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Anxiety does not live only in the mind. It rides the breath, tightens the jaw, clamps the belly, and keeps the eyes scanning for danger. If you have tried to think your way out and found that logic barely touches the agitation, you are not broken, you are human. The physiology of threat runs faster and deeper than thought. Somatic Experiencing, often shortened to SE, gives you a map back into the body so the nervous system can complete what it started, discharge stored survival energy, and settle into a steadier baseline. I came to this work after years of helping high achievers who could ship a product on Friday and lie awake on Saturday with their heart skipping and their shoulders burning as if they were still in a meeting. They could recite coping strategies and reframe cognitive distortions. Still, their legs hummed under the desk, their stomach flared, and the threat reflex snapped back whenever an email preview flashed. The shift happened when we slowed down enough to feel what their bodies were doing in real time. From there, the system began to organize itself. How anxiety shows up in the body Anxiety is not one pattern. I often see two broad presentations. The first is revved up, a sympathetic charge that looks like a fast heart, short breath, hot hands, a sense of being pushed from the inside. The second looks slower on the surface but is no calmer, a dorsal pattern with heavy limbs, hollow chest, and a faraway quality in the eyes. Many people oscillate between both. Minutes spent noticing the details matter, because the way we help a buzzing chest differs from the way we help a frozen belly. When clients describe their anxiety, I ask where it starts, how it moves, and what it wants to do. I might hear, my breath gets stuck just under my collarbones, or, my calves feel like they are trying to run. That language, concrete and simple, gives us a door into the physiology. We do not need to rehash every historical stressor to begin working. We begin where sensation is available and tolerable. The physiology underneath The autonomic nervous system governs the survival responses that generate anxiety sensations. It has two main branches. The sympathetic branch mobilizes you to act, raising heart rate, pulling blood to large muscles, narrowing focus. The parasympathetic branch includes slower, restorative states, yet it also holds the potential to shut you down when overwhelmed. That shutdown is not rest, it is a protective drop in activation that can look like numbness or collapse. In SE, we track these shifts as they occur. Orientation is the first step, and it is not a trick. When you gently look around a room, letting the head and neck move, the eyes soften, and the spine lengthen, you invite the brainstem out of tunnel vision. From there, titration, working with small bits of activation, and pendulation, moving attention between sensations of activation and sensations of steadiness, help the system discharge in digestible amounts. The work is precise and slow. Racing through big catharses can feel dramatic, but in my experience they often backfire, leaving people more raw. A felt sense of safety Safety in SE is not a positive affirmation. It is a set of signals the nervous system can detect. Weight in the seat, back supported, a clear exit in sight, the sound of your own slower exhale, the outline of a tree through a window, a hand you trust on your shoulder, these are safety cues. They are contextual, and they change. A body that grew up near a coastline might breathe easier when it hears waves. Another might soften when it smells cut grass. We experiment. A client who worked in emergency medicine told me that fluorescent lights and faint beeps made his jaw clench even months after a rough shift. We did not argue with the reaction. We dimmed the light and used a small battery candle as a focus. Two minutes of orienting to the warm flicker became a reliable entry to calmer states. That intervention might sound small. Small is the point. Tiny, repeatable signals train the system more effectively than occasional heroic efforts. The skill of tracking Tracking is the craft at the heart of somatic work. You learn to notice changes in temperature, tension, micro-movements, impulse to swallow, tears forming, a micro-sigh, a twitch in the foot, the weight of the tongue, the urge to turn your head to the right for no obvious reason. These shifts are not random. They are how the nervous system speaks. Your job is not to interpret every gesture, but to stay with them long enough that a wave completes. I keep timelines in my notes. If a client reports a tightness in the sternum at minute three, a swallow at minute five, a yawn at minute seven, and a drop of the shoulders at minute eight, we have a pattern of discharge. Over two or three sessions, if the shoulders start dropping at minute three instead of minute eight, we know we are moving in the right direction. Objective anchors help when subjective experience fluctuates. A brief, repeatable reset You cannot live in a therapy room. You also need tools that travel. The following routine is one I teach early. It takes less than three minutes, and you can do it in a parked car, a bathroom stall, or at your desk with your camera off. Let your eyes land on three distinct objects in your space. Take time with each one. Note a color, a shape, a texture. Let the head move, not just the eyes. Feel for the most supported part of your body. It might be your sit bones or your back against the chair. Put a hand there if you like. Imagine you are slightly heavier on the exhale. Place one hand on your ribs and one on your low belly. Breathe in a way that moves your hands just a little. You are not forcing deep breaths. Aim for a longer, slower exhale, even by half a second. Track a neutral or pleasant sensation, even if small, like warmth in the hands or the weight of your feet. Stay with it for three or four breaths. Gently scan for any impulse to move, stretch, or orient again. Follow one impulse for a few seconds. End by noticing the space behind you. You might feel only a five percent shift the first few times. That is worth keeping. Stacking small shifts beats chasing a single big relief that does not hold. Completing what never finished Anxiety often carries the imprint of incomplete defensive responses. If you https://privatebin.net/?3640057ff9599621#9v6AxJ9eiv5jzoHwoYtZgqec858r4wmdVUnJM7wnfSXi swerved to avoid a collision and did not have time to shake afterward, the arousal can remain in the system. If you endured threat you could not fight or flee, your body may have prepared to move then locked the brakes. SE invites careful completion. This does not mean acting out. It means noticing the impulse to push, reach, turn, or step, then letting that impulse express in a contained, titrated way. In one session a client felt a pressure in her palms. When I asked what her hands wanted to do, she said, push something away. We placed a yoga block against my palms. She pushed slowly, eyes open, tracking sensation. A tremor traveled up her forearms, then she exhaled in a way she had not in months. We spent time orienting after, letting her system register that the push happened and nothing bad followed. The next week she reported that the panic peaks during afternoon meetings had dropped by a third. Not gone, but reduced enough that she could intervene earlier. The role of breath, with caveats Breathwork is often prescribed for anxiety, but aggressive deep breathing can worsen symptoms in some people, especially those with chronic hyperventilation patterns or trauma around suffocation. In SE I emphasize exhale lengthening over big inhales, and I watch carefully for dizziness, numb fingers, or a sense of unreality. Sighs, yawns, and small spontaneous breaths are more trustworthy signals than counted boxes. If a client reports feeling floaty after breath practices, we cut the dose, add more contact through the feet, or choose different anchors like vocalization or humming that engage the vagus nerve without forcing breath volume. Trauma therapy, intensives, and how SE fits Somatic Experiencing can stand alone, and it also plays well with others. Many practices now offer intensives, condensed therapy blocks that range from a half day to several days. When designed carefully, intensives allow you to build momentum, minimize the relearning that happens between weekly sessions, and target specific patterns. For clients with a stable support network and predictable triggers, a three day block can move the needle in ways that surprise them. EMDR intensives are another avenue. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing can process traumatic memory efficiently when the system is resourced. SE principles, like orienting and titration, help before and during EMDR to prevent overwhelm. I have paused EMDR sets to let a client complete a partial turn of the head, or to feel the support under their knees, then resumed. The processing went faster once the body had what it needed. IFS therapy, short for Internal Family Systems, dovetails well with SE too. IFS maps parts, like the anxious manager who checks the stove or the exhausted firefighter who drinks to shut it down. SE adds the physiology that those parts ride. When a protector part says, do not slow down, if you slow down something bad will happen, we can ask where in the body that worry lives. Maybe it is a tight ball behind the sternum. We pendulate attention between the part’s story and the sternum’s sensation, inviting curiosity. Often a part will soften once the body sensation underlying its urgency begins to shift. The trade-offs with intensives are real. They demand time, money, and space to recover. For active substance dependence, acute suicidality, or unstable housing, weekly care with strong case management is safer. Even for stable clients, I schedule lighter days after an intensive because the body keeps integrating. Expect fatigue and vivid dreams. Measure outcomes not only by symptom reduction but by capacity gains, like spending more unstructured time without spiraling, or catching early cues before a panic spike. Working with panic without feeding it Panic attacks feel catastrophic, but they follow patterns. The heart rate spikes, the chest tightens, the throat narrows, vision tunnels, tingling spreads, a conviction that something terrible is happening arrives. If you fight the sensations head on, you add another layer of mobilization. If you collapse, you risk reinforcing helplessness. The sweet spot is contact without fusion. I will often have clients practice, outside of panic, touching a rising arc of activation then stepping back. We might simulate a mild breath restriction by holding a straw and breathing through it for two inhales, then orient to the room and feel the feet. We might climb one flight of stairs and stand still, feeling the heart, then look left and right, count three blue objects, and place a hand on the back of the neck. The goal is to pair activation with choice and orientation so the next real spike is less likely to sweep them away. Burnout is not just tired Many anxious clients also meet the criteria for burnout. It is not simply long hours. It is the combination of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism, and a drop in your sense of effectiveness. The nervous system learns that effort equals depletion, and it gets stingier with energy allocation. In somatic terms, you see more abrupt drops into low-energy states, trouble sustaining engagement, and a craving for dissociative relief in the evenings. Body-based tools help, but the system also needs structural changes. I tell clients that no amount of breathwork can compensate for a calendar that steals recovery time. Still, even while you plan changes, you can build capacity with modest daily practices. Two minutes of orienting between meetings, an honest stop at the first sign of visual blur, a rule that no news enters your eyes before your first warm drink, these are interventions with a nervous system rationale. Burnout recovery is less like training for a race and more like rehabbing a stress fracture. Consistency matters more than intensity. Touch, containment, and consent Some SE work uses touch. Light contact on the shoulders, gentle support under the knees, or a steadying hand at the sacrum can help the system register support and complete movements. I use touch sparingly, with explicit consent, and I narrate before and during. Clients always get the last word. For many, self-touch works equally well. A hand under the ribs, the other cupping the back of the head, or palms gently compressing the thighs gives clear input without crossing boundaries. If a client has a trauma history with touch, we may never use it. You can achieve significant shifts with visual orientation, proprioceptive feedback through pressure on the feet, or vocalization that vibrates the chest. The principle is to add just enough input that the nervous system has something trustworthy to organize around. A realistic case vignette S., a 38 year old product lead, came in with 12 years of high performance and a quiet panic that she was about to lose it. She slept four to five hours a night, jolted awake at 4 a.m., and ran six miles most days to keep her mind from racing. She planned to leave her job but felt stuck, oscillating between frenzied application sprints and days of scrolling. We started by building orientation. In the first session she could not keep her eyes on an object for more than two seconds without a pull to check her phone. We set the phone behind her, out of sight. That mattered. Her shoulders dropped after five minutes of orienting. The next week she noticed a buzzing in her thighs during status meetings. Her words were, my legs want to bolt. We put a resistance band around her ankles under the desk at home and practiced pressing out against it during a mock meeting. She cried, quietly, after, and said, I did not know I could feel this without it eating me. Over eight sessions, we layered small completions. A gentle push into a wall for the impulse to set boundaries she had swallowed. A turning of the head to the right that brought a soft sob, then warmth in the chest. We added one session of EMDR, with SE pacing, to process a memory of being publicly criticized by an early mentor. The bilateral stimulation brought images, and the somatic anchors kept her out of overwhelm. Her sleep stretched to six and a half hours by week six. By week eight she was pausing before runs to ask what her body actually wanted. Twice she walked slowly around her block instead, a bigger win than any sprint. Two months later, she negotiated a four day schedule for a quarter, citing clear metrics she had tracked. She still had anxious days, but they did not run the show. She described the difference as going from a radio blaring static to a station I can turn down or change. That is the target, not bliss but choice. Measurement that matters Somatic work gains power when you measure change. Not just symptom frequency, but markers of capacity. I ask clients to note how quickly they notice early cues, how fast they return to baseline after being startled, how many minutes of focused rest they can tolerate without grabbing a device, how many sips it takes to finish a cup of tea before it goes cold, whether they can sit on a park bench and feel the air on their cheeks for three breaths without planning the next task. These micro-metrics may sound quaint. They are not. They map to autonomic flexibility. I also track heart rate variability when clients already use a device, with the caveat that chasing numbers can become a fresh source of anxiety. If a wearable adds pressure, we skip it. The body’s internal reports carry more weight. When to slow down or seek more support Body-based tools are not a panacea, and there are times to shift approach. The following checkpoints help you pace wisely. You feel worse for more than 24 hours after practices, with increased nightmares or startle. You experience frequent dissociation, losing time or space, during or after exercises. You notice a strong urge to self-harm or use substances after sessions or home practice. You have a medical condition that interacts with breath or pressure changes, like POTS or uncontrolled asthma. You do not have enough daily safety, like housing or food, to benefit from deeper work right now. If any of these apply, slow down, shorten practices to 30 seconds, emphasize orientation and external anchors, and consider working with a therapist trained in somatic experiencing, EMDR intensives, or IFS therapy who can titrate the work and coordinate with medical care. There is no prize for pushing through. Bringing somatic tools into ordinary days You do not need to add an hour to your schedule. You need to insert moments that shift state. While the kettle warms, orient to three sounds. Between calendar blocks, feel where your back meets the chair and let your eyes look at something far, then near. When you feel a familiar surge in your chest, see if there is a micro impulse to turn or press, and explore it for ten seconds. Keep your experiments small. If a tool helps, make it more frequent rather than longer. If a tool backfires, set it aside and try another. Curiosity is a regulator. On days that go sideways, use a reset ritual that marks the transition home. It might be a slower walk from the car to the door, touching the doorframe with the back of your knuckles and noticing its temperature, then a deliberate drink of water while standing still. Rituals tell the body, the hunt is over for now. Over weeks, the body believes you. The long view Nervous systems change with repetition, relationship, and respect. If you practice body-based tools with an attitude of inspection or punishment, your system will fight you. If you approach with a warm, matter of fact interest, the body will show you what it needs. Most clients who work steadily for three to six months report fewer spikes, faster recovery from setbacks, and more access to calm without forcing it. Not perfection, but better choices and wider windows. Somatic experiencing offers a way to turn toward the body with skill. It will not erase the realities that cause stress, and it does not absolve employers or systems of their role in burnout. It does give you leverage over the gears that grind from the inside. Paired with wise use of intensives when appropriate, and with the narrative clarity of IFS therapy or the targeted processing of EMDR intensives, it opens a path that is both humane and practical. The work is subtle on the surface. Beneath that, the changes are profound. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

