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When a software engineer tells me they feel like a web server under a denial of service attack, I know what they mean. Requests come from every direction. Alerts chirp. Another sprint, another incident. The body behaves like code thrown into an infinite loop, revving without resolution. This is burnout as I see it in tech, a physiological knot more than a moral failure or a time management problem. Somatic Experiencing offers a way to unloop the system by working with the nervous system directly. It sounds simple, almost too simple, until you feel the gears start to unclench. I have spent years supporting founders, staff engineers, SREs, and product leaders through cycles of anxiety and exhaustion. Plenty of them have tried vacation, new roles, digital detox weekends, even switching stacks. Some changes help. Many do not last. The pattern resets because the body does not recognize safety yet. You cannot outreason a nervous system stuck in survival mode. You can, however, teach it to complete the stress responses it kept postponing while you shipped features and kept the pager close. The shape of tech burnout in a body Burnout shows up with familiar headlines: fatigue, cynicism, reduced efficacy. Underneath, the body carries a specific configuration. Shoulders hover a half inch too high, jaw braced, chest collapsed just enough to limit deep breath. Eyes flick to the corner of the screen whenever a notification preview slides in. Sleep becomes light and choppy, even on nights without on-call. Many clients keep working not because they want to, but because stopping feels unsafe. The pattern looks like hypervigilance without a clear threat. The nervous system builds this pattern through repetition. Vigilance kept you employed and protected your team through crunches and outages. The cost arrives later as background noise you no longer notice. You acclimate to a racing heart, then write it off as too much coffee. You forget the pivot from curiosity to defensiveness that happens after the third Slack ping before 9 am. Most engineers come to therapy looking for a root cause they can refactor. I respect that impulse. Somatic work invites a slightly different frame. Instead of finding a single root, we map where activation rises and where it cannot discharge. Then we help it move, little by little. What somatic experiencing is, and what it is not Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, centers on the physiology of stress and trauma. The core idea is simple to describe, tricky to embody: when we perceive threat, the body mobilizes for fight or flight; if neither completes, the system may lock into a freeze or collapse state. Alignment returns when these incomplete responses find a way to finish. SE uses tracking, titration, and pendulation to guide the body out of stuck patterns. This is not catharsis by force. It does not require telling your entire work history, and it does not push you into overwhelming exposure. We work with micro-movements, subtle shifts in breath, and gentle contact with difficult sensations. Plenty of sessions never mention code or deadlines, yet they directly change how you handle standups and incidents. A quick sense of the main ingredients. Tracking is noticing body signals with precision, like the difference between a tightness in the front of the throat versus the sides of the neck. Titration is meeting activation in digestible portions, then backing off before you overload. Pendulation is moving attention between areas of tension and areas of ease, which teaches the nervous system that it can swing without breaking. Over time, you learn to let the surge come and go, rather than bracing or dissociating. A day in the life of an overwhelmed engineer A product lead once told me she felt fine until she sat in the all-hands, then her heart sprinted. She blamed public speaking. In session, we tracked it more closely. The sprint did not start at the mic. It started in the minute before she unmuted, when her diaphragm flattened and her feet pulled back under the chair. Her body was literally retreating. Working somatically, we did not correct her thoughts or drill presentation skills. We practiced letting her feet press the floor a little, then easing off. We timed the micro-press with a soft exhale. We let a small tremor in the legs build and subside. The next week, she still felt nerves, but she could breathe past the first wave, which changed everything downstream. Another example comes from a staff engineer who loved deep work but dreaded code review. His chest went rigid when a senior left line comments with terse punctuation. He knew, cognitively, that the reviewer was competent and not out to get him. Still, his body reacted like a threat had entered the room. We explored the specific spot that locked up, a band under the sternum. When he sensed a slight urge to push against something, we used a rolled towel against the wall. Two minutes of slow, resisted press, eyes scanning the room for something comforting, followed by a long sigh he did not plan. Later, he reported that the next round of feedback still stung, but it landed in a body that could mobilize rather than freeze. He started asking clarifying questions instead of silently rewriting the same block twice. These sound like small wins. They stack. Somatic changes often feel mundane in the moment, then surprisingly durable in daily life. Why this method fits tech work Tech rewards pattern recognition, quick pivots, and cognitive horsepower. Those strengths can mask a dysregulated nervous system for a long run. Somatic Experiencing complements the analytical skillset because it respects pacing and feedback. You do not need to be a yoga person or love talking about feelings. You need to be willing to observe data from your own body with curiosity. Engineers tend to excel at this once they have a frame. The work also fits the rhythm of sprints and releases. We can build practices that tuck into workdays without drawing attention. Two breaths before you open Jira. A minute to sense your back against the chair after an incident review. Naming one place of support out loud before a tense meeting. These are not placebo. Each repetition tells your nervous system that it has options beyond brace or bolt. The physiology beneath the burnout Chronic stress pulls the autonomic nervous system into narrow strategies. Sympathetic activation drives alertness and action. Parasympathetic pathways include both restful states and shutdown. Burnout often blends high sympathetic tone with dorsal shutdown, a tired-wired mix that feels like being revved and numb at the same time. You grind until you crash, then feel guilty for crashing, which reactivates the cycle. Somatic Experiencing works by restoring gradations. Instead of only high or off, you recover middle gears. We track interoception, the sense of the body from the inside, because that is where regulation starts. If you can feel a 2 out of 10 rise in activation and respond early, you avoid the 9 that wipes you out. The method relies on the body’s natural completion impulses. Sometimes this shows up as a spontaneous breath that is peculiarly satisfying, or a tiny shake in the fingers that signals discharge. Sometimes it is an impulse to orient, your head turning to take in the room, which tells your older brain that the threat has passed. None of this is mystical. It is biomechanics and learning. Practical somatic micro-practices for engineers Start smaller than you think. The goal is not to force relaxation, it is to teach flexibility under load. Three practices that fit into a workday help many clients. The first is orienting. Let your eyes move, slowly, to notice edges, colors, and distance in your room. This is not a stare at a single point. It is a gentle scan that invites the neck to turn and the breath to deepen. Thirty seconds of orienting can downshift a simmering system without anyone on Zoom noticing. The second is contact. Give your body a clear physical support. Press your back into the chair for a slow count of five, then release. Or wrap your hands around the sides of the seat and feel your grip. People are surprised by how quickly a sense of safety can increase when muscles find a job that matches the internal impulse. The third is paced exhale. Inhale normally, then let the exhale lengthen by one or two counts. Do not force a big breath in. The long out breath speaks to the part of your nervous system that governs settling. A handful of these, spaced across a tense afternoon, can change the arc of your energy. Somatic skills build like strength training, not like a hack. Frequency beats intensity. A short checklist for sensing early burnout signals Jaw clenching that returns within an hour of waking Scanning email subjects without opening them, repeatedly Shallow breathing in meetings where you do not speak Startle response to normal calendar notifications Numbness in hands or feet during long work sessions Most people recognize at least two items on that list. You do not need all five to justify care. If you check one, experiment with a small somatic practice for a week and see what moves. Intensives for people who want concentrated change Many in tech prefer focused sprints of therapeutic work over a slow drip that spans months. Intensives, including EMDR intensives and SE focused days, meet that appetite. They condense assessment, skill building, and deeper processing into longer blocks across one or more days. I use intensives for clients who need traction fast, or who have schedules that make weekly sessions unreliable. A somatic intensive is not a marathon of catharsis. We build in long rest windows and keep each activation exposure brief. The payoff is a felt sense of momentum. You can learn the core skills for regulation in a day or two, then refine them on your own. For trauma memories or highly charged material, I often integrate EMDR intensives or https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ifs-therapy elements of IFS therapy, depending on what the body shows. The work stays grounded in the body either way. Here is what a single day SE-focused intensive can look like: Intake review and mapping of stress patterns, with concrete goals for the day Skill setup, including orienting, contact, and pacing, practiced in short cycles Targeted titration around known triggers, with breaks for integration and snacks Movement block for discharge, like resisted pressing or gentle walking outside Debrief, written plan, and specific cues for post-intensive practice Between items, we spend as much time on downregulation as we do on activation. Clients often report better sleep the first night, which tells me the body has found a foothold. Integrating SE with EMDR intensives and IFS therapy Engineers often ask whether they should choose one method and commit, or blend. I prefer a layered approach. SE creates the groundwork. With a more regulated baseline, EMDR tends to proceed with less overwhelm. You can hold dual attention more consistently, which lets memory reconsolidation do its job. When we use IFS therapy, somatic cues help distinguish parts. A braced chest might belong to a protector part that kept you hustling through your twenties. A heavy slump might be a weary exile that carries earlier defeat. When parts are met through sensation as well as story, they feel less abstract and more workable. An engineer who completed two EMDR intensives with me had stalled