentum forward into your healing.
Some of the clients I've worked with prefer to schedule extended sessions as part of a self-care commitment, building a day or two of healing practices around their intensive.
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Imagine accomplishing 6 months of therapy work within a week? In traditional 45 minute models, clients spend 10-15 minutes orienting, catching up and wrapping up. This allows only 30 minutes or so to work on the core needs and goals.
Therapy intensives, on the other hand, can provide overall time and money savings by reducing the time in therapy and being able to address your goals more quickly. You have uninterrupted, focused time to dive deep into what brings you to therapy, build the skills and support you need for navigating this season, and leave feeling the energy that comes with prioritizing your needs.
When engaging in an intensive, clients are often very focused on what brings them to the experience and find that their motivation towards their goals and healing is accelerated.
By choosing an intensive format, clients reduce or eliminate their regular weekly sessions, freeing up their time for living meaningful life.
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Extended therapy sessions are a premium service in my practice, therefore I maintain current availability for scheduling therapy intensives within approximately.
Personalized intensive services in my practice are offered through three core packages, shown below (Foundational, Signature and Premium). Packages can be customized to your needs as well.
Typically these range from a 90 minute intake session, an intensive session (or two) and a debrief.
Depending on your clinical needs and desires, a unique plan or package can also be developed that suits you best. During a consultation call we can discuss what feels best for you and what I might recommend based on your initial goals.
I schedule intensives with clients during times that work best for them -- weekends or evenings included.
Because this is a premium service, it's important that the schedule truly works for you so that you can be fully present in your intensive experience. We will discuss all scheduling consideration during our consultation.
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A therapy intensive is a premium service. This service is uniquely tailored to your needs and goals.
Fees are based upon the specific package and design, communicated ahead of time as required by the No Surprises Act.
Intensive services are $300-400/hour. Intensive packages start at $1500. Out of network reimbursement for a portion of the fee may be available through your insurance plan.
I provide free phone or Zoom consultations to discuss what therapy intensives, your goals and needs for a customized intensive package. Reach out to coordinate your consultation call.
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During our free consultation call we will discuss ways to make your Therapy Intensive be a deep, meaningful experience.
When possible, I recommend considering in-person therapy intensives in order to fully protect your time from distractions and to be able to build a rejuvenating, relaxing and comforting experience surrounding your therapy intensive.
For those not local to Gig Harbor I am happy to provide local suggestions for lodging, dining as well as additional services (massage, Reiki, reflexology, yoga, etc) that might add to your plans.
Clients preferring to work in a virtual intensive format are also supported through secure telehealth platform (within the State of Washington).
Additionally, each client will receive a personalized workbook to help you prepare for the Intensive, between sessions (if applicable) and after.