Anxiety is not a single thing. It is a pattern the nervous system adopts when it senses potential threat and does not trust that the future will be manageable. Some people feel it as a hum behind the ribs, others as a rush in the jaw and forearms, a twitchy readiness that demands movement. For a parent balancing remote work with a toddler on the floor and a parent in the hospital, anxiety might be the late night second wind that makes the spreadsheet tight and the heart tighter. For a CEO, it can be a tight throat before the board meeting plus the sudden drop into numbness on the way home. For a graduate student, it is the sizzle in the stomach when the email dings, followed by a 3 a.m. Search for certainty. If we only call all of this anxiety, we often miss the body’s intent. Polyvagal theory, Somatic Experiencing, and IFS therapy give us a different map. They do not chase symptoms. They ask what the system is attempting to do, what it learned in earlier seasons of life, and how to help it complete what was interrupted. When these frameworks converge, people stop fighting themselves and start negotiating with a living, adaptive system that is trying to protect them. Where symptom management falls short Cognitive strategies have value, but in the thick of panic the prefrontal cortex is not in the driver’s seat. Many clients arrive having collected impressive toolkits: box breathing, cold plunges, journaling, supplements, sleep trackers, productivity apps. They help, until the next curveball. The default plan becomes more of the same, longer morning routines, stricter rules, stronger coffee. The problem is not the tools, it is timing and state. When the nervous system is in high sympathetic activation, a logic-heavy intervention can feel like being reasoned with while a fire alarm screams. Similarly, if the system has flipped into dorsal shutdown, even a gentle breath practice can feel like a heavy lift. We need a sequence that honors the body’s speed limits, then a way to welcome the parts of us that fear change. The body’s logic: a polyvagal map of anxiety Polyvagal theory describes three primary states, all of them adaptive. In ventral vagal, we feel connected and capable. In sympathetic arousal, we mobilize to confront challenge, which can feel like focus or fear depending on context and support. In dorsal vagal shutdown, we conserve energy, collapse, or dissociate when fight or flight seem impossible. Anxiety often lives in the gray zones between these states, where the system keeps scanning for mismatch: too much novelty, not enough relational safety, or a history of surprise. Two practical takeaways arise from this map. First, anxiety often signals an incomplete mobilization. The body has a readiness to act, but no clear target or a remembered rule to hold still. Second, state shifts faster through sensation and movement than through thought. A question like where in your body do you feel the urge to move is often more useful than why are you anxious. The answer might be calves, jaw, hands, tongue. Now we have an entry point that is not a debate, it is an experiment. I worked with a software engineer who reported a two hour spike of jitters every afternoon. He had tried decaf, noise canceling headphones, and a perfect ergonomic chair. When we tracked his physiology, the rush always began after a standup meeting where he underplayed a concern to avoid conflict. His calves buzzed, his eyes darted, his breath grew shallow. He did not need to discover a childhood story first. He needed a clean exit ramp for that mobilization. A 90 second walk to the stairwell, one set of slow calf raises, a long exhale with pursed lips, then a text to a colleague to clarify his point. Over six weeks he reduced the daily spike to 10 minutes. Later we did the deeper work about why conflict felt off limits, but we earned that conversation by meeting his nervous system where it was. Somatic Experiencing: completing what the body started Somatic Experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, treats anxiety as stored survival energy that can be titrated and discharged. The method is deceptively simple: track sensation, pendulate between activation and resource, and allow spontaneous completion movements. https://rentry.co/22mkmb4t Clients often describe this as finally getting to scratch an itch they did not know they had. The sequencing matters. If you ask someone stuck in sympathetic activation to dive into the most charged memory, you are likely to amplify overwhelm. If you slow down too much with someone who trends dorsal, you might cement shutdown. SE teaches practitioners to follow the micro signs: a swallow, a breath that gets longer at the end, warmth rising in the chest, a slight urge to push with the hands. These are not random. They are the body showing the way out. In practice, I might ask a client to notice their feet on the floor, then their back against the chair, then the place that feels least bad. If the jaw is tight, can the tongue rest on the floor of the mouth and widen a hair. If the hands feel buzzy, can one hand press thoughtfully into the other while the eyes stay soft. The goal is not catharsis, it is completion. People often expect a big release. In my office the most reliable progress markers are small and repeatable. A client who used to hold their breath without noticing now catches the inhale lock and lets it go within seconds, five times in one session. That change reduces daily symptoms more than any epic breakthrough speech. The trade off is patience. SE is not a quick-hit protocol, although it can resolve some acute panic patterns in a few sessions when the fit is right. It shines when you need a steady reorganization of threat physiology, especially when the person has endured chronic stress, medical procedures, or developmental trauma that trained the system to go fast and stay fast. It also integrates well with structured memories work like EMDR, because it builds state range and a reliable brake pedal. IFS therapy: befriending the anxious protectors Internal Family Systems, or IFS therapy, treats the mind as an ecosystem of parts, each with a job that made sense at the time it formed. Anxiety often comes from protectors who anticipate catastrophe and mobilize early. They might take the shape of a planner who cannot sleep until three contingency plans are ready, or a critic who keeps you small to avoid attention, or a catastrophizer who thinks vivid worst case scenarios are a form of love. Underneath those protectors you tend to find exiles, younger parts who carry fear and shame from times when the world was bigger than their capacity. The heart of IFS is not logic, it is relationship. We help the client access what IFS calls Self, a calm, curious, compassionate presence that can get to know each part without being swallowed by it. When a part trusts Self, it tends to soften. It will not retire early just because we asked nicely. It retires when we have demonstrated that we will no longer leave the younger ones alone. Here is a scene from a composite case. A physician in her forties lived with a relentless internal commentator that predicted loss every time she felt happy. We mapped it as a protector that came online in high school when a best friend suddenly ghosted her. The part said, if we blunt the highs, the lows will not hurt so much. In sessions, when the protector got loud, we did not push it aside. We interviewed it respectfully. What are you afraid would happen if you relax by 5 percent. It answered with imagery, not sentences, a vision of falling through a trapdoor. That was the clue. In SE we tracked the sense of falling and found the impulse to reach and brace with the hands. We let the body do that, slowly, with support, and watched the heat move through the arms. Then in IFS we visited the 15 year old exile who felt blindsided by the friend’s disappearance, offered the presence she lacked then, and updated the protector about our current capacity. Over months, the commentary softened from daily to weekly, then surfaced mainly during transitions. It did not vanish, it changed roles. It became a sentinel that sprints ahead when needed and reports back instead of seizing the wheel. Why intensives sometimes work better than weekly therapy For certain nervous systems, a traditional 50 minute weekly session is like trying to rewire a house 5 minutes at a time. You barely locate the circuit before the hour ends. Intensives change the dosage and the momentum. A two or three day block, each with two to three hours of focused work, allows the system to warm up, do real work, and cool down while the connections are still fresh. I have seen clients make six months of progress in a long weekend when the problem was not complexity but inertia and fragmentation. EMDR intensives add another layer for those with discrete traumatic memories or clearly patterned triggers. When combined with a polyvagal lens, you can check for physiological readiness before targeting memories. When paired with Somatic Experiencing, you can titrate bilateral stimulation to match the body’s current capacity, often using shorter sets and more frequent resourcing than you would in standard EMDR. When integrated with IFS therapy, you can obtain explicit permission from protector parts before approaching an old scene, which dramatically reduces backlash after the intensive. The structure that works most reliably in my practice is this arc: map the nervous system and parts, build two or three reliable bodily resources that drop sympathetic charge, obtain parts permission, then process one to three targets with EMDR pacing that fits the body’s speed. Debrief with parts and the body, then set micro practices for consolidation. Not everyone is a candidate for intensives. People in fresh grief, active substance dependence, or unstable housing often benefit more from consistent weekly contact. Highly dorsal systems can find long days too taxing. Some clients love intensives for a season, then shift to monthly maintenance. The point is to match the format to the physiology and the life context, not to declare one approach superior. Burnout as chronic threat physiology Burnout is not only about workload. It is about mismatch between demand, control, and recovery. Measured in the body, burnout looks like narrow heart rate variability, shallow breath, jaw tension, light sleep, and a flat affect that confuses friends. The person may look competent, but feels like they are piloting from two steps behind. This is not a moral failing. It is a nervous system that learned others first, self later, and never got the signal to stand down. Polyvagal work reframes burnout as a stuck blend of sympathetic and dorsal states. You push hard, then you drop hard, and the transitions are rough. Somatic Experiencing gives you a practice of pendulation so you can move between states with more grace and fewer aftershocks. IFS therapy helps renegotiate the internal contracts that maintain burnout, like the bargain a part made with a parent who praised straight As but withheld warmth. When those contracts update, rest becomes less threatening, which sounds silly until you watch someone discover that relaxing in their body feels like breaking a rule. Numbers matter too. I often ask clients to track a few items for two weeks: hours in nature, minutes of matched inhale and exhale, protein grams before noon, and total minutes of screens after 8 p.m. We do not treat those as commandments, just dials to adjust. The simple act of noticing often changes behavior by 10 to 20 percent, which is enough to lower baseline arousal so that deeper work can land. A practical start between sessions Here is a short sequence I teach when anxiety spikes and you need traction fast. It is not a cure. It is a bridge to help you reach your resources and your parts without getting swept away. Name the state, not the story. Say out loud, my body is in a sympathetic wave, or my system is dipping dorsal. This orients you to physiology, which is actionable. Pick one anchor sensation. Feet on the floor, back on the chair, or palms on thighs. Spend three slow breaths describing the sensation to yourself in simple words like warm, heavy, tingly. Let one clean movement complete. If your calves buzz, rise to your toes and slowly lower five times. If your hands want to push, press them together with 30 percent effort for ten seconds, then rest. Invite the most urgent part to speak through an image or a one line headline. Thank it for the headline. Ask what it is afraid would happen if it did not warn you. Write that sentence down. Close with a social cue. Look at a friendly face, even a photo. Let your eyes track a gentle arc left to right three times. Whisper, right now I am basically safe. Run this sequence for two to five minutes. Then decide whether you need action, comfort, or data. If you cannot tell, choose comfort. Safety, edge cases, and trade offs A small percentage of people find that focusing on bodily sensations makes them dizzier or more panicked. If you have a history of dissociation, vestibular issues, or certain heart conditions, work with a clinician to tailor somatic practices. People on high doses of stimulants or certain antidepressants can find breath practices uncomfortable. That does not mean you cannot do this work, but the dosage needs to fit. Some clients expect that good therapy feels soothing. In reality, productive sessions often include moments of increased activation, followed by settling. If every session feels calm, you may be avoiding the edges where change happens. On the other hand, if you leave every session wrung out, the pacing is off. Look for a ratio across a month, not a single day. A pattern where two sessions feel productive and one feels bumpy is common. If the bumpy ones start to dominate, adjust. IFS therapy is powerful, but if you have strong obsessive features it can become a new rabbit hole. Parts work should reduce rumination, not feed it. Good IFS practice keeps you in Self more often than in endless dialogue. Similarly, Somatic Experiencing should lead to more agency in the body. If you feel more preoccupied with scanning and less able to live your life, bring that to your therapist and simplify the plan. What progress actually looks like People imagine progress as fewer panic attacks and more confidence. That happens, and it is not the first sign. Early wins look like micro shifts: the moment you catch your shoulders climbing and they drop a half inch, the first time you sense your window of tolerance narrowing and step outside for three minutes before the meeting, the morning you wake at 4 a.m. And, instead of scrolling, place a hand on your chest and wait for the first long exhale. These changes add up. Clients often report a 20 to 40 percent reduction in daily anxiety within eight to twelve weeks when we combine SE practices with parts negotiation and targeted behavior changes around sleep and workload. If you measure anything, measure recovery time. How long do you stay stuck after a stressor. Do you return to baseline in two hours instead of two days. The nervous system loves repeated, predictable, small wins. They signal safety better than grand declarations. For therapists: pacing and dosage When integrating these modalities, sequence matters. I tend to begin with a polyvagal map during the first two sessions, not a life story. What accelerates you, what drops you, what co-regulates you, and what false friends seem to help but leave you wired. Then I introduce two reliable downshift practices that fit the person’s body type and preferences. The goal is a shared language and at least one brake pedal before we touch memories or exiles. Parts mapping in IFS can begin as soon as you have a consistent somatic anchor. Ask protectors what they are trying to prevent, then ask what help they want from you. Invite them to set the session agenda by telling you what is safe to touch this week by 5 percent. When you reach a moment that feels charged, consider pausing the story and switching to SE tracking. Give the body two to three minutes to complete a micro movement. Then return to parts dialogue and ask what changed. This back and forth increases trust inside the client’s system, and reduces whiplash after sessions. If you run intensives or EMDR intensives, create a clear pre work plan. I send clients a two page prep that includes sleep targets, a brief food plan for stable glucose, a list of three people who can co regulate, and a plan for 48 hours of light duty afterward. During the intensive, I run shorter bilateral sets than in standard EMDR, often 12 to 18 taps or tones per set, and I pause for SE pendulation every few minutes even if the content is flowing. Parts permission checks happen before, during, and after each target, and we write a literal letter from the protectors at the end stating what they agreed to and what they need if symptoms flare. That letter becomes the compass for the next month. A composite case that ties it together Take Maya, a 35 year old project manager who came in with daily anxiety, Sunday night dread, and three prior attempts at therapy that helped in the room but did not hold in real life. Early sessions revealed a quick sympathetic system, a tendency to push through sensations, and a protector who ran a constant risk forecast. We built two somatic anchors that worked in under a minute: standing foot presses paired with a slow exhale, and a seated hand press that let her feel strong without posturing. We mapped parts and learned that a 7 year old exile carried the memory of a chaotic home and a parent’s unpredictable moods, while a 19 year old protector succeeded in college by over preparing. We scheduled an intensive two months in. By then Maya could downshift from a 7 of 10 to a 4 of 10 in about three minutes using her anchors. During the two day intensive we targeted a specific work memory of public criticism by a previous boss. We obtained parts permission and used short EMDR sets, pausing often for SE tracking. Her body wanted to turn slightly left and brace, so we let that complete, then invited a push against a therapy ball at 30 percent effort. The memory shifted rapidly. On day two we visited the 7 year old exile through IFS and let Maya’s adult Self show up in the scene with tangible comforts, a blanket and a promise to leave the room together. The risk forecasting protector watched and agreed to reduce its volume for one week while we tested new behaviors with a very specific plan: say no to one nonessential meeting, take a 10 minute walk after lunch, and leave the laptop in the kitchen after 8 p.m. Four weeks later, her baseline anxiety was down by about a third. She still had flare ups before big deadlines, but they resolved the same day. The Sunday dread shrank to a dull edge that lifted by midday Monday. We did not eliminate stress. We rebuilt trust inside her system that it could mobilize when needed, then return. Six months out, the numbers held. She described her days as wavy, not jagged. Looking ahead with a kinder map When you see anxiety as a failed logic problem, you tend to double down on thinking. When you see it as a nervous system doing its level best to protect you, the work shifts. You learn the routes between states. You practice finishing things your body started long ago. You meet the parts that took impossible jobs and you update their contracts. You might choose weekly sessions, or an intensive to change the trajectory faster. You might fold in EMDR when specific memories act like tripwires. There is no single correct path, only sequences that fit the way your system learned to survive. I return often to two questions. What is your body trying to do right now, and how can we help it finish by 5 percent. The answers change week to week. That is a good sign. Systems that can adapt tend to heal. Over time, anxiety becomes less a weather pattern and more a signal that you know how to read, with choices you know how to make. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

