Somatic trauma therapy intensives for women
When understanding isn't enough to change how it feels, the work can go deeper.
For the woman everyone leans on, and the parts of her still waiting for care.
Private, in-person trauma therapy intensives of three to five days in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Clients travel to Lancaster from across the country and around the world.
You may recognize yourself here
Thoughtful, capable, and carrying something that hasn't fully shifted.
Many of the women I work with hold a lot for others, often in caregiving, helping, or leadership roles. They've done meaningful work and built real insight. And in quieter moments, they may notice:
- Reading the room before you've sat down, and feeling a pause in conversation land in your body
- Saying yes before checking in with yourself, and smoothing things over to keep others calm
- Second-guessing your own instincts, especially about people
- Wanting closeness and pulling away from it at the same time
- Feeling braced, numb, or tired in a way rest doesn't seem to touch
Experiences that once required you to stay alert, anticipate others' reactions, or put your own needs aside can continue to shape how you respond long after those circumstances have changed. These patterns often make sense in the context of what you've lived through, even when they no longer serve you in the same way.
If even one or two of these feel familiar, that may be a meaningful place to begin.
What you might be carrying
Therapy for childhood, attachment, and sexual trauma.
My work centers on developmental and attachment trauma: growing up without consistent safety, attunement, or care. For many of the women I work with, that history also includes sexual abuse or assault, in childhood, adulthood, or both.
If part of you still believes it was your fault
Some survivors carry a belief that something they did led to what happened, and that belief can make it hard to trust yourself afterward.
Freezing, complying, or trying to manage another person's reactions can be ways of responding when a situation feels threatening or difficult to escape. These responses do not make you responsible for another person's actions, and compliance or an involuntary response is not the same as consent. You can decide what you want to share in our work together.
My work also often includes
- Betrayal trauma, including family and institutional betrayal
- Shame, and the urge to hide that comes with it
- Preverbal trauma, from before there were words to describe it
- Moral injury
- Vicarious trauma among helpers and healers
- Racial, collective, and ancestral trauma
- Medical trauma
- Complicated grief, including grief for what never was
You don't need to name what you're carrying to begin. Explore what you might be carrying
What can change
These responses made sense once. They may not need to stay in charge.
Maybe you notice yourself bracing, going quiet, or agreeing before you've had time to consider what you want. These responses may have developed for understandable reasons. Therapy can offer space to explore them and consider whether new ways of responding might become possible.
The changes people seek are personal. For some, meaningful work may involve recognizing old patterns, relating differently to past experiences, trusting their own perceptions, or finding more room to respond rather than react. Transformation, when it happens, is not the same for everyone and cannot be prescribed in advance.
Beyond words
When there aren't words for it.
Some experiences are difficult to put into words, particularly experiences from early childhood or times when language was not available. Their effects may show up in bodily sensations, emotional responses, expectations of others, or patterns of relating. We do not always need a complete verbal account of an experience to begin exploring how it affects the present.
I draw on Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting, Internal Family Systems, sand tray, and sound, depending on the person and the work we are exploring. Each offers a different way of attending to experience. Somatic Experiencing works with bodily sensation and the body's responses to stress and threat. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements or tapping, while you hold aspects of a memory in mind. Deep Brain Reorienting attends to the earliest responses that come before an emotion fully forms, particularly around attachment experiences. Internal Family Systems explores the different parts of you, including the protective ones. Sand tray offers a way to work with images and symbols, and sound may be used for rest and grounding between more focused work.
The combination differs from person to person. I draw on these approaches according to your goals, what emerges during our work, and my clinical judgment about what may be helpful.
Why an intensive
More time, more continuity, and room to go deeper.
An intensive offers three to five consecutive days of focused trauma therapy, with continuity that weekly sessions cannot always provide. Having more time together can create opportunities to explore experiences and patterns in greater depth, while allowing flexibility to respond to what emerges during the work.
Transformation doesn't follow a predictable timeline, and when it happens, it looks different for each person. An intensive offers dedicated time to explore the experiences and patterns that continue to affect you, with room for work that may not be possible in the same way during a weekly session. The setting may feel restful to some people. At its core, an intensive is focused trauma therapy.
Each day runs from 9am to 4pm, with approximately six hours of therapy and time for lunch and breaks. A five-day intensive offers up to 30 hours of therapy, close to what nine months or more of weekly sessions adds up to once holidays and missed weeks are counted. Three days offers about 18 hours, closer to five months.
