I often get asked, “What does an Intensive Therapy Retreat really look like?”
Great question- I’m so glad you asked!
What an Intensive Therapy Retreat Really Looks Like
My intensive therapy retreats start with an intake. We take three hours together to really make sure I understand you and your entire history, including your family and attachment history, your medical and mental health history, and of course your trauma and grief history. We also use this time to make sure we have very clear goals for our Intensive Therapy Retreat, and to decide together on how many days your retreat will need to be. Most people come from 3-5 days.
For most people, this intake takes place over zoom, just because most of my clients fly in from faraway places- the West Coast, Europe, South America, Australia, and more. But if you’re local, you’re always welcome to come in person for your intake!
At the intake, we schedule your intensive retreat. You pay a deposit to hold your dates and select your food for the week as well as any body work you’d like during your retreat, such as massage, reiki, trauma sensitive yoga, and sound therapy.
It’s often several months between the intake and the intensive, and I give you access to my online course for free during that time so you can use it to prepare. It’s ten hours of content teaching you all about EMDR resourcing, the neurobiology of trauma, parts work, and more.
Therapy Space in the Therapy Retreat Cottage
When the day of your intensive retreat finally arrives, I greet you at the retreat cottage and give you a little tour. The Therapy Retreat Cottage was designed by me with you in mind- it was my dream for years, and every nook and cranny is fiilled with things to surprise, delight, and calm you. You can see more of it here. Then we get settled in with a cup of tea, a cozy blanket, and whatever else you need to be comfortable for our first day of trauma work. We begin the morning with what EMDR calls resourcing, where I teach you the coping strategies you’ll need to help you move through the week as gently as possible. Once you feel like you have all the resources you need for the week, including connection to your parts, options for somatic work, and things like art, fidget toys, or anything else you might need, we take our first lunch break. We don’t have a set time for lunch because we want to give all the time that is needed to your work, but any time you need a body break to eat or move or go outside, we will always take one!
After lunch, we begin EMDR trauma processing for the first time. We move through your trauma targets chronologically, going all the way back to in utero trauma or even generational trauma as needed. We use a blend of IFS (Internal Family Systems Therapy) and EMDR to do this, taking any breaks we need to release the trauma from your body and befriend your parts as we go. It’s very beautiful and powerful work, and we stay with this for most of the week. We stop each day when you’re ready, and do any movement, art, breathwork, or anything else you need to really digest and release the work. If you’d asked for body work to be scheduled, you may have a massage, a sound therapy session, or some other form of self-care each evening. If not, there are so many other options available for you! You could take a walk on the river that is across the street, or spend time in the hot tub overlooking the creek in the back yard. Or perhaps you soak in the bath or read a book in front of the fire. If the weather is nice you might lie in the hammock or even take a cold plunge in the creek. The whole space is designed with your healing in mind, from crystals and tea and luxury bath products, to an infrared bio mat and red light therapy. People tell me they couldn’t do everything the space offers if they tried!
The Bathtub in the Therapy Retreat Cottage
The next morning, we begin again with checking in and then continuing our trauma processing work. We will continue this same pattern until your last afternoon. At that time, we will have finished all of your trauma processing goals and be ready to work on aftercare planning. I’ve designed a lovely intensive retreat workbook that you’ll use for this time so we can take note of the changes that happened during the week, the new skills and habits you want to continue to practice, and any next steps you want to take. People often leave with important conversations in mind they want to have with loved ones, life changes they plan to implement, and sometimes boundaries they’d like to set in their lives. The workbook means you capture it all and have it as a reminder.
Finally, it’s time to say goodbye! This week changes people in so many ways, and I always feel so grateful to be part of that journey.
If you want to schedule a free consultation to talk about if an Intensive Trauma Therapy Retreat could be the next right step for you, just reach out!