Anxiety is not just a thought problem. It lives in the body, sets your breath on a tight metronome, tightens your jaw, and convinces your shoulders that they belong somewhere near your ears. You can talk to it, analyze it, argue with it, yet the next morning it greets you as if nothing changed. Somatic experiencing offers a different door. Instead of pushing against anxiety with more cognition, it teaches your nervous system how to complete stress cycles that got interrupted. The work is quiet, precise, and often surprisingly gentle. I have used somatic experiencing, often alongside IFS therapy and, at times, EMDR intensives, with clients ranging from high performing professionals in burnout to first responders who feel they can never be off duty. The skill is not in doing more, but in helping the body feel safe enough to do less. This article lays out what somatic experiencing is, how it eases anxiety, what a session can look like, and where it integrates with other approaches. Expect particulars more than platitudes, because the nervous system likes specifics. What anxiety looks like in the body Anxiety is a strategy, not a character flaw. Under the hood, it is the sympathetic branch of your nervous system pushing you toward action that might prevent a threat. Heart rate quickens, blood shunts to large muscles, pupils widen. If the system cannot complete a response or cannot locate the threat precisely, the charge persists. You feel restless, keyed up, or oddly frozen while your mind races. Many people describe this as gas and brakes pressed at the same time. Chronic anxiety has a way of collapsing into burnout. The physiology tries to run hot for too long, then defaults to shutdown. Picture weeks of poor sleep, clenched muscles, and vigilance, followed by a day when you cannot reply to a single email. Not laziness, not lack of grit, but a body protecting itself from a system that forgot how to idle. This pattern is common among caregivers, physicians, founders, and teachers, where performance often continues long after reserves run low. The core idea of somatic experiencing Somatic experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, works with the body’s natural ability to mobilize and discharge defensive energy. Animals in the wild get chased, freeze, mobilize, escape, and then shake. The shake is not decorative. It is the nervous system resetting. Humans got language, culture, and complicated jobs, and along the way we stopped finishing those cycles. Somatic work reinstates the sequence in micro form, safely and gradually. The method uses titration, small amounts of activation at a time, and pendulation, moving attention between more charged sensations and places of ease. With practice, the body learns that it can touch discomfort without getting flooded. Anxiety stops running the show because the system learns it has a brake pedal, not just an accelerator. I remember a client in her thirties, a nurse practitioner who had not had a full night’s sleep in months. If she sat still, her legs buzzed like soda. She had tried meditation apps, which promptly made her feel trapped. In our first sessions we never closed our eyes. We did not even talk about sleep. We located where safety lived in her body, one square inch at a time. Right heel on the floor. The weight of a sweater across her upper back. We let her legs buzz for four seconds, then returned to the heel and the sweater. Four seconds became ten. Ten became fifteen. After three weeks she reported falling back asleep twice in a night for the first time that year. No resolution of all life stressors. No enlightenment. Just a nervous system that remembered how to dial down. What a session actually looks like People expect to lie on a couch and talk. In somatic experiencing you may sit, stand, or shift around, and the talking revolves around internal sensations. The practitioner tracks micro signs of activation and settling, such as a change in breath, skin color, eye focus, or a spontaneous sigh. You will be invited to notice specifics, not generalities. Where exactly is the tightness. What shape is it. Does it have an edge or a center. Can you find a less tense area and alternate attention between the two. Imagery can help, but it stays tied to the body. A client might describe a knot in the stomach like a fist. The therapist might ask what the fist wants to do, but only while anchoring in a stable resource, perhaps the sensation of the chair under the thighs. We are not dramatizing the fist, not catharsis for its own sake, but allowing incomplete impulses to express in safe, digestible portions. Sessions often run 50 to 60 minutes. Early on, the arc is exploratory. Where do you stabilize. What increases activation too quickly. After two or three sessions a pattern emerges. Many clients report small but real shifts within four to six meetings, such as improved sleep onset, fewer morning jolts of dread, or a decrease in stress headaches. Complex trauma or long term burnout may take months. The pace is not moral, it is biological. Rushing tends to backfire. Techniques you will likely encounter Three skills carry most of the load, though the language varies across practitioners. Orienting. You gently turn your head and eyes to let the visual system confirm safety. Look at the corners of the room, the colors on a bookshelf, the way light lands on a plant. This sounds trivial until you notice you have not really looked at a room you work in every day. The nervous system relaxes when it sees that the present is ordinary. Titration. Instead of charging straight into a panic trigger, you nibble the edge of it. Touch the sensation or memory for a few seconds, then return to a neutral or pleasant anchor. Over time, the range you can tolerate without spinning out expands. Pendulation. You learn to move attention between activation and ease, like scanning between a tight throat and warm hands. The nervous system likes contrast. It organizes itself when it can feel differences. Practitioners may add gentle movements to complete defensive patterns, such as pressing hands into a wall to satisfy a push response, or letting the torso curl forward to finish a protective hunch. The movements are small, permission based, and reversible. Sometimes you simply imagine the motion while feeling your feet on the floor, because imagery can activate the same circuits with less load. Why somatic work helps anxiety specifically Anxiety tries to predict and prevent danger. The brain scans the future, layering what if over what if, because the body is signaling threat without resolution. By resolving the body’s unfinished responses, the brain’s need to catastrophize decreases. You do not have to convince yourself the meeting will be fine; your heart is already beating at a normal rate, so the prediction machine quiets down on its own. This is why people often say, I still had the thought, but it did not grab me. The difference is not a better argument; it is a body that does not feel cornered. With social anxiety, for example, clients often notice two pieces. There is the immediate fear of judgment, and there is a background sense that escape is impossible. Somatic experiencing works both ends. On the front end, you might practice orienting before entering a room, letting the eyes find safe details, which drops arousal. On the back end, you practice micro exits, such as intentionally looking out a window for three breaths during a conversation or shifting weight between feet, so the body believes it has options. After a month of this, people report they still get nervous but no longer feel trapped inside the feeling. Where IFS therapy and EMDR intensives can support the process Somatic experiencing pairs well with other modalities. IFS therapy, which works with parts of the psyche, fits naturally with body based work. A client’s anxious part may show up as a flutter in the chest or a rush of heat in the face. Instead of arguing with that part, we can notice its somatic footprint and offer it direct regulation. Many clients find that when they can feel compassion physically, for instance warmth in the sternum while imagining holding that anxious teen part’s hand, the internal relationship shifts quickly. EMDR intensives, concentrated sessions over one to three days, can accelerate progress when a client has a discrete traumatic episode under the anxiety, such as a car accident that never quite let go. The eye movements or bilateral stimulation help process stuck memories, while somatic experiencing ensures we titrate activation so the system does not flood. I often layer sessions. A morning block working with SE to stabilize, followed by EMDR targeting a specific memory, then a short SE cooldown to integrate. Not everyone needs intensives. For some, weekly pacing works better, particularly if life is already demanding. When considering time limited formats, I look at stability, support system, and capacity for rest after the work. Intensives are a strong tool, not a badge of honor. Burnout through a somatic lens Burnout is anxious physiology on repeat, minus the spikes of hope that usually keep it going. Many clients in burnout can perform at work but feel dead to pleasure. Food loses taste, friends feel far away, vacations become logistics. Somatic experiencing approaches burnout by rebuilding the body’s capacity for small doses of enjoyment first. This is not toxic positivity. It is mechanical. Pleasure requires a nervous system that can receive. If your foot is on the gas all day, the receptors that would enjoy a breeze or a good pear are dimmed. Early sessions often focus on what I call quiet positives. The weight of a ceramic mug in your hand. The sound of a dryer in the next room. Ten minutes in a parked car between errands with your seat reclined four degrees more than usual. These are not life hacks. They are ways of showing your body that life includes neutral and pleasant signals, even in a rough season. As those receptors wake up, anxiety tends to drop, because the nervous system measures not only danger but also safety. The more data points for safety, the less the system has to predict worst cases. A simple at home practice to try If you want a feel for somatic experiencing before working with a professional, try this short practice two or three times a week. Do not use it while driving, and skip it if you have a history of dissociation that worsens with body focus. The point is not to fix anxiety in a sitting, but to build a relationship with your physiology. Sit with both feet supported, eyes open, and let your gaze wander slowly around the room. Name three colors you see. Notice any small softening in your breath. If nothing softens, that is fine. Bring attention to a neutral or pleasant body sensation. Examples include the contact of your back against the chair, warmth in your hands, or the feeling of socks around your ankles. Stay with it for 20 seconds. Now let attention visit a mildly unpleasant sensation. Pick something at a 2 or 3 out of 10, like mild tension around the eyes. Stay for 5 to 10 seconds. Return attention to the neutral or pleasant spot for 20 to 30 seconds. If you sigh or swallow, linger a little longer. Alternate two more times, then look around the room again, letting your neck and eyes move slowly. If you feel foggy, open a window or stand up and press your feet into the floor. If you feel activated beyond comfort, shorten the unpleasant portion next time. This is titration in action. Over several weeks, most people find their range expands. Trade offs, limits, and edge cases No method covers everything. Somatic experiencing is slower than techniques that aim to blunt symptoms fast. If you need to deliver a public talk in five days and panic in front of crowds, cognitive and behavioral skills like paced breathing, structured exposure, or performance scripting may offer more immediate help, while SE builds long term capacity in the background. Some clients with highly dissociative systems find internal focus slippery. They close their eyes and vanish. In these cases I keep eyes open, use external anchors like textured objects, and sometimes start sessions with light movement such as walking while tracking footfalls. Others with complex medical conditions, such as POTS or Ehlers Danlos, can misinterpret interoceptive signals as danger because their body truly produces odd sensations. https://caidenbhmq217.yousher.com/is-an-emdr-intensive-safe-for-high-anxiety Here, education and collaboration with medical providers are essential, and resources may skew more toward vision and touch than heart or gut cues. Unresolved structural or relational problems can outpace the gains from somatic work. If your job routinely demands 70 hour weeks with on call emergencies, your nervous system learns that vigilance is wise. Somatic experiencing helps you regulate in the margins, which matters, but you might also need boundaries, a different role, or a timeline for change. I have seen clients make more ground in two months after a reasonable schedule shift than in a year of therapy with no structural change. How progress unfolds across weeks and months The early wins usually look like micro choices. You notice clenching and soften your hands. You wake at 3 a.m. And do not sprint to worst case scenarios within three breaths. You choose to sit with your back supported in a meeting and discover your voice steadier than usual. These are not small. They are the staircase you need. By two to three months, if sessions are weekly and you practice a few minutes on your own, sleep often improves by 20 to 40 minutes per night, and the number of panic spikes tends to drop. By six months, many clients report that anxiety moves through rather than builds. They still get stressed, but the body completes cycles faster. In some cases, especially when early trauma underlies the anxiety, there are deeper layers to unwind. The difference is that you now have a method to meet each layer without collapse. A brief case vignette with numbers A 41 year old software lead came in with performance anxiety, morning dread at a 7 out of 10, and two panic episodes per week. Sleep was 5 to 6 hours, fragmented. We met weekly for eight sessions, using somatic experiencing as the backbone. In session 1 and 2 we built resources, mostly visual orienting and feet contact. By session 3 we introduced short doses of the trigger, imagining the first 30 seconds of logging into a video standup, then pendulated back to the feeling of his spine supported. By session 5 he reported one panic episode in two weeks, and morning dread at a 5. We added a 90 minute EMDR intensive to target a college presentation memory that still had a loud charge, followed by 20 minutes of SE to settle. By session 8, sleep averaged 6.5 to 7 hours, panic had not returned in three weeks, and he rated dread at a 3. None of this eliminated deadlines or performance reviews. What changed was his capacity to mobilize and then settle. When to consider intensives versus weekly care Weekly therapy fits many lives. Still, some clients prefer intensives, structured half day or full day blocks over a few days, to concentrate work and reduce context switching. I use intensives when someone has stable support, a defined target such as a specific trauma or a performance block, and the ability to rest afterwards. EMDR intensives can be particularly efficient for single incident trauma, while somatic experiencing within that frame helps regulate the nervous system before and after. Choose weekly pacing if your schedule is volatile, you are learning basic regulation skills, or you lack immediate downtime after sessions. Consider an intensive if you have a clearly defined target, strong daily supports, and a stable window for post session rest. Avoid intensives for now if you dissociate frequently without quick reorientation skills, or if current stressors are acute and non negotiable. A middle path, such as two 90 minute blocks a week for a month, can work when weekly hours feel too small and a full multi day intensive feels too much. Reassess after two to four weeks, using concrete markers such as sleep, morning dread ratings, and panic frequency. The choice is practical, not ideological. Format should serve physiology and life context. Finding a practitioner and what to ask Certification in somatic experiencing signals specific training, but the right fit goes beyond a credential. In a consult call, ask how they pace sessions, what they watch for when you get activated, and how they teach you to keep gains between meetings. If they also practice IFS therapy or EMDR, ask how they decide which tool to use first, and how they keep you from getting overwhelmed. A clear, calm explanation is a good sign. You want someone who respects your system’s speed limits. Geography and access matter. If you work odd shifts, look for telehealth options and ask how they adapt somatic work for video. I use external anchors more on camera, such as asking clients to keep a glass of cool water handy or to set up a chair that supports the mid back well. Short check ins between sessions, even a two line email to note a win, can reinforce progress. Everyday supports that make the work easier Somatic experiencing builds a more flexible nervous system, but your daily inputs matter. Three simple levers help most clients, even those allergic to wellness advice. Light, breath, and load. Morning light, actual daylight on your eyes, not through sunglasses, for 5 to 10 minutes helps your circadian rhythm anchor. It is easier to regulate anxiety when your sleep drive is coherent. If mornings are rough, aim for a gentle exposure by a window and step outside later. Breath is often taught as big slow inhales, but for anxiety, lengthening the exhale tends to settle the system more efficiently. Try a 4 count in, 6 or 7 count out, a few minutes at a time. If longer exhales make you lightheaded or uncomfortable, return to normal breathing and use gaze orienting instead. Load means the right amount of physical effort. Ten minutes of a walk that raises your heart rate slightly, followed by two minutes of stillness to notice settling, trains your body to mobilize and then recover. That last part matters. Without the intentional cool down, exercise can become another rev, no different from anxiety. What not to do while learning this work Clients often ask for what to avoid. Three patterns tend to interfere with progress. First, chasing a cathartic release. If you try to force shaking, sobbing, or big movements, the nervous system may comply once, then clamp down harder. Let big discharges come when they come, and return to small pendulations. Second, turning somatic noticing into a performance. This is not a correctness test. If you cannot feel much, that itself is useful data. Work with clear external anchors until your interoception warms up. Third, collecting modalities without integration. If you are in IFS therapy, EMDR, and somatic experiencing with three providers who do not coordinate, your nervous system may get contradictory pacing. Pick a lead approach for a season and let the others support it. The felt shift that tells you it is working Somatic work often delivers a specific kind of change that is hard to miss. You will find yourself pausing before reacting, not as a moral achievement but because your body gives you a tiny window. You orient, feel the chair, notice the breath drop half an inch lower, and then choose. The meeting is still happening, the inbox still full, but the inner stance is different. Anxiety still visits, just not as an occupying force. You may notice social details you missed before, a colleague’s smile, the rhythm of your own sentences. Food tastes slightly brighter. The small muscles at the base of your skull let go halfway through the day rather than holding on until midnight. None of this looks dramatic from the outside. From the inside it feels like you finally get to be behind your own eyes again. Anxiety responds to many routes. Somatic experiencing gives you one that respects the body’s timeline and uses the body’s own mechanisms. For many, that is exactly what has been missing. With the right pacing, a good therapeutic match, and practices that fit your life, the system relearns safety. Then the mind can rest, not because it won an argument, but because the body stopped bracing for impact. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

