IFS THERAPY INTENSIVES
STEP INTO THE TRANSFORMATIVE WORLD OF INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS (IFS) FACILITATED BY AN EXPERIENCED IFS PRACTITIONER AND THERAPIST
Sequim, WA and Online Throughout
Texas and Washington State
"There's no such thing as a bad part."
— Dr. Richard Schwartz, founder of IFS
Have you ever felt conflicted, broken, or torn up inside?
Do overwhelming emotions take over before you can stop them? Do you find yourself snapping, shutting down, or haunted by distressing memories from the past?
Maybe you engage in behaviors that hurt your life or relationships -- then feel ashamed, confused, or out of control.
Perhaps you’ve tried traditional talk therapy and made little progress. You might even wonder if you’re beyond help or too damaged to change. (Spoiler alert: you’re not.)
If your best efforts have left you feeling stuck—or worse, at war with yourself—I'm here to tell you: there’s a better way.
Traditional therapy can be life-changing, but it has its limits. Those one-hour sessions may not be able to accommodate the depth and pace of healing your system needs.
That's where my IFS intensives come in!
What Is An IFS Therapy Intensive?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy that views the mind as a complex system of subpersonalities or "parts." These parts, each with their own thoughts, feelings, hopes, desires, and agendas, relate to one another like members of a family. When the “internal family” is working well together, we feel a sense of inner peace, harmony, and well-being. In contrast, conflict between parts can create disruptions in our lives, both inwardly (thoughts, feelings, beliefs, mood, etc.) and outwardly (behaviors, relationships, school/work function, etc.).
Parts are a natural facet of the human psyche but can be negatively impacted by trauma and other adverse experiences. This results in what IFS practitioners call a “burdened system.” Burdened systems carry a lot of pain, shame, fear, guilt, resentment, and more. They also hold a lot of negative (and untrue!) beliefs about the self like “I am unworthy” or “I am unloveable.” The goal of IFS therapy is to harmonize and unburden parts so the individual can access more joy, compassion, clarity, and inner harmony. IFS has been demonstrated to be effective for a wide-range of mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, complex PTSD, and addiction.
An IFS intensive takes this radical approach one step further. Instead of meeting for one hour a week, as with traditional psychotherapy, we set aside time to meet for a longer period -- 3 hours or 3 days -- in order to do deeper therapeutic work. An IFS intensive is a practical, efficient, and science-based way to journey deeper and feel better faster.
How Does It Work?
Pre-Intensive Interview
Before your intensive, we’ll meet for a Pre-Intensive Interview to select potential targets and sketch out a direction for our time together. This session isn’t about rigid planning -- it’s about building a working alliance and helping you feel oriented and supported before “dropping into” deeper work. We’ll explore what’s happening in your life currently (challenges, goals, support system, etc.) and lightly touch on your personal history. We’ll also address any concerns or hesitations you may have so you can enter the intensive feeling safe, grounded, and hopeful. The interview typically takes place 1–7 days before the intensive and is usually a standalone session, though in some cases it can be folded into the longer format.
The Intensive
Next comes the intensive itself. Depending on how much ground you’d like to cover, we’ll set aside 3, 6, or 9 hours over one to three days. I recommend clearing your schedule as much as possible to allow yourself to be fully immersed in the experience. While these chunks may sound like a long time, the feedback I tend to get (and experience personally in my own work) is that there is a kind of time distortion effect. You will likely experience our sessions as simultaneously very full and having flown by. And despite the name, please don’t be intimidated by the word “intensive.” A better word might be “concentrated.” Our time together will be gentle, spacious, and always paced to your system’s readiness.
Post-Intensive Debrief
After our final session, we’ll schedule a post-intensive debrief to help you integrate what’s emerged. Many people experience intensives as breakthroughs—freeing up tightly held beliefs, old emotional burdens, and long-stuck patterns. This can be powerful, but most systems also need support in translating insight into sustainable change. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all “discharge plan,” I’ll help you deepen access to the internal resources we’ve uncovered and find ways to anchor those shifts in daily life. Healing + integration is a truly powerful combo!
Why do an IFS Intensive?
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You want to experience deep therapeutic work that can change your life
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You have had a painful experience or experiences that are still impacting you today
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You have tried other forms of talk therapy and haven’t made much progress
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You have tried other forms of talk therapy and have felt pressured, judged, pathologized, or misunderstood
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You are currently in therapy and have made progress, but feel like there’s more, or feel on the verge of a breakthrough
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You want to feel better in hours or days instead of weeks or months
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You are preparing for or dealing with a major life event/transition (wedding, divorce, becoming a parent, losing a loved one, navigating a career change)
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You are trying to get a handle on some extreme behavior (rage, substance abuse, self-harm, suicidality, etc.) that is disrupting your life
An IFS intensive can help with...
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Painful childhood experiences (bullying, abuse, loss)
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Feelings of worthlessness, unlovability, or inadequacy; shame, self-loathing, self-hatred;
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Substance use, abuse, and addictive patterns
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You have tried other forms of talk therapy and have felt pressured, judged, pathologized, or misunderstood
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Recovery from a breakup or divorce
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Gaining clarity for a life transition
What Does An IFS Intensive Include?
Pre-Intensive Interview
A 90-minute session to determine the goals of the IFS Intensive and prepare for the experience. We will identify the painful memories, beliefs, emotions, or images from which you are seeking relief.
Customized IFS Experience
The IFS Intensive sessions take place virtually via Zoom or in my office in Sequim, WA. They are scheduled in 3-hour increments for 1-3 days. Includes targeted treatment and resourcing activities customized for you.