partway through target memories related to a toxic startup. The images kept sliding into whiteout, a classic dissociative overlay. We paused EMDR and returned to SE for a month. He learned to notice the early signs of the slide, a cooling in the hands and a narrowing of the visual field, then to widen attention by orienting and engaging his quads against the floor. When we returned to EMDR, he could hold enough contact with the memory to process. The difference was not heroic willpower. It was state flexibility. Remote work, remote body A lot of this work happens over video. It translates better than you might guess. I coach clients to set up their space with two or three anchor objects in view and something to press against. We check camera angles so I can see breath and posture shifts. I often ask clients to show me their desk layout. Small changes like moving the monitor two inches or placing a footrest can shift a day’s nervous system load. I have also met teams as a group to teach brief somatic resets between back-to-back meetings. The first time you suggest everyone look out the window for fifteen seconds, it feels odd. The third time, people feel the point. Security-minded clients worry about privacy. We can conduct intensives on an offline device if needed. For those at risk of collapse or with a history of fainting during activation, I recommend a hybrid plan that includes at least one in-person session to test the edges safely. What progress looks like, and how to measure it Measurable change matters to most engineers I see. You can measure somatic progress without over-quantifying it. Track sleep quality, not just duration. Watch your startle response decay after pings. Note how many minutes it takes to recover equilibrium after an incident call. I ask clients to give numbers to intensity, duration, and frequency of their main symptoms. A shift from chest tightness that shows up daily at an 8 for hours to a tightness that peaks at a 5 and resolves in 15 minutes is a major win, even if it still appears during high stress weeks. We also look for positive capacities returning. Curiosity in code review. A spontaneous joke during standup. The desire to learn a new tool rather than defending the old one out of fatigue. These are not fluffy. They are reliable markers that your nervous system trusts its range again. Limits, trade-offs, and when SE is not the lead tool SE is powerful, but it is not a panacea. Some clients hold trauma that benefits from the specific targeting of EMDR, especially when intrusive images dominate their experience. Others carry complex developmental histories where IFS therapy provides a clearer map. I still use somatic skills in both cases, but I choose the leading method based on presentation. Medication can be a wise companion. If anxiety spikes to the point that you cannot sleep or keep food down, a short course of pharmacological support can stabilize your biology so therapy can work. This is a trade-off, not a moral quandary. Crisis states require a different container. If you are actively suicidal, in the middle of domestic violence, or using substances in a way that destabilizes daily function, seek acute care and safety planning first. Somatic fine-tuning sits downstream from safety. Finally, systems matter. You can regulate beautifully and still burn out if your company runs people at a structural deficit. I have helped clients negotiate boundaries, request role changes, or plan exits. Somatic skills support those moves by keeping your body from collapsing or raging during hard conversations. Leading teams with a somatic lens Managers and founders often hit burnout secondhand. Their nervous systems absorb everyone else’s stress. A somatic lens helps leaders protect themselves and their teams. Start meetings with a clear map of what will and will not happen, then keep to it. The nervous system loves predictability. End meetings on time so bodies learn that the load will stop. During incidents, appoint someone to track energy and switch drivers proactively. After incidents, debrief not only what broke but how people’s bodies fared. Did anyone feel dizzy, numb, or wired all night? Treat that data as part of system reliability. Removing a few ambient stressors pays compound interest. Reduce unnecessary notification channels. Batch non-urgent requests. Respect downtime. Encourage five minute walk breaks between stacked calls. This is not coddling. It is maintenance of human compute. Building a personal protocol Clients who sustain gains build a simple personal protocol they can run under pressure. The best ones fit like scripts you can execute without thinking. A senior developer I worked with uses a three part rhythm during long planning sessions. Before the meeting, two minutes of orienting with coffee in hand by the window. Midway through, one round of slow press into the chair followed by a paced exhale. After the meeting, a five minute walk outside with eyes intentionally widening to take in distance. He reports that this routine keeps him functional through budget season, which used to flatten him for days. If you write code, you already know the value of small reliable functions. Treat somatic practices the same way. Keep them short. Keep them explicit. Choose two or three and rehearse them so they are available when you need them most. What to expect in the first month In a typical first month of SE-focused work, we spend session one mapping your activation and resourcing, session two deepening skills and testing light titration, session three addressing a real-life trigger in small bites, and session four consolidating and planning for self-practice. Some people notice changes after the first session, usually in sleep and baseline tension. Others need a few weeks to feel movement. Both timelines are normal. If you opt for an intensive, expect front-loaded gains, a dip as your system integrates, then a steadier rise. I schedule brief follow-ups at 48 hours and two weeks to adjust the plan. With EMDR intensives layered in, we set narrower targets and ensure you have somatic tools to ride the waves. With IFS therapy woven through, we spend more time establishing trust with protector parts so they do not spike your activation during change. A note on identity, culture, and safety Tech is not neutral. Bodies that have navigated bias, immigration stress, visa uncertainty, or chronic underrepresentation carry additional layers of vigilance. Somatic work must respect that context. Safety does not mean pretending the world is safe. It means finding islands of choice and support inside a real landscape. I ask explicitly about cultural frames for emotion and embodiment, and I adjust practices accordingly. For some, eyes-up orienting in public spaces feels unsafe. We find covert versions. For others, hand-on-heart feels too vulnerable. We anchor through the feet or the back instead. Signs you are ready to start People are ready when they notice they cannot think or schedule their way out of the pattern, when anxiety or shutdown interrupts work they care about, when rest does not refresh, or when they want to lead without running on fumes. Curiosity helps more than bravery here. If you can bring a tinkerer’s mindset to your own system, Somatic Experiencing will meet you. The hour you spend learning to feel your breath without grabbing it may return you many hours of cleaner focus later. You do not need a perfect plan. You need a first session, a willingness to slow ten percent, and a commitment to practice in unspectacular ways. Burnout thrives on momentum and forgetfulness. Somatic Experiencing reintroduces pauses and memory to the body. You remember what safe-enough feels like. Once you do, the choices that align with health stop feeling like luxuries. They become part of how you ship, lead, and live. Alli Christie Counseling Name: Alli Christie Counseling Legal name: ALLI CHRISTIE COUNSELING LLC Clinician: Alli Christie Disney, Licensed Professional Counselor Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Open-location code / plus code: H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Coordinates: 39.5516997, -104.8794188 Map/listing URL: https://maps.app.goo.gl/uv7r79vU4qUivyaw6 Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/113022167/ https://www.tiktok.com/@allichristiecounseling https://x.com/alli_disney https://www.youtube.com/@traumahealingtherapist "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "MedicalBusiness", "@id": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/#localbusiness", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "legalName": "ALLI CHRISTIE COUNSELING LLC", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "areaServed": [ "@type": "City", "name": "Lone Tree" , "@type": "City", "name": "Centennial" , "@type": "City", "name": "Highlands Ranch" , "@type": "AdministrativeArea", "name": "Douglas County" , "@type": "AdministrativeArea", "name": "Denver Metro" , "@type": "State", "name": "Colorado" ], "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/113022167/", "https://www.tiktok.com/@allichristiecounseling", "https://x.com/alli_disney", "https://www.youtube.com/@traumahealingtherapist" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://maps.app.goo.gl/uv7r79vU4qUivyaw6" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health therapy services from an office in Lone Tree, Colorado. The practice focuses on therapy intensives for high-achieving women who want focused support for trauma, anxiety, burnout, self-doubt, and related emotional patterns. Listed services include therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, Internal Family Systems therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety therapy, and burnout therapy. Alli Christie Disney is listed as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, with EMDR, IFS, and Somatic Experiencing training noted on the official site. The office is located at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202 in Lone Tree, near the I-25 and C-470 corridor in the South Denver metro area. The practice is locally positioned for clients in Lone Tree, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Douglas County, and nearby Colorado communities. Prospective clients can call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ to ask about consultation options, availability, and fit. The public map listing for Alli Christie Counseling can help clients verify the Lone Tree office location before scheduling or planning an in-person appointment. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What is Alli Christie Counseling? Alli Christie Counseling is a mental health therapy practice in Lone Tree, Colorado, focused on therapy intensives for high-achieving women. Where is Alli Christie Counseling located? The listed office address is 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Who is the clinician at Alli Christie Counseling? The official site lists Alli Christie Disney as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado. The footer lists Colorado License LPC.0016043 and NPI 1538708029. What services does Alli Christie Counseling provide? The practice lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety therapy, and burnout therapy. Does Alli Christie Counseling offer EMDR intensives? Yes. EMDR intensives are listed as one of the practice’s core service areas, along with therapy intensives and related trauma-focused approaches. Does Alli Christie Counseling offer online or video appointments? The connected scheduling portal lists a video office option and a Lone Tree location. Clients should confirm current appointment format and availability directly before scheduling. What are Alli Christie Counseling’s public hours? The matching public listing shows Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Sunday closed. Appointment availability may vary, so clients should confirm directly with the practice. Is Alli Christie Counseling an emergency mental health provider? No emergency or crisis service was verified for this dataset. Anyone in immediate danger or experiencing a medical or mental health emergency should call 911, contact 988, or go to the nearest emergency room. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call (402) 765-8761, email [email protected], visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, or use the listed social profiles: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling, https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/113022167/, https://www.tiktok.com/@allichristiecounseling, https://x.com/alli_disney, and https://www.youtube.com/@traumahealingtherapist. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Alli Christie Counseling is located in Lone Tree near the South Denver metro area, with an office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202. Clients near these landmarks can call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ to ask about therapy intensives, consultation options, and appointment availability. Teddy Lane — The office street for the listed practice address; clients can use the map listing to verify the location before visiting. Park Meadows — A major Lone Tree shopping landmark near the I-25 corridor and a useful reference point for the local area. Sky Ridge Medical Center — A major healthcare landmark in Lone Tree; clients should contact Alli Christie Counseling directly for outpatient therapy scheduling. Lone Tree Arts Center — A well-known local venue and practical landmark for clients navigating Lone Tree. Lincoln Station — A nearby transit reference point for clients traveling within the South Denver metro area. RidgeGate Parkway — A major Lone Tree corridor near residential, medical, and business areas; nearby clients can call to ask about appointment options. I-25 and C-470 — A key regional interchange that helps orient clients coming from Denver, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, or Castle Rock. Bluffs Regional Park — A recognizable outdoor landmark in Lone Tree and a helpful reference for the surrounding community. Lone Tree Golf Club & Hotel — A local golf and event landmark for clients orienting around central Lone Tree. Sweetwater Park — A neighborhood park reference point for nearby Lone Tree residents. Highlands Ranch — A nearby South Denver metro community; clients can contact the practice to ask whether services are a fit. Centennial — A nearby community north and east of Lone Tree; prospective clients can visit the website to learn about therapy intensive options.

Anxiety rarely shows up out of nowhere. It tends to grow in the gaps, where stress meets history, where a tense body tries to outrun old experiences, and where good intentions like striving and caretaking silently turn into overdrive. Some people feel anxiety as a constant mental churn, others as a fast heart, shaky hands, and a sense that the floor is tilting under their feet. The symptom picture can be loud or quiet, but the roots are specific. Once we understand why anxiety is here, we can choose interventions that match the cause rather than chasing every new hack that trends for a week. I have sat with anxious professionals who could run a board meeting without blinking yet could not fall asleep before 2 a.m. Without a glass of wine. I have worked with first responders who jumped at sudden noises years after the calls slowed down. Parents who loved fiercely and still felt an inexplicable dread every Sunday night. The details vary, but the building blocks are the same: a nervous system doing its best to protect you, sometimes with outdated instructions. This piece walks through how anxiety takes root and how to treat it with approaches that respect both the mind and the body. I will name the tools I rely on most often, including IFS therapy, somatic experiencing, and EMDR intensives, and explain when intensives make sense and when a weekly pace serves better. Along the way, I will point to the slippery slope from chronic strain to burnout, because anxiety and burnout often travel together and require slightly different care. The body’s alarm system and how it learns Anxiety is not only a thought problem. It is a nervous system state. At the heart of this state is threat detection and energy mobilization, governed by brain regions like the amygdala and brainstem, along with the autonomic nervous system. In a healthy cycle, you sense something uncertain, your body nudges you to be alert, you act, and you settle again. If you have lived through prolonged uncertainty, humiliation, grief you had to hide, unpredictable caregiving, unsafe neighborhoods, or high-pressure jobs with low control, the cycle can become lopsided. Mobilize stays on longer. Settle becomes rusty. The nervous system begins to predict threat even when none is present. Learning is part of the equation. The brain binds context and emotion. If your panic once hit in a grocery store, fluorescent lighting and crowded aisles can later trigger early warning flares. If criticism used to precede real consequences, even a mild performance review can feel like danger. The brain is trying to help. It just generalizes too widely. Sleep, hormones, and inflammation also shape reactivity. Short sleep increases amygdala response to negative stimuli by measurable margins. Thyroid issues and perimenopausal changes can add heat to the system. Chronic pain keeps the body braced. None of this makes the anxiety imaginary. It means that the body requires care specific to its condition, not just pep talks. Cognition, meaning, and the inner narrator Thoughts matter, but not because we can simply think our way out of anxiety. They matter because the story we assign to arousal amplifies or tames it. If your heart races and you say, Something is wrong with me, you scare yourself twice. If you say, My body is mobilized, let me see what it needs, you soften the second wave. Cognitive techniques that examine catastrophic predictions and global labels help, but they work best when paired with nervous system methods. The goal is not to replace every anxious thought with a rosy one. The goal is to widen your ability to witness thoughts and pick responses that track with the present, not the past. This is where internal dialogue approaches like IFS therapy can be potent. Instead of arguing with anxiety, you get to meet the part of you that carries it. Maybe this anxious part is a 13-year-old who learned to double check everything to avoid ridicule. Maybe it is a vigilant parent part that believes, If I rest, we fail. When you relate to those parts with curiosity, rather than banishment, you loosen the grip. That shift is not purely psychological. Body tension changes when a protector finally feels heard. How trauma and micro-injuries wire anxiety Trauma does not have to be a capital T event. Repeated small injuries, especially in formative years, can train the body to expect rupture. A teacher who shamed your mistakes every day for months leaves traces. https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/contact A family that prized silence over repair teaches you to internalize fear. A manager who kept moving deadlines and raising the bar without warning can shape a sense that the ground is always moving. When threat learning is concentrated in a specific memory network, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, known as EMDR, can help the brain metabolize it. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation along with brief contact with the memory to help the nervous system store it differently. People often report that the charge falls off. They remember what happened, but without the same flood. For complex trauma or a dense cluster of memories tied to a life phase, EMDR intensives, structured multi-hour sessions across one to three days, can accelerate healing when weekly sessions would take months. I will speak to the pros and cons of intensives later. The hidden driver: burnout Burnout is not just low mood and cynicism. It often looks like anxiety that will not switch off because the organism no longer trusts downtime to be safe. The classic triad for burnout includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or detachment, and reduced sense of efficacy. It can emerge in healthcare, tech, education, caregiving, entrepreneurship. In my practice, by the time someone names burnout, they have already tried to fix it by pushing harder or numbing more. Both strategies worsen anxiety. What helps is structural change. That might mean workload reshaping, boundaries that are enforced and visible on the calendar, and honest negotiations about expectations. Rest that actually drops you into parasympathetic states matters. For some, that is slow exhale breathing and bodyweight work. For others, it is nature walks and time with people who require nothing. The nervous system needs convincing evidence, delivered consistently, that safety is real. How somatic experiencing helps the body finish what it started Somatic experiencing teaches people to notice, pendulate, and complete protective responses that were cut short. It is not about diving into memories headfirst. It is about training your attention to feel sensations with just enough intensity that the system can finally downshift. That may look like letting your legs push gently into the floor as you recall a time you wanted to run and could not, or softening the jaw slowly until a tremor passes through. The therapist tracks micro-movements, breath, and orientation responses. Many people describe a warm wave or a sigh when the body completes a loop that was stuck on pause. This work builds tolerance for activation, which changes the experience of anxiety in daily life. Instead of a tidal surge that knocks you over, you feel the swell and have options. It also respects edge cases. If you have a dissociative history, sensory sensitivities, or medical conditions that mimic panic, a well-paced somatic approach can titrate input so you do not flood or zone out. Why parts work resonates when willpower has failed IFS therapy, or Internal Family Systems, maps the inner system of protectors, exiles, and the core Self that can lead with calm and clarity. The anxious protector is often trying to prevent contact with a younger exile who holds pain, shame, or grief. When people try to force anxiety away, protectors escalate. When they befriend it and make direct contact with the part through imagery, sensation, and gentle dialogue, protectors often relax enough to let healing work with the exile proceed. Over time, the exiled feelings integrate. The anxious protector retires or takes on a new role, like scanning for actual logistics problems rather than vague doom. I have watched chronically anxious clients cry with relief when they first hear an inner voice say, I do not need you to push so hard anymore. That cannot be faked with affirmations. It lands when the nervous system believes it. When intensives fit and when they do