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IntensiveTherapy
Helping you get to the root — and make meaningful change.
Weekly therapy isn’t always the right answer.
You’ve been engaged in therapy over the years. You understand your patterns and are able to integrate both physically and emotionally what you receive in session, but the traditional schedule isn’t working. Often just when you get deep, your time is up and you have to start from the same place the following week—a double session with varied frequency might serve you better.
Intensives are built for people who are ready to process and in many cases resolve more deeply . In a longer focused session, you can expand in a new way.
You might be here because:
You’ve tried weekly therapy and the progress is too slow or too fragmented
A specific event, relationship breakdown, or pattern has finally hit a breaking point
Your schedule simply doesn’t accommodate a long-term weekly commitment
You want real change — lasting, meaningful, growth
Whether you’re an entrepreneur whose stress and reactivity are bleeding into your closest relationships, an executive whose personal life is quietly draining the focus you need professionally, or someone who’s just done carrying something they’re ready to put down — intensive therapy was designed for you.
For high-achieving founders, executives, and business owners, the stakes of getting this wrong extend well beyond the personal. A relationship in crisis drains the focus, bandwidth, and decision-making capacity that everything else in your life depends on. The cost of staying stuck — in time, energy, and eventual financial exposure — is almost always higher than the cost of addressing it directly and now.
What is Intensive Therapy?
Understanding the core principles and approach of intensive therapy.
Intensive therapy is exactly what it sounds like — concentrated, immersive, and built for people who are focused on expansion. Instead of spreading the work across months of weekly sessions, you dedicate a block of time to go deep, move quickly, and walk away feeling restored.
The difference is momentum. A standard session loses its first and last few minutes to check-in and wrap-up — leaving maybe 30 minutes of real depth work. Intensives remove that stop-start rhythm entirely. You go further in a day or two than most go in months.
I use Relational Cultural Therapy, Brainspotting, and Attachment-Informed Therapy — chosen specifically because they go deep, and produce changes that last.
Stop managing symptoms. Get to the root — and change it.
Intensive therapy sessions get to the root of what’s troubling you.
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Therapy intensives help clients go deeper and get results faster. Rather than stopping and starting in 45 minute blocks every week, intensives allow you to set aside a larger chunk of time to do the deep work necessary to achieve real, long-lasting change. This is an evidence-based, approach to therapy. Our work together will be focused, in-depth, and personalized to you & your goals.
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Intensives encompass a number of different sessions and avenues for support. We’ll customize each of the following based on your needs:
Consult: We’ll start with a 15-minute consultation call. This isn’t a sales call — it’s a genuine conversation to determine whether this is the right fit for you and whether I’m the right person to support you. If it’s not, I’ll tell you.
Pre-Intake: You’ll complete a detailed intake packet sharing about your background, current challenges, and goals.
Intake Session: We’ll meet for an intake session to review additional information and create a detailed plan, including goals and outcome measures to ensure we can accurately track your progress.
Plan: I’ll craft a customized plan combining talk therapy, Relational Cultural Therapy , and Brainspotting to help you achieve deep healing.
Intensive Session(s): We’ll meet for the selected number of sessions. They can occur in-person in my office in Oakland.
Post-Intensive Session: To measure your progress, debrief, and ensure you feel well-equipped to integrate your new insights into daily life, we will meet for a post-intensive session.
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HOW INTENSIVE THERAPY WORKS
Intensives are concentrated therapy sessions designed to deliver accelerated results.
Brainspotting can help you:
soften your self-critical part and understand where it comes from
ease the guilt that shows up around family, culture, and expectations
feel more grounded in your body, even during big emotions
quiet the constant pressure to perform or “get it right”
build a kinder, steadier relationship with your inner world
hear your true voice — separate from fear, comparison, or obligation
navigate relationships with more clarity and less emotional reactivity
set boundaries without feeling like you’re betraying anyone
feel more confident speaking up at work or in relationships
reconnect with parts of yourself you’ve pushed aside to keep others comfortable
move through the day with more ease, presence, and internal safety
How We’ll Work Together
We’ll start with an in-depth intake session. This will give me an opportunity to learn more about you and your goals, answer any questions you have, and co-create a plan to track your progressthroughout our work together.
