Intensive Immersions | Paul Birch LMFT

Intensive wellness, training, repair, growth, and development Sessions: Immersives:

Do you need to have an exclusive FOCUS on your marriage, with adequate TIME to really make a difference, while being GUIDED by me through the types of experieces and conversations that can accelerate change or get you through an impasse?

There are times when frequent short meetings, like workouts in a gym, are the best way to work. However, there are times when something more intensive is indicated. Immersive sessions provide you the time, exclusivity (e.g., no kids), and intensity you may need.

Cliff climbs are highly individualized to your situation. I design them specifically for you, your current situation, and what is most indicated as the need for the immersive. They include the following core of activity types:

TIME to slow down.
GUIDED experiences for calming down.
LENSING experiences to help you see what you can’t see when you are in a hurry.
CORRECTIVE EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCES: Emotionally connecting conversations to heal from past hurts within the relationship.
EXPERIENTIAL Activities including games, physical movement, yoga/martial arts-like exercise, hiking/walking, and others.
Meditative, physical, and emotional EXERCISES to promote strength and clarity.
INDIVIDUAL conversations, witnessed by the other, to promote self and other understanding.
Guided COMMUNICATION experiences to help you understand and interact with each other more effectively.
INTENSIVE Planning conversations to put in place micro-level structure for the coming months to build on what was learned.

Is this for me? 1. For couples who want to pack their gear and climb the mountain immediately in a fashion that can be more accelerative than shorter weekly sessions over time. 2. Couples who just want to take some time out of the regular flow and do a lot of accelerative work quickly. 3. Couples who need an intense revitalization, repair, training process. If one or more of these apply to you, you may benefit from this particular form of more intensive, exclusive focus on the work:
- Desire to focus in deeply and experience transformational outcomes which you follow up with in less frequent sessions afterwards.
- Difficult work or personal schedules that make it hard to fit in weekly sessions for several consecutive weeks; situations that advantage getting a lot of work done quickly, e.g., needing to meet some deadline.
- For those just starting therapy:
  - High commitment to the marriage, willingness to dig in and do the work, but no major problems that would prevent you from quickly jumping in and experiencing that sort of transformation.
  - Major or recent rupture in the marital contract/vow (e.g., infidelity, major deceit or let down)
  - Ongoing and intractable marriage problems
  - High levels of uncontrollable conflict.
  - Unusual situation**
- Failed efforts to make progress in previous less intensive offerings.
- For those already in therapy, or returning after a break:
  - Identification of key factors that are preventing progress
  - Wanting to come back for a quick half or full day refresher and/or addressing new issues that have arisen since last session.

Contraindications may include:
- Significant substance use problems.
- Ongoing undisclosed affair or dishonesty in the relationship, highly uncertain of whether the full story has been discovered and not ready to push for it or share it.
- Recent significant instances of physical violence or verbal abuse.
- Active suicidal ideation and/or recent suicide attempt.

There are a few studies showing effectiveness of this general approach of packing in more work densely [1]. In general, the effect being seen is comparable to those found in standard couple therapy in which similar numbers of hours are spread over a longer period of time. The freedom from distractions, slower pace of each individual hour within the intensive, and the technological developments I utilize in these sessions are designed to promote a greater degree of awareness and focus, leading to greater insight, emotional connection, and clarity on how to move forward. It is possible that this effect, combined into a single dense experience can be more intense and create motivation and enthusiasm for pursuing the work in the ensuing weeks. All in all, I design these processes so that by the time the normal 6 to 9 months of my typical week to week therapy has elapsed, you will be better off than had you done only the standard. But the caveat is that you must stick with your process following the intensive; but even if you don’t, the process is likely to lead to similar outcomes, but in a shorter time. Because of the up-front and higher cost of these offering, it is important to me that I not offer this to just anyone; rather, I want to be assured that there is a reasonable chance you will benefit from this offering, rather than just offering it to whomever. This guide to How to Choose an Intensive can also be helpful in evaluating what you are getting from me.

Options: Accelerated Cliff Climb*, Major or Recent Rupture Cliff Climb, High Conflict Couple Cliff Climb, Complex Cliff climb**.
Included: 4, 8, or 14 hours of face to face therapeutic interaction, approximately 1-3h of my time to conduct personalized analysis and tailoring time before and after the interaction, and a written plan and/or protocol to follow on your own after the experience. For those not continuing on in therapy with me, 30m check-in is included 1 week and 1 month afterwards.
Time Commitment: Half-day, Full-day, or 2-days, plus travel to Northern Virginia (Fairfax, Haymarket and Shenandoah locations).
Financial Investment: $3,000 (Full-day); $1500 (Half-day)

Cost accounts for the time @ $250/hr, plus the intensity, ongoing technology development of how I use these larger blocks of time, and schedule clearing that is required. I also spend substantial time planning, reviewing documents, between session contemplation, and writing activities afterwards. I have designed it to be more effective as the same number of hours spaced typically spaced. While there is no guarantee of that, there is reason to believe that it will work as least as well, and since you get a lot of hours, you can anticipate a strong chance that it will result in sooner improvement. And as I help you accelerate or get up over significant cliff sooner, it is also possible that a less intensive and expensive trajectory will be needed from this point forward. If you feel you really need this and truly cannot afford it, then there are times when I can offer a lower fee for the service. Please inquire. I am not trying to just upcharge people to get more exclusive access to my time; these are intense for me to design and carry out and I just don't have the energy to do them if there isn't a return on the substantial investment I have put into developing these, and the one I'll put into making sure they have the best chance of being worth it to you.

In general, these are offered the LAST THURSDAY AND FRIDAY of each month. They are available to be booked until Wednesday at noon of the 2nd week of the month, and thereafter if space permits.

EMAIL me or Erica for more information about next available dates and other questions.

* Option A: Quick Start: Do the initial Intake Appointment, 2 individual sessions, and an experiential exercise to kick off all in one half day. Option B: If you score in the mid level or higher on the Marriage Navigator instrument; still love each other, still want to be married, but have some unique challenges (e.g., infertility, challenging childhood experiences, past trauma, step-family adjustment) or just have never learned to regulate conflict effectively with one another, this is designed for you.

** For couples with some highly-specific decision you can’t agree on (e.g., have another child, move to another state) or some very significant complicating factors (e.g., celebrity status or high wealth status, major age difference, trauma from the past such as combat-related, child abuse, sexual assault or past domestic violence).

[1] See Evidence for Effectiveness of Intensives, More Evidence, and Some More Evidence