An IFS therapy intensive is a concentrated period of Internal Family Systems therapy that gives us more uninterrupted time to work with the patterns, protective parts, and experiences that can be difficult to reach in a traditional 50 minute therapy session.
Instead of stopping just as you are getting somewhere meaningful, an intensive creates space to slow down, stay with the work, and follow what emerges.
IFS (Internal Family Systems) is an approach that understands your mind as made up of different "parts," each with its own feelings, beliefs, roles, and protective strategies. The part of you that says yes when you want to say no. The part that pushes you to get everything right. The part that overthinks every decision. The part that keeps everyone else okay while quietly running on empty.
These patterns aren't flaws. They developed for a reason.
In an IFS intensive, we work with these protective parts rather than trying to force them to stop. We get curious about what they're trying to accomplish, what they've been carrying, and what becomes possible when they no longer have to work so hard.
An intensive isn't simply several therapy sessions packed together. The additional time allows us to stay with a meaningful piece of work long enough to move beyond intellectual understanding and toward something you can actually experience differently.
What Is An IFS Therapy Intensive?
You're in an executive or leadership role and have recently experienced a health scare that has either put you on medical leave or you were required to return rather quickly.
Work After a Health Scare
A forced career exit, a signed NDA, or carrying something you legally can't say out loud.
A Silenced Exit
Sudden wealth, inheritance, and business succession, including conflict you can already see coming or already in.
The Money & Responsibility You Didn't Ask For
Where This Usually Starts:
Maybe you've become very good at being the person everyone can count on.
You're the one who remembers. The one who handles it. The one who thinks ahead. The one who notices when something is off. The one people call when there's a problem.
At work, you're competent. At home, you're dependable.
To everyone else, you're probably doing fine.
But privately...
You wonder when life became something you were constantly managing instead of actually experiencing. You have trouble turning your mind off. You don't know what you want until you've figured out what everyone else needs. You crave rest but feel guilty when you take it. You want to be more spontaneous, playful, creative, and present, but you're always thinking about what needs to happen next.
And sometimes you wonder: "Is this just who I am now?"
You are highly self-aware. You've done work on yourself:
therapy, coaching, personal development, all of it.
You can name your patterns. You understand where they came from.
And you are exhausted by the fact that you still can't stop them.
You over-function when you're stressed. You say yes when you mean no.
You disappear into other people's needs and find yourself
somewhere far from yourself. You think more than you feel.
You perfect more than you rest.
Weekly therapy moves too slowly for where you are.
You're ready for something concentrated, immersive, and real.
This is for the person who is done
waiting for weekly therapy to get there.
Who Is An IFS Intensive For?
If none of these are your exact situation, but you recognize the pattern, this might still be the right place for you.
"I’m really happy I found you. I really enjoy the parts work we’re doing"
How I've Helped My Clients
The fear and vigilance that follow a health scare that never got a clear answer, especially when the responsibility of other people never truly paused.
Unexplained Health Crisis & Leadership
The isolation of carrying a true story you're not free to fully tell.
Forced Silence & Career Exits
The guilt, the identity questions, the family rupture that can come with money or responsibility you didn't ask for.
Sudden Wealth, Inheritance, & Family Conflict
What Can We Work On In An IFS Intensive?
An intensive isn't "better" than weekly therapy. It's a different format designed for a different kind of therapeutic work.
- wanting concentrated work
- a specific pattern ready to be addressed
- feeling stuck
- wanting uninterrupted time
- at a transition point
Intensive Therapy:
- ongoing support
- gradual exploration
- maintenance
- integration
Weekly Therapy:
There is a difference between knowing why you people-please and actually sitting with the part of you that learned it was the only way to be loved.
There's a difference between understanding your perfectionism intellectually and feeling what it's been protecting underneath.
IFS intensives create the uninterrupted time and depth for that kind of meeting to happen. We don't just talk about your patterns from a distance, we go toward them, with curiosity and care, and work with the parts of you that have been carrying things alone for too long.
In an intensive, there's no clock pressure, no picking up where we left off next week. No losing momentum. We go where we need to go and we stay there long enough for something to actually shift.
Most therapy helps you understand yourself. An IFS intensive helps you meet yourself.
Why Choose an IFS Therapy Intensive Instead of Weekly Therapy?
After your ifs therapy intensive has concluded, we will schedule your 60-90 minute post-intensive session. You can expect this session to happen 1-2 weeks after the intensive.
In this session, we will discuss optional ongoing therapy and recommendations/resources.
After Your IFS Intensive
During your ifs therapy intensive, we will start with settling, preparing, and orienting your system to the space.
Once oriented, we will begin our focus work following the pace of your system.
You can expect to take breaks as needed - usually up to (2) 15 minutes breaks for a half day intensive.
For a full day (6 hour) intensive, you can expect to take a lunch break or extended break midway (30-60 minutes) with shorter breaks (10-15 minutes) as needed throughout the day.
During Your IFS Intensive
Schedule your 90 minute pre-intensive session ($325) here.
Following the confirmation of our pre-intensive session, I will send you intake paperwork to be completed 48 hours prior to the session.