You choose the format that works best for you:
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If you prefer to make progress steadily over time, we can meet weekly for 45-minute sessions. This format offers consistent support and space to work through longstanding patterns at a pace that feels manageable and sustainable.
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If you have recently experienced a traumatic event, meeting twice per week for 45-minute sessions may provide additional support during the early stages of treatment. This more frequent schedule can help create greater stability and momentum as you begin processing what has happened.
WHY I DO THIS WORK
I specialize in Brainspotting and body-based therapies because of the positive—and often more immediate—changes I saw in my clients.
When insight alone was not enough, deeper shifts began when we worked directly with the nervous system.
If this resonates with you, I invite you to reach out for a consultation.
Healing doesn’t have to stay stuck in insight alone.
Experience the shift that becomes possible when your nervous system finally feels safe enough to change.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Brainspotting sessions are often quieter and more internally focused than traditional talk therapy, though every session is different. We may spend time noticing body sensations, emotions, activation patterns, or subtle shifts in attention while staying connected to what your nervous system is experiencing in real time. Many people describe the process as focused, grounding, and less verbally demanding than expected. Sessions are collaborative and paced carefully — there is no pressure to force emotion or revisit painful experiences before your system feels ready.
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Both Brainspotting and EMDR are effective, brain-based therapies that support the processing of stress and trauma through the nervous system.
EMDR follows a more structured protocol, often using bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements) and a sequence of steps to guide processing.
Brainspotting is typically more flexible and less structured. It focuses on identifying specific eye positions connected to emotional or physical activation, then allowing the brain and body to process at their own pace—without needing to follow a set sequence or put everything into words.
Many people find Brainspotting especially helpful when they’ve already developed insight but are looking for a deeper, more felt shift in how their body responds.
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Absolutely. While Brainspotting is widely known for trauma work, many people also find it helpful for anxiety, chronic stress, perfectionism, burnout, emotional overwhelm, relationship patterns, and persistent nervous-system activation. Often these experiences are shaped by deeply learned physiological patterns that continue beneath conscious awareness. Brainspotting can help support greater regulation, flexibility, and recovery in the nervous system over time.
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Many clients who seek this work already have strong insight into their patterns.
Brain-body approaches focus on the nervous system responses that sometimes remain even after we intellectually understand our experiences. Rather than relying only on discussion, this work helps your system process experiences at a deeper level.
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For many people, yes. Many clients who are drawn to Brainspotting have already done meaningful therapy and understand their patterns intellectually. They may know where certain responses come from and still feel emotionally or physiologically stuck in moments that matter. Brainspotting works differently by engaging the nervous system more directly, helping access patterns held beneath conscious thought rather than relying only on analysis or verbal insight.
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No. In many cases, the work can move forward without revisiting or describing every detail of a difficult experience.
We move at a pace that feels safe and manageable
You always have control over what you share
The goal is not to relive experiences, but to help your system process them differently
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Many people who come to this work wouldn’t initially describe their experiences as trauma. Sometimes what shows up first is anxiety, burnout, or a sense that something in your reactions, relationships, or stress responses doesn’t fully make sense.
Trauma doesn’t always come from a single dramatic event, nor is it always from the past. For some people it develops through repeated experiences—such as social injustices or discrimination, emotionally difficult work environments, or professions where exposure to crisis and tragedy is simply part of the job. First responders, helping professionals, and others working in high-stress systems often carry experiences that accumulate over time.
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The consultation is simply a chance to explore fit.
During that brief call we can:
talk about what you’re looking for
answer any questions you may have
decide whether this approach feels like the right next step
If it feels helpful, you’re welcome to request a consultation and we can take that next step together.
“Dr. Ly Franshaua Pipkins is one of the kindest, most authentic and caring professionals you might have the pleasure to work with. I learned a great deal from her during my time at Mills College. She is warm and empathetic, while also helping clients to remain at their growing edge. I recommend her wholeheartedly.”
-Dr. Zoey Rogers