A few summers ago, a client flew across the country to attend her best friend’s wedding. At boarding time her palms were slick, her legs shaky, and her chest tight enough to pass for a vise. She white-knuckled the armrest through takeoff, then bolted for the lavatory during turbulence and sobbed through a full panic attack. She made it there and back, but the return flight required two drinks and a last minute seat change to sit near an exit. The next month she booked an EMDR intensive, three half days in a row. On day one we prepared the ground and mapped what her nervous system did at 10,000 feet. On day two we https://collinqxuy811.cavandoragh.org/emdr-intensives-for-complex-trauma-a-practical-guide targeted the first panic memory she could recall from a bumpy commuter flight seven years earlier. On day three we rehearsed a future flight with measured exposure. Six weeks later she texted a photo from a window seat, smiling. Not a cure all, not a guarantee, but a tangible shift. That is the promise of EMDR intensives when used thoughtfully for phobias and panic. They compress momentum into a short arc. They give you time to warm up and stay with the work, not lose ground week to week. And when combined with approaches like IFS therapy and somatic experiencing, they tend to meet the parts of the mind and body that keep panic cycles alive. What an EMDR intensive actually is An EMDR intensive condenses what is often months of therapy into a focused block, typically two to four consecutive days. Each day runs two to four hours, with built-in breaks that prevent overload. Instead of 50 minutes skimming the surface and spending half the time reorienting, you get a lengthy warm up, a deep dive into reprocessing, and time left to settle and integrate. That rhythm suits phobias and panic, which often live in fast reflexes and split-second meaning making. EMDR itself is an eight-phase protocol that uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain digest distressing memories and predictions. For phobias we do not always start with the biggest trigger. We often begin with feeder memories, smaller moments that taught the brain the world is unsafe or the body cannot cope. Panic tends to layer experiences. The first panic attack becomes a scary memory. The second attack in the grocery store fuses panic with aisle 5. Over time, the nervous system learns to fear the fear. EMDR works by revisiting those moments safely, stimulating both hemispheres through eye movements, taps, or alternating tones, and allowing the brain to reconsolidate the meaning and the body sensations that go with it. Weekly EMDR can work well. The difference with an intensive is continuity. The neural pathways you activate at 10:15 are still open at 11:30, and you can round the corner into relief while you are still in the room. That often shortens the arc of treatment for focused problems like phobias. Why intensives fit phobias and panic Panic is a pattern, not a single event. The body detects a cue, spins it into threat, and pumps adrenaline. The mind catches up with worries, then the body interprets those thoughts as more threat. A weekly schedule can interrupt that pattern modestly, but your brain has six days to reinstall its old code. When we work in a block, the nervous system gets repeated practice in a new sequence. That repeated practice within a short time frame promotes state-dependent learning, which is a clinical way of saying your body learns best when it is in a similar state to the one you are trying to change. In an intensive, we can titrate into activation multiple times per day and build tolerance without whipping your system into a storm. There is also a pragmatic reason. Phobias often respond well to targeted exposure plus memory reprocessing. The exposure piece takes setup and recovery. In a long session we have time to script, rehearse, and process in one sitting. If flying is the fear, we can spend a morning walking through a security line in imagination, pairing it with bilateral stimulation while we metabolize the associated memories, then in the afternoon listen to takeoff audio and practice slow breathing while processing the original panic memory. Evidence supports EMDR for single incident trauma and phobias, with randomized trials showing meaningful reductions in distress scores compared to waitlist or other controls. Panic disorder has a more variable course. With a focused intensive, the target is often the panic cycle itself, not only a single trauma. We might work on the first panic attack, then the worst, then a core belief like I am not safe in my body. With that scope, many clients see fewer attacks and a softer edge when symptoms arise. How a focused block is structured A common mistake is to imagine an intensive as one marathon reprocessing session. That is not how nervous systems change. They need pacing, rest, and integration. The format is simple, but it demands precision. Day zero planning call: we define targets, review history, and set expectations for intensity and aftercare. Day one: preparation and resourcing. We install anchors for regulation, map parts that might resist change, and rehearse bilateral stimulation methods. We begin reprocessing if there is time and stability. Day two: core reprocessing. We focus on feeder memories and the key panic scenes, shift negative beliefs, and rehearse a future template for feared situations. Day three: integration and exposure practice. We run the future template again, practice interoceptive exposure if appropriate, and close with clear home guidelines and contingency plans. Follow up 1 to 2 weeks later: we debrief real-world testing, adjust targets, and plan boosters if needed. The hours vary. For simple flight phobia without broader trauma, I may recommend two days at three hours per day. For panic disorder with health anxiety, three half days feel safer and more effective. The client with the flight phobia completed 8.5 hours across three days, then two 50 minute boosters over the next month. She reported anxiety on her next flight at 3 out of 10 instead of 9, and no full panic episodes. Those are self-reports, not lab data, but they match what many clinicians observe. Where IFS therapy fits IFS therapy lives inside many EMDR intensives I run. Phobias and panic do not speak with one voice. There is often a vigilant part that scans for danger, a perfectionist that worries about performance, and a young part that learned the world is unpredictable. There may also be a firefighter part that uses alcohol, avoidance, or compulsive googling to manage sensations. Before we ask a brain to revisit a panic memory, we usually need permission from protectors. In an intensive, we slow down enough to meet them. If a managerial part says no, we get curious. What is it protecting against? Often it fears overwhelm or humiliation. When those parts feel seen, they tend to allow the work. If they refuse, we do not bulldoze. We negotiate a limited trial, or we focus the first block entirely on resourcing and parts mapping. For some clients, that alone reduces panic because the internal battle quiets. IFS also informs target selection. An adult with a severe dog phobia might tell me about a bite at age nine, but underneath lies a belief, I am helpless when I lose control. If that belief traces back to chaotic caregiving, we must decide how far to go in an intensive. It is usually wiser to keep the frame tight. We process the bite memory and the worst panic episode around dogs, install a future template for walking on a trail, and leave deeper attachment wounds for ongoing work. That judgment prevents overreach and respects the role of intensives as focused interventions, not life overhauls. Somatic experiencing and the body’s pacing The body organizes panic. Heart rate spikes, breath shortens, muscles brace. If all we do is talk, we miss the levers. Somatic experiencing gives us techniques to approach the edge without flooding. Titration is one of them. Instead of diving into the most charged moment, we touch it briefly, then pull back to a resource like a steady sensation in the feet or a memory of a calm morning. Pendulation is another. We swing attention between activation and safety, training the nervous system to move, not freeze. In practice, that looks like micro doses of exposure during EMDR sets. We play a short clip of turbulence audio, notice breath, then pause and track the contact of your back with the chair. We repeat. The body learns it can feel alarm and return to baseline. That lesson is the foundation for panic resilience. The goal is not zero anxiety. The goal is flexibility and confidence that a wave will pass. A few vignettes from practice A software engineer in his thirties had panic episodes when driving over bridges. He had no crash history. His first attack struck during a high-stress product launch and he barely made it over the span. After that, he took the long route along surface streets. In a two day intensive we mapped his alarm pattern, processed the initial attack memory and a college episode when he fainted in a lab, and installed a future template for driving with a podcast at low volume. Two weeks later he drove a smaller bridge with mild anxiety that crested around the midpoint and eased after the peak. Over the next month he graduated to the main span. He still avoided high winds, which felt wise rather than phobic. That is the kind of outcome I like: function restored, fear present in proportion to reality. A nurse in her forties with health anxiety and panic had trouble with interoceptive cues. A skipped heartbeat meant catastrophe. In a three day intensive we did resourcing and parts work on day one, then processed the worst ER panic memory from a year prior. We incorporated somatic exercises in short rounds: a minute of brisk stepping in place to elevate heart rate, EMDR sets while noticing the sensations, then a return to a grounding resource. By day three she could feel her heart race without the old belief I am dying. She still checked her pulse at night sometimes. We normalized that. The target was not perfection, it was a workable life. Results vary. A client with significant childhood trauma and dissociation came for a panic-focused intensive and we discovered within the first hour that her system could not tolerate reprocessing without prolonged shutdown. We shifted to resourcing only, practiced orienting and gentle vagal exercises, and made a plan for a slower course of therapy. It was the right call. Intensives are not for every profile. When intensives are not the best fit Some situations call for caution or an alternate plan. If someone is in active substance dependence that disrupts sleep and regulation, the window for reprocessing narrows. Unstable bipolar disorder, untreated psychosis, current domestic violence, or active suicidal intent are clear reasons to defer. Severe dissociation or parts that take executive control when triggered may need a longer runway with preparation over weeks or months. Medical conditions that mimic panic, such as arrhythmias or hyperthyroidism, should be ruled out or treated first. Medication is not a disqualifier. Many clients take SSRIs or SNRIs, and some use as-needed benzodiazepines. We discuss how meds might blunt or support access to emotion. Beta blockers, for example, can reduce heart rate spikes, which is helpful for exposure but may reduce interoceptive learning if overused. These are case by case calls. Safety wins over theory. Measuring change and keeping it grounded During EMDR we use simple anchors to track progress. Subjective Units of Distress, a 0 to 10 scale, monitor activation during sets. Validity of Cognition ratings gauge how true a new belief feels, again on a 1 to 7 scale. Outside the room, we track behavior. Did you take the elevator, drive the bridge, get through the grocery checkout line? How many panic episodes this week compared to last month? Numbers lend clarity. A drop from four attacks per week to one mild episode in two weeks signals movement. Expect a lag between reprocessing and behavior. Sometimes belief shifts quickly, then action follows with coaching. Other times exposure comes first. We might practice riding an elevator to the second floor before the belief I am safe on elevators feels fully true. The point is to iterate, not chase a perfect session. Intensives versus weekly therapy Weekly therapy offers continuity of relationship and slow integration. It helps for broad issues like complex PTSD, relational trauma, and identity work. It is also cost spread over time. Intensives, by contrast, are efficient for discrete targets like needle phobia, flight anxiety, driving panic, or social panic clustered around a few themes. The up-front cost can be higher, but the total hours to resolution are often fewer. Some clients prefer a hybrid: an intensive to break the panic cycle, then monthly sessions for two to four months to consolidate gains. From the clinician side, intensives demand careful scheduling to prevent burnout. Stacking three intensives back to back is a quick way to deplete attention and empathy. I cap intensives at two per month and keep recovery time between them. Clients benefit from that pacing too. A wrung-out therapist is not an effective guide. Preparing for an intensive The week before an intensive matters. Sleep is the single strongest predictor I see for tolerating reprocessing. Light exercise, regular meals, and a plan for after-session decompression all help. If you can clear your calendar of major demands for the intensive days and the evening after each, you give your nervous system permission to process rather than perform. Family members or partners can be briefed to expect quiet time and less socializing. Here is a simple readiness checklist I review with clients: I can carve out protected time during and after the intensive, including early evenings clear of obligations. I have one or two reliable regulation practices, such as paced breathing or grounding through the senses. I understand that emotional waves may rise during and after sessions, and I have a plan for support if needed. My medical conditions that can mimic panic have been evaluated, and I know when to seek medical care versus ride a wave. My protectors are on board with a focused trial, even if they are unsure. Clients often ask about caffeine and alcohol. Moderate caffeine is usually fine if your body tolerates it, but if you are highly sensitive to interoceptive cues, consider skipping it. Alcohol the night before can degrade sleep and increase reactivity the next day. Light, protein-rich meals prevent blood sugar dips that can masquerade as anxiety. What the work feels like in the room A well-run intensive is quiet, not dramatic. You sit, track a finger or a light bar, tap your knees, or listen to alternating tones. Images, sensations, and thoughts arise and shift. Sometimes the target memory fades quickly, then another pops up. We follow where the system leads, as long as it stays within the agreed scope. You will not relive trauma minute by minute. You will hold it lightly and let your brain make new connections. We pause often to check in, to orient, to drink water. When panic memories are the target, the body often wants to complete thwarted actions. You might feel an impulse to move, to swallow, to lean back. We allow gentle completion, then recheck beliefs. A common shift is from I am trapped to I have options. That belief may not sound heroic, but it changes choices in elevators and airplanes. Aftercare and relapse prevention Change consolidates between sessions. I give simple assignments. Notice and name, not fix, any spikes of anxiety for the first 48 hours. Keep a short log with three columns: trigger, peak intensity, recovery time. Practice one regulation skill twice daily when you are calm, not just in crisis. If flight anxiety is the target, book a short flight soon, even a same-day turn. If driving panic is the target, plan graded bridge crossings with a friend on the phone for the first run. We also set red lines, like if panic lasts longer than 20 minutes without easing, switch from riding the wave to active coping. Booster sessions help. One or two meetings in the following month allow us to tune the future template, process any surprise triggers, and shore up gains. Over the longer term, periodic check-ins prevent drift, especially during life stress or travel season. Costs and practical details Fees vary by region and training. In many cities, EMDR intensives run between the cost of three to eight standard sessions for a two to three day block. Some therapists package a planning call, the intensive hours, and a follow-up. Insurance coverage is inconsistent for extended sessions, although some plans reimburse regular hour equivalents. Telehealth intensives are possible with eye movement apps or therapist-guided tapping, but for severe panic or dissociation, in-person work provides a safer frame. If noise or light sensitivity is high, tactile bilateral stimulation with hand buzzers can be quieter and less stimulating than eye movements. Sessions usually begin mid-morning to align with natural alertness and include a break about every 30 to 45 minutes. Water and a light snack are encouraged. I do not schedule intensives late in the day for clients prone to insomnia. Choosing the right provider Training matters. Look for a therapist with EMDR certification or documented advanced training, and ask specifically about experience with phobias and panic. If parts of you tend to shut down or fight the process, someone who integrates IFS therapy can help broker internal permission. For highly somatic presentations, clinicians trained in somatic experiencing or similar body-based work often pace sessions more skillfully. Ask how they screen for appropriateness, what their plan is if you become overwhelmed, and how they handle between-session support. A short screening call tells you a lot. You should feel that the therapist respects your goals, names risks plainly, and avoids grand promises. The phrase I do not know, here is how we will find out is one I trust. Where anxiety and burnout intersect Living with panic is exhausting. People stop going to events, add ninety minutes to commutes to avoid highways, or leave shopping carts mid-aisle when symptoms surge. That grind turns into burnout, not only from anxiety itself but from the constant workarounds. Intensives, when successful, can lift a large burden quickly, which restores energy for life rather than symptom management. There is a risk the other way too. If you push too hard in an intensive, you can leave wrung out. That is why pacing and aftercare are built in. For clinicians, spacing intensives prevents our own burnout, which in turn protects clients. Managing expectations without dampening hope EMDR intensives are not magic. They are structured, focused, and often effective for phobias and panic, especially when you select the right targets and respect the body’s limits. Results can be striking. A needle phobia resolved enough in two days for a client to complete a vaccination series without fainting. A public speaking dread softened to manageable nerves over three mornings. Other times the change is partial, a 40 percent reduction in attacks and a toolkit to handle the rest. Occasionally, the work reveals a deeper layer that requires longer care. Those outcomes are all valid. If you are considering an intensive, get clear on your aims. Pick one or two targets where success would change your daily life. Prepare your body, line up support, and choose a therapist who knows both the map and the terrain. Phobias and panic are teachable patterns. Given the right conditions, your nervous system can learn a different lesson and carry it into the places you want to go. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

