Extended Sessions &
Intensives
... because sometimes the standard session length isn't the best fit.
The Benefits
More time for deeper exploration.
With more time in session, you have more time to explore underlying emotions, patterns, or experiences in greater depth. This is especially helpful when processing grief, trauma, or other emotionally intense topics, since extended sessions provide more adequate time for processing.
Convenience
People with demanding schedules, long commutes, or limited availability may prefer fewer but longer sessions.
Better Therapeutic Flow
It can take time to build momentum in a session. Longer appointments allow you to stay engaged with a topic rather than pausing and resuming it over multiple weeks. Some clients find that just as they reach an important insight or emotionally significant topic, the session is ending. Extended sessions can allow conversations to unfold more naturally without such restrictive concern about the clock.
Skills Practice
For therapies that involve learning and practicing techniques—such as cognitive-behavioral strategies, exposure exercises, mindfulness practices, or communication skills—extra time can allow for more discussion and practice within the same session.
Specific Problems
Extended sessions can be especially helpful for clients who have a specific issue or problem to work on intensely, rather than several things to work on long term.
ERP: More Time, More Progress
More Time for ERP Principles to Take Effect
Exposures work best when you have time to fully engage with the feared situation without cutting off the exposure pre-maturely. A longer session allows you to go through every step of each exposure thoroughly and naturally, leading to improved efficacy, faster progress, and less time in treatment.
Opportunity For More Exposures
ERP is most effective when exposures and ritual prevention are practiced repeatedly. A longer session can allow for multiple repeated exposures and gradual increases in exposure difficulty in real time.
Brief exposures can sometimes be completed using subtle safety behaviors or mental rituals. However, with more time in an exposure window, these strategies become harder to maintain, making it easier to practice more effective response prevention.
Reduced Reliance on Avoidance
Enhanced Learning
Longer session times allow for the opportunity to repeat exposures in different circumstances, enhancing learning through variability. In this way, longer sessions support learning flexibility, reinforcing the message that you can handle uncertainty and discomfort across many situations.
Some exposures simply take more time than others. Extended sessions allow you to do these longer exposures with support, in session, rather than at home on your own. Instead of having to tailor exposures to fit the session time, the session time is tailored to fit the needed length for each exposure.
More Realistic Exposures
Better Support During Diffiuclt Moments
More time in sessions means more time to get support with the toughest exposures you face. Better support and direction during exposures can lead to improved efficacy of the treatment overall.
Options for non-standard sessions: