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Internal Family Systems, or IFS therapy, earned its following because it helps real people shift from stuckness to movement, from shame to curiosity, from reactivity to choice. The model’s language of parts and Self looks simple. Underneath that simplicity lives a thoughtful integration of systems thinking, attachment science, affective neuroscience, and memory reconsolidation. Clinicians who know how to steer inside the model often see durable change, not just symptom management. Clients who learn self-leadership often stop outsourcing authority to therapists and begin guiding their own healing. I started using IFS in a community clinic more than a decade ago. Many clients came in with layers of anxiety and burnout, sometimes after years of well-intended treatment that gave them skills but not relief. The first time I watched a client turn toward an inner critic with honest curiosity instead of bracing for a fight, I realized why this approach lands. The body softened, breathing deepened, and a flicker of warmth appeared where there had been only grit. That shift turns out to have a biology, a psychology, and a learnable practice. What “parts” mean in a nervous system IFS therapy asserts that the mind is naturally multiple. Rather than a single, unified self that occasionally gets hijacked by symptoms, the model describes a cast of inner players. Managers try to keep life controlled. Firefighters spring into action when pain flares, often with urgency or impulsivity. Exiles carry the raw burdens of shame, fear, and grief. You can hear this structure in everyday speech. I should work out tonight, but I also just want to watch a show. One part focuses on values and long-term safety, another on comfort or escape. The model does not frame parts as pathology. It frames them as adaptive. Studies in developmental psychology point to how children learn to compartmentalize feelings to keep attachments intact. A young brain, faced with overwhelming stress, finds imaginative and procedural ways to keep going. Those adaptations persist. When clients meet their parts as purposeful rather than defective, arousal usually drops. That shift matters, because high arousal locks the nervous system into survival priorities and inhibits flexible learning. Curiosity opens the door to memory reconsolidation, where the brain updates old learning with new emotional truths. In practice, this looks like a client staying in compassionate contact with a terrified seven-year-old image in their mind while discovering that, right now, they are safe, competent, and resourced. Over several sessions, the seven-year-old does not feel so alone, and the adult does not need to numb so aggressively. Self-leadership is not a mood IFS uses the term Self to name a particular quality of awareness that is calm, confident, connected, and clear. Some clients feel it right away as a settled presence behind the eyes. Others access it in micro-moments: a breath, a softening of the jaw, an impulse to listen rather than fix. In the model, Self is not another part. It is the leader of the inner system, the one who can form relationships with parts and negotiate new roles. Neuroscience is never as clean as we want it to be, but there are plausible correlates. States of Self resemble patterns you see when prefrontal networks are online and integrated with limbic regions. Polyvagal theory adds a helpful map: when the ventral vagal system is engaged, social connection and curiosity become possible. Both maps reinforce the same point. Safety, inside and out, is a prerequisite for flexible problem solving and moral intuition. You cannot reason a panicked nervous system into trusting you. You have to show it. That is why the pacing and tone of IFS work matter. The therapist does not argue with parts. The therapist invites the client to get to know them. I often ask, Could you let this anxious part know you are willing to hear it out, and you will not try to get rid of it today? The client’s shoulders drop a centimeter. This is not placebo. It is a precise intervention that reduces perceived threat, quiets amygdala reactivity, and frees cognitive bandwidth for new learning. The arc of change inside an IFS session The sequence is deceptively simple. First, we identify the part that is up right now. The procrastinator, the ruminator, the part that Googles symptoms at 2 a.m. Then, we notice the client’s relationship to that part. Often there is a second part that hates the first: This is ridiculous, I should be over this. That second layer is key. If the client is blended with a judging protector, empathy for the anxious part is impossible. So we work with the judge first, asking it to step back a bit for the sake of learning. Once there is a bit of space, Self can turn toward the target part with curiosity. How long have you been dealing with this? What are you afraid would happen if you stopped? What are you trying to protect me from? The answers are rarely logical in adult terms, but they make perfect sense in the context of the part’s origin. I once worked with a medical resident whose inner taskmaster forced 80-hour weeks, berating her for any slip. That part took on its role at age 12, when achievement kept chaos at home at bay. Once the resident saw that, she began to renegotiate the job description. The taskmaster did not retire. It shifted from a whip to a calendar. At the deeper layers, exiles surface. This requires careful pacing and enough Self presence to avoid re-traumatization. When exiles feel seen and accompanied, they release burdens. Clients often report images of smoke leaving the body, warmth in the chest, or a gentle tearfulness that resolves into relief. From a memory science standpoint, the network holding the old learning weakens while a new network, associated with safety and connection, strengthens. The point is not catharsis for its own sake. The point is updating. Anxiety through an IFS lens Anxiety is not a single thing. In IFS therapy I track different anxious parts: a vigilant scanner, a catastrophic storyteller, a muscle-tensing bracer, sometimes a numbing firefighter that floods with social media or alcohol to dampen the first three. Each is trying to help. The scanner prevents surprises, the storyteller makes sense of unknowns, the bracer keeps the body ready. If you only apply cognitive strategies, you might argue with the storyteller’s predictions and see some relief. But the scanner will still scan. If you only apply relaxation, the bracer might ease, but the storyteller will keep spinning. When Self forms relationships with each part, they start coordinating. The scanner learns to check discreetly at set times. The storyteller learns to run scenarios to support planning, not to terrify. The bracer learns the difference between effort and alarm. This internal reorganization reduces symptom frequency and intensity. Clients report fewer panic spikes, less compulsion to check, and a wider window of tolerance. One client, a product manager, came in convinced that her anxiety meant she was broken. Over three months, we worked with three main protectors: a metrics-obsessed manager, a catastrophizer that ran market-collapse scenarios, and a perfectionist that rewrote emails for an hour. Once each one felt heard and re-tasked, she kept the analytical rigor, but the dread dropped. Her weekly panic episodes vanished for stretches of two to three weeks at a time, returning in milder form during big launches. That pattern is typical when protectors trust Self but situational stress still spikes. The system stabilizes, then flexes. Burnout needs parts work and body work Burnout is not just exhaustion. It is a loss of agency, a deadening of meaning, and a corrosion of boundaries. The nervous system shifts from mobilized stress to collapse. In IFS terms, the managers have overfunctioned until the firefighters take over with shutdown or escape. The exile beneath often carries a belief like, If I slow down, I become disposable. Somatic experiencing can pair well here. IFS focuses the narrative and relational work, while somatic experiencing brings attention to interoception and completion of thwarted survival responses. Small, titrated movements tell the body it is allowed to finish what it started. A client might feel the impulse to push and, with permission, press their palms into the chair arms for ten seconds, then rest. Over a series of sessions, physiological resilience returns. With Self in the lead, the client can renegotiate roles with overworking managers, reassign firefighters to recovery rather than numbing, and stay present with the exile who learned that worth equals output. Burnout recovery usually takes months, not weeks. When clients accept that time course, progress sticks. They can also expect setbacks during peak periods, which I frame as normal load testing rather than failure. Systems learn under stress. Self-leadership means you track load, set limits, and take responsibility for recovery, not soldier on until collapse. What research supports and what we still do not know IFS has grown in clinical use faster than the research literature, a common pattern in psychotherapy. There are peer-reviewed studies, including randomized trials and outcome studies, showing positive effects for depression, PTSD symptoms, and medical conditions with strong psychological components such as chronic pain. The trials are modest in size, often in the dozens to low hundreds of participants. Effect sizes are encouraging, sometimes comparable to established treatments. Replication at scale is still in progress. Mechanistic theories line up with broader psychotherapy research. Therapies that enhance secure attachment, reduce shame, and promote emotional processing tend to outperform purely didactic approaches for complex presentations. IFS fosters an internal attachment relationship between Self and parts. That maps well onto findings that self-compassion reduces physiological threat responses, and that memory reconsolidation requires a mismatch experience with active retrieval of the old learning followed by a new, emotionally salient outcome. Neuroimaging studies specific to IFS are scarce. However, research on compassion meditation, mindfulness, and exposure with emotional engagement suggests increased prefrontal-limbic connectivity and decreased amygdala hyperreactivity over time. Clinically, those shifts look like fewer hair-trigger alarms and faster returns to baseline. We also know a limitation. IFS, like other depth-oriented models, depends on a client’s capacity to imagine, notice inside experience, and sustain curiosity in the presence of discomfort. During acute psychosis, severe dissociation with minimal adult Self available, or early recovery from substances where withdrawal dominates, IFS might be adjunctive at best. In those cases, stabilization, medication management, or more structured behavioral work may take the lead until internal access improves. How intensives change the pace Most therapy happens weekly, 50 minutes at a time. That cadence builds trust and fits life. Some problems, though, slice deeper than a weekly rhythm can reliably reach. Intensives, including EMDR intensives and IFS-focused intensives, compress the work into half-day or multi-day blocks with clear prework and structured integration afterward. You can keep a target network activated long enough to complete arcs that would otherwise be chopped into fragments. I use intensives when a client wrestles with a specific traumatic knot that repeatedly derails them, or when schedules make weekly work unrealistic. The format is not a marathon of catharsis. It is paced, with breaks, snacks, movement, and frequent checks of nervous system capacity. With preparation, clients often process what would have taken ten to twelve weekly sessions inside two or three extended blocks. EMDR intensives and IFS are not competitors. I often combine them. EMDR’s bilateral stimulation protocols help maintain dual attention while processing traumatic memory networks. IFS offers a relational container by ensuring protectors give permission before reprocessing and that Self stays in compassionate contact with exiles. When the two are integrated, protectors feel respected, reprocessing proceeds with fewer blocks, and the risk of backlash afterward drops. Here is a simple decision aid I share when clients are choosing formats: Consider an intensive if you have a clearly defined target, enough stability between sessions, and room in life for 2 to 4 weeks of aftercare. Prefer weekly sessions if your system benefits from slower trust-building, you are learning basic self-regulation, or your life is already at capacity. Choose EMDR intensives when intrusive images and body sensations dominate and you can hold dual attention with structured prompts. Choose IFS-focused intensives when internal conflicts, shame, and polarized parts drive symptoms more than specific flashbacks. Combine approaches when both are present, planning in advance for rest, social support, and light responsibilities during integration. A therapist’s eye on timing and consent The most common clinical mistake I see is rushing protectors. When a client wants relief, it is tempting to ask a perfectionist or a numbing firefighter to move aside because the work is important. That frame triggers rebellion. Protectors care about