Anxiety is not just a thought problem. It lives in the body, sets your breath on a tight metronome, tightens your jaw, and convinces your shoulders that they belong somewhere near your ears. You can talk to it, analyze it, argue with it, yet the next morning it greets you as if nothing changed. Somatic experiencing offers a different door. Instead of pushing against anxiety with more cognition, it teaches your nervous system how to complete stress cycles that got interrupted. The work is quiet, precise, and often surprisingly gentle. I have used somatic experiencing, often alongside IFS therapy and, at times, EMDR intensives, with clients ranging from high performing professionals in burnout to first responders who feel they can never be off duty. The skill is not in doing more, but in helping the body feel safe enough to do less. This article lays out what somatic experiencing is, how it eases anxiety, what a session can look like, and where https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/location/colorado it integrates with other approaches. Expect particulars more than platitudes, because the nervous system likes specifics. What anxiety looks like in the body Anxiety is a strategy, not a character flaw. Under the hood, it is the sympathetic branch of your nervous system pushing you toward action that might prevent a threat. Heart rate quickens, blood shunts to large muscles, pupils widen. If the system cannot complete a response or cannot locate the threat precisely, the charge persists. You feel restless, keyed up, or oddly frozen while your mind races. Many people describe this as gas and brakes pressed at the same time. Chronic anxiety has a way of collapsing into burnout. The physiology tries to run hot for too long, then defaults to shutdown. Picture weeks of poor sleep, clenched muscles, and vigilance, followed by a day when you cannot reply to a single email. Not laziness, not lack of grit, but a body protecting itself from a system that forgot how to idle. This pattern is common among caregivers, physicians, founders, and teachers, where performance often continues long after reserves run low. The core idea of somatic experiencing Somatic experiencing, developed by Peter Levine, works with the body’s natural ability to mobilize and discharge defensive energy. Animals in the wild get chased, freeze, mobilize, escape, and then shake. The shake is not decorative. It is the nervous system resetting. Humans got language, culture, and complicated jobs, and along the way we stopped finishing those cycles. Somatic work reinstates the sequence in micro form, safely and gradually. The method uses titration, small amounts of activation at a time, and pendulation, moving attention between more charged sensations and places of ease. With practice, the body learns that it can touch discomfort without getting flooded. Anxiety stops running the show because the system learns it has a brake pedal, not just an accelerator. I remember a client in her thirties, a nurse practitioner who had not had a full night’s sleep in months. If she sat still, her legs buzzed like soda. She had tried meditation apps, which promptly made her feel trapped. In our first sessions we never closed our eyes. We did not even talk about sleep. We located where safety lived in her body, one square inch at a time. Right heel on the floor. The weight of a sweater across her upper back. We let her legs buzz for four seconds, then returned to the heel and the sweater. Four seconds became ten. Ten became fifteen. After three weeks she reported falling back asleep twice in a night for the first time that year. No resolution of all life stressors. No enlightenment. Just a nervous system that remembered how to dial down. What a session actually looks like People expect to lie on a couch and talk. In somatic experiencing you may sit, stand, or shift around, and the talking revolves around internal sensations. The practitioner tracks micro signs of activation and settling, such as a change in breath, skin color, eye focus, or a spontaneous sigh. You will be invited to notice specifics, not generalities. Where exactly is the tightness. What shape is it. Does it have an edge or a center. Can you find a less tense area and alternate attention between the two. Imagery can help, but it stays tied to the body. A client might describe a knot in the stomach like a fist. The therapist might ask what the fist wants to do, but only while anchoring in a stable resource, perhaps the sensation of the chair under the thighs. We are not dramatizing the fist, not catharsis for its own sake, but allowing incomplete impulses to express in safe, digestible portions. Sessions often run 50 to 60 minutes. Early on, the arc is exploratory. Where do you stabilize. What increases activation too quickly. After two or three sessions a pattern emerges. Many clients report small but real shifts within four to six meetings, such as improved sleep onset, fewer morning jolts of dread, or a decrease in stress headaches. Complex trauma or long term burnout may take months. The pace is not moral, it is biological. Rushing tends to backfire. Techniques you will likely encounter Three skills carry most of the load, though the language varies across practitioners. Orienting. You gently turn your head and eyes to let the visual system confirm safety. Look at the corners of the room, the colors on a bookshelf, the way light lands on a plant. This sounds trivial until you notice you have not really looked at a room you work in every day. The nervous system relaxes when it sees that the present is ordinary. Titration. Instead of charging straight into a panic trigger, you nibble the edge of it. Touch the sensation or memory for a few seconds, then return to a neutral or pleasant anchor. Over time, the range you can tolerate without spinning out expands. Pendulation. You learn to move attention between activation and ease, like scanning between a tight throat and warm hands. The nervous system likes contrast. It organizes itself when it can feel differences. Practitioners may add gentle movements to complete defensive patterns, such as pressing hands into a wall to satisfy a push response, or letting the torso curl forward to finish a protective hunch. The movements are small, permission based, and reversible. Sometimes you simply imagine the motion while feeling your feet on the floor, because imagery can activate the same circuits with less load. Why somatic work helps anxiety specifically Anxiety tries to predict and prevent danger. The brain scans the future, layering what if over what if, because the body is signaling threat without resolution. By resolving the body’s unfinished responses, the brain’s need to catastrophize decreases. You do not have to convince yourself the meeting will be fine; your heart is already beating at a normal rate, so the prediction machine quiets down on its own. This is why people often say, I still had the thought, but it did not grab me. The difference is not a better argument; it is a body that does not feel cornered. With social anxiety, for example, clients often notice two pieces. There is the immediate fear of judgment, and there is a background sense that escape is impossible. Somatic experiencing works both ends. On the front end, you might practice orienting before entering a room, letting the eyes find safe details, which drops arousal. On the back end, you practice micro exits, such as intentionally looking out a window for three breaths during a conversation or shifting weight between feet, so the body believes it has options. After a month of this, people report they still get nervous but no longer feel trapped inside the feeling. Where IFS therapy and EMDR intensives can support the process Somatic experiencing pairs well with other modalities. IFS therapy, which works with parts of the psyche, fits naturally with body based work. A client’s anxious part may show up as a flutter in the chest or a rush of heat in the face. Instead of arguing with that part, we can notice its somatic footprint and offer it direct regulation. Many clients find that when they can feel compassion physically, for instance warmth in the sternum while imagining holding that anxious teen part’s hand, the internal relationship shifts quickly. EMDR intensives, concentrated sessions over one to three days, can accelerate progress when a client has a discrete traumatic episode under the anxiety, such as a car accident that never quite let go. The eye movements or bilateral stimulation help process stuck memories, while somatic experiencing ensures we titrate activation so the system does not flood. I often layer sessions. A morning block working with SE to stabilize, followed by EMDR targeting a specific memory, then a short SE cooldown to integrate. Not everyone needs intensives. For some, weekly pacing works better, particularly if life is already demanding. When considering time limited formats, I look at stability, support system, and capacity for rest after the work. Intensives are a strong tool, not a badge of honor. Burnout through a somatic lens Burnout is anxious physiology on repeat, minus the spikes of hope that usually keep it going. Many clients in burnout can perform at work but feel dead to pleasure. Food loses taste, friends feel far away, vacations become logistics. Somatic experiencing approaches burnout by rebuilding the body’s capacity for small doses of enjoyment first. This is not toxic positivity. It is mechanical. Pleasure requires a nervous system that can receive. If your foot is on the gas all day, the receptors that would enjoy a breeze or a good pear are dimmed. Early sessions often focus on what I call quiet positives. The weight of a ceramic mug in your hand. The sound of a dryer in the next room. Ten minutes in a parked car between errands with your seat reclined four degrees more than usual. These are not life hacks. They are ways of showing your body that life includes neutral and pleasant signals, even in a rough season. As those receptors wake up, anxiety tends to drop, because the nervous system measures not only danger but also safety. The more data points for safety, the less the system has to predict worst cases. A simple at home practice to try If you want a feel for somatic experiencing before working with a professional, try this short practice two or three times a week. Do not use it while driving, and skip it if you have a history of dissociation that worsens with body focus. The point is not to fix anxiety in a sitting, but to build a relationship with your physiology. Sit with both feet supported, eyes open, and let your gaze wander slowly around the room. Name three colors you see. Notice any small softening in your breath. If nothing softens, that is fine. Bring attention to a neutral or pleasant body sensation. Examples include the contact of your back against the chair, warmth in your hands, or the feeling of socks around your ankles. Stay with it for 20 seconds. Now let attention visit a mildly unpleasant sensation. Pick something at a 2 or 3 out of 10, like mild tension around the eyes. Stay for 5 to 10 seconds. Return attention to the neutral or pleasant spot for 20 to 30 seconds. If you sigh or swallow, linger a little longer. Alternate two more times, then look around the room again, letting your neck and eyes move slowly. If you feel foggy, open a window or stand up and press your feet into the floor. If you feel activated beyond comfort, shorten the unpleasant portion next time. This is titration in action. Over several weeks, most people find their range expands. Trade offs, limits, and edge cases No method covers everything. Somatic experiencing is slower than techniques that aim to blunt symptoms fast. If you need to deliver a public talk in five days and panic in front of crowds, cognitive and behavioral skills like paced breathing, structured exposure, or performance scripting may offer more immediate help, while SE builds long term capacity in the background. Some clients with highly dissociative systems find internal focus slippery. They close their eyes and vanish. In these cases I keep eyes open, use external anchors like textured objects, and sometimes start sessions with light movement such as walking while tracking footfalls. Others with complex medical conditions, such as POTS or Ehlers Danlos, can misinterpret interoceptive signals as danger because their body truly produces odd sensations. Here, education and collaboration with medical providers are essential, and resources may skew more toward vision and touch than heart or gut cues. Unresolved structural or relational problems can outpace the gains from somatic work. If your job routinely demands 70 hour weeks with on call emergencies, your nervous system learns that vigilance is wise. Somatic experiencing helps you regulate in the margins, which matters, but you might also need boundaries, a different role, or a timeline for change. I have seen clients make more ground in two months after a reasonable schedule shift than in a year of therapy with no structural change. How progress unfolds across weeks and months The early wins usually look like micro choices. You notice clenching and soften your hands. You wake at 3 a.m. And do not sprint to worst case scenarios within three breaths. You choose to sit with your back supported in a meeting and discover your voice steadier than usual. These are not small. They are the staircase you need. By two to three months, if sessions are weekly and you practice a few minutes on your own, sleep often improves by 20 to 40 minutes per night, and the number of panic spikes tends to drop. By six months, many clients report that anxiety moves through rather than builds. They still get stressed, but the body completes cycles faster. In some cases, especially when early trauma underlies the anxiety, there are deeper layers to unwind. The difference is that you now have a method to meet each layer without collapse. A brief case vignette with numbers A 41 year old software lead came in with performance anxiety, morning dread at a 7 out of 10, and two panic episodes per week. Sleep was 5 to 6 hours, fragmented. We met weekly for eight sessions, using somatic experiencing as the backbone. In session 1 and 2 we built resources, mostly visual orienting and feet contact. By session 3 we introduced short doses of the trigger, imagining the first 30 seconds of logging into a video standup, then pendulated back to the feeling of his spine supported. By session 5 he reported one panic episode in two weeks, and morning dread at a 5. We added a 90 minute EMDR intensive to target a college presentation memory that still had a loud charge, followed by 20 minutes of SE to settle. By session 8, sleep averaged 6.5 to 7 hours, panic had not returned in three weeks, and he rated dread at a 3. None of this eliminated deadlines or performance reviews. What changed was his capacity to mobilize and then settle. When to consider intensives versus weekly care Weekly therapy fits many lives. Still, some clients prefer intensives, structured half day or full day blocks over a few days, to concentrate work and reduce context switching. I use intensives when someone has stable support, a defined target such as a specific trauma or a performance block, and the ability to rest afterwards. EMDR intensives can be particularly efficient for single incident trauma, while somatic experiencing within that frame helps regulate the nervous system before and after. Choose weekly pacing if your schedule is volatile, you are learning basic regulation skills, or you lack immediate downtime after sessions. Consider an intensive if you have a clearly defined target, strong daily supports, and a stable window for post session rest. Avoid intensives for now if you dissociate frequently without quick reorientation skills, or if current stressors are acute and non negotiable. A middle path, such as two 90 minute blocks a week for a month, can work when weekly hours feel too small and a full multi day intensive feels too much. Reassess after two to four weeks, using concrete markers such as sleep, morning dread ratings, and panic frequency. The choice is practical, not ideological. Format should serve physiology and life context. Finding a practitioner and what to ask Certification in somatic experiencing signals specific training, but the right fit goes beyond a credential. In a consult call, ask how they pace sessions, what they watch for when you get activated, and how they teach you to keep gains between meetings. If they also practice IFS therapy or EMDR, ask how they decide which tool to use first, and how they keep you from getting overwhelmed. A clear, calm explanation is a good sign. You want someone who respects your system’s speed limits. Geography and access matter. If you work odd shifts, look for telehealth options and ask how they adapt somatic work for video. I use external anchors more on camera, such as asking clients to keep a glass of cool water handy or to set up a chair that supports the mid back well. Short check ins between sessions, even a two line email to note a win, can reinforce progress. Everyday supports that make the work easier Somatic experiencing builds a more flexible nervous system, but your daily inputs matter. Three simple levers help most clients, even those allergic to wellness advice. Light, breath, and load. Morning light, actual daylight on your eyes, not through sunglasses, for 5 to 10 minutes helps your circadian rhythm anchor. It is easier to regulate anxiety when your sleep drive is coherent. If mornings are rough, aim for a gentle exposure by a window and step outside later. Breath is often taught as big slow inhales, but for anxiety, lengthening the exhale tends to settle the system more efficiently. Try a 4 count in, 6 or 7 count out, a few minutes at a time. If longer exhales make you lightheaded or uncomfortable, return to normal breathing and use gaze orienting instead. Load means the right amount of physical effort. Ten minutes of a walk that raises your heart rate slightly, followed by two minutes of stillness to notice settling, trains your body to mobilize and then recover. That last part matters. Without the intentional cool down, exercise can become another rev, no different from anxiety. What not to do while learning this work Clients often ask for what to avoid. Three patterns tend to interfere with progress. First, chasing a cathartic release. If you try to force shaking, sobbing, or big movements, the nervous system may comply once, then clamp down harder. Let big discharges come when they come, and return to small pendulations. Second, turning somatic noticing into a performance. This is not a correctness test. If you cannot feel much, that itself is useful data. Work with clear external anchors until your interoception warms up. Third, collecting modalities without integration. If you are in IFS therapy, EMDR, and somatic experiencing with three providers who do not coordinate, your nervous system may get contradictory pacing. Pick a lead approach for a season and let the others support it. The felt shift that tells you it is working Somatic work often delivers a specific kind of change that is hard to miss. You will find yourself pausing before reacting, not as a moral achievement but because your body gives you a tiny window. You orient, feel the chair, notice the breath drop half an inch lower, and then choose. The meeting is still happening, the inbox still full, but the inner stance is different. Anxiety still visits, just not as an occupying force. You may notice social details you missed before, a colleague’s smile, the rhythm of your own sentences. Food tastes slightly brighter. The small muscles at the base of your skull let go halfway through the day rather than holding on until midnight. None of this looks dramatic from the outside. From the inside it feels like you finally get to be behind your own eyes again. Anxiety responds to many routes. Somatic experiencing gives you one that respects the body’s timeline and uses the body’s own mechanisms. For many, that is exactly what has been missing. With the right pacing, a good therapeutic match, and practices that fit your life, the system relearns safety. Then the mind can rest, not because it won an argument, but because the body stopped bracing for impact. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

