Intensive (Daily) Therapy Program

What is "intensive" therapy?

The intensive therapy program includes daily therapy focused on facing fears and overcoming challenges related to OCD and anxiety disorders. Exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy including exposure and response prevention is the central focus. A standard intensive course includes daily ~55-minute therapy sessions for three weeks, though some sessions may extend to 90 minutes depending on the need of the individual.

This is different from an "intensive outpatient program," which usually includes multiple hours of treatment every day, multiple types of therapies (for example, group and individual therapies), and might include a team with other professionals (for example, medication prescribers in addition to therapists).

What to expect during a course of intensive therapy?

These are the standard steps of the intensive therapy program:

1. Pre-intensive evaluation. An 60-90 minute psychological evaluation will help us decide together whether an intensive course of therapy is a good fit for you or your child.

2. Collaboration with outside providers. When you have outside providers, I will do my best to connect with them to ensure the intensive program aligns with your broader treatment goals and to ensure we are making the most of your time in the program. I am also happy to continue seeing clients who participated in the intensive program on a weekly basis after the program finishes, as it is almost always beneficial to have some continued follow-up after the short-term intensive course of therapy.

3. Course of treatment.

   1. Baseline assessment. The first day will include a baseline inventory of obsessive-compulsive or anxiety symptoms that will help us understand the severity of presenting problems and establish treatment goals. This assessment will be tailored to your or your child's primary problems and treatment goals.

   2. Daily therapy. Next, you or your child will participate in daily therapy for the remainder of the three weeks. This will primarily include strategies designed to help you face fears and reach your goals. The specific elements will be personalized to each individual, and based on their needs, will include different levels of family involvement, "field trips" outside your home, and other cognitive behavioral strategies.

   3. Final assessment. A week or so after the intensive program, we will re-do assessments from the first day to determine change in different domains. Based on results from this assessment, as well as your treatment goals, your impressions of change, and my impressions over the course of therapy, we will determine collaboratively what the best next steps are.

Who might benefit from and intensive approach?

Sometimes the traditional once-a-week therapy model is not the best fit. These usually fall into two major domains: 

1) anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms are severe and weekly therapy has not provided enough of an opportunity to overcome fears and intrusive thoughts.

2) you or your child are hoping for quicker progress. This may be because anxiety or obsessive-compulsive symptoms are causing major disruptions in day-to-day life, or because you have a break from typical life and are hoping to invest significant time and effort into making major changes (e.g., for a child during a summer break from school)