Post-Intensive Debrief
A 90-minute session to debrief the experience and reflect on how to meaningfully integrate new insights into your life. Discuss next steps and directions for growth and healing.
Options and Investment
3-Hour Intensive
Starting at $1,560
6 face-to-face hours
(3-hour intensive session + pre-interview + post-debrief)
Includes personalized resources
Morning and afternoon availability (Central Time Zone)
6-Hour Intensive
Starting at $2,340
9 face-to-face hours
(6-hour intensive + pre-interview + post-debrief)
Includes personalized resources
Option for 1- or 2-day program depending on preference
9-Hour Intensive
Starting at $3,120
12 face-to-face hours
(9-hour intensive + pre-interview + post-debrief)
Includes personalized resources
Option for 2- or 3-day program depending on preference
Options can be "stacked" as needed for longer experiences.
FAQs
Do IFS intensives work?
IFS has garnered significant scientific interest for its unique approach to understanding and and treating psychological and emotional issues. Research indicates that IFS can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, addiction, and trauma-related disorders. Additional studies suggest that this approach not only alleviates symptoms but also promotes long-term psychological resilience and wellbeing.
Because IFS sessions move at the client's pace, intensive sessions are typically well-tolerated even by the most distressed clients. They are less about "ripping the band-aid off" and more about applying a concentrated dose of care to re-institute the natural internal healing process. Because we can do deeper work in one 3-hour session than three 1-hour sessions, intensives can produce better results, faster. They also reduce the likelihood of premature dropout or the ever-present risk of letting "life stuff" get in the way of necessary healing work.
It is the nature of psychological interventions that outcomes cannot be guaranteed. While there's no definitive way to know how you will respond to this approach without trying it, there is a high likelihood that you will come away from our time together with significant improvements in mood, distress tolerance, self-compassion, somatic (body) symptoms, confidence, clarity, creativity, and purpose. Additionally, these shifts may have positive "downstream" effects in improved communication with loved ones, deeper relationships, less conflict, more bandwidth for personal projects, better occupational performance, and more.
Where are the intensives located?
Intensives can be done in person at my office in Sequim, WA near beautiful Olympic National Park. Let me know if you'd like some recommendations for integrating your healing experience with a restorative nature experience in one of our country's most splendid areas!
Intensives are also offered online for residents of Texas or Washington State.
How much do intensives cost?
3-hour Intensive
(pre-interview + 3-hour intensive session + post-debrief = 6 total face-to-face hours)
$1,560
6-hour Intensive
( pre-interview + 6-hour intensive session + post-debrief = 9 total face-to-face hours)
$2,340
9-hour Intensive
( pre-interview + 9-hour intensive session +post-debrief = 12 total face-to-face hours)
$3,120
Are intensives worth the cost?
Intensives involve an up-front cost that might give you sticker shock! But to put it in perspective, a year of therapy at a standard rate would cost about $8,000. What if you could do the same amount of healing at less than half the cost and a fraction of the time?
The gift of intensives is the potential to feel better, faster. This means that you can make more progress in a few intensive sessions than weeks, months, or even years in traditional talk therapy. This is not hyperbole or marketing hype! This reflects my own healing experience, as well as the experiences of dozens of clients I've worked with over the years.
You might imagine digging a hole at the beach. You dig a little each day, but each night the tide comes in and fills the hole back up. The depth at which you can dig is limited by how far you can go in an hour. If the hole completely fills, you may even have to spend a good bit of time attempting to relocate it! This is akin to a traditional 1-hour/week therapy format. Progress can certainly be made, but might just be keeping pace with the environment around you.
Now imagine you muster the strength and support to dig for 3, 6, or even 9 hours! In a relatively short time, you will have gone much deeper than you ever have before. The rising tide will still do its thing, but you will continue to make progress until you reach your goals. This is how intensives work!
Are payment plans available?
I am hoping to offer payment plans soon! Stay tuned!
On A Personal Note
I want to take a moment and express my sincerest appreciation for your interest in doing some intensive work with me. Being a therapist has been the privilege of a lifetime. I have spent nearly 10,000 hours tending to some of the most tender places in my clients’ lives, histories, and relationships. In that process, I have developed a profound appreciation for the therapeutic relationship and the traditional model of meeting weekly on an ongoing basis. I have some clients whom I’ve walked alongside for nearly a decade!
I share all this to say that you can believe me when I tell you how excited I am to offer you this intensive experience. While I do think the old way has its limitations, my interest in intensives is born less out of disillusionment and more out of my personal observations of how truly powerful and transformative they can be. I’m a believer in the merits of slow, steady, and cumulative progress, which I have experienced in my own life. But I have also felt and observed quantum leaps, near-instant uplevels, radical change, and deep healing. That is what I hope to offer you here. I hope you will consider joining me.
With kindness and compassion,
Hayden M. Lindsey, LPC
FREE IFS EMAIL SERIES
Want to learn more?
New to IFS or curious about what “parts work” actually means?
Sign up for my free IFS email series and get a gentle, clear introduction to Internal Family Systems -- how it works, why it’s so effective, and how IFS intensives can take your healing to the next level. You’ll receive bite-sized insights, real-world examples, and reflections to help you better understand your inner world.
Whether you’re seriously considering IFS intensives or just exploring how a parts perspective can improve your life, this series is a great place to start!
"Healing means accepting all parts of ourselves, not just the parts we like."
— Louise Hae
Still have questions?
Drop me a line and I will get back to you within 3 business days!
Ready to meet?
Schedule a free Zoom consult!
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Sequim, WA
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hmlindse@gmail.com
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