You can feel wired and tired at the same time, yet the causes and remedies might not match the sensation. That is the crux of telling stress from burnout. I have sat with executives who swear they are just “under a lot right now,” yet their eyes dull when describing projects they once loved. I have watched high school teachers power through grading periods with coffee and adrenaline, only to crash hard during break and dread returning. The labels matter because the interventions are different. Treating burnout as if it were ordinary stress sometimes buys a week of relief, then the spiral resumes. Treating ordinary stress like full burnout risks overcorrecting and derailing careers or relationships that only needed better support. This piece unpacks the distinction, why it gets blurry, and how to act wisely when you are not sure. It includes what I have learned from clients and teams over the past decade, including the role of anxiety, how nervous systems get stuck, and where targeted therapy, including intensives, can tilt the trajectory. What stress looks like up close Stress is the body’s adaptive response to a perceived challenge. You mount energy to meet a demand. Heart rate rises, pupils narrow, attention sharpens. In reasonable doses, stress fuels performance. Most people can point to a sprint where they felt alive and focused, then relaxed afterward. Physiologically, stress mobilizes the sympathetic nervous system and HPA axis, spikes cortisol and catecholamines, and then, if recovery follows, levels drift back toward baseline. In the messy reality of work and caregiving, stress rarely arrives as a neat, time-limited event. A product launch drags for months. A toddler stops sleeping. An aging parent needs rides three days a week. Chronic stress means the alarms keep ringing. People stay reactive, sleep gets choppy, digestion complains, and small hassles feel oversized. Yet, importantly, there is still a thread of meaning. Even when you tell yourself you are overwhelmed, you can remember why you are doing it, and you still care about the outcome. A software lead I worked with, Priya, headed into a multi-quarter migration. During the crunch, she checked her phone at night, caught small bugs in the morning, and sighed a lot, but when her team pushed a stable release she lit up. She needed a weekend off and a long run. After that, her appetite returned, and her laughter returned to meetings. That is stress, not burnout. Burnout has a different flavor Burnout is not simply more stress. It is a triad of emotional exhaustion, cynicism or depersonalization, and a sense of reduced accomplishment. The fuel tank is not only empty, the gauge is broken. People describe a flatness that feels alien. They do not just feel tired, they feel blunted. Instead of “I need rest so I can get back to it,” the inner voice whispers, “I no longer care if I get back to it.” The favorite parts of the job taste like cardboard. Unlike stress, which surges and recedes, burnout often lingers and resists quick fixes. A three day weekend helps only marginally. Vacation can provoke dread on the return flight. Tasks that once took thirty minutes stretch to two hours, not because they are harder but because motivation stalls. Folks either numb out or get irritable with the people they serve. Nurses talk about patients as room numbers. Teachers refer to a class as a problem to be managed. It is protective, and it is also a warning sign. Biologically, burnout shows up as dysregulation. Some research points to cortisol flattening across the day rather than the healthy peak and decline. Sleep becomes unrefreshing even when time in bed increases. People slip into “conservation mode,” a low-energy state that conserves resources but is terrible for complex work and empathy. If chronic stress is too much gas, burnout is not enough spark. The simple side-by-side people ask for Stress tends to feel urgent and overclocked, with swings between pressure and relief. Burnout feels dull, empty, and chronic, with a loss of meaning. With stress, you still believe your efforts can change outcomes. With burnout, you doubt the point of trying. Stress responds to rest, boundaries, delegation, and targeted skills. Burnout needs deeper repair, value realignment, and often structural change. Stress heightens anxiety and vigilance. Burnout can show up as apathy, numbness, and withdrawal. After stress, a good night’s sleep helps. With burnout, sleep alone rarely restores drive. That grid is useful, yet actual lives blur categories. A trial lawyer can be both anxious and numb. A founder can toggle between furious activity and days of staring at the screen. This is where careful assessment pays off. The role of anxiety that muddies the picture Anxiety complicates both stress and burnout. High baseline anxiety can make ordinary stress feel catastrophic. It also pushes people to overwork as a way to manage fear. When anxiety and burnout collide, the result can look like frantic paralysis. I have seen executives spend hours reworking slide decks and simultaneously feel nothing matters. That is not laziness, it is a nervous system caught between fight and collapse. Anxiety speaks in “what if,” tightens the chest, scans for threat. Burnout takes away the music of motivation. If you feel keyed up and you still care deeply, target the anxiety and stress response. If you feel keyed up and deadened toward your work or relationships, consider that burnout may be layered underneath. Why smart, caring people miss burnout until it bites Most high performers internalize three beliefs: more effort fixes almost everything, caring is a virtue, and endurance equals character. These beliefs help early and hurt later. When the nervous system signals depletion, they push harder. They interpret flatness as a moral failure and double down on discipline. That might buy a quarter, then the crash comes. Certain fields are notorious. Healthcare, education, child welfare, law, and customer support carry high emotional loads and limited control. Shift work adds circadian disruption. Remote work removes boundaries and social buffering. Parents of young children face similar patterns, only with love masking the metrics. You cannot “resign” from a colicky newborn. Teams also play a role. Vague priorities, constant reorgs, and invisible wins breed cynicism even among resilient people. Lack of acknowledgment saps meaning quickly. I have run 360 reviews where an engineer thought they were failing, only to learn peers rated them as top 10 percent. The mismatch itself was corrosive. A brief story of two paths Two clients, same industry, similar workloads. Mateo felt slammed heading into Q4. He woke up at 5:30, doomscrolled, grabbed a protein bar, and ran to back-to-back calls. He described tingling in his hands and a sense of urgency. He also grinned when he mapped a hairy systems issue. We worked on tightening his focus blocks, redirecting the morning doomscroll into a short walk, and building a hard stop at 6 p.m. Within three weeks, he felt human. Stress, managed. Nina came in flat. She had hit every metric for two years, won a company award, and now dreaded opening her laptop. She was sleeping nine hours and waking tired. On calls, she felt like an actor reading lines. Wins did not register, only relief that a task ended. We explored values, the meaning of her work, and the grief of a stalled promotion. She negotiated different responsibilities, took a four week leave, and did a targeted therapy intensive to address long-standing perfectionism and a harsh inner critic. The inner thaw took time, but her sense of agency returned. That was burnout. How physiology frames good choices A practical way to think about this is through states. The body cycles through mobilization, social engagement, and shutdown. Useful stress equals mobilization paired with recovery and connection. Burnout is prolonged activation without recovery tipping into shutdown. This is not character, this is circuitry. When you feel buzzy and alert, your tools are different than when you feel blunted. Breathwork, cold exposure, or a hard workout might help a stressed, keyed-up state. Those same tools can be counterproductive in a shutdown state, where gentler somatic practices, unhurried time, and safe connection are primary. The wrong tool at the wrong time reinforces stuckness. I have seen people force high intensity intervals into a body that needed slow walks and sunlight, and they came away more depleted. Assessment you can do this week Ask yourself across a week: do I still care about the outcome of my work or caregiving, and does a small win feel good for at least an hour afterward? If yes, you are likely in stress territory. If no, explore burnout. Track sleep and variance. If quantity is adequate but you wake unrefreshed for two to three weeks, flag it. Notice your language. Are you describing people as problems, or tasks as pointless? Cynicism is a signal, not a personality trait. Test rest. Take a true 24 hour break without work inputs. If your energy pops back a bit, good. If it barely shifts, look deeper. Solicit mirroring. Ask two trusted peers how engaged you seem compared to six months ago. Others often see the drift first. This checklist is not a diagnosis. It is a compass, and it helps you decide what kind of help to https://brookswuov769.iamarrows.com/emdr-intensives-fast-tracking-trauma-healing seek. What helps when it is stress Start with basics because they work: time boundaries, single tasking in blocks, and visible priorities. The most effective change I have seen in high-demand roles is a hard stop rule paired with a weekly review. You decide in advance what done looks like each day. You move meetings that sprawl. You communicate your availability clearly. For many, biobehavioral levers make a difference within days. Fifteen minutes of morning light, a short brisk walk after lunch, and caffeine cut off by early afternoon shift sleep and mood. These are not glamorous, they are evidence-based and repeatable. When anxiety rides along, add skills. Cognitive restructuring, brief exposure to feared tasks, and worry scheduling pull attention out of loops. Somatic tools help the body discharge activation. Slow exhales, orienting to the room, or a short body scan before opening difficult emails can cut reactivity. A few sessions of skills-focused therapy or coaching often pay outsized dividends. What helps when it is burnout Burnout often requires interventions at three levels: nervous system repair, meaning repair, and structural repair. Skipping any level can sabotage progress. Nervous system repair looks like sustained rest that is not just time off but time spent in safe, non-productive activities that restore aliveness. Think unstructured walks, cooking with a friend, tactile hobbies, or time in water. High achievers hate this stage because it does not produce a metric they can screenshot. It matters anyway. Somatic experiencing and related bottom-up approaches can be particularly helpful here because they target the stuck shutdown state directly and build capacity to feel without getting overwhelmed. When someone tells me they cannot feel anything, we start here. Meaning repair explores what prompted you to care in the first place and what changed. Sometimes the work’s content still matters, but the context eroded the meaning. Sometimes the values shifted, and your role did not. This is where parts-oriented work like IFS therapy shines. It helps you meet the inner critic, the pleaser, the driver, and the protector who blocks feeling. You do not bulldoze them, you learn their intent and renegotiate. People often discover that burnout is as much about fighting yourself as fighting your calendar. Structural repair requires boundaries, renegotiation, or exit. Reduced load, role changes, feasible staffing, and supportive leadership are not luxuries, they are conditions. Without structural change, you risk returning to the same erosion. I have helped leaders craft proposals that exchange low-impact busywork for high-impact projects, which also re-inject meaning. Sometimes you need to leave. Doing so from a regulated, clear place beats doing so from collapse. Where intensives fit Weekly therapy suits many stress problems. With burnout, momentum and depth become more important. I use intensives for clients who need to make measurable headway over days rather than months, or who know that once they return to the treadmill, they will lose traction. EMDR intensives can target stuck memories or beliefs that drive overwork, such as “I only matter when I achieve,” or “If I stop, everything will fall apart.” When processed properly, those beliefs lose their grip. Pairing EMDR with IFS therapy inside an intensive can dismantle the inner gridlock that sustains burnout. Somatic experiencing woven through an intensive adds the body layer, helping clients sense micro-signals of activation and shutdown and build capacity to flex between states. I have watched a client learn to identify the earliest hint of collapse - a soft narrowing behind the eyes - and take a three minute reset that prevented an afternoon spiral. You do not need an intensive to learn this, but the focused container accelerates it. The trade-offs are real. Intensives require time away and cost more up front. Not everyone has a job or life that permits stepping out for two to four days. If you can carve the space, the payoff is consolidating change quickly. If not, a hybrid works: a brief intensive to jump-start, then weekly sessions to maintain. The employer’s piece of the puzzle Organizations often mislabel burnout as a resilience gap. They offer mindfulness apps and ask employees to “take care of themselves,” while running sprints that never end and rotating priorities monthly. That is like handing out umbrellas in a hurricane. The data are not mysterious. Burnout correlates with unmanageable workload, lack of control, insufficient reward, breakdown of community, absence of fairness, and value conflicts. If your team is running hot, look there first. Practical changes make a dent within a quarter. Tighten priorities to three that matter. Cap meeting hours per week, and defend focus time. Make wins visible at the team level, not only the individual level. Train managers to check in on energy and meaning, not only progress. Align rewards with the kind of work you say you value. If your culture worships heroics, you will get heroics and attrition. Edge cases that deserve nuance Not all burnout looks the same. Parents of kids with special needs carry invisible case management that never ends. Their cynicism may point at systems that repeatedly fail their child, not at the child. Medical trainees face duty hours that pretend to limit strain while quietly expanding responsibilities. Teachers in under-resourced schools enter the year full of purpose and hit winter break fractured by forces they do not control. For these groups, structural shifts are slower, which makes nervous system repair and meaning repair even more vital. Community care matters. Shared meals, childcare swaps, and honest peer spaces can be as potent as any app. Neurodivergent folks add another layer. An autistic professional may hit sensory overload long before workload becomes unmanageable. An ADHD brain can sprint through stress and then slam into boredom-driven burnout, especially in roles that demand sustained, detail-heavy tasks without novelty. Tailoring environment and task design is not indulgence, it is efficiency. When to seek clinical help If you have thought of harming yourself, if you are using substances to get through the day, or if sleep has collapsed for more than two weeks, treat that as urgent and speak with a clinician. For many others, the sign to seek help is simpler: you have tried reasonable changes for a month and your inner climate has not shifted. Therapy that integrates body and mind helps because burnout lives in both. EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, and somatic experiencing each have strong use cases, and in combination they address belief, emotion, and physiology. Medication can play a role, especially if depression has set in. A good prescriber distinguishes between situational burnout and a primary mood disorder. I have seen clients benefit from a time-limited course that lifted the floor so they could do the deeper work, not as a standalone fix. Building a personal anti-burnout plan There is no one template, but effective plans share a few traits. They are concrete, they match your current state, and they include accountability. Start with a short observation period. For seven days, note three things: your energy on waking, your appetite midday, and your sense of meaning after you stop work. Patterns help you choose levers. If mornings are flat and evenings feel alive once you step away, you likely need stricter shutdown rituals. If meaning is low regardless of energy, focus on values and structure. I ask clients to commit to one action in each domain for four weeks. In body, choose sleep respect or daily light. In mind, choose a practice that counters your primary distortion, like a five minute “what is actually in my control” check. In structure, choose either a boundary you will keep or a renegotiation you will pursue. Then, if a deeper layer appears - grief you have postponed, shame that drives overfunctioning, or trauma memories that spike anxiety - consider stepping into targeted work. That is where modalities like IFS therapy, EMDR, and somatic experiencing become not abstract jargon, but levers that move your real life. A final note on meaning Many people who recover from burnout report a change in allegiance. They still work hard, but not for the same internal bargain. Before burnout, the bargain says, I will pour myself into this, and in return I will feel safe, valued, or worthy. After burnout, the bargain sounds more like, I will bring my skill and care to this work, and I will also protect my life outside it because both matter. The difference is not semantic. It shows up in calories, sleep, tone at dinner, and what you say yes to on a Thursday at 4:30. If you are unsure whether you are stressed or burned out, listen for care. If the ember of caring is alive and warms when you give it space, shape your stress. If the ember looks cold no matter how you cup your hands, treat that as sacred information. Tending that cold ember is not weakness. It is the beginning of getting your life back. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