survival, not therapeutic ideals. They need respect, specifics, and proof. I ask protectors what they fear if we meet the exile. I negotiate time-limited trials, with veto power if arousal spikes too high. I set explicit stop signals, often a raised palm, that instantly switch us to grounding. When protectors see me honor their concerns, permission follows. Work speed increases, not because I pushed, but because I built trust. Timing matters in the session as well. I end deeper work with enough minutes left to reorient. We track the body. The client stands, looks around, and names five colors in the room. If they drove to session, I ask them to walk the block before getting in the car. Those practicals sound small. They determine whether an insight becomes a memory that sticks or dissolves under stress. Self-leadership beyond the therapy hour IFS therapy aims to make the therapist obsolete. Not right away, but steadily. Clients learn to access Self on their own, hold dialogues with parts, and make internal agreements. Early on, I often hear, My critic showed up before the meeting, and I asked it to step back. It did for five minutes, then jumped back in. That is still a win. Five minutes can be extended to eight, then twelve. One skill builds on another. Daily life offers dozens of micro-practices: When you notice a spike of anxiety, ask which part is up and what it is trying to protect. Name it out loud if you can. Even a whisper counts. When a harsh voice attacks you, check if it thinks shaming prevents disaster. Offer a different job for the next hour, then review how it went. If collapse or numbness arrives, assume a firefighter is on duty. Thank it for lowering the volume. Invite it to try a gentler dial, like a five-minute walk. For burnout patterns, set one boundary per week that preserves recovery time. Debrief with the manager part that fears consequences, then track reality. Build a short, regular body practice that signals safety, such as five slow exhales with long out-breaths. Consistency matters more than length. These steps are not magical. They are relational hygiene inside your own mind. Over time, the baseline of Self grows. You still have parts, and they still have feelings and opinions, but you do not get flooded as often or as long. Decisions get cleaner. Regret shrinks. Where somatic experiencing meets IFS Somatic experiencing and IFS share a respect for the body’s pace. SE tends to track sensation and impulse with granular detail, completing defensive responses that got stuck. IFS tends to track meaning and relationship among parts, completing attachment ruptures that never healed. In practice, I find the combination potent. If a client says, My chest is tight, and a part says I should not complain, we can follow both threads. The body learns it can expand and contract without danger, while the part learns it will not be shamed for protecting. Anxiety often rides up when interoceptive awareness increases, because old signals reappear. With SE skills on board, clients can surf those waves without spinning stories. With IFS skills on board, they can be kind to the part that wants to shut awareness off. Together, these reduce avoidance and build capacity. The net result is more freedom of choice about when to engage and when to rest. Working with edge cases and complex systems A few patterns deserve special care. Perfectionistic systems often have nested managers that police one another. If you try to negotiate with one, another will say you are being manipulated. In those cases, I convene a brief inner meeting and ask the managers to appoint a spokesperson. The act of organizing them reduces internal chaos. We agree on a short experiment with clear metrics. Numbers reassure perfectionists. If performance does not drop after a trial, cooperation grows. Highly dissociative systems may have parts that do not recognize Self at first. I validate that confusion. We look for the smallest signals of Self, such as even a 5 percent curiosity. We keep exiles at a distance, often behind an imaginary door with a window, until enough Self is present to approach safely. This avoids flooding and builds trust with protectors who have watched others rush in and do harm. Medical complexity adds another layer. Pain flares, autoimmune fatigue, or hormonal shifts can masquerade as psychological setbacks. I encourage clients to track symptoms alongside sleep, food, stress, and cycle data when relevant. When a spike aligns with physiology, we adapt. Parts appreciate when we do not blame them for the weather. Outcomes that matter I measure progress less by symptom checklists and more by shifts in agency and choice. Clients begin to reach for support sooner rather than after the spiral. They renegotiate work boundaries without weeks of rumination. They notice early signs of overwhelm and use skills while the problem is small. For anxiety, we see fewer panic episodes and a quicker return to baseline when they occur. For burnout, we see sustained energy with deliberate rest and fewer crashes. Numbers still matter. In my practice, clients who engage weekly for three months, or who complete a well-structured intensive plus two to three integration sessions, usually report reductions in anxiety severity of 30 to 50 percent on self-report scales. Burnout markers like cynicism and emotional exhaustion drop more slowly, often across four to six months, with steeper improvements if workplace conditions shift. These ranges match what colleagues report across settings. They are not guarantees. They are honest expectations. A practical way to begin If you are curious about IFS therapy, you can test-drive the stance on your own. Set aside ten minutes. Sit somewhere https://lukasuhjm170.capitaljays.com/posts/emdr-intensives-vs.-weekly-emdr-pros-and-cons you will not be interrupted. Think of a current stressor, small enough to keep you in the room. Notice what part of you reacts first. Give it a name that feels respectful. Ask what it is trying to do for you. Listen without arguing. If another part jumps in to judge, ask that one to step back for five minutes. Then ask the first part what it needs from you this week. Identify one concrete action that takes less than fifteen minutes. Do it within 48 hours. This is the craft at the heart of IFS. Not magic, not mysticism, but disciplined kindness paired with clear agreements. The science points to why it works. The lived experience confirms it. When Self leads, parts relax. When parts relax, you can live the life you meant to live, not the one your defenses cobbled together in a harder season. 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 question I hear every week: is my anxiety just in my genes? Many people have a family tree full of worriers, or they remember a grandparent who never left the house without checking the stove three times. Others have a clean family history but still live with a fast heart, tight shoulders, and a mind that rehearses the worst. It makes sense to want a clear answer, because the story we tell ourselves about why we feel anxious shapes the choices we make. If anxiety is fixed in DNA, some people assume there is little point trying therapies like EMDR, IFS therapy, or somatic experiencing. That assumption misses what research, and years in the chair with clients, actually shows. Anxiety has genetic influences. It is not destiny. Genes nudge probabilities, they do not write permanent scripts. The nervous system changes with experience across the lifespan. Targeted therapies can lower baseline arousal, reprocess old learning, and build more choice in the moments that used to feel automatic. I will walk you through how genes and environment work together, why the brain remains teachable, and how practical approaches like EMDR, IFS therapy, and somatic work help no matter where your starting line was. What “genetic” really means with anxiety When researchers say anxiety is heritable, they are speaking in populations, not individuals. Twin and family studies generally estimate that 30 to 50 percent of the variability in anxiety traits is linked to genetic differences. That means if you look across many thousands of people, about a third to half of the differences in who becomes anxious relate to genes. The rest comes from environment, development, learning, and chance. Even within that genetic portion, there is no single anxiety gene. We are talking about a polygenic picture, hundreds of small variations that each tilt the dial a little bit. The nervous system you inherit sets a tone. Some people have more sensitive interoception, they feel internal sensations strongly, from heartbeat to gut tension. Others have a temperament that is more inhibited. These traits can make safety feel like a smaller target. The same neural sensitivity that fuels anxiety can also feed empathy and attention to detail. Many high performers who struggle with anxiety use that same nervous system to excel, until they cross into burnout. So the line between asset and liability is context, not moral fiber. There is also a family model piece. If a parent copes by constant reassurance seeking, kids learn it works in the short term. If the household reacts to uncertainty with scanning and second guessing, that becomes the template. I often meet adults who say, I thought my mother’s vigilance was love. It was love, and it was also anxiety training. None of this erases genetics. It shows how biology and behavior weave together. Nature, nurture, and the body’s learning loops Think of anxiety as a habit loop the body learns to run quickly. An alarm goes off in the amygdala, you feel heat or tightness, you think danger, you avoid. Each time you avoid, your brain tags the avoided thing as threatening, and the loop tightens. Early experiences matter because they set the first loops. Chronic stress in childhood can condition a higher baseline of cortisol and adrenaline. Adverse experiences are common, not only the headline traumas. Hospitalizations, bullying, shaming about bodily needs, a parent’s unpredictable drinking, medical procedures without proper preparation, even witnessing frequent arguments can create strong pairings between sensation and threat. Epigenetics sits between genes and experience. It is the layer of switches that turns genes on or off based on the environment. Serious stress can change gene expression in ways that bias the system toward hypervigilance. The hopeful part is that epigenetic marks are not fixed. Healthy relationships, consistent sleep, aerobic exercise, therapy that lowers allostatic load, these can shift expression over months and years. Why therapy helps even when genes matter The adult brain changes with focused, repeated experience. This is not a slogan, it is the basic science of neuroplasticity. Memory reconsolidation shows that when you reactivate a memory and then introduce a new, contradictory experience while the memory is malleable, the memory can update. Exposure learning shows that if you stay with a feared stimulus long enough to discover it is tolerable, the brain writes a new rule. Polyvagal theory proposes ways to read and shift the autonomic states that drive threat responses. You do not have to subscribe to any single model to use the result: when you flex the system toward safety and agency, repeatedly and with enough intensity, the set point moves. This is why modalities born from trauma work often help with chronic anxiety. They go beyond thoughts and beliefs into sensation, reflexes, and implicit memory. Two I use daily are EMDR and IFS therapy. I also integrate somatic experiencing skills, especially for clients who live mostly from the neck up. EMDR in plain language EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Despite the mouthful, the core idea is understandable. When experiences overwhelm the nervous system, pieces of those moments get stored in a raw form: images, sounds, smells, body feelings, meanings like I am not safe. EMDR invites the brain to reprocess those fragments while adding bilateral stimulation, usually eye movements or alternating taps. The stimulation seems to help the brain keep one foot in the present while visiting the past, which prevents flooding and supports integration. A first EMDR phase is history and preparation. Good EMDR is not a magic wand waved over trauma on day one. We build skills to downshift activation, like safe place imagery, grounding through the senses, or paired breathing. We map triggers and choose target memories. Then we run reprocessing sets. The therapist asks you to hold a snapshot of the memory, the most charged image and the worst belief about yourself, while you notice body sensations. As the eyes track side to side, you report what arises. The brain does what it naturally tries to do in REM sleep: file the memory properly, strip it of unnecessary alarm, and connect it to a wider web of information. People often say afterward, it is still sad, but it no longer owns me. EMDR is customizable. If images freeze you, we can start with the body sensations only. If trauma is complex, we do slower approaches like the Recent Event protocol or work first on present triggers before touching early memories. This flexibility matters with anxiety. Many anxious clients do not think they have capital T trauma, but they carry dozens of conditioning events that stack up, like years of critical feedback from a parent or a humiliating scene