Intensives

Hi. This is Dave Kats from Therapist Consultants.

I have a tip for you. Have you ever thought about doing intensives? You know what intensives are? Intensives are sessions that you do that are longer than just your 50 minute sessions. It could be that you do a three hours intensive. It could be that you do a 6 hour, 8 hour, 12 hour, even 18 hour intensive.

I have two therapists that work with this and do intensives very well. They specialized in marriage therapy. If a married couple is having a problem, they always give them the opportunity to go through an intensive rather than to get their care 50 minutes at a time spread over 18 weeks. This couple can come in and they can get a lot of their needs and lot of their work behind them just by doing this intensive.

If there is a situation where there’s been unfaithfulness in a relationship, or if one partner is trying to decide whether to stay or to leave, probably 50 minutes once a week for a while isn’t enough. The decisions are going to be made between those times. It’s probably good for you to sit down with them and offer them an intensive, let’s say, just a three hours in the morning, and three hours in the afternoon. It be a great way to save a marriage. It’s also a good way to improve your practice.

I will tell you that many people that I talked to, that are involved in marriage therapy say they wish they could have more intense training. Maybe that’s a thing for you to do. Why don’t you think about starting to do marriage intensives, or any type of intensive -- even for depression, or anger, anxiety, anything like that? Do these intensives which may last two, three, four, five, six, maybe even 10 or 12, or 18 hours, and what you’ll do you find out you’ll accomplish a lot more with the patient. The patient will get lot more accomplished in a shorter period of time. You make a lot more money in the practice in doing these intensives over a period of time.

Now here’s one thing you got to remember, it’s not a sales job. You’re not trying to sell somebody on going and taking six hours worth of intensive. It’s just an opportunity that you give them. Think about it yourself. If you are in deep depression and wondering if you’re going to come out, wouldn’t you want to spend more than just 50 minutes with the therapist once a week? If you’re having depression, every single day all the time wouldn’t you want to get passed it faster than that? Or if you are having a marriage problem and you are trying to save your marriage, isn’t it more than just 50 minutes a week that you would want to work on this problem? I think it’s something that is ripe for intensives.

I’m not a therapist, so I can’t speak as a therapist. I feel that if I were a therapist that intensives would be part of my repertoire of things that I give them to help them move forward with their life after they’ve had a challenge.

This is Dave Kats, just think about doing intensive. Oh, yes, not a sales job, just something you offer everybody so that they can get more relief quicker.

This is Dave Kats, thanks for listening.