The 90 minute pre-intensive session is where we begin with taking a thorough history, understanding your parts landscape, and determining which intensive format is right for you (half day, full day, multi-day).
After your 90 minute pre-intensive session, we will schedule your intensive dates, you will sign the ifs therapy intensive contract, and your payment for the intensive will be processed. Payments are due in full, 48 hours prior to the start time of the intensive.
Your workbook will arrive 5-7 days before we begin.
Before Your IFS Intensive
What Happens Before, During, & After an IFS Therapy Intensive?
I built this intensive container because I know what it feels like to understand your patterns completely and still find yourself doing the same thing again.
IFS is the modality that changed that for me and for the clients I work with. Not because it teaches you something new. Because it goes somewhere insight alone can't reach.
I am a Certified IFS Therapist, one of a small number in Maryland and Virginia with 15+ years of clinical experience.
I work with a small number of intensive clients at a time, which means our work together gets my full attention and genuine care.
If you've been waiting to do the deep work, this is the container.
A note from Kiara
The Therapist
Frequently Asked Questions
Wealth and inheritance come with their own specific patterns of isolation, guilt, family conflict, an identity question that most generalist therapy doesn't know to look for. Without that lens, it's easy for this to get treated as a side detail to the "real work" or for a therapist's own unexamined feelings about money to quietly shape the sessions.
Yes. An IFS therapy intensive can be complementary to weekly, biweekly, or monthly therapy with another therapist. Some people see different therapists for different things. For example, some people see a therapist for EMDR work; some people see a therapist for IFS work; some people do couples intensives.
Not necessarily. However, IFS intensives are designed for people who have some familiarity with self-reflection and are able to engage with thoughts, feelings, emotions, and deeper therapeutic work. During the 90 minute pre-intensive session, we'll determine whether an intensive is an appropriate starting point for you.
IFS can be an appropriate approach for working with trauma, and trauma related patterns are something we may address during an intensive. Whether an intensive is appropriate for you depends on your history, current stability, goals, and capacity for depth work. We'll talk through those factors during your 90 minute pre-intensive call before deciding whether an intensive is the right fit.
During an intensive, we go at the pace of your own system. If your system becomes overwhelmed, we will pause and ground your system. We also ask parts not to overwhelm your system.
A virtual ifs therapy intensive works the same as regular therapy online. You will choose a space that feels good to your system to do depth work. You can set your space up however you like. I recommend being in a quiet and private space having water, hot tea, calming scents, blankets, pen, journal, etc. in your space.
Yes. We will work collaboratively to choose the best container for you. Ultimately, you have full agency in deciding which container you choose.
IFS intensives are private pay and not billed through insurance. If ongoing therapy is helpful after your intensive, I'm an in network provider with BCBS for eligible ongoing services. However, using insurance has the potential to neglect your privacy.
An intensive is a significant investment in concentrated therapeutic work. For some people, the value is in having enough uninterrupted time to address something they've been circling for years. For others, weekly therapy may be the better fit. Our consultation is an opportunity to determine which makes sense for you.
IFS moves at the pace your system needs, not the pace the clock allows. A 1 day intensive gives us several uninterrupted hours to follow the work without having to stop simply because a 50 minute session has ended. If it becomes clear that you need more time, we can discuss extending the work into an additional day or another intensive.
If you've already spent years in therapy, you may have a lot of insight into why you think, feel, and behave the way you do. But insight doesn't always translate into change. IFS offers a different way of working—one that focuses on the parts of you that developed and maintain these patterns, rather than simply talking about the patterns themselves.
In our post-intensive session, we will discuss ongoing support recommendations, if needed. I do offer ongoing ifs therapy through weekly, biweekly, or monthly sessions, These sessions are reserved for clients who have completed an ifs therapy intensive with me.
Regular therapy sessions (weekly or biweekly) are reserved for clients who have completed an ifs therapy intensive with me first.
I structure my practice around intensive work because I've found that concentrated therapeutic time can create opportunities for depth and continuity that aren't always possible within a traditional weekly session. Rather than asking you to spend months or years gradually working toward the same patterns, we begin by creating dedicated space for deeper work. After completing an intensive, we can determine together whether ongoing weekly, biweekly, or monthly therapy would be useful for integration and continued support.
An intensive isn't intended to replace every form of ongoing therapy or support. Some clients find that a concentrated period of work gives them what they need, while others benefit from continued sessions for integration and support. We'll discuss what makes sense for you based on your goals and circumstances.
An intensive can be used to work with patterns such as people pleasing, perfectionism, over-functioning, anxiety, self-criticism, burnout, identity struggles, and trauma related patterns. You don't need to arrive with a perfectly defined problem. Part of our work together is understanding what is underneath the pattern you're experiencing and identifying where your system most needs attention.
Begin with a conversation.
If something on this site felt familiar, you don't need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
You don't need the perfect explanation of what's wrong.
You can simply tell me what has been happening, what you've tried, and what you're hoping will be different.
You just need to stop carrying this alone.
Start Your Journey.
Schedule Your 90 Minute Pre-Intensive ⇢