at school that taught the body to brace in every meeting. EMDR intensives and why format can matter EMDR intensives compress treatment into longer, focused blocks, often half day or full day sessions over a few days or weeks. For clients who are stable enough to tolerate depth work but cannot spend six months in weekly therapy, intensives can get traction quickly. The nervous system benefits from momentum. Instead of warming up and cooling down for 45 minutes at a time, you can stay in the learning window long enough to complete cycles. This is particularly useful if anxiety is tangled with burnout, where time off is limited and relief needs to be meaningful, not incremental. I have seen executives, healthcare workers, and new parents use a three day EMDR intensive to resolve a handful of stubborn triggers and then return to life with lower reactivity. It is not a sprint for everyone, but when it fits, it saves suffering. IFS therapy and the anxious system IFS therapy, or Internal Family Systems, takes an inside look at the parts of us that handle fear, image management, and impulse. Anxiety rarely comes from a single source. There is usually a manager part that tries to control outcomes, a critic that scans for flaws, and firefighters that jump in with numbing or distraction when anxiety spikes. Beneath those protectors are exiles, younger parts that carry shame, grief, or fear from earlier experiences. In practice, IFS therapy helps you relate to parts instead of being taken over by them. We look for curiosity, warmth, and clarity, the qualities IFS calls Self energy. From that stance, the client can ask a part what it is afraid would happen if it did not do its job. The manager that drives overwork might say, if I slow down, they will see I do not belong here. The catastrophic thinker might say, if I stop imagining the worst, we will be blindsided like last time. Once protectors feel seen, they soften, and we can visit the exiles they protect. Then we witness the burdens those exiles carry and help them update to present time. Clients with lifelong anxiety often find relief in this model because it removes blame. It also fits naturally with EMDR. An EMDR target shows up, the client feels a rush of panic, and instead of pushing through, we pause to meet the part who is panicking. Sometimes a few minutes of IFS clears the way for smooth reprocessing. Other times the work stays in IFS for a while, building enough trust inside that EMDR feels safe later. The sequence matters less than the attunement. Somatic experiencing and the physiology of safety Somatic experiencing focuses on what the nervous system is doing beneath thoughts. Anxiety has a shape in the body. Some people constrict in the throat and shoulders, others feel buzzing in the hands and a churn in the gut. The goal is not to smash anxiety down but to give the system enough capacity to discharge activation and return to balance. That can look like tracking micro-movements, orienting to the room, or completing defensive reflexes that got stuck, like a flinch that never finished. I often teach clients to find a 5 percent shift in sensation. If the chest is tight at an 8 of 10, can you find any place in the body that is a 1 or 2, like the soles of the feet or the backs of the thighs, and let attention rest there for 20 seconds. It sounds small. The nervous system learns from small, repeated victories. Over weeks, this changes baseline tone. Pairing these skills with EMDR or IFS makes deeper work tolerable, especially for people who have lived in their heads to survive. When intensives make sense Your schedule or season of life makes weekly sessions impractical, and you want focused work with clear goals. You have specific, well defined triggers or memories that keep spiking anxiety, and you are stable between episodes. You have done prior therapy and have good coping skills but feel stuck on a few stubborn patterns. Burnout is pressing, and you need a noticeable shift within weeks, not months, to keep functioning. You are prepared for structured aftercare and can set aside recovery time around the intensive days. Not everyone is a match. If you are in early sobriety, navigating active domestic instability, or coping with unmanaged bipolar disorder, weekly work may be safer until things settle. A thorough intake is nonnegotiable. A composite story from the office Consider a client I will call Maya, a mid-career nurse practitioner with a long history of what she called baseline anxiety. Her grandmother struggled with nerves. Her mother was a high achiever who checked details three times. Maya excelled in school, thrived in crisis, then hit a wall after two pandemic years. Sleep collapsed, her chest tightened before every shift, and small mistakes looped in her head for hours. She had tried mindfulness and a low dose SSRI with partial relief. In our assessment, the genes were not erased. They were part of the picture: high sensitivity, a family pattern of control as safety. There were also dozens of conditioning moments. Early in training, a supervisor had shamed her in front of peers for missing a lab abnormality that did not change treatment. That single event fused visibility with danger. EMDR gave us a way to reprocess that humiliation. In one extended session, the image of standing at the nurses’ station flushed her cheeks and clenched her jaw. We paused when a part showed up that said, do not you dare cry, you will look weak. Using IFS, we made space for that protector and learned it had saved her from ridicule in middle school. We thanked it, asked it to step back a little, and returned to the memory. After three sets of eye movements, her body released a long breath. New insights emerged: my supervisor was scared too, and they used shame to feel in control. The memory did not vanish. The charge dropped from a 9 to a 3. We wove in somatic skills for shift handoffs. Before walking onto the unit, Maya took 60 seconds to orient with her senses, noticing three colors, two sounds, one body place that felt neutral. She also practiced a 4 second inhale with a 6 second exhale to tilt her vagal tone toward rest. Within six weeks that routine felt like muscle memory. We scheduled an EMDR intensive over two half days to address two other targets: a childhood emergency room visit where she felt ignored, and a recent near miss with a medication order. By the end of the second day, her GAD-7 dropped from 16 to 7. That is not magic, it is the nervous system updating its rules with enough time and focus. Comparing the tools at a glance EMDR reprocesses stuck memories and present triggers, using bilateral stimulation to keep one foot in the present so the brain can update old alarms. IFS therapy builds a respectful relationship with protective parts and heals the younger parts that carry fear, so anxiety becomes information rather than a takeover. Somatic experiencing teaches the body how to complete stress cycles and return to baseline, lowering the floor of arousal so other therapies can go deeper. EMDR intensives concentrate work into longer sessions, which can accelerate change for well selected clients who need momentum. Combined, these approaches address thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and relational patterns, which is why the changes often hold. Measuring progress without guesswork Subjective relief matters, and numbers help too. I regularly use the GAD-7 every few weeks to track anxiety severity. Sleep metrics, either from a basic wearable or a simple sleep log, often show improvements in time to fall asleep and fewer night wakings after EMDR targets resolve. Clients note fewer reassurance texts sent per day, fewer loops of checking an email before sending, or shorter durations of post-meeting rumination. Heart rate variability can rise modestly with consistent somatic practice over two to three months. These concrete data points keep us honest, and they inform whether we continue with the same approach, shift to maintenance, or explore medical consultation. Where medication and lifestyle fit with therapy For some people, medication is part of the right plan. SSRIs and SNRIs can lower baseline arousal by 20 to 40 percent, giving you more room to do therapy. Buspirone helps a subset with generalized anxiety. Beta blockers can steady performance situations. These are tools, not admissions of defeat. If genes bias you toward faster alarms, using a pharmacologic brake while you rewire the loops is rational. I coordinate with prescribers and advise timing EMDR during windows of relative stability so we are not chasing side effects. Day to day physiology is not optional. Clients often report large gains when they trim caffeine, especially if they are slow metabolizers who get more anxious on what looks like a reasonable dose. Alcohol helps in the moment and worsens sleep architecture hours later, nudging next day anxiety up. Regular aerobic exercise, roughly 150 minutes a week, is one of the most reliable ways to lower overall anxiety. Resistance training adds a sense of agency in the body that many anxious people lack. Breath work, especially longer exhales or physiologic sighs, can be used right before entering known triggers. Magnesium glycinate at night helps a portion of clients sleep better. Cold exposure and heat therapy have their fans. I recommend caution, minimal dosing at first, and clear interoceptive tracking so we do not accidentally add stress to a taxed system. Limitations, risks, and good guardrails Therapy is powerful and it has edges. EMDR can stir up material between sessions. That is why preparation is not optional, and why a therapist should assess for dissociation and have stabilizing techniques ready. IFS done well avoids flooding, but meeting exiles too quickly can destabilize people who lack inner resources. Somatic techniques help many, yet a few people experience increased anxiety when they tune into body sensations. For them, we titrate gently and pair body work with external focus. There are conditions that mimic or amplify anxiety. Hyperthyroidism, arrhythmias, POTS, iron deficiency, and perimenopause can each present as nervousness or panic. ADHD and autism often come with sensory overload that looks like anxiety from the outside. Obsessive compulsive disorder can overlap with generalized anxiety but requires specific interventions, often ERP, which can be integrated thoughtfully with EMDR or IFS when indicated. If insomnia is severe, sleep medicine support may be necessary to open the window for therapy. Ethical practice means we are curious about these contributors, and we refer when needed. For parents who worry about passing it on If anxiety runs in your family, you are not powerless. Kids read nervous systems more than words. When you practice a daily 10 minute downshift ritual, your child learns rhythm. When you name your state, I am feeling revved up https://charlieimlv087.bearsfanteamshop.com/somatic-experiencing-for-post-event-decompression and need three slow breaths, you model regulation. When you repair after snapping, you teach that relationships survive rupture. Family culture matters. Keep routines, outdoors time, and supportive limits. Avoid using reassurance as the only tool. Gently coach approach instead of avoidance when safe. You will not do this perfectly. The goal is a good enough pattern that leaves kids with more flexibility than you had. Finding a clinician and planning the work Look for a therapist with formal training in EMDR and IFS therapy, not just a mention on a website. Ask how they assess readiness for reprocessing and what they do if things get intense. For EMDR intensives, ask about structure: how many hours per day, breaks, what preparation and aftercare look like, and how they handle emergent material after the intensive ends. Good programs include a pre intensive consultation, at least one preparation session focused on resourcing, clear goals, and a post intensive follow up. I share a written aftercare plan, including when to use grounding, how to contact me if needed, and a simple symptom log for the next month. Telehealth works well for many clients, especially for IFS therapy and parts of EMDR. Some components, like bilateral stimulation, translate to screen with taps or audio tones. For somatic work, camera angle matters. If you prefer in person, say so. The frame that makes your nervous system feel safest is the right one. Why this remains hopeful, even with a loaded deck I have worked with clients who can point to three generations of anxious relatives. I have watched them learn their system, process old alarms, and walk into the same life with a different body. The evidence base supports this quiet optimism. Heritability tilts the slope, and experience still changes the path. EMDR gives the brain a way to integrate what was too much at the time. IFS therapy replaces inner warfare with collaboration. Somatic experiencing teaches the body to finish what it started. Intensives provide a format that, for the right person, makes these changes in weeks. If you are wired for sensitivity, keep the gifts. Direct the vigilance where it serves you, like patient care, art, careful leadership, and let the reflexive fear relax. You do not need to wait for the world to become predictable. The work is to make your inner world more livable, then carry that steadiness with you. 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.

