SOMATIC INTENSIVES
Immersive. Concentrated. Built for what weekly therapy can't reach.
Major relational decisions don't resolve in fifty-minute increments. Intensives are structured for the depth the moment actually requires — on a timeline that fits the life you're living.
Why Intensives
The structure the work has always needed.
Weekly therapy works well for incremental growth: couples with a basically sound relationship who want to go deeper, or individuals building awareness over time.
It works less well for the couple deciding whether to stay. For the family estrangement that's gone on three years too long. For the founder carrying something somatic that hasn't shifted despite years of talk. For those situations, the stakes are too high and the windows too narrow for a session a week.
Many of the people I work with have reported that weekly therapy actually hurt rather than helped them, because the 45-minute container is too small to safely move into what's actually there. You finally touch something real, and the buzzer rings. You're mid-rupture, and the session is up. That's not just inefficient. It's a real cost to the nervous system.
Intensives consolidate that work into concentrated, contained time. For most of my clients, it's also simply the way they actually operate: one committed block, with full attention, rather than something that gets rescheduled around board meetings.
It's also how the brain and body actually change. Lasting somatic and neural shift requires being both meaningfully stretched and held in a container safe enough for the work to land. A single hour, repeated weekly, rarely reaches what's underneath. Intensives create the structural conditions the work has always needed.
"I've been in more traditional types of therapy for the past 14 years, but Francesca's method has been more effective for me than any others I've tried."
E.R. · Individual Client
The Method
A three-phase approach that moves you from recognizing the pattern to actually changing it.
The Somatic Relational Method is the framework I bring to every engagement. Built from fifteen years of clinical work, refined through what actually creates change, and anchored in Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and Relational Life Therapy.
Recognize the cycle.
Most people arrive in shame and blame, pointing fingers, wanting the other person to change, repeating the same fight in different clothes. The first phase is naming what's actually happening: the negative cycle, the adaptive strategies, the survival logic still firing even though the threat is gone. Defensiveness, explaining away, rebuttal — these aren't character flaws. They're losing strategies aimed at protecting yourself rather than stepping back to see the actual pattern. The pattern is the problem, the people aren't the problem.
There is nothing wrong with you. But the adaptations you made earlier in life, the ones that helped you survive overwhelming situations and helped you succeed in many ways since, no longer serve you in your relationships. That recognition is where the work begins.
Repair the somatic pattern.
This is the work that talk therapy alone can't reach. Using Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems, and imaginal repair, we work with the nervous system itself: the parts that protect, the parts that carry old pain, the body that learned something decades ago it hasn't yet unlearned.
The goal isn't insight. It's nervous-system shift. Insight without somatic change is the reason most couples can name their pattern and still find themselves inside it the next morning.
Rebuild the relational skill set.
Once the underlying pattern has shifted, new relational behavior becomes possible, and learnable. This phase is grounded in Relational Life Therapy: direct, present, accountable. Boundaries become workable. Repair becomes practiced. Conflict turns into what I call carefrontation. Coregulation replaces codependency and autoregulation.
This is where new skills get practiced, not just discussed: active listening and reflecting back what you hear, curiosity instead of assumption, and the often-overlooked skill of receiving your partner's changes rather than staying on the old script that no longer applies.
Courageous humility replaces shame and grandiosity. The balance of connection and protection begins.
Four Formats
Find where you are.
Not sure which format is right for you? The inquiry process is designed to help determine the best configuration for what you are navigating.
Couples Intensive
For romantic partners at a crossroads, in a rebuilding moment, or wanting to deepen what's already present. Somatic, IFS-informed, and Relational Life Therapy — structured around what the relationship actually needs rather than a fixed agenda.
- Couples facing a major decision about their relationship's future
- Partners navigating affairs, betrayal, or a significant rupture
- Intercultural, interracial, or income-disparate partnerships
- High-achieving couples whose schedules make weekly work impractical
Relational Intensive
Relational work isn't only for romantic partnerships. Adult children and parents, siblings, close friends, business partners — any two people navigating something significant between them.
- Family estrangement — reunification or closure
- Adult parent-child relationships at a transition point
- Business partners or colleagues navigating significant conflict
- Close friends navigating a rupture or change
- Adult children and parents navigating a "failure to launch" — young adults and families finding a new relational footing together
Individual Intensive
For individuals who want to do deep relational or somatic work — on a recurring pattern, a significant decision, or trauma that's been processed in theory but not yet resolved in the body.
- High-achieving individuals whose nervous system is carrying more than their output shows
- People wanting somatic or IFS work without a weekly commitment
- Those navigating a significant life transition or relational pattern
- High-performing athletes carrying relational trauma or patterns that are affecting performance or their closest relationships
- Singles navigating dating, self-worth, and the question of partnership — especially those ready to stop repeating the same patterns and start making clearer choices
Discernment Intensive
When the question isn't how to improve the relationship — it's whether to stay in it. Structured to help both partners arrive at genuine clarity, without pushing toward a predetermined outcome. One partner can begin with an individual intake when the other hasn't yet committed.
