FOR WOMEN |ONLINE ACROSS CA
IntensiveTherapy
Helping you get to the source — and make meaningful change.
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.
Weekly therapy isn’t always the right answer.
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 a first-time 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 driven women, 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 more capacity.
The difference is momentum. A standard session dedicates 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 (A Social Justice Perspective), 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.
HOW INTENSIVE THERAPY WORKS
Intensives are concentrated therapy sessions designed to deliver accelerated results.
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Therapy intensives create space for focused, sustained work on one central concern. Rather than stopping and restarting within a series of 45-minute sessions, an intensive provides a longer protected period to remain connected to what is emerging and explore it more deeply.
Our work will be focused, individualized, and grounded in relational and attachment-informed therapy, with Brainspotting used to support deeper nervous-system processing.
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Your individual intensive follows a structured process, with each stage tailored to the concern you want to address:
Consultation: We’ll begin with a complimentary 15-minute consultation to discuss what you’re looking for and whether an intensive—and my approach—may be a good fit.
Preparation Questionnaire: You’ll complete a detailed questionnaire about your background, current concerns, and goals. This allows us to use our time together more intentionally.
45-Minute Preparation Session: We’ll clarify the central focus of the intensive, review relevant history, and discuss what will help you feel prepared for the experience.
Individualized Treatment Plan: Drawing from relational, attachment-informed, nervous-system-based, and Brainspotting approaches, I’ll develop a plan responsive to your goals and needs.
Three-Hour Intensive: We’ll complete three hours of focused therapeutic work within a reserved 3-hour-and-45-minute block. This includes a 45-minute break for rest and reset. Intensives are available online throughout California and in person in Oakland.
Post-Intensive Integration Session: We’ll reconnect to reflect on what emerged, notice what may be shifting, and consider how to support continued integration in your daily life.
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Completely private, one-on-one sessions — this is your time, your work, your space.
A detailed intake questionnaire
A customized plan incorporating Brainspotting, relational cultural therapy, and relational talk therapy suited to your goals and desired outcomes
Specialized support every step of the way
How Intensive Therapy Works
A closer look at the process for individuals.
From our first session, we’re working with purpose and direction. I’ll be direct with you about what I’m observing — the patterns, the stuck places, the things you might have been working around for years. It’s not harsh, it’s empathic and efficient. Clarity is the fastest path to change.
Using Relational Cultural Therapy, Brainspotting, and Attachment-Informed Therapy, we work at the source of what’s driving the patterns — not just the surface behavior. These approaches are specifically chosen because they access what talk therapy alone often can’t reach, and they work in a fraction of the time.
You’ll leave with more than just insight. Most clients describe a noticeable internal shift — a sense of things actually moving — that feels different from anything they’ve experienced in traditional therapy. That’s the point. Ly Franshaua Pipkins, Psy.D., offers intensives at her Oakland practice and online across California, providing an accelerated path to healing for people who want deep change without long-term weekly commitment.
A gentle note regarding intensives: We are always working within the context of your whole life. Your current balance of the basics matters. That means whatever your home, work, or school life entails has an impact on the work we do. Results can fluctuate based on how balanced the basics are—regular exercise, healthful eating, supportive relationships, and adequate rest.
Intensives are designed to settle and clear a level of what's been holding you back, but life and life's stressors are dynamic. There is no silver bullet to the influence of this work, but we do collaborate to build an internal capacity that supports meaningful integration. Thus, many of my clients come in for periodic intensives.
Deeper work.
Faster results.
Weekly therapy and intensive therapy offer two different ways of working. Weekly therapy provides continuity over time, with space to practice, reflect, and return. An intensive provides a longer, protected period for sustained work on one central concern, with less of the stopping, recapping, and restarting required in shorter sessions.
Some clients choose an intensive when they want focused momentum, are addressing a specific concern, or find that 45-minute sessions end just as they are reaching the heart of the work. The intake and post-intensive sessions provide preparation and integration around that extended therapeutic time. We can discuss which format is better suited to what you want to address.
Investment
A complete arc of preparation, focused work, and integration.
An intensive is more than a three-hour appointment. Each individual intensive package includes:
A 45-minute preparation session to clarify your goals, understand the larger context, and establish a focused direction for our work
Three hours of intensive therapy, scheduled within a reserved 3-hour-and-45-minute block that includes time to pause, rest, and reset
A post-intensive integration session to reflect on what emerged, support the changes underway, and consider what comes next
Together, these sessions create a protected therapeutic process—with preparation before the intensive and intentional integration afterward.
Individual Intensive Package: $2,200
What to Expect from an Intensive Therapy Session
Preparing for your intensive experience
Before we meet, I’ll ask you to complete a detailed intake questionnaire. This helps us preserve the intensive for focused therapeutic work rather than spending much of our time gathering background information. Come prepared with a central concern you would like to explore, while remaining open to what may emerge.
During the intensive, you can expect a balance of warmth, curiosity, and directness. I’ll share what I’m observing, help you stay connected to what is happening internally, and support you in approaching difficult material at a pace your nervous system can tolerate.
Afterward, we’ll meet for a post-intensive integration session to reflect on what emerged, notice what may be shifting, and consider how to support the work in your daily life. Some changes may feel immediately noticeable, while others continue to unfold with time and integration.
ABOUT ME
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