Sleep collapses when the nervous system forgets how to idle. I see it in entrepreneurs who tap their phone until 1 a.m., in parents who bolt awake at the slightest creak, and in first responders who fall asleep only to be launched upright by a phantom siren. They try melatonin, blackout curtains, white noise, even perfect sleep hygiene. Some of that helps. But if your body is stuck in a pattern of threat detection, you cannot logic or supplement your way into deep rest. Somatic experiencing gives the body a map back to baseline. It is not a trick or a hack. It is a set of practices that teach the nervous system how to complete stress cycles, recognize safety in the present, and shift between activation and rest without overshooting into numbness or collapse. For many of my clients, especially those wired by anxiety or worn thin by burnout, this is the missing piece that turns sleep from a nightly fight into a natural descent. Why the body will not power down When sleep falls apart, we often blame thoughts. Thoughts do play a role. But if you pay attention to what happens five seconds before a flood of worries, you can usually catch a sensation: a tight throat, a hot chest, a quiver in the diaphragm, a startled widening in the eyes. The autonomic nervous system moves first. Cognition follows and tries to explain. Three patterns show up most often in people who cannot sleep. Hyperarousal. The sympathetic branch runs hot. Heart rate hovers 5 to 15 beats per minute above your evening baseline. Shoulders carry a faint tremor. Even when the mind is quiet, the body buzzes like a charging cord. Freeze with a spinning mind. The body goes still, hands and feet cool, but thoughts race. This is not true calm. It is a dorsal vagal state with cortical overdrive. A fragile pendulum. Some people ricochet between agitation and collapse. They doze for 20 minutes, jolt awake, and then feel heavy and detached. The oscillation itself becomes exhausting. For each pattern, the body is not wrong. It is trying to protect you with a set of reflexes that once had a purpose. The trouble starts when those reflexes become the default even in safe contexts like your bed. What somatic experiencing actually does Somatic experiencing, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, focuses on the physiology of stress and recovery. Instead of diving first into story, it privileges sensation and the natural rhythms of activation and settling. Three ideas matter for sleep work. Titration. We handle stress in sips, not gulps. Rather than forcing a full relive of a scary memory or a long scan of the body, we work with a sliver of activation and then guide the system back down. This protects sleep because the nervous system learns that it can touch charge without getting stuck. Pendulation. Healthy systems oscillate. The aim is not to be relaxed all the time. The aim is to move between mobilization and rest with flexible range. When the body relearns this swing, transitions at bedtime get smoother. Orientation and resourcing. The brain sleeps when the world feels knowable. Orientation uses the senses to locate the present. Resourcing builds an internal library of sensations that feel strong, grounded, or pleasantly heavy. Together they provide landing pads from which the system can drop into sleep. I often pair somatic experiencing with IFS therapy or with EMDR intensives when past events keep jolting the system at night. IFS helps map the inner cast of characters, like the part that patrols for danger at 3 a.m. And the part that begs for rest. EMDR can clear specific incidents that keep the startle response on a hair trigger. When done well, the approaches complement one another. The body learns safety, the psyche aligns, and sleep has a chance. What improvement looks like and how long it takes I tell clients to expect measurable shifts in 2 to 6 weeks if they practice daily. This does not mean perfect nights. It means trends. Sleep onset shortens by 10 to 30 minutes. Nighttime awakenings drop from four to one or two. Heart rate variability nudges up 5 to 15 milliseconds over a month. People start to wake feeling available to the day rather than brittle. When we use intensives, either somatic blocks of two to three hours or EMDR intensives across one to three days, changes can arrive faster. The trade off is temporary fatigue and a need for careful aftercare. Not every case calls for that much dose at once. Weekly sessions suit people who are already close to baseline and can practice between visits. Intensives help when the system is cycling hard or when life demands rapid stabilization. A night in the life of a reset Consider Mara, a 41 year old nurse manager who had not slept through the night in over a year. She fell asleep around 11, woke at 2:30, scrolled until 3:15, then stared at the ceiling. Labs were fine. She had tried magnesium, blue light filters, and strict caffeine cutoffs. When we mapped her body states, two things popped: a tiny clench at the base of the tongue and a constant micro scan of the room. In session we spent 12 minutes doing slow orientation, letting her eyes move like a cat tracking a fly. She noticed the coolest spot in the room, the curve of the chair arm under her fingers, then a soft pull in her jaw. We stayed with that pull for three breaths, backed off when her breath shortened, then returned when her shoulders dropped. At home, she practiced a 15 minute version before bed and a shorter version when she woke at 2:30. By week three, the wakeup still came, but she fell back asleep in 20 minutes without her phone. By week five, the wakeup shifted to 4:45 and https://finnpczk329.wpsuo.com/burnout-vs-stress-knowing-the-difference sometimes did not happen. Nothing magic happened. Her system learned to ride a small wave of activation back into the shore of rest. Evening downshift that respects your biology Here is a compact, sensory first sequence I give to clients who need a simple entry point. It is not a relaxation script. It is a way to teach your system the path from alert to settled. Orient with your eyes for 90 seconds. Slowly let your gaze move across the room. Name three shapes or textures without reaching for adjectives like pretty or ugly. Note any tiny body shifts as your eyes land and leave. Build a resource. Place one hand on your sternum and one on the abdomen. Without forcing breath, feel for the weight of your hands. Stay for 60 to 90 seconds. Track any hint of heaviness or warmth. Taste a small dose of activation. Gently press your toes into the bed for two breaths, then release. Notice the rebound sensation in the calves and feet. If the body revs up, back off. If it drops, linger. Lengthen your exhale, but not by much. Choose a 4 count in, 5 count out for three to five cycles. If you get dizzy or tense, return to normal breath and rest your tongue on the roof of the mouth. Let gravity take more of you. Imagine the mattress as a shallow sand bed. One region at a time, let weight pour into it, starting with the back of the head, then shoulders, then hips. Pause between regions to feel the shift. Most people rush this and overshoot. Treat it like slow cooking. When you feel even five percent more settled, stop. Turn off the light. Trust that micro shifts, repeated nightly, do more than a single perfect session. Daytime micro resets that make nights easier Many sleep issues are not born at 10 p.m. They are made at 10 a.m., noon, and 4 p.m. By stacked, incomplete stress responses. These short practices release charge before it crusts over. Three orienting glances before each meeting. Let your neck and eyes move. Find one object that gives a felt sense of ease, even a small one like the curve of a coffee mug. Hand to surface contact for 20 seconds. Palms on a desk, wall, or your own thighs. Feel pressure, temperature, and texture. Wait for your breath to change by a notch. Gentle push - pull. Sitting, press your feet into the floor for one breath, then imagine the chair receiving your weight on the next. Repeat three times. Sigh on purpose once per hour. Let the exhale be audible. Not dramatic, just enough to allow the diaphragm to reset. If you do these four times a day, total time invested is under five minutes. You will likely notice that bedtime starts a step lower on the activation ladder. When somatic work is not the right first move Professional judgment matters. There are cases where nervous system work should not carry the whole plan. Suspected sleep apnea. If your partner notices pauses, if you wake with a headache and dry mouth, or if you have resistant hypertension, get a sleep study. No amount of orientation will override airway collapse. Proper treatment can transform sleep and makes somatic work easier. Unstable medication changes. If tapering benzodiazepines or stimulants, expect jitter, rebound anxiety, and fragmented sleep for a while. Gentle somatic work still helps, but dosing must be conservative. This is when five minute practices work better than 30 minute sessions. Active mania or psychosis. Grounding can be useful, but deep interoceptive focus sometimes amplifies distress. Coordinate with a psychiatrist and keep contact with the external environment strong. Complex pain syndromes. People with Ehlers - Danlos, CRPS, or fibromyalgia can benefit hugely, yet they often need shorter, more frequent titrations. Strong heat or cold awareness can be dysregulating. Go slow, honor tissue sensitivity, and collaborate with physical therapy. These are not exclusions so much as reminders to treat the whole picture. How this differs from CBT - I and standard sleep hygiene CBT - I teaches stimulus control and restructuring beliefs about sleep. It has strong evidence and often works quickly. Sleep hygiene creates conditions that make sleep more likely. I use both. Somatic experiencing is different. It trains the reflexes that sit under thoughts and habits. If you leave the bed at 2 a.m. As CBT - I suggests, but your diaphragm is still braced and your eyes are still scanning imaginary hallways, you are obeying the rule while ignoring the driver. When we combine the two, results stick. For example, I will keep the rule to get out of bed if awake more than 20 minutes, but that time out is not for doom scrolling. It is for a three minute orientation walk, a hand on the chest, a short exhale set, then a return to bed once the inner speedometer drops. Pairing with IFS therapy and EMDR intensives Some people carry parts that simply do not trust sleep. They learned, sometimes accurately, that sleeping meant missing the sound of a parent’s car door or a partner’s key in the lock. In IFS therapy, we can meet those parts directly. We ask what they fear will happen if they relax. We show them, in slow steps, that the current environment has exits, that doors lock, that phones can ring. Then we give them jobs that feel less taxing, like listening for birds at dawn. When those parts soften, the body follows. With EMDR intensives, we may target a handful of high charge memories that spike at night. A car crash at dusk. A deployment. A hospital code that did not end well. I favor half day or single day formats for sleep focused work. We clear the charge, then end with a long somatic cool down so the system does not leave the office revved. Clients often report that dreams shift first. Nightmares lose their sting. Then middle of the night wakeups grow shorter. The caution with intensives is pacing. Flooding a system late in the day can backfire. We schedule earlier sessions, keep protein and electrolytes available, and block the calendar the next morning. Sleep tends to improve across the next 48 to 72 hours, not always the same night. What to track, and what to ignore Sleep trackers are blunt instruments. They misread light versus deep sleep, and HRV changes day to day with hydration and hormones. Still, data can help if used wisely. Track these items for four weeks: Sleep onset time and a best guess at minutes to fall asleep. Number and approximate timing of awakenings. Total time out of bed during the night. Morning rested rating from 1 to 10. Evening body speed rating from 1 to 10 before your practice, and again after. If you also wear a watch, note average sleeping heart rate and HRV, but do not let a disappointing score ruin your morning. Look for trends, not single nights. When the rested rating rises by one to two points and awakenings drop by one or two, you are on the right path even if your tracker lacks enthusiasm. Middle of the night protocol, without battling the clock If you wake and feel wired, stay horizontal if that is comfortable. Keep lights dim. Let your eyes adjust rather than reaching for a phone. Bring one palm to your ribcage and one to your lower back. Feel for where the breath refuses to go. Invite a thread of breath in that direction, then let it go. After three or four minutes, roll to a side that usually feels safer. Touch the sheets with the tips of the fingers as if you are learning their fabric for the first time. If you sense irritation rise, or a voice that says this is not working, sit up, sip water, and do a 90 second orientation as if you are a tourist in this room. Return to bed when your exhale lengthens by a hair or your shoulders drop by a millimeter. It does not need to be dramatic. If after about 20 minutes your body still surges, leave the bed. Keep the lights low. Repeat the orientation practice. Resist the urge to fix your life at 3 a.m. Your only job is to be with a small amount of activation and help it find a settling pathway. Return when your inner speedometer drops, even a notch. Working with burnout and high achievers who cannot stop Burnout shows up in sleep as a very specific pattern: late evening second wind, a hard time decelerating, and a jolting wake at 3 or 4 a.m. With task lists slamming into awareness. Sedatives can force sleep, but they often blunt next day presence and reduce deep stage sleep. What helps is upgrading the body’s off - ramp. With executives and medical staff, I schedule a five minute somatic checkpoint at shift end, before any commute. In the car, both hands on the steering wheel, feel the skin on leather for three breaths. Eyes note three mundane details in the parking lot. Then, with the car still off, press feet into the floor and let the seat take the rebound. These micro practices break the continuous work loop. By the time they reach home, their baseline sits a few notches lower. Over two to three weeks, the 3 a.m. Stinger loses potency. For clinicians: dosing, signs of too much, and ethics If you are a therapist or coach using somatic methods for sleep, dosing is everything. Start with short exposures to interoception. Many clients overfocus on breath in a way that tightens their throat. I often begin with orientation and contact rather than breath. If you introduce breath, extend the exhale by a single count, not by three. Watch for these signs of too much: tingling that spreads rapidly, a sense of pressure in the head, nausea, a client reporting that they feel far away or brittle. Back up. Open the eyes, locate three corners of the room, touch a cool surface, and use simple language. If someone reports frequent dissociation, keep sessions briefer and end with a behavioral anchor like standing, picking up a weight, or naming the route home. There is also an ethical piece. Insomnia can be part of major depression, bipolar spectrum, PTSD, or a medical disorder. Have a referral network. Ask about bed partners, snoring, dream enactment, night terrors, and restless legs. Coordinate care when needed. Somatic work shines when it plugs into a larger plan rather than trying to replace sound medical practice. Finding a practitioner and learning to self guide Look for someone with formal training in somatic experiencing and at least a few years of post training practice. Ask how they handle sleep cases. Listen for language about titration, resourcing, and pacing. If they promise a cure in two sessions, keep shopping. If you already have an EMDR therapist, ask whether they offer EMDR intensives and how they weave somatic downshifts into the close of each set. If you are drawn to parts work, an IFS therapist who understands autonomic states can help you negotiate with vigilant parts that distrust rest. If you are self guiding, start very small. Pick two practices from the evening sequence and one from the daytime list. Practice for two weeks before adding more. Record two or three lines each morning about how it went. Look for patterns rather than perfection. A realistic picture of success I have seen people who slept four hours in broken fragments move to six and a half hours with a single wakeup across two months. I have seen trauma survivors go from nightly nightmares to one or two per month after we cleared three high charge memories and built a sturdy evening ritual. I have also seen clients realize that their core issue was untreated apnea, and that a CPAP did more for their rest than any set of techniques. In those cases, somatic work still had a place. It made the mask easier to tolerate, and it turned bedtime into a friend again. Sleep is not a test you pass. It is a relationship with your body’s rhythms. Somatic experiencing, sometimes on its own, sometimes in concert with IFS therapy and targeted EMDR intensives, helps that relationship repair. When your system learns to pendulate, to taste activation without drowning in it, and to locate the felt truth of safety in the present, the night takes you in. Not every time, not perfectly, but often enough to build trust. And with trust, the nervous system does the rest of the work while you are not trying at all. 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.