Public speaking rattles smart, seasoned professionals more often than most admit. I have coached founders who can negotiate eight-figure terms yet tremble when a lav mic clips on. I have worked with senior physicians who thrive during a 6 a.m. Code blue, then feel their throat close before a noon grand rounds. The problem is not a lack of skill or preparation. It is that the nervous system stores prior threat in ways that flood the present moment. EMDR intensives, thoughtfully designed and paired with body-based and parts-aware work, can change that pattern faster than standard weekly therapy. I will explain how EMDR intensives target performance anxiety, what a good intensive includes, who tends to benefit, and how to carry the gains back onto the stage or into the boardroom. This is not an argument for a single silver bullet. It is a field guide from years of seeing what helps highly capable people calm their physiology, clean up old learning, and speak with more ease. What performance anxiety looks like under the hood Two people can give the same talk with the same slide deck and the same credentials. One breathes easily and recovers from a momentary stumble. The other blank-checks cortisol within a minute and either speeds up or goes blank. The difference is rarely about the content. It is how the nervous system maps the context. When anxiety flares around public speaking, I usually hear a few common themes. There is a spike of threat before or during exposure to eyes on the speaker, often just after the first sentence. There can be a sense of not getting enough air even when the person is strongly ventilating. There may be an inner critic that predicts humiliation, a collapsing sensation in the belly, a need to escape the stage, and afterward, post-event rumination. That last part matters, because it cements the fear circuit. If the talk “goes fine” but the speaker spends two nights replaying a minor stumble, the brain codes that as danger survived rather than a neutral practice rep. This is not only psychological. Heart rate variability drops, vagal tone shifts, and muscle reflexes tighten. Somatic experiencing and other body-based methods pay attention to these shifts because the body is not just a passenger. When the nervous system feels choice again, cognition and skill return. Why consider an intensive format Weekly therapy can be effective, but it often fights the cadence of performance anxiety. You gain a little ground on Monday, then flood again Thursday during a town hall. The start-and-stop rhythm makes it hard to build momentum in memory reconsolidation. EMDR intensives compress the key phases of preparation, processing, and integration into a focused window. In practice, this helps you get past the potholes in one drive rather than idling at the same light fifteen times. I moved to offering intensives for speakers and leaders after watching the same dynamic repeat with traditional pacing. As soon as momentum started in EMDR sets, the hour ended. The next week we had to reestablish safety, resurface the target, and gather the fragments again. With an intensive, there is room to follow the nervous system through a full arc. Clients usually notice substantive shifts after one to three days, and the gains keep consolidating in the weeks that follow. There is also a practical benefit. Many professionals cannot take twelve Thursdays in a row off, but they can carve out a long weekend. When we match the treatment container to real life, adherence improves. What an EMDR intensive actually entails EMDR has an eight-phase model. In intensives, we honor that structure, but we change the tempo and add two layers that matter for performers: targeted skills rehearsal and physiological regulation that generalizes under lights. A typical intensive for public speaking anxiety might span two to three consecutive days, three to five hours per day, with breaks that are long enough to reset the nervous system. Shorter sprints, such as a single six-hour day with a follow-up the next morning, can also work. The exact dosing depends on how many “targets” we expect: the memories, anticipations, or images that spark the body’s alarm. We begin with history and mapping. Where did this pattern start, according to your body, not just your story. I listen for early experiences that created shame or exposure pain. A seventh-grade recital with a forgotten line. A supervisor who mocked a young analyst in front of the team. A fast-beating heart during a Q&A that someone later called “nerves” with a smirk. We also check present-day triggers: podiums, microphones, elevated stages, the silent walk to a lectern, live Q&A, camera lenses. The more concrete the map, the better we can stack the work. During reprocessing, we use bilateral stimulation to help the brain metabolize stuck memory patterns, paired with belief shifts. The magic is not the buzzers or eye movements. It is that your brain is allowed to complete old defensive sequences and update the meaning of those experiences. For speakers, I often target two categories. First, the original injuries that created global sensitivity to eyes and evaluation. Second, rehearsal targets: future images of exactly the talk you need to give, from walking on to answering the toughest question. We wire in a new somatic and cognitive template for those scenes. Between sets, we keep returning to the body. Somatic experiencing techniques help discharge activation and mark micro-wins. If your diaphragm was cinched like a belt at notches eight and nine, we find the notch that gives you enough air to form sentences without gasping. We practice that state, then we tape it into future images. The brain learns by repetition. In an intensive, you get enough reps in a single day to code it as the new default. Where IFS therapy and parts-oriented work fit Performance anxiety often includes inner parts with competing goals: a perfectionist protector that insists on flawless delivery, a vigilant critic that prevents embarrassment by preemptive attack, and a younger part that fears exposure. If we do not respect these parts, they will sabotage the process. This is where IFS therapy blends cleanly with EMDR intensives. Before heavy reprocessing, I spend time getting to know the parts that have jobs on stage. We ask what each one is trying to prevent. The perfectionist might be guarding a belief that love and safety are contingent on being impressive. The critic might carry rules learned at a family table where sarcasm was sport. We invite these parts into collaboration. If they soften a bit, EMDR sets move faster. If they resist, we can do brief direct work with them, or we can titrate the exposure in the future templates so that no one feels overrun. A practical example: One client, a COO, had an inner voice that said, “If you slow down, they will notice you are not smart.” Obviously not true, but truth is not the point under stress. We honored that voice, asked when it learned that rule, then located a college debate when she was ridiculed for hesitating. After processing that scene, we installed a new template of pausing to breathe while holding relaxed eye contact. Her performance did not just improve, her sense of integrity returned, because she no longer had to outrun that voice at 220 words per minute. The role of somatic experiencing and targeted regulation Talk therapy helps you understand fear. EMDR helps you metabolize fear. Somatic experiencing helps your body learn a different reflex. In performance work, that reflex is often about breath, head position, vision, and rooting through the feet. We build these details into the intensive. I watch how clients breathe when they describe their fear. Most lift the sternum and inhale high into the chest. That fuels sympathetic arousal. We practice low, lateral expansion and controlled exhales that are longer than inhales. I prefer specific ratios rather than vague “deep breathing.” For many, a 4-second inhale and a 6 to 8-second exhale, repeated for a minute or two, shifts state without dizziness. We also use focus drills. When anxiety narrows attention into a tunnel, the room feels hostile. I ask clients to widen their gaze, notice corners and edges, then rest their eyes on a friendly face or the back wall. If head and eyes move smoothly, the vestibular system says we are not trapped. It is a small adjustment with big effects on stage. We rehearse posture not for aesthetics but for signaling safety to your own system. Slight forward lean, weight through the balls of the feet, pelvic neutrality so the diaphragm can descend. People sometimes think regulation means becoming placid. It does not. It means gaining flexible control over arousal so you can deploy energy where needed without tipping into panic. A brief case vignette A founder, mid-30s, built a strong product and had to raise a Series B. He could speak one-on-one with investors and felt sharp. Put him on stage for a fifteen-minute demo and his body shorted out at minute two. He would lose his place, rush his words, then retreat to technical detail as cover. He had already tried standard coaching, breathing apps, and beta blockers. Some help, not enough. We mapped two relevant memories. First, a high school memory where he blanked during a competition and was laughed at. Second, a harsh quarterly review two jobs prior when a VP dressed him down in front of five peers. Neither event was catastrophic, but both carried shame and a sense of exposure. We processed those targets across two days. On day two we built a future template of walking on stage, standing in the first circle of light, and pausing before the first sentence while he felt both feet and located three friendly faces. We wired in a simple rhythm, about 130 to 150 words per minute, with silent commas between phrases. During a live drill, he noticed his throat loosen on the third repetition. The next week he presented to 120 people. Heart was fast at the open, then smoothed. He recovered cleanly from a minor slide click error with a smile and a sentence: “Let’s go back one.” That one sentence broke the old pattern of panic into a new pattern of choice. He did not become a different person. He learned that his body could tolerate being seen, his mind could tolerate pausing, and his identity was not at risk if a line landed imperfectly. His follow-on work focused on maintaining these gains under fatigue, because burnout during a fundraising sprint can knock anyone off balance. The structure of a well-run intensive Clarity and pacing matter more than gadgets. A good EMDR intensive for public speaking anxiety has a few core components that make it viable. Careful intake and target mapping with a performance lens, not just trauma history. Prep work that installs regulation skills and parts collaboration before heavy lifting. Reprocessing that alternates between past injuries and future, scene-specific templates. Embedded somatic drills that you can use live without looking like you are doing therapy. Integration planning that fits your real speaking calendar, including maintenance between events. This framework keeps the work honest. It prevents the all-too-common problem of doing heavy processing without giving the client tools to perform in the real place where activation will test the gains. Measuring progress without guesswork Subjective reports matter. So do objective anchors. I typically use a simple anxiety scale across specific moments, like “walking from seat to podium,” “first sentence,” “first laugh line,” and “first Q&A.” We measure these SUDs, the subjective units of distress, at baseline, mid-intensive, and in follow-ups at one, four, and eight weeks. A meaningful change is a reduction of at least two points in the highest peak moment, with smoother recovery within 30 to 60 seconds after a stumble. Physiological metrics can help. Wearables are imperfect but useful. If a client’s resting heart rate during a talk drops from the 120s to the 90s across two presentations, that is real. Speech rate measured from recordings can show overdrive easing from 200 words per minute to closer to 150 to 170, which is where most audiences track more easily. None of these numbers define success, but they keep us honest and guide the next rounds of work. Trade-offs, limits, and who should not do an intensive yet Intensives are powerful, and they are not for everyone. If someone is in acute crisis, unstable mood, or active substance dependence, I slow down. The compressed format can destabilize people who do not yet have enough internal or external support. Complex trauma with dissociation requires more careful titration and often benefits from a longer runway of stabilization first. If a client is in burnout so deep that sleep is fragmented and appetite is off, we may need to address physiology and load before digging in. You cannot regulate your way through three days if the tank is at zero. On the other side, people who are highly motivated, have a clear performance window ahead, and can name two to five specific triggers tend to do well. Perfectionists can also thrive in an intensive because there is enough time to negotiate with that part, not just silence it. The edge case that calls for creativity is the person whose speaking anxiety is bound to a medical condition such as vocal fold dysfunction. In those cases, therapy pairs best with voice coaching and medical care. Remote or in-person, and the logistics that matter Since 2020 I have run both remote and in-person EMDR intensives. Both can work, but the logistics shift. In person, I control the room: chair height, lighting, stage mockup, mic stand. We can simulate walking up steps, standing under a light source, and scanning faces. Remote intensives demand careful preparation. Clients set up a quiet space, a camera at eye level, and enough floor space to practice posture and movement. For bilateral stimulation, we can use eye movements via the screen or tactile buzzers mailed in advance. One practical detail that clients often miss is recovery time after each day. A brain that has done four hours of EMDR and somatic work needs a low-stimulation afternoon. No back-to-back investor meetings. No heavy email triage. Eat, walk, hydrate, warm bath, early bed. The gains consolidate while you sleep. If you stack cognitive load immediately, you may feel wrung out and misattribute that fatigue to the therapy. Costs, value, and how to think about ROI An intensive costs more up front than weekly therapy. Market rates vary widely by region and provider, but a two-day intensive might range from the low thousands to mid four figures. For executives, founders, and clinicians whose performance under eyes directly affects income or team morale, the math can be simple. One clean talk that lands, one town hall that steadies a nervous staff during a merger, one pitch that secures a commitment, can repay that outlay many times. More important, the decrease in chronic anxiety saves wear on the system. People underestimate how much background activation drains them. Over a year, the savings in time, sleep, and decision quality are real. I always advise prospective clients to look at value by timeline. If you have a keynote in three weeks, a focused intensive is often your best lever. If your calendar is quiet for the next six months and your anxiety is mild, weekly work can be more economical and just as effective. Integrating gains into live speaking Therapy is not the end of the road, it is the ramp. You still have to take the wheel on stage. We design small experiments to stress-test the new state. You might join a local meetup and deliver a five-minute talk, then a ten-minute one. You might volunteer the first question in a training when you would normally hang back. We build a habit of brief pauses to breathe after laughter or applause. We script one recovery line that you can deploy if you lose your place. That line matters more than people think, because it replaces panic with practice. Over time, we widen the lens beyond anxiety to craft. When fear recedes, speakers can attend to pacing, storytelling, and connection. That shift reinforces confidence. It also inoculates against relapse, because you are no longer measuring success by lack of panic but by presence and impact. A shortlist to decide if an intensive fits You can identify two to five specific speaking triggers that spike your anxiety. You have an event or series of presentations within the next one to eight weeks. You can clear two or three consecutive days and protect recovery time afterward. You can tolerate focused work on emotionally charged memories with support. You are willing to practice brief somatic drills during and after the intensive. If these are mostly yes, an EMDR intensive is worth a serious look. If they are mostly no, consider starting with weekly sessions to build capacity. Working alongside coaches, meds, and practical tools Good intensives play well with others. Many clients use beta blockers strategically, especially when heart rate spikes drive subjective distress. We integrate that choice into the plan, not as a crutch but as a bridge while the deeper work consolidates. Voice and speaking coaches add immense value once anxiety no longer hijacks cognition. I often coordinate with coaches so that skill drills align with the physiological work, like using phrase grouping and breath timing together. If you lean toward burnout, protect the gains aggressively. A busy travel schedule, fragmented sleep, and constant decision pressure can erode resilience. This is where simple, boring practices matter. Light exercise most days, steady meals, 7 to 8 hours in bed, ten minutes of breath and vision drills before high-stakes talks. If you ignore load, no amount of processing will keep you steady at the lectern. What a day inside the room feels like Clients often ask what the day feels like so they can plan. The morning usually starts with a check-in and a few minutes of regulation. We confirm the target, then begin sets. The first hour can feel like digging up roots. Emotions move. Body sensations shift. Memories surface that you have not thought about in years. Around mid-day, there is often a pivot. The charge in the body drops. Beliefs shift from “I will humiliate myself” to “I can handle this.” We then run future templates with specific cues: the click of a mic, the rustle of an audience, the silence before a first laugh. By late afternoon, the work becomes practical. We rehearse standing, pausing, breathing, and making eye contact from a grounded place. People sometimes expect to feel euphoric. More often, they feel clear and quietly tired. That is a good sign. The brain has done heavy lifting, and it needs rest to knit new learning. Edge cases and adaptive planning A few patterns need special mention. The brilliant explainer who hides behind technical density. For them, safety lives in detail. We do not rip that away. We build capacity to tolerate spaces between ideas, then layer in storytelling. The intensive targets the moment the brain predicts exposure when it leaves the spreadsheet. The empathic leader who fears hurting others by speaking bluntly. Their body tightens not from fear of being judged but from fear of causing harm. We target the memories that coded directness as dangerous, often family scenes where anger was chaotic. Then we rehearse clear statements with warmth. The sarcastic protector. Humor is a gift and a shield. We negotiate with the part that uses sarcasm to dodge vulnerability on stage. We agree on where humor belongs, then install a template where the speaker can be sincere without feeling like a sitting duck. These are judgment calls. They require attunement and flexibility, which is why a one-size plan rarely works. Aftercare that makes changes stick What you do in the two to four weeks after an intensive matters. The brain keeps consolidating memory networks during this window. I ask clients to journal short notes after each speaking exposure: what happened, what the body did, what worked, what to adjust. We schedule one or two follow-up sessions to catch anything sticky and to fine-tune future templates. If setbacks occur, we normalize them and target the moments that grabbed the system. Maintenance is simple but nonnegotiable. Ten minutes of breath and posture practice five days a week. One low-stakes speaking rep weekly, even if it is a team update or a rehearsal to a camera. Brief check-ins with the inner parts that used to run the show, so they stay collaborators rather than saboteurs. Final thoughts from the trenches I have seen EMDR intensives transform public speaking for people across fields: engineers, clinicians, artists, CFOs. Not into TED theatrics, but into ease and credibility that match their true competence. The themes are consistent. Anxiety fades when the body learns it can complete old defenses, when parts stop fighting each other, and when future scenes are rehearsed with care. IFS therapy and somatic experiencing are not accessories here. They are the scaffolding that holds the work so it generalizes. If your throat closes at the mic, if your mind races at the first slide, and if you are tired of dancing around the fear, an intensive is a pragmatic option. It asks for a short, focused commitment. It gives you back hours of https://rentry.co/5bosr83m energy and the chance to let your ideas carry the room without your nervous system stealing the show. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.

