A Deeper Way to Start the New Year: Therapy Intensives Explained
The start of a new year has a way of slowing us down—at least internally. Even when life keeps moving, many people notice a quiet pull toward reflection. What worked? What didn’t? What keeps showing up no matter how many books you’ve read or insights you’ve gathered?
If you’re craving something more meaningful than surface-level resolutions or productivity goals, you’re not alone. For many adults, the new year isn’t about becoming a “new version” of themselves—it’s about finally tending to the parts that have been asking for attention for a long time. This is where new year therapy support, and especially therapy intensives, can offer a different kind of starting point.
Why the New Year Often Brings a Desire for Deeper Reflection
Transitions naturally invite remembering and reflecting. As one year closes and another begins, people often take stock of their emotional wellbeing, relationships, and long-standing patterns. You might notice questions like:
Why do the same triggers keep showing up?
Why do I understand what’s happening, but still feel stuck?
Why does change feel so slow, even with consistent effort?
This kind of reflection isn’t about failure—it’s a sign of readiness. The new year often highlights where insight alone hasn’t been enough, and where deeper therapeutic work may be needed to create real emotional shift.
What is a therapy intensive?
A therapy intensive involves extended, focused sessions—often several hours over one or multiple days—rather than traditional weekly one-hour appointments. These intensive therapy sessions are intentionally designed to create space for depth, continuity, and nervous system support that can be harder to access in shorter sessions.
Therapy intensives are not a “last resort,” nor are they only for people in crisis. Instead, they’re an option for people who know they want to go deeper and benefit from having more time to do so. For modalities like EMDR, this extended structure can be especially supportive for processing complex or emotionally loaded material without feeling rushed. If you’re motivated to feel relief, it is helpful to have a pace of sessions that matches your readiness vs arbitrarily being slowed to the weekly 50 minute session limit.
How Intensives Support Growth and Integration
One of the biggest benefits of deep therapeutic work in an intensive format is time. Extended sessions allow your nervous system to settle, engage, and integrate rather than repeatedly stopping and starting. This can support:
Nervous system regulation: With more time, your body has space to move through activation and return to regulation within the same day, rather than carrying unfinished processing between weekly sessions. Clients have noticed an increased willingness to connect to the body sensations in EMDR intensives, because the know we will have time to desensitize these experiences and feel more settled at the end of the session.
Deeper emotional processing: Hard topics—especially those addressed through EMDR—often need time to unfold. Intensives allow you to stay with the work long enough for meaningful shifts to occur. Because of this, some clients start with weekly sessions and appreciate switching to EMDR Intensives when they are ready to engage in the desensitization phase of EMDR.
Insight plus integration: Many high-functioning adults already understand their patterns intellectually. Therapy intensives help translate that insight into felt change, where emotions, body responses, and beliefs can reorganize together.
This format can be especially helpful for:
Therapists seeking their own healing space without needing to “hold it together” during their work week until they get relief in EMDR processing
Adults who know they need more time and support to truly go there with complex EMDR targets
People who find it easier to carve out an afternoon or a few days for focused work rather than committing to ongoing weekly sessions
Hesitation about choosing an EMDR intensive is completely normal. It’s a different investment of time, energy, and attention. That pause doesn’t mean you’re unsure about healing—it often means you’re thoughtful about what kind of support feels safest and most effective for you. This is why I offer a free consultation call for you to ask questions to make sure its the right investment for you.
An Invitation for the Year Ahead
As you consider what kind of new year therapy support would feel most nourishing this year, it may help to reflect on what hasn’t shifted yet—and what kind of space might be needed for that change to occur. For some, a therapy intensive offers the depth, continuity, and support that allows real movement after feeling stuck.
If you’re curious about whether a therapy intensive or intensive therapy sessions could support your goals for growth and healing, I invite you to schedule a free consultation call with me. We can talk through what you’re noticing, what you’re hoping for, and whether a therapy intensive aligns with what you need right now.
Michelle Spurgeon is a licensed therapist supporting clients in Dallas, Texas, and virtual EMDR therapy in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Virginia. She specializes in relational trauma, anxiety, and divorce and uses evidence-based treatments like EMDR to help clients feel unstuck and steady again. Michelle provides EMDR Intensives for clients wanting extended session time to work towards relief. She is LCSW Supervisor in Texas helping LMSW professionals earn their clinical license and an EMDR Consultant for therapists.
At Steady Healing, she is committed to providing compassionate, expert mental health care both in-person in Dallas and online therapy for clients across Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and Virginia.