When trauma therapy goes wrong, it often goes wrong in predictable ways. The client leaves flooded or numb, the nervous system braced for impact, and the therapist quietly hopes next week will be better. People stop therapy not because they do not want healing, but because the method pulled them too close to the fire without the right protective gear. Internal Family Systems, or IFS therapy, offers a different route. It is slower where slowness is wise, precise where precision matters, and it does not require reliving the worst day to rewrite its legacy. I have sat with hundreds of clients who were told they needed to face their trauma head on. Some tried intensive exposure or detailed retellings that left them shaking for days. Others avoided therapy after a single harsh experience. The promise of IFS is not that it is easy, but that it respects the internal ecology of how people survive. It changes the question from How do we force the memory out into the open to Who inside is afraid of what might happen if we even look. Why retraumatization happens, even with good intentions Most retraumatization in therapy shows up as either uncontrolled upshifting or downshifting of arousal. You can hear it in a voice that gets thin and fast, or see it when someone drifts out of the room while trying to describe what happened. We sometimes call this moving outside the window of tolerance. The body either surges with sympathetic energy, heart racing and muscles tight, or it slides into shutdown. Therapists who misunderstand this window may push content when the system is not ready, or try to soothe a part that does not trust them yet, which paradoxically increases the threat response. Another common route to retraumatization is treating trauma as a single story that needs to be told. In complex trauma, especially, memory is distributed across parts of the self. One part remembers the sound of the door, another the taste of fear, another the plan that got you through. If therapy extracts a narrative from one part while ignoring the protectors that keep the lid on, the system reads it as an internal betrayal. Panic, rage, or blankness are all reasonable responses to that kind of internal breach. The third route is time pressure. Standard 50 minute sessions often encourage rushing toward the Thing. Rushing triggers protectors. When these parts feel pushed, they will flood you with anxiety, distract you with perfectionism, or send you to the fridge. None of this is pathology in the moral sense, it is physics. Systems seek equilibrium. Push quickly, and the counterforce rises. What IFS therapy actually does IFS therapy begins with a stance, not a technique. The stance is that every reaction, every symptom, has a good reason somewhere in the system. Protectors developed to keep something precious safe. In the IFS map you will meet managers who organize, plan, and avoid; firefighters who act quickly to put out emotional flames; and exiles who carry the pain of earlier experiences. Instead of stripping defenses, IFS negotiates with them. The aim is to help a client’s Self - that calm, compassionate, connected aspect - build a trusting relationship with protectors first. Only then do we consider approaching the exiles who hold traumatic burdens. Practically, IFS separates three processes that many models collapse into one: contact, consent, and closeness. Contact means noticing that a part is present without merging with it. Consent means earning the cooperation of protectors before moving in the direction of trauma. Closeness refers to how near we come to the pain, and this is modulated by explicit permission and ongoing feedback from the system. In this way, retraumatization is not prevented by therapist willpower, it is prevented by alliance with the very parts that would otherwise slam the brakes. The somatic floor under IFS While IFS is a parts model, it is useless if we ignore the body. Bodies track safety and danger faster than words do. If I see a client’s breath shorten or their eyes fixate, I pause the narrative and invite a 3 percent adjustment. Not ten deep breaths. Just one softer exhale, or the feeling of support in the back of the chair. Somatic experiencing taught our field the value of titration and pendulation, and those principles pair naturally with IFS. With titration, we touch the hot stove for a second, then pull back. With pendulation, we glance toward activation, then back to a resource. The IFS language of protectors and exiles gives us the who, while somatic tracking gives us the when and how much. In practice, I may ask a protector part where it lives in the body. A client might say, It is a bar across my chest. We do not dismantle the bar. We get curious. How old is it. What job did it take on. Sometimes the bar softens by 10 percent, which feels like two millimeters of new room to breathe. That is enough for the next move. A simple map of session flow that respects safety Establish Self energy and stabilize physiology Identify and befriend the active protector Negotiate permission and define stop signals Approach the exile indirectly, in images or sensations, with titration Unburden and update, then recheck with protectors This sequence looks tidy in print, and messy in real rooms. Step one might take half a session if the client is arriving with high anxiety or on the edge of burnout. Sometimes we cannot find Self at first because a manager is convinced the therapist will pry open old boxes. Then we do not push for exile work. We respect the manager’s role, show it what collaboration looks like, and measure progress by the reduction in internal conflict, not by the number of memories processed. A brief vignette from the chair A woman in her mid 30s came in describing constant neck tension and a habit of waking at 3 a.m. With a racing heart. She had tried a few EMDR sessions elsewhere and quit after one EMDR intensive because she spent the weekend jittery and tearful, then missed two days of work. She worried therapy would make her less reliable in a job with thin margins for error. We started with the part that judged her for leaving the previous therapy. It felt like a tight collar. It said, If you are not tough enough to get through it, you will never get better. We asked that part how it learned this. Two images surfaced of a parent who praised stoicism. We thanked the part for keeping her functioning in a high-demand career. It softened. Only then did we check for other protectors. A firefighter arrived with a quick urge to scroll on her phone whenever anything sad arose. We asked it for a way to signal early, before it grabbed the phone, and agreed on noticing a tingling in her hands as the first yellow light. Weeks later, when an exile finally peeked out with a memory of a terrifying night, we did not dive into details. We asked her Self to witness from a safe distance, about as close as a person stands to a hot grill. She saw the younger part’s posture, the way her eyes searched the door. Tears came in short waves, each followed by grounding. No more than 20 seconds at a time in the heat. The next morning she emailed that she had slept until 5:30 a.m. For the first time in months. Not a cure, but a data point. The system trusted the pace. The role of intensives without flooding the system Therapy intensives can compress months of weekly work into a focused arc, which helps people with full schedules or those traveling from out of town. The risk, of course, is going too fast. IFS-based intensives can be designed with the same guardrails as individual sessions. The difference is more room to pace, not less. In practice, an IFS intensive might run 3 to 6 hours a day for 2 to 4 days, with frequent micro-pauses and structured breaks that include movement, nutrition, and fresh air. The aim is not to do more trauma in less time, but to reduce the stop and start costs of weekly therapy. Clients sometimes ask about EMDR intensives as a complement. I have used EMDR within an IFS frame by setting up protectors as co-therapists before any bilateral stimulation begins. If the tapping or eye movements accelerate arousal, we pause and renegotiate with the protector that is signaling red. There is no badge for completion speed. With this integration, bilateral stimulation becomes a tool for consolidating shifts that the parts system has already allowed, rather than a pry bar to lever open a reluctant memory. Working with anxiety and burnout through the parts lens Anxiety often shows up as a coalition of manager parts trying to predict every angle of threat. Burnout shows up when those managers have run out of fuel and firefighters take over with numbing, withdrawal, or irritability. IFS helps by clarifying roles. When clients can map who is running the show on a given day, they stop calling themselves lazy or broken and can start asking, What is this part protecting me from right now. In concrete terms, I might ask a high achieving client to estimate how many hours per week a perfectionist manager has them on duty. The answer is rarely less than 60. We then test what happens if the part unhooks for 15 minutes per day, not by forcing rest but by giving it a micro-task it believes will reduce long-term pressure. One client negotiated a daily 10 minute planning ritual at 4 p.m. That reduced the compulsion to recheck emails at midnight. Small deals like this create slack in the system, which is a prerequisite for deeper trauma work. You cannot ask a manager to step back around an exile if you have not offered a realistic plan to keep life from falling apart. Consent that is ongoing, not a checkbox IFS clinicians talk a lot about permission. It can sound soft, even indulgent, until you see what happens when you skip it. Consent in IFS has three parts. First, we ask the client’s explicit consent to approach sensitive content. Second, we ask the protectors’ consent. Third, we keep checking consent once we start. This is not moral theater, it is applied nervous system science. You can feel the difference in a room when a protector has approved the next step. The client’s forehead relaxes a notch. Breathing evens. Images arise without yank. I also ask for stop signals. Some people will raise a hand. Others will say the word “pause.” A few prefer a nonverbal cue like moving a foot. The stop signal gives a firefighter part a dignified exit ramp before it deploys its usual methods like dissociation or arguing with the therapist. This is not just kinder, it is faster over time. How to gauge when you are going too close Speech changes: clipped, monotone, or overly descriptive with no felt sense Eyes shift: glaze, tunnel, or excessive scanning of the room Breath rate jumps, or disappears into shallow holds Body cues: hands go cold, jaw locks, shoulders hike and stay A protector starts running meta-commentary, judging the process If two or more show up, I pause the content immediately. I might ask, Which part has concerns right now. We then spend three minutes listening to that part as if it has the key to the room, because it does. Protectors do not need to be dismantled when they are heard early. Unburdening without reliving The unburdening step in IFS is frequently misunderstood. It is not exposure. It is a ritualized update to the parts system. After Self witnesses an exile’s experience from a safe enough distance, we check for emotional completion. Then the exile is invited to release burdens it has carried, often in images like smoke carried off by wind, or letting a heavy coat slide off the shoulders. The content is less important than the internal shift from It is happening again to That was then, and I am here now. Some unburdenings are quiet and private. Others involve grief that rises and falls in 30 second arcs. If we have done our alignment work with protectors, the process looks more like a funeral with proper honors than a reenactment. I caution colleagues not to chase catharsis. Big displays are not proof of depth. Sometimes the most durable changes come from sessions where a client says, That felt ordinary, and then notices over the next week that a once reflexive trigger is a https://eduardordav699.yousher.com/rethinking-anxiety-a-polyvagal-se-and-ifs-lens half-second slower, giving them choice. Edge cases and judgment calls Certain clinical pictures require special handling. For clients with high dissociation, the Self state may feel faint at first. You can borrow it through co-regulation, but do not mistake a fawn response for Self energy. If the alliance is brittle, I shorten the distance to safety by externalizing parts as images on the other side of the room, or asking clients to journal between sessions as a way of building a bridge. Active substance use as a primary firefighter requires upfront agreements. The part that drinks or uses has reasons. If we try to work with exiles while that firefighter is on call, it will likely crank up to numb the increased feeling. I prefer to work directly with the substance-using protector first, and only approach exile work once it feels sufficiently resourced and respected. Psychosis spectrum symptoms are another area for caution. Parts language can be stabilizing, but it can also complicate reality testing if used sloppily. I keep the focus on felt sense and function, and coordinate with prescribing providers. Sometimes the first order work is sleep and nutrition. Nothing mystical, just restoring the floor. Finally, with complex medical conditions or traumatic brain injury, the nervous system may have narrower tolerances. Here, somatic attending is not optional. I count breaths with clients. We modulate room temperature, posture, and pacing. We choose 60 minute sessions instead of 90. The adjustments are unglamorous and essential. Measuring progress that actually matters Not all gains show up as fewer nightmares. Some are micro-shifts that accumulate. I ask clients to track two to three behaviors that map to protector workload. A few examples: the number of nightly wake-ups, the urge rating to check work email after 9 p.m., the time between a partner’s sharp tone and the first defensive thought. We are looking for more choice and less compulsion. Over 6 to 12 weeks, one or two lines on the chart often flatten or fall, even before direct trauma work begins. That is the system signaling trust. I also look for changes in the relationship between parts. A manager who used to roll its eyes at feelings might start saying, I do not love this, but I can wait in the hallway for five minutes. That sentence is worth more than a dozen intense sessions that end in collapse. Practicalities that prevent retraumatization Session structure matters. Starting with two minutes of orienting - eyes finding corners of the room, noticing colors, sensing the contact of feet - is not fluff. It queues the nervous system for here and now. Timeboxing protects both depth and safety. If we are going to approach exile content, I keep at least 10 to 15 minutes at the end for reintegration. Closing rituals might include returning to a supportive image, checking with protectors about post-session plans, and choosing one small act of self-care that is realistic today, not aspirational. For clients exploring intensives, I set expectations clearly. We will not spend all day in trauma content. We will likely spend half the time with protectors, a quarter in direct witnessing, and the rest in consolidation. Between-day practices might be as simple as a 5 minute walk without headphones, or touching a grounding object while naming five textures. These are not busywork. They maintain the internal agreements that make the next day’s work safer. Finally, collaboration with other modalities is often helpful. Gentle bodywork, yoga with an emphasis on interoception rather than performance, or medically supervised sleep support can widen the window of tolerance. Somatic experiencing skills plug in here, too. IFS does not replace them, it choreographs them. For those who tried therapy and felt worse If a previous experience left you raw, your protectors have good reasons for their caution. In IFS therapy, those protectors become consultants. We ask them what conditions would make this attempt feel different. I have heard answers like shorter sessions, less fluorescent light, the chair against a wall, more water breaks, no homework, and a firm promise not to touch the story until the third or fourth meeting. These are not quirks to be indulged. They are boundary conditions for safety. On the therapist side, humility matters. We must be willing to stop mid-sentence if the system says stop. We must prefer relationship over agenda. And we have to tolerate the ambiguity of slow gains that, from the outside, look like nothing at first. I have watched too many clients bloom on the other side of work that was structured, gentle, and brave in the right proportions to believe that faster is always better. When it finally changes Real shifts often announce themselves quietly. A client drives past the old block and notices their hands are not cold. Another sits through a staff meeting and realizes their jaw is not iron. The nightmare comes, but this time they wake and can feel the bed under them within seconds. In IFS terms, protectors begin to retire from emergency roles and take on preferred jobs. The planner still plans, but no longer polices. The distractor becomes a creative spark instead of a saboteur. The exiles are no longer hiding alone. They are in relationship with Self, and with the rest of the system. What makes these changes durable is not that every memory has been excavated, but that the system has learned a new way to respond to old alarms. That is what it means to heal trauma without retraumatizing yourself along the way. It is slower than some methods promise, and it is kinder than many people have ever experienced. For most, that combination is exactly what was missing. 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. 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 https://juliusyuhw703.image-perth.org/somatic-experiencing-for-migraines-and-muscle-pain 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.

Anxiety does not stay in one lane. It lives in the body with tight jaws, shallow breaths, prickly skin. It loops through the mind with what ifs, false alarms, and unhelpful bargains. It reshapes behavior, shrinking a life around avoidance and overwork until burnout sets in. When a single modality aims at one slice of this system, relief often arrives late or leaves early. That is why I combine EMDR, IFS therapy, and Somatic Experiencing. Together they create a map, a motor, and the traction needed to change entrenched patterns. I will lay out the logic behind this integration, show what it looks like in practice, and explain how to tailor it to different forms of anxiety, including work driven burnout. I will also touch on intensives, including EMDR intensives, because strong, focused dosing can compress timelines when safety and preparation are handled well. What each method contributes EMDR turns the lights green for the brain to digest stuck experience. Bilateral stimulation, typically eye movements or taps, helps the nervous system reprocess memory networks that have been firing alarms far beyond their useful life. When someone startles at a boss’s calendar invite the same way they once froze in a chaotic childhood kitchen, EMDR helps those networks update. The story stays, the grip loosens. IFS therapy provides a precise language and ethic for the inner world. Rather than seeing anxiety as the whole truth of a person, IFS invites us to meet the specific parts who carry worry, perfection, catastrophizing, or numbness. Protectors like the hypervigilant planner or the avoidant procrastinator often work overtime to keep older wounds from surfacing. When these protectors are respected and understood, they allow access to exiles, the younger parts holding fear, shame, or grief. From there, change has traction because it is not imposed, it is negotiated. Somatic Experiencing, or SE, restores rhythm to a nervous system that has learned only two notes, on and off. Through titration and pendulation, we widen the window of tolerance. People notice micro-shifts in breath, muscle tone, and orientation. They practice completing protective responses that once stalled. Over time, a body that repeatedly learned freeze can rediscover reach, push, turn, and settle. Anxiety often drops a full point or two on a subjective scale before a single old memory is touched, simply because physiology organizes. Why integration beats silos I have seen each modality help on its own, but I have also seen the limitations of single lane work. EMDR without parts work can trigger backlash. A vigilant protector might escalate symptoms after reprocessing because it fears loss of control. Negotiating with that part first makes the road smoother. IFS without body awareness risks endless conversation about feelings with little change in baseline arousal. Parts settle faster when the body feels safe. SE without memory reprocessing can calm the body in the office, then have symptoms surge when a cue retrieves unprocessed material outside. EMDR helps those cues lose their punch. In practice, the three methods cycle and cross support. SE prepares the physiology, IFS secures permission, EMDR metabolizes what is ready. Then SE helps the system find a new resting place, and IFS consolidates a new role map. A brief case vignette M is a 36 year old product manager who arrived with panic in the mornings, dread before executive reviews, and headaches by Friday afternoon. She described her week as sprinting on a treadmill, then lying awake replaying micro-mistakes. On intake her daily anxiety averaged 7 out of 10, sleep six broken hours, and she skipped meals three days a week. Her history included a volatile parent who criticized small errors and an early career layoff that felt like a public shaming. We started with two weeks of stabilization, 90 minute sessions. SE first, to slow and widen her attention. She learned to track the moment just before her throat tightened, to find a counterpoint sensation in her legs, and to orient to the room for 30 seconds instead of pushing through. In IFS we met her inner Auditor, a sharp eyed part that counted flaws to keep her safe, and her Avoider, who scrolled late to numb dread. They agreed to try a limit experiment if decisions stayed reversible. In week three we installed resources for EMDR, including a place in memory that reliably gave her a sense of warmth and quiet, then tested bilateral stimulation in short sets. Only after her Auditor agreed did we target the layoff memory. By the end of a single reprocessing session, her SUDS, the 0 to 10 distress rating, moved from 8 to 3. Over the next two weeks, she noticed a softer inner tone and fewer rehearsals of disaster. We returned to SE to let her chest expand without tipping into tears, then back to IFS to renegotiate the Auditor’s job. Three months in, her average anxiety held at 3 to 4, sleep improved to seven solid hours most nights, and she began leaving the laptop closed on Saturday. Not every course moves this smoothly. Some systems need longer courtship with protectors, or present with dissociation that calls for slower pacing and tighter titration. The principle remains the same. Physiology, parts, and memory each matter, and none should be left as an afterthought. Anatomy of a combined session In a standard 75 or 90 minute appointment, I track three dials: arousal, parts alignment, and memory activation. I want arousal in the middle band, parts either onboard or at least not blocking, and a target that feels specific and relevant. A first block often centers on SE. We map the current state with language like “tight”, “buzzy”, “flat”, rather than interpretive labels. The client notices where attention wants to go and where it refuses. We find just enough resource, sometimes through breath on the outflow, sometimes by orienting to a color or repeating shape in the room. We do not chase comfort, we court a sense of handle. As the body steadies, we move to IFS. I ask who is up right now. The client might report the Manager who wants a ten point plan or the Catastrophizer who shows a slideshow of worst outcomes. I ask for permission to work with the felt sense under that protector’s watch. Often the deal is temporary, work with a small slice, and check back. This is where jargon free clarity matters. Parts do not sign off on vague promises. If the system feels stable and permissions hold, we shift to EMDR. The target is something like “the moment the email subject line lands in my gut” or “my boss’s sentence, you screwed this up”. We install the negative belief that rides with the target, such as “I am incompetent”, and a preferred belief like “I can learn and repair”. With bilateral stimulation in 20 to 30 second sets, we let the brain run the show, interrupting only to track safety and redirect if dissociation rises. Clients often discover that the boss’s