not Intensives compress therapy time. A half-day or full-day focused arc can sometimes access material that weekly sessions circle for months. EMDR intensives are the most common format, but I also run blended intensives that include somatic experiencing and IFS therapy. The format serves people who have a time-limited window, live far from specialty providers, or feel stuck in a cycle that needs momentum. There are clear trade-offs. Intensives demand adequate preparation and support. You need to be medically stable, have sleep reasonably under control, and have time afterward to reorient. Complex dissociation, active substance misuse, and acute crises are contraindications. For those, a steadier weekly container is safer. Intensives can also bring up life changes quickly. If your environment cannot flex - if you have no childcare, no privacy, or a boss who expects you to return the same afternoon and perform - the gains may not consolidate. A sensible approach starts with assessment, then a trial of focused work, then a decision about pacing. If you do proceed, treat the days around the intensive as part of the therapy, not as empty space to fill. What progress looks like in real life Progress is often quiet. The email that would have spiked you for hours registers as a mild alert and then drifts. You realize you have not rehearsed worst cases for three days. Sleep stretches by 30 minutes without effort. You still get anxious, especially under load, but recovery time shortens. One client, a product manager in her thirties, came in with panic on Sunday nights and a stomach that clenched before every meeting. Her history included a chaotic household and an early career at a start-up that prized heroics over planning. We worked for eight sessions on body cues, then used an EMDR intensive to target the first three years of her career and a handful of family scenes. We paired that with IFS therapy to get permission from a loyal protector who believed, If you stop scanning, you will lose everything. Three months later, she still felt a lift in heart rate before quarterly reviews, but it settled during her pre-meeting ritual instead of exploding later at bedtime. She negotiated her workload more directly. The anxiety had not vanished. It had returned to its proper size. Practical skills that make therapy stick Skills are not cures, but they make space for the deeper work. A few deserve special mention because they are straightforward and supported by research and clinical experience. The 4-7 breath: Lengthening the exhale recruits the parasympathetic brake. Try four seconds in, seven seconds out, for three minutes. People with dizziness or asthma should shorten counts and stay comfortable. Orientation: Let your eyes move to the periphery of the room and track objects. Name what you see. This tells the midbrain you are not trapped and can reset fight-flight to baseline. Interoceptive naming: Label sensations precisely. Not just anxious, but tight under left rib, 5 out of 10, warm. Specificity calms the monitoring system. Micro-choices: Very small actions that increase agency shift state. Email one line. Drink a glass of water. Step outside for 90 seconds. Agency is an antidote to helplessness. Social co-regulation: Talk to someone who is calm and steady, or sit nearby without talking. Humans regulate together. It is chemistry, not weakness. These skills work best when practiced when you are at a 3 or 4 out of 10, not at a 9. Rehearsal at lower intensities builds grooves that show up automatically when stakes rise. Medication, lifestyle, and the role of context Medication, prescribed by a qualified clinician, can lower the volume enough for therapy to work. SSRIs and SNRIs have decades of evidence for generalized anxiety. Beta-blockers can help with performance spikes. Benzodiazepines should be used sparingly and strategically because they can blunt learning when used daily. The decision to use medication depends on severity, function, and preference. In my view, the best outcomes come when medication is paired with learning, not used as a sole solution. Lifestyle supports are not small. They are structural. Caffeine is an amplifier, especially above 200 mg per day for many people. Alcohol fragments sleep architecture even when it helps you fall asleep. Strength training two to three times a week appears to reduce anxiety for a meaningful subset of people, possibly by improving interoception and resilience to somatic cues. Morning light stabilizes circadian rhythm and reduces nighttime rumination for many clients. None of these erase trauma or fix oppressive workplaces. But they tilt the nervous system toward capacity, so the same stressor lands less hard. How to tell if your anxiety has deeper roots Here is a short checklist that I use when deciding whether to emphasize trauma processing, parts work, or cognitive strategies first. Your anxiety spikes in specific contexts that resemble past situations, even if the link seems odd. Body symptoms arrive before thoughts, like chest tightness or nausea out of the blue. You do well on vacation, then crash hard on return, suggesting a system that can settle when removed from cues. You feel two minds at once, part of you knows you are safe while another part cannot calm. Advice that sounds rational leaves you cold or irritated, as if a deeper layer is being missed. If these patterns fit, therapies that access the body and memory networks directly, such as EMDR, somatic experiencing, and IFS therapy, may offer more leverage than purely cognitive tools. A workable path that respects your life Change is easier when it does not depend on heroic will. These steps reflect what tends to work across a wide range of clients and situations. Get a clear map: List your top three anxiety situations, the first body cue you notice, and the typical thought story. Patterns will pop. Stabilize sleep and physiology: Adjust caffeine timing, add morning light, consider a basic breath practice, and consult your physician if sleep is consistently under 6.5 hours. Build regulation skills at low intensity: Practice orientation and exhale-focused breathing daily when calm. Choose a therapy track that matches your pattern: If early memories or specific incidents stand out, consider EMDR or EMDR intensives, possibly combined with somatic experiencing. If conflicting inner drives dominate, prioritize IFS therapy. Restructure one load-bearing beam: Change a concrete piece of your week - a boundary at work, a reduced responsibility day, or 90 minutes carved for recovery practices - and protect it with the same seriousness as a meeting with your boss. The sequence matters less than the fit. If you are a caregiver with two jobs, the most effective starting point might be a 15-minute morning walk and a telehealth session every other week until stamina grows. If you are a founder who avoids slowing down, an intensive might be the only format you respect enough to show up for. What therapists wish people knew about anxiety Anxiety is not a character flaw. It is often a form of loyalty, a system carrying out rules that kept you alive. When you approach it with disgust, it doubles down. Curiosity changes the relationship. Humor helps too. Anxiety hates being laughed at, not with contempt but with warmth. I have watched a stiff room soften because someone said, My inner safety officer is polishing the risk report again, and everyone exhaled. Expect setbacks. They are not proof that you failed. They are data. If panic returned after a week of early mornings and two extra coffees, that is useful information, not a moral verdict. If your first EMDR target did little, the second or third often does more. Finally, the therapist is not the healer. Your nervous system is. The therapist is a witness with a toolkit, a well-timed question, and a steady presence when your system does something new. That alignment, not perfection, tends to produce change. Special considerations and edge cases Health anxiety often piggybacks on real medical conditions. If you have POTS, asthma, or thyroid disease, sensations overlap with panic. You will likely need parallel tracks: medical management with your physician and nervous system training so that elevated heart rate or breath tightness does not automatically equal catastrophe. Precision language helps. I am noticing a POTS flare, not I am dying. ADHD complicates anxiety because it creates inconsistent performance and time blindness, which fuel dread. External structure, body-doubling, and short sprints can reduce the buildup that triggers anxious spirals. For some people, stimulant medication sharpens focus and lowers anxiety by improving follow-through. For others, it ramps up arousal. Monitoring matters. Cultural and systemic factors shape anxiety too. If your workplace punishes boundary-setting, your nervous system will not calm fully until the environment changes. If you live with discrimination, vigilance is not irrational. In those cases, therapy must include advocacy, resource-building, and community care. Strategies that ignore real-world context can backfire. Bringing it together Anxiety makes promises. It tells you that if you think harder, you will be safe. If you avoid that conversation, you will be safe. If you never rest, you will be safe. The promise keeps slipping. Real safety comes from a body that recognizes the present, a mind that can hold two truths at once, and a life organized around what matters rather than what terrifies. Whether you choose weekly sessions, a series of EMDR intensives, or a mixed path with IFS therapy and somatic experiencing, look for congruence. Your therapist should explain not just what they do, but why it fits you. Interventions should adjust based on results, not loyalty to a model. If you feel more regulated over weeks, if your choices expand, if sleep and relationships gently improve, the path is sound. I have yet to meet a system that could not learn. Even those with decades of high alert can shift. The work is not to erase alarms, but to teach them when to ring and when to rest. Once that calibration returns, anxiety returns to its role as a signal, not a sovereign, and life gets bigger again. Alli Christie Counseling Name: Alli Christie Counseling Legal name: ALLI CHRISTIE COUNSELING LLC Clinician: Alli Christie Disney, Licensed Professional Counselor Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Open-location code / plus code: H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Coordinates: 39.5516997, -104.8794188 Map/listing URL: https://maps.app.goo.gl/uv7r79vU4qUivyaw6 Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/113022167/ https://www.tiktok.com/@allichristiecounseling https://x.com/alli_disney https://www.youtube.com/@traumahealingtherapist "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "MedicalBusiness", "@id": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/#localbusiness", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "legalName": "ALLI CHRISTIE COUNSELING LLC", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "areaServed": [ "@type": "City", "name": "Lone Tree" , "@type": "City", "name": "Centennial" , "@type": "City", "name": "Highlands Ranch" , "@type": "AdministrativeArea", "name": "Douglas County" , "@type": "AdministrativeArea", "name": "Denver Metro" , "@type": "State", "name": "Colorado" ], "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/113022167/", "https://www.tiktok.com/@allichristiecounseling", "https://x.com/alli_disney", "https://www.youtube.com/@traumahealingtherapist" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://maps.app.goo.gl/uv7r79vU4qUivyaw6" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health therapy services from an office in Lone Tree, Colorado. The practice focuses on therapy intensives for high-achieving women who want focused support for trauma, anxiety, burnout, self-doubt, and related emotional patterns. Listed services include therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, Internal Family Systems therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety therapy, and burnout therapy. Alli Christie Disney is listed as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, with EMDR, IFS, and Somatic Experiencing training noted on the official site. The office is located at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202 in Lone Tree, near the I-25 and C-470 corridor in the South Denver metro area. The practice is locally positioned for clients in Lone Tree, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Douglas County, and nearby Colorado communities. Prospective clients can call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ to ask about consultation options, availability, and fit. The public map listing for Alli Christie Counseling can help clients verify the Lone Tree office location before scheduling or planning an in-person appointment. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What is Alli Christie Counseling? Alli Christie Counseling is a mental health therapy practice in Lone Tree, Colorado, focused on therapy intensives for high-achieving women. Where is Alli Christie Counseling located? The listed office address is 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Who is the clinician at Alli Christie Counseling? The official site lists Alli Christie Disney as a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado. The footer lists Colorado License LPC.0016043 and NPI 1538708029. What services does Alli Christie Counseling provide? The practice lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety therapy, and burnout therapy. Does Alli Christie Counseling offer EMDR intensives? Yes. EMDR intensives are listed as one of the practice’s core service areas, along with therapy intensives and related trauma-focused approaches. Does Alli Christie Counseling offer online or video appointments? The connected scheduling portal lists a video office option and a Lone Tree location. Clients should confirm current appointment format and availability directly before scheduling. What are Alli Christie Counseling’s public hours? The matching public listing shows Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Sunday closed. Appointment availability may vary, so clients should confirm directly with the practice. Is Alli Christie Counseling an emergency mental health provider? No emergency or crisis service was verified for this dataset. Anyone in immediate danger or experiencing a medical or mental health emergency should call 911, contact 988, or go to the nearest emergency room. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call (402) 765-8761, email [email protected], visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, or use the listed social profiles: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling, https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/, https://www.linkedin.com/company/113022167/, https://www.tiktok.com/@allichristiecounseling, https://x.com/alli_disney, and https://www.youtube.com/@traumahealingtherapist. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Alli Christie Counseling is located in Lone Tree near the South Denver metro area, with an office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202. Clients near these landmarks can call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ to ask about therapy intensives, consultation options, and appointment availability. Teddy Lane — The office street for the listed practice address; clients can use the map listing to verify the location before visiting. Park Meadows — A major Lone Tree shopping landmark near the I-25 corridor and a useful reference point for the local area. Sky Ridge Medical Center — A major healthcare landmark in Lone Tree; clients should contact Alli Christie Counseling directly for outpatient therapy scheduling. Lone Tree Arts Center — A well-known local venue and practical landmark for clients navigating Lone Tree. Lincoln Station — A nearby transit reference point for clients traveling within the South Denver metro area. RidgeGate Parkway — A major Lone Tree corridor near residential, medical, and business areas; nearby clients can call to ask about appointment options. I-25 and C-470 — A key regional interchange that helps orient clients coming from Denver, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, or Castle Rock. Bluffs Regional Park — A recognizable outdoor landmark in Lone Tree and a helpful reference for the surrounding community. Lone Tree Golf Club & Hotel — A local golf and event landmark for clients orienting around central Lone Tree. Sweetwater Park — A neighborhood park reference point for nearby Lone Tree residents. Highlands Ranch — A nearby South Denver metro community; clients can contact the practice to ask whether services are a fit. Centennial — A nearby community north and east of Lone Tree; prospective clients can visit the website to learn about therapy intensive options.

Burnout in helping roles does not flare up overnight. It seeps in through double shifts, back-to-back crises, and the slow erosion of recovery time. You see it in the nurse who dreads the next alarm tone, the therapist who goes flat during an intake, the teacher who stops looking students in the eye by third period. The work invites meaning and demands energy. When the equation tilts, the body keeps the books, and the debt shows up as fatigue, detachment, irritability, and a tightening in the chest that does not yield to a weekend off. I have spent years working with clinicians, physicians, teachers, social workers, and first responders who wrestle with the cost of care. They are sharp observers and poor patients, quick to normalize distress and slow to accept a hand. Many reach out only when standard coping tools fail. A growing number find traction with intensives, structured periods of focused therapy that compress months of work into days. Intensives are not a shortcut, and they are not for every season. They do, however, fit the lived reality of people who hold the line for a living. The texture of burnout in helping roles Burnout has a predictable core, yet it wears the uniform of each profession. A resident physician describes a blunting of compassion after a string of codes. A school counselor feels nausea while opening email after one more parent complaint. A social worker handling protective cases stops sleeping and starts scrolling until 2 a.m. Because the job requires calm during storms, many become experts in minimizing their own experience. They use words like fine and functioning as a shield. Underneath, the nervous system is stuck in high alert. The heart rate climbs with each interruption. Muscles clamp to hold the line for a few more hours. The brain learns to over-index threats and underplay signals of safety. What looks like procrastination is often the freeze response, a last-ditch strategy to conserve resources. People talk about anxiety and burnout as separate issues, but in the body they travel together. Anxiety accelerates the system. Burnout empties the tank. The combination makes for brittle decision making and a sense of being permanently behind. In organizations where moral distress is common, burnout carries a second edge. A paramedic who knows the right thing and cannot do it because of policy, a therapist forced to discharge a client due to insurance limits, or a teacher working with no aides for a classroom of 30, all absorb a hit to their values. That gap between what you believe and what you can offer becomes a constant micro-trauma. Over months, it reshapes your sense of agency. Why the weekly hour stalls Traditional weekly therapy has strengths. It offers a dependable ritual, time for reflection, and a setting where the client does not have to be the strong one. It also comes with friction that matters for burned-out helpers. The start-stop rhythm of 50 minutes rarely allows enough time to metabolize high-arousal material, especially when trauma or moral injury sits underneath the current stress. You warm up, touch the thing, and the hour is over. The nervous system needs time to stabilize before going back to the floor or the classroom, and often there is no buffer. Scheduling is another limiter. Many helpers cannot reliably attend midweek sessions due to shift changes, caseload surges, or school events. Cancelations pile up, and the work never reaches depth. For a firefighter on a 48-96 schedule, or a therapist seeing 30 clients a week, the bandwidth to hold therapy between sessions is already consumed by other people’s pain. Meanwhile, cognitive strategies top out. You can learn to reframe, prioritize, and boundary. Those help. But if trauma memory, chronic stress, or a body stuck in fight or flight is the driver, insight does not move the wheel. What clears the mind must first settle the system. That requires time in a window of tolerance, not ten rushed minutes at the end of an hour. What an intensive actually looks like An intensive is not a marathon of talking. It is a carefully structured block of time, usually 6 to 20 hours, delivered over 1 to 5 days. The exact shape depends on goals, stamina, and clinical needs. A common model for professionals drowning in burnout looks like this: Day 1 focuses on assessment, stabilization, and agreement on targets. You map stressors, history, current symptoms, and resources. You also tune the body. That can mean breath work, guided imagery, or brief somatic practices to widen the window of tolerance. This day often runs 3 to 4 hours with breaks. Days 2 and 3 carry the deeper work. For some, that means EMDR intensives, where you spend extended time on specific memories or themes that keep the nervous system on high alert. For others, the centerpiece is IFS therapy, identifying and unblending from parts of the self that carry shame, fear, or relentless responsibility. Many include somatic experiencing to discharge trapped survival energy and reestablish a sense of safety in the body. Sessions are punctuated with short rests, hydration, and movement. The final segment integrates, plans, and transitions. You leave with a clear post-intensive plan, which may include lighter follow-up, peer support, and concrete changes at work. The intent is to return with more capacity, not to white-knuckle your way through the next quarter. Between hours, the therapist watches for signs of overwork. Some people can manage 5 hours in a day with good breaks. Others do best with 2 to 3 hours spread across mornings, leaving afternoons quiet. A good intensive respects energy more than the calendar. We aim for depth without collapse. Why concentrated work helps a burned-out system Think about the cost of task switching. Every time you drop into deep work, you invest energy to get there. Weekly therapy demands that investment repeatedly, and you lose time to warming up and cooling down. In intensives, you cross the bridge once per day and stay until the job in front of you is complete enough to rest. That single design shift matters. Concentrated time also allows the nervous system to learn in context. When we process a memory, renegotiate a boundary, or discharge a survival response, the system needs time in regulation to encode the new pattern. Rushing this creates partial relief that does not hold under pressure. In an intensive, you stabilize, do the work, stabilize again, then leave with a nervous system that has actually practiced staying in a settled state. Finally, intensives match the lived reality of helpers. Many can secure two or three consecutive days off. Few can commit to the same hour every Tuesday for four months. When timing lines up with capacity, follow-through improves. That alone often explains why some people make more progress in a single weekend than in a spring of missed appointments. EMDR intensives in the context of professional burnout Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing has been used for trauma for decades. In EMDR intensives, we keep the core protocol and stretch the container. The work begins with resourcing, which might include installing a calm place, identifying supportive figures, or anchoring a memory of competence on the job. Then we target specific events or themes that sustain hypervigilance and anxiety. For helpers, targets often include the first time a boundary was crossed and they said nothing, a medical error that still visits at night, a violent outburst on a unit, or a case that ended badly. We also work on anticipatory fears, like the dread before a shift or the sound of a particular alarm. In a longer window, the brain has room to follow associations without the artificial stop of the 50th minute. The bilateral stimulation continues as long as the system is processing and within tolerance. If you hit a wall, you rest, hydrate, walk, and come back when you are grounded. What I see in EMDR intensives with burned-out clients is not magic. It is the nervous system finally completing a loop it has tried to close for years. People describe the edge softening around a memory that once flooded them. They notice they can hear a monitor tone without the same spike. They return to work with more reactivity budget. That is not the same as loving every task. It is the difference between a body that startles all day and a body that responds and resets. Using IFS therapy to unburden the over-responsible self Internal Family Systems pairs well with an intensive frame because parts work benefits from uninterrupted attention. Many helpers organize their identity around protector parts that value competence, self-sacrifice, and emotional control. Those parts keep careers afloat and lives together. They also block access to the pain of exiled parts, the younger selves who learned that love depends on performance or that speaking up is dangerous. In an intensive, we can map this internal system with more depth. A day might start by meeting the Controller who insists on triple charting, then the Pleaser who volunteers for extra shifts, then the Critic who calls you weak when you rest. With time, the Self has a chance to relate to each part without being yanked away by the next pager buzz. Protectors soften when they feel seen and respected, not bypassed. We do not rip away coping parts. We negotiate. We ask what they fear would happen if they relaxed. Often, they point to exiles who carry shame after a training mistake or the terror of an early family trauma. As those exiles unburden, the system recalibrates. People report that they can say no with fewer aftershocks, or they can make an error review without sliding into months of self-punishment. They start to feel like a whole person doing a hard job, not a hollow shell performing a role. Somatic experiencing and the body's say Somatic experiencing focuses on incomplete survival responses stored in the body. In burnout, these often look like a chronic forward brace, shallow breath, clenched jaw, or a frozen stillness that hides enormous activation underneath. If you have ever watched your hands tremble after a code or felt your legs buzz after a restraint, you have felt survival energy trying to discharge. During an intensive, we work gently and slowly. The goal is not catharsis. It is completion. You might notice a micro-impulse to push away and be guided to let your arms move a few inches until a sigh comes. You might sense a quiver in your legs and allow a small shake while tracking safety in the room. We pendulate between activation and rest. Because we have time, we do not force it. The body learns that it can experience a wave of activation and return to baseline. That lesson translates on shift. A loud noise spikes your arousal, you orient, you breathe, and you come down, instead of staying stuck at 7 out of 10 until bedtime. Somatic work also helps with pain. Many helpers develop stress-related headaches, neck tightness, or GI symptoms. As the system settles, these often ease. Not because the job became easy, but because the body is no longer bracing all day while pretending to be calm. What changes after a well-run intensive In the weeks following, I look for practical markers. People report they can leave the unit without replaying every moment, or they sleep through the night more often. Their partners notice fewer snaps over minor issues. Some reconnect with rituals that used to help, like running, church, or time with friends. A subset make structural changes, asking for a different shift, dropping to 0.8 FTE, or carving protected time into their calendar. Not everyone changes jobs. Many simply find they have more room inside the one they already have. On measures, anxiety symptoms typically drop first, then physical tension, then the sense of meaning returns in steps. Burnout does not evaporate. The context still matters. But with more bandwidth, people remember why they entered the field. They also see what parts of the load belong to them and what belongs to systems that need reform. When an intensive may be a good fit You can secure 2 to 3 consecutive days without urgent obligations afterward. Weekly sessions have helped with insight but not with body-level anxiety or reactivity. Specific memories, themes, or moral injuries keep replaying despite time. You prefer depth and completion over a long arc of shorter sessions. You have at least one stable support outside the intensive to help integrate. When to wait, modify, or choose a different approach Not everyone should jump into concentrated work. If someone is acutely suicidal, actively using substances to the point of withdrawal risk, or in a home environment where safety cannot be ensured, we start elsewhere. For those with complex dissociation, we extend the preparation phase and often lengthen the runway to include more stabilization. People with significant medical conditions may tire quickly, and the schedule needs to flex. Cost is another real barrier. Intensives are less likely to be fully covered by insurance, though some plans reimburse portions under extended session codes. Many clinicians offer sliding scales or shorter formats. I have split a planned 15-hour block into 9 hours when we realized the client’s nervous system reached saturation sooner than expected. The goal is not to hit a number. It is to dose the work appropriately. What preparation looks like Preparation sets the tone. Before an intensive, I ask clients to block off time, arrange practical supports, and reduce extra stimulation. Hydration and sleep help, even if imperfect. We review medications and medical history to avoid surprises. We outline a flexible plan that allows for EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, and somatic experiencing, choosing how to mix based on the person’s system rather than on a brand. One of the most useful steps is clarifying targets and outcomes. Instead of “fix my burnout,” we name specifics. Stop waking at 3 a.m. With dread, regain confidence after a particular incident, or shrink the spike when the trauma pager goes off. Clear aims help us know where to https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/therapy-intensives start and when we have moved the needle. Inside the room: pacing, signals, and rest A well-run intensive looks quiet. There is less talking than people expect and more noticing. We track micro-signals. A breath deepens, a foot presses, a tear starts and stops. We take breaks before hitting the wall. I let clients stand, stretch, or step outside for a few minutes between sets. Food matters. Simple, steady fuel keeps glucose stable and lowers the chance of a midafternoon crash. Consent and collaboration do not stop at intake. If a target feels too hot, we pause. If a part in IFS refuses to budge, we respect it. For some, a single memory session is plenty for a day. For others, moving from EMDR in the morning to somatic work in the afternoon lands better. The body tells us, if we are willing to listen. Two brief sketches A hospitalist in her late thirties arrived describing herself as fried but functional. Night float had become a slow suffocation. She had two specific targets: a code where a young patient died and recurrent dread opening the EHR. Over three half-days, we resourced, then used EMDR to process the code, including details she had avoided. We then worked somatically with the stomach drop she felt clicking the chart icon. On day three, we shifted to IFS to meet the part that believed rest equals laziness. Two weeks later, she still felt pressure at work, but the dread eased from a nine to a four. She stopped checking the EHR compulsively at home and slept through three nights for the first time in months. A school social worker came in wondering if she had chosen the wrong field. A parent confrontation at a meeting had turned into months of bracing. She also carried an old exile, the teenage self who learned to be invisible. We spent the first day with parts work, establishing trust with protectors who equated boundaries with danger. Day two held EMDR sets on the meeting, during which her body completed a small push-away movement she had inhibited. She laughed at the release. The final morning, we planned scripts for future meetings and practiced with somatic grounding. She returned to school and held the next hard conversation without shaking. Measuring progress without obsessing over numbers I ask clients to rate distress around specific triggers before, during, and after intensives, using simple scales for anxiety, burnout, and bodily tension. I also use concrete indicators: hours of sleep, number of times they ruminate after shift, ability to eat a full meal at work, and frequency of headaches. Over the following month, we check if gains hold, drift, or deepen. Research on intensives is emerging. Several small studies and a growing body of practice-based evidence suggest that concentrated EMDR and other trauma-focused approaches can produce outcomes comparable to longer timelines, especially for single-incident trauma and circumscribed targets. Clinically, I have found the format most effective for people who know what hurts, can block time, and have at least one supportive person in their life. It is less useful when the distress is entirely systemic with no room to change any variable, or when safety at home is fragile. The organizational piece we cannot ignore An individual intensive cannot fix understaffing, poor leadership, or policies that harm both staff and clients. I say this out loud to every helper who sits across from