Trauma Therapy Intensives (EMDR + IFS) in Denver, Colorado
Therapy intensives are a short-term, accelerated, and highly efficient treatment. If you’re tired of weekly therapy (or can’t fit it into your busy schedule in the first place), explore an intensive approach to healing in Denver, or online across Colorado.
What’s a therapy intensive?
A therapy intensive is a type of short-term, accelerated, and highly efficient treatment.
Unlike traditional therapy where you meet with your therapist for 50 minutes once a week, intensives offer a concentrated, accelerated approach. Instead of stretching your healing process over weeks or even months, you dive deep into your therapy for a few days, dedicating several hours each day to your healing work.
Through an intensive approach, many people find they can make progress faster compared to traditional weekly therapy.
Due to the uninterrupted time for processing, one intensive session (2+ hours) can be equivalent to multiple weeks/months of 50-minute sessions. You might need less therapy overall as you achieve your goals more efficiently.
What’s EMDR therapy?
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a therapy approach that helps people process distressing memories. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR doesn’t require you to talk about your experiences the whole time; and you don’t have to go into specific details about your trauma if you don’t want to.
(Besides, talk therapy has shown limited efficacy in providing lasting relief from trauma, as it only activates cognitive parts of the brain. Meanwhile, EMDR addresses the emotional, somatic, sensory, and cognitive components involved in memory storage.)
EMDR uses a body-based technique called bilateral stimulation – which can be eye movements, tapping, or other rhythmic sensory input – to help the brain rewire itself and form new neural connections.
As a result of bilateral stimulation, distressing memories lose their emotional charge, and instead become simply a memory in the past. Negative beliefs about yourself can shift to more positive and accurate ones. For example, EMDR can help replace thoughts like “I’m bad” with neutral/positive beliefs like “I accept myself” and “I’m capable of changing and growing.”
What’s IFS therapy?
IFS, or Internal Family Systems, is a therapeutic approach that views the mind as a system of interconnected parts. These parts develop over time in response to life experiences, and each has its own perspective, memories, emotions, and even sensations in the body.
Sometimes, these parts can conflict with each other. For example, one part might be driven by ambition, while another might be filled with fear. IFS helps you understand and connect with these different parts, and heal wounded parts that may be reacting to past traumas.
The goal of IFS therapy is to foster a strong sense of self, or “Self energy,” which can guide you through life’s ups and downs.
Internal Family Systems Therapy is a gentle, creative, and introspective process that rewires your brain toward more self-compassion, confidence, and clarity.
The IFS process can evoke profound a-ha! moments, emotional shifts, and for some, spiritual and transpersonal experiences. Similar to EMDR and other trauma therapies, IFS does not require you to talk about your experiences if you don’t want to.
IFS tends to pair well with EMDR. For instance, as you process a 6-year-old childhood memory through EMDR, you might also notice an inner child part who needs love and attention. Your therapist might then guide you to connect with that inner child part, before you resume processing the memory through bilateral stimulation. A combination of EMDR and IFS can be highly effective for complex trauma and PTSD treatment.
Who can benefit from a trauma therapy intensive?
A trauma therapy intensive is for you if…
You’re overwhelmed and need fast relief. You don’t have time to sit on a waiting list or spend months in weekly therapy. You need help, now. Intensives are a highly specialized service that often have shorter wait times than weekly therapy, due to the quicker turnaround.
You have a packed schedule, and trying to coordinate appointments is a logistical nightmare – but you are committed to prioritizing your mental health. Instead of playing scheduling tetris every single week, you’d rather set aside 1-3 days for focused healing work – and then go back to your life.
You’re facing a significant life transition and want to prepare emotionally beforehand (or thoroughly process it afterward). Maybe you have a wedding, funeral, move, job change, psychedelic/plant medicine ceremony, birth, or family reunion coming up. There’s a lot of processing you need to do, but you don’t want to drag it out across multiple weeks/months.
You simply prefer to work intensively. 50-minute sessions are too short for you. When you start processing something, you tend to hyperfocus and a few hours can fly by without you noticing. Intensives are a better fit for your brain and processing style.
How can intensives save you time, money, and energy?
Intensives allow you to do more work in less time, helping you reach your goals faster. You feel better, sooner.
Due to the highly efficient nature of intensive therapy, you may save time, money, and energy on continuous weekly therapy (as well as other forms of support that may have been keeping you afloat – like shopping as a coping mechanism – but which weren’t addressing the root cause of your distress).
Intensives are a form of holistic healthcare that you invest in on an as-needed basis (one-time only; once a month, season, or year) – rather than a recurring expense with no clear end date.
Where can I book a trauma therapy intensive in Colorado?
I offer intensives in my beautiful office in Denver, Colorado. The space is calmly lit and vibrantly decorated, with sensory-soothing items (fidget toys), blankets (including weighted), comfortable seating, and plenty of open space and yoga mats for movement. Located on Capitol Hill, it’s within walking distance to various food & drink options.
If you’re in Colorado but not close to Denver, I also offer online therapy intensives – so that you can accelerate your healing from the comfort of your home or private space (such as a hotel that you’ve booked as part of your intensive self-care retreat). You must be located in the state of Colorado to participate in an online therapy intensive.
If you’re not based in Denver but open to traveling, you might consider staying in Denver for a few nights and organizing a self-care retreat around your intensive dates. For the hours that you’re not in session, there’s plenty of entertainment, food, and culture to explore in Denver, as well as other holistic healthcare services (bodywork, massage, spa, acupuncture, herbal medicine), to complement your intensive therapy program. I’d be happy to provide specific recommendations if you’re coming from out of town.
If weekly therapy isn’t working for you, explore an intensive approach to healing in Denver, or online across Colorado.
Looking for a trauma therapy intensive in Colorado?
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About the Author
Liz Zhou is holistic trauma therapist providing therapy services in Colorado. She helps highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults and couples heal from the past and connect with their authentic selves. Liz’s specialties include EMDR, IFS, psychedelic integration, and therapy intensives.