tone matches an older voice, which becomes the next target. After several sets, we recheck distress, then finish with SE again, helping the body learn its new resting note. Between sessions, we keep it practical. Clients record one or two micro-experiments in context: pause before opening the calendar, check feet on the floor before a meeting, name the part that shows up when an error appears. The point is to translate insight into new behavior that runs on its own by repetition. When intensives make sense Weekly therapy has a rhythm that fits many lives, yet there are times when a high dose over a short window helps more. Anxiety patterns often hold because the system flips back to old loops between sessions. Intensives stack enough hours to get through permission, preparation, and reprocessing without long gaps. EMDR intensives are the most common format, though I rarely run pure EMDR in those blocks. SE and IFS run throughout to keep the work safe and integrated. Two examples illustrate the fit. A founder with a three month runway before a product launch has 20 hours for therapy in total. He opts for a two day intensive, five hours each day, followed by two consolidation sessions. We front load SE and IFS in the first morning, then do three to four EMDR targets by late afternoon, with movement breaks and protein snacks. On day two we finish two more targets, then spend the final hour on relapse prevention and protector roles. He leaves with a body routine he can run in five minutes and a short script for his inner Critic. A second client is a nurse practitioner in burnout, switching clinics in six weeks. Weekly therapy started to help, but the relief faded under 12 hour shifts. We scheduled a one day intensive of six hours on her first free Friday, then two shorter sessions in the following week. The intensive allowed us to peel back the layered cues that fired every time a monitor alarm sounded. The change stuck because she had time to practice between shifts, supported by telehealth check ins. Intensives are not a silver bullet. They demand more energy in short bursts and require strong preparation. They can also be more cost efficient than months of weekly sessions, or more expensive upfront, depending on the provider and geography. In my practice, a five hour day usually costs the equivalent of three and a half standard sessions. Clients reduce the number of calendar disruptions and tend to cut overall time to goal by one third, sometimes by half, but this varies widely. Preparation, consent, and guardrails Before any high intensity work, especially EMDR intensives, I run a focused assessment. Dissociation levels matter. If a client loses time or struggles to stay present, we extend the preparation phase and sometimes defer the intensive. Medical conditions influence pacing. For example, untreated sleep apnea can mimic treatment resistance, and hyperthyroidism can amplify arousal. Medications that flatten affect, such as certain beta blockers, do not exclude EMDR, but they may slow reprocessing. We also review support. Who can the client text after a hard session, what helps them land, what will they avoid for 24 hours. Food, movement, and gentle attention to neck and eyes reduce next day hangovers. The right snack at the two hour mark matters more than people expect. I recommend protein between 10 and 20 grams and water on each break, plus a short walk. Here is a compact readiness check I use before scheduling intensives: You can name at least two reliable ways to settle your body within five minutes, for example long exhale breathing or orienting to the room. You can recognize and describe your main protector parts and have language to check in with them. You have time in the following 72 hours for low demand activities and sleep. You can identify one person who can be on call for a 10 minute grounding chat if needed. You feel at least a 6 out of 10 in confidence that you can say stop mid set. A stepwise plan you can personalize Anxiety is a pattern, not a single symptom, so the plan mirrors that complexity. It is not a rigid sequence, more of a route you can flex. Stabilize physiology. Spend one to three weeks practicing SE basics. Map your stress signature, learn pendulation, and introduce orientation as a daily two minute drill. If your baseline anxiety runs at 7 or higher, this is not optional. Map your parts. In two to four IFS sessions, sketch your main protectors and the exiles they guard. Learn the feel of Self energy, the grounded, curious state that can lead. Negotiate two small permissions to approach specific targets. Prepare and test EMDR. Install resources like a calm place or a figure of support. Try short bilateral sets with non traumatic material until your body learns the rhythm. Only then select a target, one scene, most charged, narrow frame. Reprocess in layers. Start with the most recent trigger, then follow associations back. Let SE bookend each set. If you hit numbness or spinning thoughts, return to titration and parts work before pressing forward. Consolidate and generalize. Design two to three behavioral experiments that test your new learning. Examples include emailing to repair a minor mistake within an hour, or entering a meeting without prewriting your apology script. Track anxiety ratings and function, not just insight. Most clients who stick to this structure reduce daily anxiety by 30 to 50 percent within eight to twelve sessions. Those with complex trauma or chronic burnout may need a longer runway, often 16 to 24 sessions, sometimes with an intensive in the middle to cut through bottlenecks. Progress is not linear. Expect flare ups during life stress, then look for faster recovery and less catastrophic interpretation of spikes. Burnout, perfectionism, and the work culture trap Burnout looks like anxiety wearing a badge of honor. It blends exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy. The nervous system stays in a narrow, high arousal band and treats rest as a threat to identity. In IFS terms, a pair of protectors often run the show. The Striver keeps driving to maintain worth, while the Numb-er blunts distress with late night screens or food. EMDR can help, but only after those protectors believe there is something better for them to do. Otherwise they block access to the early shame scenes that keep them on duty. SE gives burnout a doorway back into the body. People relearn hunger, fullness, and early fatigue cues. They try micro-rests that do not look like failure, such as 90 seconds of eyes open gazing out a window between back to back calls. I have had clients set a calendar chime for three diagonal stretches and four slow exhales, twice a day. It sounds laughably small. Six weeks later they report that their shoulders live two inches lower. In EMDR, targets for burnout often include first big mistakes, humiliations in training, or a parent’s disappointed face. Once these memories reduce in charge, the Striver can try a new job, like choosing a smaller effort that still yields value. For example, a physician client moved from writing exhaustive chart notes to concise ones that met standards 95 percent of the time. The remaining 5 percent became conscious, limited exceptions, not a private referendum on her worth. Practicalities, tools, and measures A few measures sharpen focus and help you see progress when feelings lag. Track SUDS for three common situations, such as opening email, a weekly team call, and bedtime. Record a baseline week, then every two weeks. A drop of even one point that holds across situations is meaningful. Log sleep in 30 minute blocks and meals simply as Y or N for breakfast and lunch. Anxiety tends to fog the memory of self care. Seeing the pattern cuts arguments with yourself later. Use a parts journal, not a feelings diary. Each entry is the name of the part, what it fears, what it wants, and what you told it. This keeps you in a collaborative stance rather than drowning in affect. For bilateral stimulation at home between sessions, I avoid full reprocessing. Gentle, dual attention practices work well. For example, slow sets of alternating foot taps while gazing around the room for friendly colors. Keep it to one or two minutes. If distress rises, stop and ground. Leave deeper work for the office or telehealth session. Telehealth and hybrid formats EMDR, IFS, and SE all adapt to telehealth with a few tweaks. For EMDR, I use onscreen eye movement tools or coach clients to use self taps. I check lighting to read micro-cues and add more verbal orienting, such as naming corners of the room. For SE, I ask clients to position the camera to include the upper torso so we can watch shoulders and breath. Movement breaks matter more online. For IFS, we name the privacy challenges. If you cannot speak freely at home, we use headphones and allow hand signals for yes, no, slow, or stop. Hybrid models can work well with intensives. For example, a client flies in for a one day EMDR intensive with SE and IFS woven throughout, then continues with weekly telehealth for consolidation. The combination often delivers the best of both worlds, depth and continuity. Edge cases and judgment calls Some anxious systems need special handling. Obsessive loops with strong compulsions gain from a heavier initial dose of SE and behavioral containment before EMDR. IFS helps separate the Moralizer from the Anxious Checker so we do not turn exposure into a shame exercise. Panic with prominent somatic flooding benefits from a slow ramp. We practice naming and riding the first 10 percent of the rise before we ask for memory material. Otherwise, the body learns that therapy equals overwhelm. History of medical trauma calls for extra consent steps around bodily sensations. I ask before suggesting breath work, and I invite clients to direct SE focus to areas that feel less charged. We still widen capacity, but not by pushing on old wounds. Dissociation, especially with time loss or parts that feel entirely separate, often means starting with IFS and SE for longer. EMDR can be used in the early phases to install resources and reduce phobias of internal experience, but full trauma targets wait until the system can stay present through short activations. What progress really looks like The tempting metric is symptom count. Fewer panic attacks, fewer sleepless nights, fewer skipped meals. Those are good signs. Even better signs are quieter tone when you talk to yourself, more flexibility under pressure, and https://jeffreycldv784.tearosediner.net/ifs-therapy-for-relationship-anxiety faster recovery after a spike. Protectors begin to use nuance. The Perfectionist catches a typo, then says fix it now, not catastrophize for an hour. The Avoider notices dread, then asks for company rather than disappearing into a scroll hole. Physiology follows. Breath expands on its own in hard meetings. Hands warm when you remember your feet. Shoulders drop a touch at the sound of a Slack ping. These are small wins that compound. I have watched dozens of clients shift from living at a 7 to cruising at a 3 or 4. They still care, they still plan, they still show up. They no longer live under a siren. If you are considering starting Look for a clinician with live experience in all three modalities. Ask how they decide to use each on a given day. You want someone who can explain their choices in simple language and who adjusts when your system says no. If you are drawn to intensives, ask about their structure, breaks, aftercare, and what they do if dissociation arises mid set. A calm answer signals competence. If anxiety has intertwined with burnout, say so aloud. Make it a treatment target. Set boundaries that you actually test in the next week, not a dream plan for six months. Schedule one ritual that belongs to your body alone. Five minutes is enough. If you want to begin EMDR but your parts balk, honor that. Start with IFS and SE until the internal debate softens. This is not avoidance. It is smart sequencing. Recovery from anxiety rarely looks like a single, triumphant moment. It looks like hundreds of small choices that add up. EMDR unlocks old alarms. IFS organizes the team inside. Somatic Experiencing teaches the body to settle and move again. When combined with intention and decent pacing, the blend is more than the sum of its parts. It is a plan that respects how you actually work, in mind, body, and behavior, and it leaves you with skills you can run on your own long after therapy ends. 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.