me. The work we do aims to give you back agency and bandwidth. With those, some people choose to organize, transfer, or speak up. Others choose to limit the hours they spend in broken systems and build a life outside the badge or badge-adjacent identity. Both are valid. More capacity does not require more self-sacrifice. That said, individual healing and systemic change are not rivals. A regulated nervous system increases your ability to act strategically rather than reactively. You write a clearer email. You document better. You negotiate more effectively. You leave a meeting without stewing all night. Those small wins add up and protect you while the larger structure moves, often too slowly. Practicalities: scheduling, cost, and aftercare Most helpers schedule intensives by bundling PTO or swapping shifts to create a 3 to 4 day arc. The intensive typically sits in the middle two days, with a quiet day before and after when possible. Some prefer weekends. We plan follow-up, usually one or two shorter sessions in the following month to consolidate gains and address any echoes. Costs vary by region and provider experience. Packages often range from several hundred to several thousand dollars depending on hours, preparation, and follow-up. Many pay out of pocket and seek partial reimbursement. It helps to ask for a detailed invoice with session lengths and appropriate codes. Some employers offer wellness stipends or education funds that can be used. Aftercare is not a luxury. I encourage clients to avoid heavy social calendars in the 48 hours after. Light movement, nourishing food, time outdoors, and sleep matter more than a victory lap. Share selectively. Not every colleague needs to hear about your parts work. Choose one or two trusted people who understand this is health care, not gossip fodder. A short reality check An intensive is not a guarantee. I have had clients leave disappointed when a target did not budge as much as hoped, or when outside stressors surged the following week. Sometimes a new layer appears, and we need time to address it. That is not failure. That is honest work. The right question is not whether an intensive fixes your burnout, but whether it moves the constraints that keep you locked into it. If sleep improves, reactivity drops, and you reclaim even 10 percent of your energy, the next set of choices opens. Early markers of trouble worth respecting Cynicism that crowds out any sense of meaning for weeks at a stretch Sleep that remains broken most nights despite good habits A body that jumps to high alert with minor cues and stays there Mistakes or near-misses that come from sheer depletion A shrinking life outside of work, where rest feels foreign or undeserved If these feel familiar, consider whether the start-stop of weekly therapy keeps you spinning. Intensives, whether through EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, somatic experiencing, or a thoughtful blend, offer a different path. They respect the way your nervous system learns. They fit the actual constraints of shift work, caseloads, and calendars. And when done well, they help you step back into the work with more steadiness, or step out with clarity if that is what your life asks next. Burnout in helping professions is not a personal failure. It is a predictable outcome of high demand, low control, and constant exposure to suffering. Your body has tried to keep you safe. Intensives give it the time and attention to finish that job so you can choose your next moves with a clearer head and a calmer chest. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

I have watched people arrive on a Friday looking threadbare and leave on a Sunday with color in their face and a steadier breath. Not fixed, not transformed into someone else, but organized around a new feeling of possibility. Weekend intensives can do that. They compress focused work into a short window so you can move through a stuck pattern that weekly therapy has circled for months. They are not a cure-all, and they are not for every situation. Used well, they help you reclaim ground quickly, then consolidate gains over time. This is a practical look at how weekend intensives work, where they shine, and where they do not. I will draw on what I have seen in the room with EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, and somatic experiencing, and I will explain what actually happens across two or three days. The short answer to the headline question is yes, some healing can happen fast, but only certain kinds, and only with careful preparation and aftercare. What a weekend intensive actually is An intensive is a block of therapy that runs several hours a day over a tight span of time. I offer formats like 6 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday, or three 4 hour days if someone prefers a Friday start. Between breaks and meals, that gives 8 to 12 hours of focused work. Compare that to weekly sessions, where 8 hours can take two months. The dose of attention changes, and with it the arc of the work. Different modalities fit intensives differently. EMDR intensives use the extended time to fully map a problem, identify target memories, and move through processing in a way that avoids the start stop rhythm that can leave people raw mid week. IFS therapy uses longer windows to build trust with protective parts, then make contact with exiles in a calm, titrated way. Somatic experiencing benefits from the time to follow the nervous system through activation and settling without rushing, which is often what lets chronic anxiety discharge rather than recycle. In practice, the weekend has a shape. The first hours focus on assessment and stabilization, even if you have worked with the therapist before. We clarify goals that are specific and observable, not general wishes. Instead of “make my anxiety go away,” we name something like “driving over bridges without white knuckling,” or “turning off my work email at 7 pm and going to bed by 10.” Then we set up the scaffolding that will make the weekend safe: a calm place visualization, containment exercises, resourcing through breath and body, agreements about how to pause. Only then do we turn toward the thing that hurts. Why concentrated work can be powerful A weekend intensive often beats weekly sessions for the same reason a language immersion can jump start fluency. You stay inside the material long enough to bypass the old detours. The nervous system does not reset to baseline every 50 minutes. You remember what you said an hour ago, because it was an hour ago, not last Tuesday. There is less time lost to catching up and more to actual change. There are also specific neurobiological reasons. Memory reconsolidation, the process by which the brain updates old learning with new experience, has a time window measured in hours. When we bring up a troubling memory or felt sense and pair it with corrective experience, the brain has a better chance to rewrite the association if we stay with it and revisit it within that window. In weekly therapy, that window often closes between sessions, which is fine for many goals but not always ideal for trauma pairs like fear and helplessness. People with burnout or chronic anxiety often carry stacked stressors that never fully discharge. Their bodies live https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/wait-list in a near constant kindling state. In a well run intensive, you can cycle activation and settling enough times that the system gets the message that danger has passed. That is not mystical. It is visible in slower breath, warmer hands, a drop in startle reactivity, and sometimes a sudden yawn when the parasympathetic system comes back online. What changes quickly, and what usually does not Weekend work is best at dissolving a knot. Panic that spikes when you merge onto the freeway. The reflex to apologize in every meeting. The way your shoulders lock every time your boss Slacks you after dinner. These are discrete patterns that trace back to cues and meanings the brain can identify and update. I have seen a 41 year old engineer who had not slept through the night in six months, thanks to a layoff that left her scanning for danger. In two days of EMDR intensives mixed with somatic experiencing, her hypervigilance dropped. She did not become carefree. She did start sleeping five hours straight within a week, and eight within a month, because her nervous system stopped reacting to every late night noise like a break in. The measurable shift was her GAD-7 anxiety score dropping from 15 to 7 in two weeks, then to 5 by six weeks, tracked in follow ups. What rarely changes instantly are layered identities and life structures. If you have a lifetime of complex trauma, parts of you have built entire careers around staying safe. An intensive can lower the temperature and soften hard rules like never ask for help, but it will not build you a new community or retrain your boss. If your burnout springs from systemic overload and chronic under staffing, you still need boundaries, perhaps a job change, and time to heal the body. In those cases, the weekend can be a reset, not a finish line. A quick readiness check You can take care of basics after the weekend, including sleep, meals, hydration, and a light schedule for 48 hours. You can stay off substances that numb or spike the system, like alcohol, cannabis, or stimulants, for several days before and after. You have a therapist to follow up with, or you are willing to schedule short integration sessions for two to four weeks. You can name one to three specific targets or shifts you want from the weekend. You are not in acute crisis that would be safer in a higher level of care. If you read that list and feel your stomach drop, that is useful data. Intensives require a floor of stability. When the floor is missing, the safest move is to build it first. What the weekend looks like, hour by hour Every therapist runs their intensives somewhat differently, but a typical two day arc might look like this. Saturday morning starts with a review of your history, current stressors, medications, and medical conditions. Consent is not a signature alone, it is a conversation about what we might encounter and how you want to handle it. We review red flags like dissociation cues, faintness, or migraines that require a different pace. Then we co create a plan for breaks. I prefer 90 minute working segments with 15 to 20 minute breathers, and one longer break mid day. In EMDR intensives, we spend the first block installing resources and practicing bilateral stimulation at an easy level. People often think EMDR means jumping straight to difficult memories. In weekend formats, I have found better outcomes when we spend at least an hour building capacity to tolerate activation and to pause quickly. Only then do we identify targets. A target is more than a memory. It includes the image or body sensation that carries charge, the negative cognition that sticks to it, and the desired positive belief that feels true when processing completes. For example, “I am not safe” might give way to “I can protect myself now.” In IFS therapy, the early hours often focus on mapping parts and negotiating with protectors who have worked hard to keep you safe. Protectors are not obstacles to be overruled. They are allies to be listened to until they trust that you, as Self, can lead. In a weekend, the trust building can be unhurried. When protectors see that we will stop when asked, their