How Busy Professionals Can Make Time for Mental Health with Therapy Intensives

Jul 15

Busy people know best how valuable time is. We are all constantly dividing and balancing our time between various responsibilities, tasks, and expectations from others. This might include work, family, friends, hobbies, physical activity, and other self-care. Most of the time, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to find time leftover for the things we really want or need to do to take care of ourselves. Our sleep schedule suffers, nutrition becomes rocky, and time for movement becomes nonexistent. While I’m not here to lecture you about the importance of prioritizing our basic physical and emotional needs, I am here to tell you one thing; I get it.

Even as a person who works in the mental health space, I too have a hard time always prioritizing my needs. I know that for me, it can feel daunting and overwhelming just to plan out my week and figure out where to fit in certain things. Work demands certain time and energy, kids or aging parents might need a lot of attention, and sometimes just getting through the day can be exhausting. Least of all, our mental health. When we are constantly go-go-go, it gets really draining over time, and exposure to constant stress and overwhelm can lead to feeling burned out. Once you’re burned out, even checking in on your emotions, feelings, or body sensations can feel like too much.

Why Professionals Struggle to Prioritize Mental Health

I find that busy professionals with high-stress jobs, people who have always been overachievers, and those with perfectionist tendencies struggle the most to slow down (Eldest daughters, I’m looking at you). This can be for a variety of reasons, including expectations at work, inability to take time off, internal pressure to achieve, or just being so comfortable with stress that slowing down actually feels impossible.

These are the very same people who tend to get burned out most. Burnout is different for everyone, and might look/feel like: complete exhaustion on a daily basis, struggling to cope with stress or other emotions, difficulty sleeping, neglecting physical needs, irritability, cynicism, difficulty concentrating, decreased empathy/care, declining performance, and more.

Why Therapy Intensives Make Sense for You

This is where therapy intensives can be an incredible tool. Therapy intensives are actually designed for busy schedules. Instead of working towards progress over months of weekly therapy, intensives offer deep, targeted healing in a compressed timeframe. Think of it as the difference between slowly dripping water onto dry soil versus soaking it in a nourishing rainstorm. The results come faster and sink deeper.

Burnout is so much more than exhaustion; it’s disconnection: from purpose, from emotions, and from yourself. Weekly therapy can help work through that over time, but intensives dive straight into the core. Over a matter of hours over a few days, you’re able to process the deep emotional impact through focused support and tailored strategies. Using EMDR and art therapy, my intensives offer an even deeper approach, using proven modalities to achieve somatic, emotional, and intentional healing to help you get your joy, confidence, and sense of purpose back. They don’t require you to rearrange your life or schedule indefinitely; instead, they meet you where you are and help you move forward, quickly and compassionately.

Self-Care is Strategic, Not Selfish

For overachievers and driven professionals, you might feel an unspoken pressure to keep pushing, be productive, and that taking breaks is a sign of weakness. But what if the smartest, most healthy decision isn’t actually doing more, but taking a true step back? Burnout strikes when you’re doing too much, for too long, without restoration. And that’s exactly why therapy intensives are right for you.

I want to really challenge the outdated belief that taking time for yourself signals weakness or inefficiency. In truth, ignoring your emotional and physical limits is what drains your energy, affects your decision-making, and has a huge impact on your overall wellbeing. Therapy intensives flip the script. They aren’t about escaping your responsibilities, they’re about taking a break so that you can return to your daily life feeling stronger, clearer, and more focused.

This isn’t about hitting pause forever. It’s about taking a deliberate, efficient step back, so you can move forward with more peace and purpose than ever.

If you’re wondering how therapy intensives can fit into your life, let’s talk! A free intro call is a great way to explore what an intensive could do for you and how it can work with your schedule. Open to clients in Maryland, Colorado, and South Carolina.