Shame rarely announces itself. It hides in throat tightness on a video call, a calendar full of rescheduled plans, the way a compliment bounces off and lands nowhere. By the time people walk into my office, shame has usually recruited a team of internal protectors to keep it out of sight. Those protectors mean well, yet they create the very patterns clients want to stop. Self-sabotage is rarely sabotage at all. It is strategy, often drafted in childhood, that is still running the show. Internal Family Systems, or IFS therapy, offers a respectful way to sit with those strategies. Instead of forcing change, we get curious. Instead of arguing with the part that overeats, procrastinates, picks fights, or shuts down, we invite it to tell its story. When that happens, the system reorganizes. Shame softens, and behavior follows. That is the short version. The long version involves learning a new language for your inner life, feeling your way into the body, and sometimes using focused formats like intensives or EMDR intensives to move through the stuck places without losing momentum. What shame actually feels like in the room I have yet to meet a client who changed because I told them they should. People change when they feel understood, especially the parts of them that are most avoided. Shame complicates that. It makes eye contact hard. It fragments memory. It collapses posture. In the first 10 minutes of a session, I look for signs: clipped answers, apologizing for taking up time, joking to steer away from tenderness, a sudden need to make me comfortable. Shame prefers we not look directly at it. It will gladly wear a mask of competence or cynicism. When shame shows up somatically, it often maps to heat in the face, a dull weight in the chest, a shrinking in the shoulders. Some clients feel a band around the ribs. Some feel nothing, which is also information. Numbing is a legitimate strategy the nervous system uses when overwhelm has been frequent. If you cannot track sensation, we start there. We build capacity, inch by inch, to stay present without getting swept away. A quick primer on IFS therapy IFS therapy treats the psyche as an internal family of parts, each with a role, history, and burden. There are protectors that manage daily life or jump in when danger looms, and there are exiles that carry raw pain and shame from earlier experiences. Underneath all of it is Self, the steady core with qualities like calm, clarity, compassion, and courage. The job of therapy is not to get rid of parts, it is to help them trust Self enough to step back, so the system can heal. Clients sometimes worry that parts work will turn them into a committee. My experience is the opposite. When parts are acknowledged, the inner din quiets. Thoughts organize. The nervous system settles. Choices get simpler. This is even more striking for clients wrestling with anxiety or burnout. Anxiety often reflects protector parts stuck on high alert. Burnout can reflect managerial parts that have run out of fuel but refuse to stop. Both ease when Self is leading. How self-sabotage makes perfect sense to your protectors Most self-sabotage is a protector trying to keep you safe in a way that used to work. An example: a high performer lands a promotion, then misses deadlines, avoids key meetings, and gets edged out. Inside, there is a teenage part that learned success invites envy and attack. That part pairs with another that believes belonging is only possible if you are small. Together they pull the brake. Objectively, it looks like sabotage. From the inside, it is a loyalty to old survival rules. IFS invites those rules into the open. We ask the part when it first took on that job. In my office, answers range from age five to 17. We ask what it is afraid would happen if it did not do its job. We ask what it needs from you and from me in this moment. Protectors usually do not need much. They want acknowledgment, pacing, and proof that the exile can be cared for without harm. Here are protector strategies I often see when shame is nearby: Procrastination that keeps work from being evaluated, paired with a harsh inner critic that says you are lazy Overachieving that eliminates rest, with a quiet fear that pausing will reveal worthlessness Irritability or nitpicking that pushes closeness away before the other shoe can drop Numbing with food, alcohol, or screens to dull body sensations that carry memories Humor or caretaking that keeps attention on others, never on your own needs If one of those rings true, notice how your body reacts while you read it. The reaction is often the doorway in. A session snapshot A composite client, let me call her Maya, came for anxiety and burnout. She was sleeping five hours, living on caffeine, and white-knuckling through the day. She canceled social plans and then berated herself for being flaky. Shame was thick. We began with consent and pacing. I asked whether she would be willing to be curious about the part that canceled plans. We checked for fears about being judged. We asked other parts to give a little space so we could hear from the canceling part. The canceling part sat around her heart. It felt tight, buzzing. When I asked how Maya felt toward it, she said, Annoyed. That told us another part, the critic, was blended. We turned to the critic first. It said Maya’s reputation would collapse if she kept flaking. With some acknowledgment, it agreed to watch from the side. When Maya returned her attention to the canceling part, annoyance turned to warmth. That shift is a sign of Self coming forward. The canceling part remembered middle school, when showing up meant being mocked. It learned that withdrawing early saved face. We checked whether it would allow us to visit the exile it protected. With permission, we met a younger Maya sitting alone at a lunch table. From here, I guided Maya to offer what the younger one needed to hear and feel, in imaginal time, not forced, not scripted. Tears came. The protector watched, surprised, then relieved. After that session, canceling did not vanish, but the tension eased. Over weeks, the pattern changed because the load bearing it had been lightened. Why the body must be involved Talk alone does not dislodge shame. It helps to name, it rarely heals. Shame is sticky because it is encoded in sensation and posture. That is where somatic experiencing enters the work. We track signals like heat, cold, tingling, pressure, movement impulses. We move at the speed of trust. If the chest tightens when you remember the fifth-grade presentation where you froze, we pendulate, touching in for a few seconds, then returning to a resource. A resource may be as simple as feeling the weight of the chair, the warmth of the mug in your hand, or a memory of someone who believes you. Clients sometimes worry that focusing on the body will escalate anxiety. That happens only when we go too fast or skip permission. When we titrate, the nervous system learns it can tolerate a bit more activation without flooding. Over a handful of sessions, people report more breath in the back ribs, less bracing in the jaw, a sense that their spine is available again. Those are not small changes. They allow protectors to relax, which gives IFS more access to the exile holding shame. The critical voice: not an enemy, a guard The inner critic is usually the first voice we meet. It is loud, persistent, and often clever. It also believes that shame will kill you, socially if not physically. In families where criticism came first, the inner critic tried to beat others to the punch. It aimed to make you perfect or invisible. We do not try to silence it. We recruit it. I will often ask the critic for its top three fears if it stops criticizing for a minute. Fears sound like, You will get lazy, You will embarrass us, No one will respect you. Then I ask what else it could do if it did not have to police you. Most critics have no idea, because they have never been offered retirement. When they learn that other protectors can take on gentler roles, and that Self can actually lead, they become advisors instead of drill sergeants. That shift alone changes choices at 10 pm, at 7 am, and in the moment before you send the risky email. When anxiety is the smoke and shame is the fire People come in naming anxiety. They describe racing thoughts, stomach knots, dread on Sunday nights. Anxiety is real, and it is often a signal from protectors that something buried is stirring. When we follow the signal with care, we reach exiles holding shame about not being enough, being too much, or being somehow wrong. The exile may carry a single event, like a harsh teacher humiliating you in fifth grade, https://www.allichristiecounseling.com/somatic-experiencing or a thousand small moments of feeling dismissed. This is where EMDR intensives can help. EMDR, when paired with IFS sensibilities, lets us target those memories and the body sensations attached to them. In an intensive format, we have a full or half day to prepare, process, and rest inside the same container. That extra time means we do not have to slam the brakes when a difficult memory surfaces at minute 48 of a normal session. We can complete the arc, debrief fully, and leave you resourced. For clients with chronic anxiety linked to two or three crisp memory networks, I have seen more movement in two days than in two months of weekly work. That is not a guarantee, it reflects how much momentum uninterrupted processing can build. Burnout, perfectionism, and the high-cost manager Burnout looks like apathy, but the parts running it are anything but apathetic. They are managers who have been working overtime for years. They push you to stay late, clean the kitchen, take on another project, keep family plates spinning, read one more paper, hit a new PR. Their logic is airtight: if you do more, no one can say you failed. Meanwhile, the exile carrying shame about early failures stays hidden. When I work with burnout, I do three things in parallel. First, we help the managers listen to the body’s limit signals and experiment with setting a 5 percent lower bar. That tiny drop often produces outsized relief. Second, we meet the exile carrying shame about not being allowed to rest or be ordinary. Third, we build in boring, mechanical changes like changing notification settings, separating work devices from personal ones, and protecting sleep. Parts work changes the inside, but if your calendar and inbox are booby-trapped, you will relapse. Why intensives can be a wise shortcut Weekly therapy is the backbone of deep work. At the same time, certain patterns benefit from dedicated, uninterrupted attention. Intensives, including EMDR intensives, compress months of material into days. They are not rushed. They are slower in the moment, and faster across the arc. The pacing lets protectors see that you are not going to poke an exile then send it back into the dark. Here is when an intensive format tends to be a good match: You circle the same memory or pattern again and again, and 50 minute sessions keep cutting it short Your schedule is erratic, so consistent weekly work is unrealistic for the next few months You have a deadline, like a trial, a performance, or a transition, and need focused relief You have a clear target memory network that spikes anxiety or shame in predictable ways You have done prior therapy and want to go deeper on one knot without diluting attention An intensive usually includes a thorough intake, nervous system assessment, goal setting, and practical planning. A typical day might run three to five hours with breaks. I build in time for integration practices, a debrief call in the following week, and a written plan so your daily life supports the gains. What actually changes when shame heals Clients often hope behavior will shift immediately. Sometimes it does. More often, the first changes are subtle and bodily. People report they look up more while walking, not at the pavement. They answer messages within a day instead of letting them fester. They pause before saying yes. They hear the critic without obeying it. Lapses still happen, but the recovery time shrinks from weeks to hours. That shrinking is how I track progress more than any single win. Relationships change too. Apologies come faster, not out of collapse but out of contact with the truth. Boundaries firm up. Someone whose reflex was to volunteer for every holiday duty tries sitting down first. A manager who used to rewrite every team memo starts coaching instead. These are not personality transplants. They are the natural outcome of Self leading, not shame. A realistic pace, and why faster is not always better Intensives are not a badge of honor. Some systems need to go slowly. If you have a complex trauma history, unstable housing, active substance dependence, or no current social support, we start with stabilization. I want your daily life to be able to hold what therapy stirs. Sometimes that means months of resourcing and skills before we touch big memories. It also means looped collaboration with your prescriber if you use medication for anxiety or sleep. Slowing down can feel frustrating at first. The trade-off is safety that holds. I have also seen people race into catharsis and then crash. The nervous system tires. Protectors panic, and we lose trust. A slow, consent-based approach prevents that. I tell clients that feeling 15 to 30 percent different in the first month is a solid trajectory. Chasing 100 percent creates pressure that mimics the old system. Bringing the work home Therapy is three or four hours a week at most. The rest is your life. Clients who make steady gains usually adopt two or three micro-practices that teach parts the world has changed. A starter set I often recommend includes a daily two minute check-in with one part, not as homework to finish, but as contact to maintain. The check-in might be as simple as placing a hand on the area of the body that held activation that day, saying internally, I see you, I am here. Second, a brief somatic reset between tasks: stand, feel your feet, look around the room with your neck turning, exhale longer than you inhale three times. Third, structured boundaries around inputs, like a rule that after 8 pm you do not open work apps, or that news gets 10 minutes once daily. These are not moral edicts. They are ways to convince protectors they do not need to stand guard all night. How I weave modalities without losing the thread No single method owns healing. IFS therapy gives a respectful map of the inner world. Somatic experiencing gives a dial for activation. EMDR provides momentum for discrete memory networks. On certain days, cognitive strategies help too, especially for planning and decision making. The art is knowing when to use which. If a client arrives flooded, I start with nervous system work so they can orient to the room. If a protector is shouting, IFS helps us befriend it and unblend. If a crisp, specific memory keeps intruding and the system has enough stability, we may switch to EMDR, keeping IFS consent at the center, so parts are not overrun. When shame is diffuse and lifelong, we use more relational and somatic pacing. When shame is knotted around a handful of humiliations, EMDR intensives can cut the tethers swiftly. The trade-offs are always discussed in plain language. Clients choose, with my guidance, not the other way around. A brief note on measurement and expectations I ask clients to track changes they can count. Not to run their healing like a project plan, but to honor progress their critic will ignore. Examples include how many emails sit unopened after 5 pm, how often you cancel plans, average hours of sleep, how quickly you return to baseline after a trigger, and the number of days each week that include something that is not instrumental. Over four to eight weeks, we look for directional improvement. A move from four canceled plans a month to one or two is meaningful. Panic intensity dropping from an eight to a five matters. Expect plateaus. Expect a flare-up when something good happens. Upward spirals include steps that look sideways. When to refer or adapt IFS therapy is powerful, and it is not a panacea. If a client presents with active suicidality, severe dissociation without anchors, uncontrolled substance use, or acute psychosis, I bring in a team. That may mean a higher level of care, medication support, or structured programs before parts work begins in earnest. For neurodivergent clients, we may adapt pacing, language, and sensory input. For clients with medical conditions that mimic anxiety, like hyperthyroidism or POTS, we coordinate with physicians so we are not chasing the wrong thing. Good therapy means good differential thinking. What it feels like when Self is leading People sometimes ask how they will know if Self is in the driver’s seat. They expect a revelation. More often, it feels ordinary. You are unhurried inside even if your day is full. You hear the critic and the worrier, and you thank them, then choose. Curiosity shows up where contempt used to live. You can hold two truths: that you care about doing well, and that a stumble does not define you. You feel warmth toward the parts that used to scare you. That warmth is the antidote to shame’s isolation. It is not a performance. It is a homecoming. Final thoughts from the chair across from you I have sat with hundreds of people grappling with shame, anxiety, and burnout. The stories differ, the body signals rhyme. The part of you that looks like a saboteur is probably a guardian that never got to retire. When we work with respect, pace the body, and let Self lead, those guardians soften. Sometimes the best way to honor their service is a focused burst of attention, like an intensive where we can finally complete a loop. Other times, they need a long season of steady contact. Either way, the change is not a trick. It is the system learning that safety is possible now, and that you do not have to earn belonging with exhaustion. If you are reading this and recognizing yourself, start small. Name one protector strategy at work this week. Ask that part what it is afraid would happen if it did not do its job. Notice where you feel it in your body. Offer it two minutes of attention without trying to fix it. That is IFS therapy, already underway. The rest we can build, step by step, at a pace that keeps the door open. 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.