resistance usually softens. That is when exiles, the younger parts carrying pain, begin to reveal their stories in a way that lets healing contact happen. Somatic experiencing threads through either approach. I pay attention to micro signs like temperature changes, fidgeting, and breath holds. If activation spikes, we pendulate, which means we move attention between the hard thing and a resource like the feeling of the chair under the legs. Pendulation is not a trick. It trains the system to know it can move toward and away, which is the opposite of being trapped in overwhelm. By Saturday afternoon, many people feel both tired and strangely clear. We usually close with grounding and a check that they can drive home safely or transition without a crash. Sunday is often when the deepest passes happen. The system trusts the rhythm and dives in more readily. This is where stuck grief finally finds tears, or where a memory that always felt like a blur resolves into a sequence that makes sense. What helps the gains stick There is a reason athletes cool down and musicians practice slowly after a performance. The nervous system integrates new learning when it is not overloaded. After an intensive, sleep is not a luxury, it is when consolidation happens. Hydration and light movement help move stress hormones through. A short walk outside, a bland meal, and limited screen time beat a heavy dinner and a Netflix binge. Follow up matters. I schedule 30 to 45 minute integration calls at one week and four weeks, plus weekly or biweekly therapy if the person does not already have it. We use simple measures to track change. For anxiety, the GAD-7. For trauma symptoms, the PCL-5. For burnout, subjective ratings of exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy, along with concrete metrics like hours worked and days off actually taken. Numbers do not capture everything, but they highlight trends and keep stories honest. People who journal briefly after sessions tend to hold onto gains better. Not pages of analysis, just a few lines that capture shifts in thought and body: “Drove across town without checking exits three times. Heart rate normal.” Or, “Said no to weekend emails, went hiking, no dread Sunday night.” The hard parts you should know about Not every intensive ends with relief. Sometimes you will stir up material that lingers for a few days. I warn people that sleep can be odd the first night as the brain files new information. Headaches happen, especially if hydration slips. Old coping urges can flare. If you have used alcohol to shut off anxiety, the first sober Saturday night can feel loud. There are also real contraindications. If you are in active substance withdrawal, deeply depressed with suicidal planning, or cycling rapidly in bipolar disorder, an intensive weekend is not the right container. Complex dissociation requires a careful pace and may be better served by a slower, steadier course of work. People in fresh grief often need time to let the body honor the loss, not move it along. A word on re traumatization. The fear that intensive trauma work will overwhelm you is valid. The way we avoid that is not by avoiding the work, but by dosing it. In my practice, we do not tackle the most shattering memory first. We start with something that carries moderate charge and success potential. Mastering one loop calms the system and shows it how to complete cycles of activation and rest. Then we decide together how far to go next. How intensives intersect with anxiety and burnout Anxiety loves unfinished stories. You start to cross the bridge, feel your heart race, and turn around, which teaches your body that bridge equals danger. The weekend format breaks that loop and completes the story. In one EMDR intensive with a client who had white knuckle driving after an accident, we targeted the skid moment and the belief “I am going to die.” Across several sets, the body released the freeze response. When she later drove the same stretch with a friend, her palms were dry. She was not fearless, she was regulated. Burnout has a different texture. It is not simply stress, it is depletion with a pinch of despair. A weekend can help in two key ways. First, it can unhook the moral injury many high performers carry, like the belief that resting means failing the team. In IFS terms, the part that drives constant productivity can learn to trust that other parts will not let everything fall apart. Second, somatic work can return small pleasures to the body, which is the only thing that makes a new work rhythm sustainable. If your nervous system never feels okay, no boundary will hold. I have sat with physicians who have logged 70 hour weeks for years, new parents who have not slept through the night, and founders who check investor emails at 4 am. In those intensives, we do less trauma processing and more renegotiation of rules. We also get literal. Phones go in another room at night. Calendars get color coded for blocks without meetings. One surgeon began taking a 12 minute outdoor walk after each OR day, under the pretense of calling the pharmacy. His resting heart rate dropped 6 beats per minute over a month. He kept the walk because his body learned to want it. The role of EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, and somatic experiencing together No single modality owns the weekend. When they are integrated with care, strengths compound. EMDR gives a structured way to target and process memories with bilateral stimulation that keeps the system moving. IFS therapy gives a compassionate map for relationships inside you, so the part that panics or overworks is understood rather than fought. Somatic experiencing anchors both in the body so change is felt, not just thought. Here is how that looks on the ground. A client arrives with panic around public speaking that has stalled a promotion. We spend an hour in IFS mapping parts. A teenage part that was humiliated in class shows up, along with a stern protector who criticizes first to get ahead of external criticism. We thank the protector for its service and ask what it needs to relax. It asks for the right to pull the rip cord if things get too hot. We agree on a signal. With that permission, we run EMDR sets on two target memories, watching for somatic cues. When the body spikes, we pendulate with SE, looking at the view out the window to orient to here and now. After a few cycles, the client reports a strange calm, then a wave of warmth. The negative cognition “I will mess this up” shifts to “I can handle mistakes.” On Sunday, we practice a short talk with deliberate micro stressors and notice the system holds. This is not a miracle, it is method. Cost, access, and practicalities Intensives are not cheap. Rates vary widely by region and clinician, but a weekend of 8 to 12 clinical hours might run from 1,600 to 4,000 USD, sometimes more if there is consultation between providers, reports, or travel. Insurance rarely covers extended sessions, though some plans reimburse out of network hours if broken into units. Ask ahead. Some therapists offer sliding scale slots a few times a year. Telehealth options exist, and for some targets, they work well. For severe trauma or high dissociation, in person is safer. Plan your logistics as if you were preparing for a minor athletic event. Clear your calendar before and after. Arrange childcare and pet care. Stock simple meals. Tell one or two trusted people that you will be offline, so you are not pulled by guilt. If you are traveling for the weekend, book a quiet room with natural light. Avoid red eye flights home. Common myths, answered plainly Healing fast means healing shallow. It can, if the work is rushed. Done well, a weekend lets you finish loops that have been half closed for years. Depth comes from precision and pacing, not from months of time alone. If I do a weekend intensive, I can skip regular therapy. Sometimes. If your target is discrete, like a single accident or a specific performance fear, a weekend may cover it. If you live with complex trauma or chronic burnout, you will likely need ongoing work to rebuild habits and relationships. Intensives are too intense for anxious people. Most of my intensive clients have significant anxiety. The format works precisely because it builds safety and moves through activation and release without long waits between. I need to remember everything that happened for EMDR to work. You do not. EMDR targets images, beliefs, body sensations, and emotions. The system knows how to find and update the pattern even when narrative memory is patchy. How to prepare your mind and body Set one primary goal and one or two secondary goals. Name how you will know if you got what you came for. Practice your grounding tools daily for a week before, even if only for three minutes at a time. Reduce caffeine the day before and of, so you can feel your body’s baseline. Plan two tiny, concrete comforts for each day, like a soft sweater and a favorite snack. Block at least a half day off after the weekend for rest and a walk. Preparation sets your nervous system up to cooperate. You do not need to be in perfect shape. You do need to be resourced enough to let go. How to judge if an intensive worked Look at your life two to six weeks out. Are you doing the thing that was stuck, with less friction and more choice? Measure it. If driving was the target, how many trips did you take, how fast did your heart race, and did you avoid detours? If burnout rules were the target, did you set and keep a shutdown time three nights each week? Do you feel a little more like yourself, even when stressed? Also listen to your relationships. People may not notice a new belief in you, but they feel a softer edge. I have had partners tell me, “He still works hard, but he laughs again,” which is one of the best outcome metrics I know. If you see partial gains, do not assume you failed. Many people need a second, shorter block to consolidate. Sometimes daily life reveals a new layer that is perfect for a 3 hour tune up. The goal is not perfection. It is mobility, the ability to move where you could not before. Final judgment, with nuance Yes, some healing can happen fast. When the target is clear and the system has enough safety, intensives can unwind anxiety loops and take the heat out of burnout patterns in a weekend. The mechanisms are not magic. They are attention, repetition within a useful time window, and respect for the body. Results stick when you prepare, dose the work, and follow up. They wobble when you treat the weekend like a one off fix and return to the same inputs that created the problem. If you are considering an intensive, talk to a clinician who does more than one modality and who is willing to tell you no when the timing is wrong. Ask how they handle overwhelm, what aftercare they provide, and whether they coordinate with your regular therapist. You are not buying hours. You are contracting for judgment, pacing, and care. I keep offering these weekends because I have seen what they give back. A woman who refused promotions because of panic now runs a team and still eats dinner with her family. A firefighter with intrusive images after a fatal call now sleeps most nights and sometimes dreams about fishing. A founder who could not take one day off just took nine. Fast does not mean easy. It means focused. When your system is ready, a weekend can open a door you have been leaning against for years. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.