How Therapy Intensives Can Help You Move Forward When You Feel Stuck
Feeling stuck—whether in your personal growth, relationships, or therapy—can be a frustrating and isolating experience. You may find yourself thinking about the same concerns over and over, understanding why you feel the way you do, yet still feeling unable to make forward progress. Many people describe this as being on pause while life continues moving around them.
Clients who come to my private practice in Tampa, Florida are often insightful, self-aware, and highly motivated. They’ve read the books, listened to the podcasts, and engaged in weekly therapy. And yet, they still find themselves feeling stuck, wondering why change feels so hard despite their effort.
If this resonates, it doesn’t mean you’re failing at therapy—or at life. What it could mean is that your nervous system and internal world need a different kind of support. This is where therapy intensives for growth can offer a powerful and compassionate next step.
Why We Sometimes Feel Stuck
Feeling stuck is not a personal flaw. From a trauma-informed and Internal Family Systems (IFS) perspective, it’s often a sign that your system is trying to protect you.
Some of the most common reasons people feel stuck include:
Unresolved or Stored Trauma
Trauma isn’t always about what happened (or didn’t happen) — it’s about how the nervous system learned to respond. Even when you intellectually understand your past, your body may still be holding onto unfinished stress responses. When trauma lives in the body rather than in conscious memory, traditional talk therapy can sometimes feel limited.
Repetitive Emotional or Behavioral Patterns
Many clients notice recurring cycles such as perfectionism, people-pleasing, self-criticism, anxiety spirals, or control (for example when it comes to relationships, body image, and self esteem). These patterns often served an important purpose at one time, but now feel restrictive or exhausting.
Surface-Level Coping Strategies
Coping strategies like distraction, reassurance-seeking, or over-functioning can help you survive day-to-day life, but they don’t always address the root causes of distress. Over time, relying only on surface-level tools can contribute to feeling emotionally stalled.
Protective Parts That Fear Change
From an IFS lens, feeling stuck often reflects protective parts doing their job. One part may want healing and growth, while another fears what might happen if things change. This internal conflict can quietly slow progress, even when your motivation for change is high.
Recognizing these dynamics can be relieving. Feeling stuck isn’t resistance—it’s information.
How Therapy Intensives Create Change
Therapy intensives in Tampa, Florida are designed to work differently than traditional weekly therapy, and they are also available virtually for clients across the state of Florida. Instead of meeting for a short session once a week, intensives offer extended, immersive time dedicated to deeper processing and integration.
This focused structure can allow you to move beyond insight and into *actual* embodied change.
What Makes Therapy Intensives for Growth Different?
Therapy intensives for growth provide:
Sustained time for the nervous system to settle and feel safe
Fewer interruptions to the therapeutic process
Space to follow emotions and body-based responses to completion
Opportunities for quicker insight and deeper integration
Rather than stopping just as something meaningful begins to unfold, intensives allow the work to continue long enough for real shifts to occur.
Brainspotting: Accessing Deeper Processing
Brainspotting is a somatic, brain-based therapy that helps access experiences stored beneath conscious awareness. By using eye position and attuned relational presence, Brainspotting supports the nervous system in processing what it has been holding—often without needing to find the “right” words.
In an intensive format, Brainspotting can:
Support deeper nervous system regulation
Allow emotions to move through rather than remain stuck
Create organic shifts in emotional and physical responses
Many clients experience Brainspotting as breakthrough therapy, not because it’s dramatic or overwhelming, but because it reaches places other approaches couldn’t.
Learn more about Brainspotting
Parts Work (IFS): Creating Internal Alignment
Parts work helps clients understand and relate differently to the various parts inside them—such as anxious parts, critical parts, protective parts, or wounded younger parts.
In an intensive setting, IFS work can:
Help parts feel seen, understood, and less extreme
Reduce inner conflict and self-judgment
Increase access to Self-energy: calm, clarity, curiosity, and compassion
When internal systems feel more aligned, forward movement often becomes more natural.
Real-Life Benefits of Intensive Work
Every therapy intensive is unique, but many clients report meaningful changes during and after their experience. These shifts often extend beyond symptom relief and into daily life.
Common benefits include:
Greater clarity about what has been keeping them stuck
Increased self-trust and confidence in decision-making
Reduced anxiety, shame, or emotional reactivity
A gentler, more connected relationship with their body
Less reliance on disordered eating or control-based coping
Renewed motivation and a sense of possibility
Clients often share that things don’t feel “fixed,” but they feel more workable. The weight of being stuck begins to lift, replaced by a sense of movement and choice.
Who Therapy Intensives May Be Especially Helpful For
Therapy intensives can be a strong fit if you:
Feel stuck despite insight and effort
Want deeper work than weekly therapy allows
Are navigating trauma, anxiety, body image distress, or disordered eating recovery
Are facing a life transition or decision point
Want focused support in a contained, intentional format
Intensives can be used on their own or alongside ongoing therapy, depending on your needs.
If you’ve been feeling stuck and are longing for deeper movement, a therapy intensive may offer the momentum you need. Intensives can be impactful on their own, or as an add-on to the more consistent therapy that you might already be doing. I’m always happy to connect with your current therapist to see if our work together could help as an additional service.
I offer therapy intensives in Tampa, Florida, as well as virtual therapy intensives for adults across the state of Florida. Each intensive is thoughtfully designed using Brainspotting and parts work (IFS) to support trauma healing, body image work, anxiety, and disordered eating recovery.
I offer a free consultation to help you explore whether a Brainspotting and parts work intensive is the right fit for your goals and circumstances.
Schedule a free consultation today to learn more about breakthrough therapy and how therapy intensives for growth in Tampa, Florida can support your next step forward.
About the Author
Keri Baker, LCSW, is a therapist based in Tampa, Florida, who works with adult women feeling stuck in patterns around food, body image, anxiety, and self-doubt. Her work is grounded in a trauma-informed, weight-inclusive approach and draws from Internal Family Systems (IFS), Brainspotting, and ACT. Keri offers both weekly therapy and therapy intensives, supporting clients in creating deeper, more sustainable change—at a pace that honors their nervous system.