- Couples where one or both partners are genuinely ambivalent
- Relationships where prior therapy has stalled without resolution
- Partners who need a structured container to make a clear decision together
Two years later
"Francesca was pivotal in helping us navigate one of the most difficult periods of our lives. She never defined success as staying married at all costs or pushed us toward any particular outcome. Instead, she helped us move through fear, guilt, shame, and long-held assumptions so we could become truly honest about what each of us—and our family—needed to thrive.
That honesty led us somewhere we never imagined: ending our romantic partnership and rebuilding our family around friendship, respect, and co-parenting. More than two years later, we have each built happier, more authentic lives, continue to spend meaningful time together as a family, and are raising two happy, secure girls.
Francesca helped us find not the life we thought we were supposed to preserve, but the life in which our family could genuinely flourish."
E.F. · Couples Client
Begin with an inquiry
Submit the inquiry form with a brief description of what you're navigating. A short call follows to determine whether the work and the timing are a good fit — and which format makes the most sense for your situation.
Designed around your schedule
Intensives are scheduled Thursday through Monday, with flexibility built in. Multi-day configurations, remote options, and travel are available for the right engagements. Scheduling is part of the intake conversation.
Investment
Investment varies by format, duration, and configuration. Full pricing is shared during the inquiry process. Intensives are not covered by insurance; superbills are available for clients seeking out-of-network reimbursement.
Common Questions
Common questions about somatic relational intensives.
What is a relational intensive, and how is it different from couples therapy?
A relational intensive is a concentrated, immersive engagement, most often two to four days for couples and relational work, or one to two days for individual work, that addresses what's not working at a depth and pace that weekly therapy can't match. Rather than building slowly over months of fifty-minute appointments, an intensive compresses that work into focused, contained time. This makes it well-suited for major decisions, significant ruptures, or situations where the people involved genuinely can't commit to a weekly schedule.
Do both people need to attend? Can I come alone?
It depends on the format. Couples and Relational Intensives involve both people throughout. Individual Intensives are designed for one person working on their own patterns, history, or a specific decision. Discernment Intensives can often begin with one partner; the individual work frequently opens up the couple's work in the subsequent phase. If you're uncertain, the inquiry form is the right place to describe what you're navigating.
What modalities are used in the intensive work?
The intensive work uses the Somatic Relational Method, a three-phase framework I've developed over fifteen years of clinical practice, anchored in Somatic Experiencing (SE), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Relational Life Therapy (RLT). Each of these works at the level of pattern and nervous system rather than surface behavior, and the blend shifts based on what the client or couple actually needs. The goal is movement that's felt, not just understood — which is why somatic approaches are central.
How long does a typical intensive take, and where does it happen?
Couples, relational, and discernment intensives run two to four days. Individual intensives run one or two days. Days are scheduled Thursday through Monday and run approximately 10am to 5pm EST with breaks built in; start times are adjusted to local time zone for online clients. Multi-day configurations are built collaboratively based on what the work requires. Intensives are available in-person in New York City or Brooklyn, online worldwide, or on-site for extended engagements where travel makes sense.
What kinds of clients does this work serve?
The intensive model draws people who are used to doing things at a high level and want the same of their therapeutic work. Many are founders, executives, or people navigating the specific relational complexity that comes with significant professional visibility or success. A particular focus: interracial and intercultural couples, people carrying immigrant experience alongside achievement, and individuals whose high-functioning presentation has made it easier to manage than to actually feel what's there.
How do I know if this is the right fit?
The inquiry process is designed to answer exactly that question. Submit a brief description of what's bringing you here: what you're navigating, what you've tried, and what you're hoping for. A short conversation follows. If the work, the timing, and the fit feel right to both of us, I'll move forward with scheduling. If not, you'll leave with a clear sense of what would actually serve the situation.
Are there situations where intensive work isn't the right fit?
Yes. Intensive work isn't appropriate when someone is currently experiencing untreated psychiatric instability, a serious pattern of self-medication, or active patterns of violence or sexual acting out toward self or others. These situations require dedicated treatment first, and I'm happy to refer to the right specialists. Once those concerns are stabilized, intensive work often becomes possible as part of a broader treatment plan.
Can I do intensive work alongside my existing therapist?
Often, yes. Intensives can function adjunctively to ongoing weekly therapy or coaching. Many of my clients keep their primary therapist throughout, and the intensive work becomes a concentrated container for the specific relational or somatic work that benefits from sustained time. Coordination with your existing provider is welcome where appropriate.
"Francesca has, in only a few sessions so far, changed how I view myself, my patterns, and my relationships for the better. Her work with me has made me a calmer, more grounded person who is more in touch with all the complex parts of myself."
B.M. · Couples Client