Dissociation, at its core, is not a character flaw or a vague mental quirk. It is biology doing its best to keep you alive when fight and flight are off the table. The freeze response, often paired with dissociation, is an ancient survival strategy that lives in the body long after the danger has passed. People describe it as going offline, drifting, or watching life from behind glass. In practice, it looks like missed conversations, hours lost to scrolling, a body that feels far away, or a brain that will not make decisions even on simple tasks. Many of the clients I meet arrive frustrated by this pattern and worn down by years of thinking their problem is motivation. It is not motivation. It is protection. Somatic Experiencing, often shortened to SE, is a gentle, structured way of working with the body’s survival energy so that the nervous system can thaw. It respects the pace of your physiology rather than forcing big breakthroughs. When dissociation and freeze are in the mix, this titrated approach matters more than most people realize. What freeze and dissociation are trying to do Imagine a car skidding on black ice. Slamming the brakes makes things worse, but so does flooring the gas. You need a steady hand, small corrections, time. Freeze is the body’s version of that steadying maneuver when it senses overwhelm. The sympathetic system surges to prepare for threat, then a parasympathetic brake flips on hard to prevent collapse. From the outside it looks like apathy or numbing. From the inside it often feels like a fog, a heavy stillness, or a shut door. Dissociation can be subtle, like missing parts of a meeting, or dramatic, like losing time. I have heard people say their arms feel like props or that their voice sounds like it belongs to someone else. This is adaptive during overwhelming events, but afterward the nervous system may still hold incomplete survival responses. Think of an animal that started to run, then had to freeze. There is stored mobilization energy in the muscles and breath, sometimes https://donovanjnux981.timeforchangecounselling.com/rethinking-anxiety-a-polyvagal-se-and-ifs-lens paired with immobilization. Over months or years, this can show up as chronic tension layered with exhaustion. It also breeds shame, since many cultures prize productivity and linear focus. I see this collide with anxiety and burnout often. People push harder to break the freeze, which spikes anxiety. They crash and blame themselves. Burnout then adds a second freeze, the kind born of depletion. It becomes a loop unless we work with the body directly. How Somatic Experiencing works, without the jargon SE invites the nervous system to complete unfinished survival actions and reestablish a sense of safety and orientation. The work is not theoretical. It is in small moments of tracking sensation, noticing shifts in breath and temperature, allowing tiny impulses. The aim is not to dredge up every traumatic scene, though memories may arise. The aim is regulation. A typical session might begin with orienting. Instead of starting with problems, we look around the room, letting the eyes land on shapes, colors, edges, and light. Orientation is not a trick, it is a neurophysiological signal to the midbrain that, in this moment, you are somewhere with exits and resources. Many people notice their shoulders drop or their gaze widen. From there, we pendulate, which means we move attention between places of relative ease in the body and places of activation. This back and forth allows the system to taste activation without going over the falls. Over time, micro completions are possible: a hand that wanted to push might press into the arm of a chair; a foot that wanted to run might press down and feel the floor answer. These sound small. They are not. The nervous system speaks in these micro-movements. There is often a sequence that unfolds, though it is not scripted. At first, many people feel nothing. That is normal with dissociation. The task is to find any thread of sensation that is tolerable. I might ask, when you say you feel nothing, where do you feel the nothing most clearly? We might discover it is a wide, cool space behind the sternum. Ok, can you notice the edges of that cool space. Is it round or long. Does it have a color. Simply tracking begins to bring the cortical brain into dialogue with subcortical states. Over minutes or weeks, the nothing becomes textures, then impulses. Once people can feel more, we titrate contact with harder material. We do not push. We touch the edge, return to safety. That rhythm builds capacity. What progress looks like when freeze starts to melt Progress in SE rarely looks like fireworks. It looks like finding your hands again after a difficult meeting and realizing you can feel the weight of your mug. It looks like noticing you left your body and choosing to come back with a breath and a shoulder roll, then being able to stay for five minutes longer than last week. It looks like a body that twitches, yawns, or trembles involuntarily in session as the autonomic system completes something it never got to finish. It looks like a breakup memory that once wiped you out, now arriving as a wave that peaks and falls. It looks like going to bed without the armor of nightly wine. Clients often report that anxiety feels less electric and more like weather. Burnout moves from a fixed identity to a solvable problem, because your physiology can rest and refuel. A story sticks with me. A technology leader came in describing a decade of high output punctuated by stretches of blankness. In the blankness, he could not write emails, could not decide lunch, could not answer his children. He had tried cognitive strategies, supplements, even cold plunges. In our first few sessions, he felt almost nothing. We tracked his eyes wanting to look left, then the pull of his right foot into the floor. After a while, his torso began to sway slightly when he talked about meetings that went south. A month in, he noticed that when his boss raised a voice, his ribs froze. We let his spine arc a little, his hands press gently against the back of the couch. The next week he found himself responding in the moment with a calm boundary instead of dissociating. That was not a mindset shift. It was a body that finally had more options. Dissociation, memory, and pacing People worry that if they let themselves feel, memories will flood in. With SE, memory can emerge, but the process gives you steering. We build anchors first. That might be sensing your sit bones on the chair as a home base, or a visual anchor like a plant across the room. Then we approach memories indirectly, through the sensations that arise when you think of them for two seconds, then return to the anchor. This prevents retraumatization. It also respects that the brain stores implicit memory in fragments of sensation, posture, and procedural tendencies. By working at that level, recall that does arise often integrates more smoothly. I have seen clients recover isolated slivers of memory in service of completing a nervous system pattern, then feel done, without needing to storyboard their history. Timing is individual. I have had clients feel a shift in two sessions, and others need ten to find sensation. That range does not reflect willpower. It reflects how long your system has had to split off awareness in order to function, and how much daily stress continues to press the system into protection. If someone is sleeping four hours, drinking six coffees, and navigating an unsafe home, the body has no spare capacity. We talk about realities first. Anxiety and burnout through a somatic lens Anxiety is often a high sympathetic charge without effective completion. Think of it as a partially revved engine. Burnout, in contrast, looks like collapse layered over that charge, a stuck gas pedal under a brick on the brake. SE helps the system find small, safe completions so that sympathetic arousal can express, discharge, and finally rest. When this happens, ruminative thought loses its fuel. It does not mean worries disappear, but they stop crackling your body like a live wire. With burnout, the early work usually focuses on increasing safety and resource. People want to fix burnout by optimizing. They download habit trackers, buy expensive supplements, and feel worse because they are adding demands to a depleted system. I often ask for subtraction instead. Fewer inputs, fewer obligations, fewer stimulations. Then, once the system has even a small surplus, we add gentle mobilization. Two mindful ramps of your spine during a meeting. A breath that lengthens the exhale by one count. A walk that begins slower than you think helpful. Gradualism does not thrill the mind, but it changes the body. Why SE is a good fit for dissociation and freeze SE is not the only path, but it shines with freeze because it privileges neuroception, the body’s evaluation of safety, over cognitive insight. Dissociation dulls interoception, your ability to sense internal states. SE rebuilds that ability without forcing you to dive into content that overwhelms you. The work respects the protective function of freeze, which paradoxically allows it to soften. The therapist watches for signs like micro facial shifts, breath changes, a tiniest clench in the jaw, a glaze in the eyes, and helps you steer. There is also an advantage in SE’s use of external resources. People with dissociation sometimes forget they can borrow regulation from the room, the chair, a view from the window. We practice feeling supported by gravity, by seat and floor, by the simple act of letting your back have something to lean on. This goes beyond cliché grounding techniques. When done with attunement and attention, these supports tell your nervous system it is not alone. How SE pairs with EMDR, IFS therapy, and intensives I often blend SE with IFS therapy or EMDR protocols, especially for clients with complex trauma. With IFS, parts that carry fear or shame can be approached more gently if the body is not locked in freeze. When you track sensation while dialoguing with a part, you often find that a protector who seems rigid actually softens once the body has an outlet for stored charge. Parts work becomes less about persuasion and more about physiology. EMDR intensives can be highly effective, yet they can also stir significant activation in people prone to dissociation. If someone has a history of going blank during high arousal, I build SE skills first: orienting, pendulation, titration, coupling dynamics, and containment. Then we can use bilateral stimulation in shorter sets, monitor somatic markers, and pause for regulation as needed. In my practice, a week of SE-focused preparation has turned a previously overwhelming EMDR target into a manageable series of sets with clear completions. Intensives, whether EMDR intensives or mixed-modality formats, demand energy and capacity. SE helps build both, so the intensive becomes metabolizing rather than flooding. Not everyone needs or benefits from intensives. They can be ideal when you have a specific cluster of targets, a limited window away from work, and robust support. They can also backfire if your daily life is chaotic or if your system needs more time to trust the process. The decision hinges on resourcing. If you are sleeping adequately, have time for integration activities, and can adjust commitments for a week afterward, an intensive may accelerate progress. If not, weekly or twice-weekly sessions with steady SE groundwork often produce more durable change. What a session looks like when freeze is present Here is a compact picture of how a therapist trained in SE might work when dissociation and freeze are reliable visitors. A slow start focused on orientation: sound in the room, light and shadow, exits, the feel of chair and floor. Check for eye focus and breath. If eyes glaze, back up. Establish two or three resources: a place in the body that feels neutral or pleasant, an image that signals safety, perhaps a supportive object. Test each with small doses of activation. Pendulation between activation and resource: contact a piece of activation for a few seconds, return to resource, and repeat, staying in a tolerable range. Allow micro impulses: a push into the chair, a gentle twist, a stretching of toes. Pause to feel after each impulse. Close with integration: orient again, reflect on any changes in temperature, muscle tone, breath, or space. Assign one small daily practice, never more than two minutes. The specifics vary. Some days there is more stillness, other days more movement. The common thread is respect for the window of tolerance and a bias toward tiny wins. Edge cases and complications I watch for Some clients have medical conditions or medications that influence interoception and arousal. SSRIs can flatten sensation for some people, stimulants can heighten it. This is not a problem, but it calls for finer titration. A history of fainting or vasovagal responses means we avoid sudden shifts from immobilization to strong mobilization. For clients with hypermobility or pain disorders, we adapt positions to avoid strain. I also pay attention to developmental trauma that involves relational ruptures. In those cases, direct eye contact can feel too activating early on. We might use side-by-side seating or focus on a shared external anchor instead. There are also times when freeze keeps you safe. If you are living with ongoing abuse or unsafe housing, increasing your access to sensations might make things harder at first. We discuss harm reduction, safety planning, and in some cases defer deep work until basic safety is in place. I would rather help you stay dissociated enough to function in a dangerous context than yank away a strategy without replacing it. Building a micro practice between sessions Between sessions, I encourage what I call micro practices. Think of them as 15 to 60 second invitations to your nervous system. The point is not to perform a routine. It is to remind your body that options exist. Orient during transitions. Before opening your laptop, look around the room, name three objects, feel your feet for two breaths. Track one neutral sensation daily. Maybe it is the cool edge of the pillow at night or the warmth of your mug in the morning. Give your body one completion. Press both hands into a wall for five slow breaths, feeling your back receive the force. Stop while it still feels good. Choose an exhale practice. Inhale naturally, exhale a beat longer than usual, pause, repeat five times. Longer exhales favor the parasympathetic system. After difficult calls, shake your hands briskly for five seconds, then let your shoulders drop. Notice any small discharge like sighs or yawns. When practiced consistently, these moments accumulate. They also inoculate against the binary of all on or all off that characterizes freeze. Measuring change without self-gaslighting People who dissociate often doubt their own perceptions. So we build behavioral metrics. Track two or three signals that matter to you. Examples include how long it takes to initiate a small task after a stressor, how often you lose time for more than ten minutes, how many nights per week you fall asleep without a crutch, or whether you can notice early signs of shutdown before they take over. Expect fluctuations. A week with a difficult anniversary may look worse on paper. The trend over six to eight weeks tells more truth than any single data point. We also look at your environment. Are you scheduling back-to-back meetings with no time to orient between them. Are you using workouts that spike sympathetic arousal right before bed. Are you consuming a diet of constant micro stressors through your phone. SE will help, but even a high quality method cannot outrun daily habits that keep your system on edge. Adjustments do not need to be dramatic. Twenty minutes of protected transition time across your day often yields outsized benefits. Where SE sits among other therapies Cognitive therapies teach you to reframe thoughts. Psychodynamic therapies help you understand patterns. Mindfulness sharpens attention. IFS therapy builds a respectful relationship with the parts of you that carry trauma or protect against it. All of these can be useful. The unique offering of SE is that it gives you a handle on the subcortical systems that move faster than thought. Once you can sense and influence those systems, other therapies often land better. Parts express themselves through the body. Cognitions ride on physiological states. Mindfulness can become resourcing rather than a bypass. For some clients, short targeted EMDR work simplifies a stuck memory so that SE can proceed more smoothly. For others, SE establishes enough capacity that EMDR intensives become an efficient next step, compressing months of work into a few focused days. The map is not one size fits all. What matters is sequence and fit: build safety, increase capacity, then work the hardest material with enough support to metabolize it. A few practical details therapists rarely say out loud Sessions that work with freeze tend to run best with a calm start and gentle finish. Rushing in from traffic and diving into trauma is a recipe for fog. I often recommend arriving early to sit in your car and let your eyes wander the horizon for two minutes. After a session with a lot of discharge, leave ten minutes before your next meeting. Your nervous system needs that buffer to consolidate gains. Expect plateaus. The body learns in steps. After a few weeks of good momentum, you may hit a boring stretch. This does not mean nothing is happening. It usually means your system is integrating. Pushing for novelty during a plateau can backfire. Trust the basics. Then, once enough stability is present, we might gently challenge the pattern by inviting a hair more activation and staying with it a hair longer. Also, hydration and electrolytes matter more than they seem. People in dissociative states often under drink or over caffeinate. Blood volume and electrolyte balance affect how safe the body feels mobilizing. I ask clients to aim for steady hydration and to notice how their somatic work feels after a salty snack compared to a sugary one. This is not cure-all advice. It is a practical variable you can control. When to seek additional support If dissociation leads to regular unsafe situations, like losing time while driving or blacking out from high arousal, you need a treatment plan that accounts for risk. That might mean temporarily avoiding certain stressors, arranging transportation, or looping in a physician to screen for seizure activity or sleep disorders. If self harm urges or severe panic accompany dissociation, skills from DBT can add containment. If you suspect neurodivergence, assessment can clarify sensory processing differences that shape how SE should proceed. None of this contradicts the core idea: your body is protecting you. Our task is to widen the menu of protection options so that freeze becomes one tool, not the only one. A note for those who feel hopeless about the fog I have sat with many people who used the word broken. They tried years of talking and did not feel better. What shifted for them was not a grand revelation. It was a thousand small choices to feel a palm against a table, to let a breath leave a second longer, to notice a swallow and not rush past it. It was a therapist who slowed them down right at the moment they wanted to speed up. It was the day they realized that the fog receded a few minutes sooner than last time. If that is where you are, take heart. Freeze is strong because it kept you alive. With care and practice, it can soften. Somatic Experiencing offers that care and practice. Used on its own or paired wisely with IFS therapy, EMDR, or even brief intensives when appropriate, it meets dissociation and freeze at the level where they live, in the body’s timing and language. Progress is measurable, not mythical. Your system can relearn options. Your attention can return. And life on the other side is not an abstract promise, it is the unmistakable feel of breath moving freely in your chest while you inhabit your own day. Name: Alli Christie Counseling Address: 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124 Phone: (402) 765-8761 Website: https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/ Email: [email protected] Hours: Sunday: Closed Monday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Tuesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wednesday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Thursday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Friday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Saturday: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Open-location code (plus code): H42C+M6 Lone Tree, Colorado, USA Map/listing URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx Embed iframe: Socials: https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "ProfessionalService", "name": "Alli Christie Counseling", "url": "https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/", "telephone": "+14027658761", "email": "[email protected]", "address": "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202", "addressLocality": "Lone Tree", "addressRegion": "CO", "postalCode": "80124", "addressCountry": "US" , "openingHoursSpecification": [ "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Monday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Tuesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Wednesday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Thursday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Friday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" , "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification", "dayOfWeek": "https://schema.org/Saturday", "opens": "08:00", "closes": "18:00" ], "areaServed": "Colorado", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/", "https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/" ], "geo": "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.5516997, "longitude": -104.8794188 , "hasMap": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx" 🤖 Explore this content with AI: 💬 ChatGPT 🔍 Perplexity 🤖 Claude 🔮 Google AI Mode 🐦 Grok Alli Christie Counseling provides mental health services centered on therapy intensives for high-achieving women in Colorado, with an office in Lone Tree. The site highlights EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, and focused support for concerns such as anxiety, burnout, panic, trauma, and self-doubt. The practice is led by Alli Christie Disney, LPC, and the Colorado location page says the office works with women from across the state, including Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins. For local visitors in Lone Tree, the office is listed at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. The practice appears best suited for women ages 16 and up who want a structured, longer-format therapy option rather than standard weekly sessions alone. The official Colorado page also says online sessions may be available for people who prefer virtual work or want follow-up support after an in-person intensive. To ask about fit or scheduling, call (402) 765-8761 or visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/. For map directions and public listing context, see https://www.google.com/maps/place/Alli+Christie+Counseling/@39.5524957,-104.8803997,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x876c859f7a8fa043:0x7712f13d361a1824!8m2!3d39.5516997!4d-104.8794188!16s%2Fg%2F11h2cf2bsx. Popular Questions About Alli Christie Counseling What services does Alli Christie Counseling offer? The official site lists therapy intensives, EMDR intensives, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing, anxiety support, and burnout-focused therapy content. Who is the practice designed to serve? The Colorado location page says the practice specializes in working with high-achieving women ages 16 and up, including entrepreneurs, executives, and women in demanding fields. Where is the Lone Tree office located? The contact page lists the office at 9362 Teddy Ln, Suite 202, Lone Tree, CO 80124. Does Alli Christie Counseling only offer intensives? The homepage says the practice primarily offers intensive healing experiences, while also keeping limited availability for some ongoing sessions in a more traditional format. Does the practice offer online sessions? Yes. The Colorado location page says online sessions are available for people who prefer virtual work or want remote follow-up support after an in-person intensive. What issues are mentioned on the Colorado page? The site names trauma, developmental trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic attacks, imposter syndrome, burnout, self-doubt, and phobias among the concerns addressed through intensives. What therapy approaches are mentioned on the site? The practice highlights EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Somatic Experiencing (SE) as the main modalities used in its intensive work. How can I contact Alli Christie Counseling? Call tel:+14027658761, visit https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/, and follow https://www.facebook.com/allichristiecounseling/ and https://www.instagram.com/allichristiecounseling/. Landmarks Near Lone Tree, CO Park Meadows — Park Meadows is one of Lone Tree’s best-known destinations and is described by its official site as Colorado’s biggest shopping mall. If you are near Park Meadows, Alli Christie Counseling’s Lone Tree office is a useful local reference point for planning therapy visits. Lone Tree Arts Center — The Lone Tree Arts Center is a major local arts and culture venue and a recognizable anchor in the city. If you spend time near the arts center, the Lone Tree office gives you a simple nearby point of reference for counseling and intensive therapy services. I-25 and Lincoln Avenue — The Sky Ridge at Lone Tree Station mobility hub project identifies the I-25 and Lincoln Avenue interchange as a major transit and access point in Lone Tree. If that corridor is part of your regular route, the office location is easy to place within the same local area. Lone Tree City Center — The city describes Lone Tree City Center as east of I-25 between Lincoln Avenue and RidgeGate Parkway, with a walkable mixed-use focus and light rail access. If you are near City Center or RidgeGate, the office is part of the same broader Lone Tree service geography. High Note Park and Happy Canyon Trail — The city’s High Note Park page highlights the Happy Canyon Trail connection running under RidgeGate Parkway and linking toward Lincoln Avenue. If you live or work near the RidgeGate trail network, the Lone Tree office is a practical local counseling reference. Bluffs Regional Park and Trail — Lone Tree’s resident guide identifies Bluffs Regional Park and Trail as a major local trail area with a loop trail and trail connectors. If you use the bluffs or nearby trailheads as your local frame of reference, Alli Christie Counseling remains a clear Lone Tree destination to work from.