More time together can create different opportunities for therapeutic work, but it does not guarantee a particular outcome. What unfolds will depend on the person, the work, and many factors that cannot be predicted in advance.
Trauma therapy intensive
The somatic trauma therapy intensive
Three, four, or five consecutive days, in person in Lancaster, PA. For women who have done meaningful work and would like more time and continuity than weekly sessions can offer.
$1,500 per day, self-pay: $4,500 for three days, $6,000 for four, or $7,500 for five. A deposit of $1,500 reserves your dates. HSA and FSA cards accepted, with superbills for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Intensive fees and payment
Resourcing
Nourish Your Nervous System
A single 3-hour session focused on resourcing, self-awareness, and skill-building, without trauma reprocessing. $750. Whether it suits where you are is something we can explore together on your call.
How your intensive unfolds
Four phases, much like the moon's own cycle.
We work collaboratively, with opportunities to raise concerns, pause, and adjust the approach as needed. I also use clinical judgment to help determine what is appropriate to explore and when a different approach may be called for.
A first conversation
New moon
A complimentary 45-minute phone call to explore what you're hoping for and whether an intensive is a fit. There's no obligation to continue.
Preparing
Waxing crescent
If you decide to move forward, a deposit of $1,500 reserves your dates, and a guidebook helps you prepare. We begin shaping the focus of your intensive before you arrive.
The intensive
Full moon
Three to five days of focused, in-person work, with time for reflection, breaks, and adjustments as needed.
Integration
Waning moon
We close our time together and plan for the weeks after, which may include your current therapist, routines at home, or time to let things settle.
Vanessa Simmons, LPC, SEP
Body-centered, trauma-focused, and collaborative.
I specialize in developmental and attachment trauma, especially with women who are often the ones others lean on, in caregiving, leadership, and helping professions.
I'm an EMDRIA Certified Therapist, Approved Consultant, and Approved Trainer, and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. While much of my work is with women, I welcome adults of every gender, sexual orientation, and relationship structure.
Traveling for your intensive
Easy to reach from across the country and abroad.
Lancaster is about 40 minutes from Harrisburg International Airport, about 90 minutes from Philadelphia and BWI, and on Amtrak's direct line from New York and Philadelphia.
Questions people often ask
Trauma therapy intensives, answered simply.
What is a trauma therapy intensive?
A trauma therapy intensive is focused trauma therapy delivered over several consecutive days instead of one session a week. At Meadow Grove Counseling, intensives run three to five days in person in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Each day runs from 9am to 4pm, with approximately six hours of therapy and time for lunch and breaks, drawing on approaches such as Somatic Experiencing and EMDR.
Do I have to talk about what happened?
No. You do not have to recount every detail of what happened for us to begin working together. What we explore and how we approach it will depend on your goals, the modality being used, and what is clinically appropriate. You can raise concerns or ask for a pause at any point.
How many days should I choose?
Intensives run three, four, or five consecutive days. Three days provides substantial time for focused work. Four or five days allow more time for exploration, breaks, and integration before the intensive concludes. The best length depends on your goals and circumstances.
Who is a trauma therapy intensive a good fit for?
Intensives tend to suit thoughtful, high-functioning adults, especially women, who have done prior therapy and sense something hasn't fully shifted. They're often a fit for attachment trauma, sexual abuse or assault, betrayal, and shame. Fit depends on readiness and safety, and we explore it together on your call.
When might an intensive not be the right fit?
An intensive involves concentrated therapeutic work over a short period, so depending on what you're experiencing and the support available to you, another form of care may be a better starting point. That can include OCD that hasn't had specialized treatment, substance or alcohol use that feels hard to manage, or thoughts of harming yourself or others with a plan or intent. Readiness depends on more than a diagnosis, and we can talk it through on your call. If you're in crisis, you can call or text 988 in the U.S.
How much does an intensive cost, and does insurance cover it?
Intensives are $1,500 per day and self-pay: $4,500 for three days, $6,000 for four, or $7,500 for five. A deposit of $1,500 reserves your dates. HSA and FSA cards are accepted, and a superbill is available for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Full details are on the Investment page.
More questions? See the full trauma therapy intensive FAQ.
If something in you is curious, you're welcome to reach out.
A first step can be a short conversation, with no pressure and no obligation.