INTENSIVE FAMILY THERAPY IN CALIFORNIA

Make change and memories during a retreat-style family therapy intensive in San Diego

Visit our specialized family therapy clinic in sunny San Diego for a transformative, 2-day experience that helps families like yours quickly open up communication, identify dysfunctional family patterns, address family roles and relationships, clarify expectations, and set a family growth plan that supports lasting change.

consult with our family therapists

THE EXPERIENCE

What Is Our Family Intensive Outpatient Program?

The Family Intensive is a brief but powerful therapeutic process that brings the entire family system into focus. Guided by experienced family-specialized clinicians, we help each member identify patterns, recognize communication barriers, and develop a shared understanding of what needs to change.

Our 2-day format allows time for evaluation, relational work, and collaborative planning—resulting in a treatment direction that’s clear, practical, and grounded in compassion.

WHAT DOES HELP LOOK LIKE?

The Pathways Approach to Family Intensive Therapy

At Pathways Family Therapy, we draw on decades of clinical experience in family systems therapy, trauma recovery, and relational healing. Each family’s experience is unique, and so is our approach.

Your 2-day intensive will include:

Family sessions with all members present
Individual and sub-system sessions (parents, siblings, couples)
Psychoeducation on family & individual treatment, communication and attachment
Therapist collaboration and case coordination with outside sources, as needed
A comprehensive review and written summary of findings

Families often leave the program with a renewed sense of direction, insight into long-standing patterns, and concrete recommendations for continued therapeutic and family growth.

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What makes our family intensives different

Pathways Family Therapy is one of the few practices in the country that offers in-person family therapy intensives, and we are known in our community as the go-to family therapy experts. We have years of experience and formal training in family systems work, spanning outpatient settings, in-home settings, and complex residential treatment milieus. Our 2-day Intensives provide expert assessment of family needs, an actionable plan moving ahead, and an experience of family therapy that illuminates its importance in your family’s overall wellness plan. Our intensives are powerful and effective, and many family members continue to work with us after their family therapy intensive.

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Family Intensive Program Schedule

Day 1

Building Understanding & Connection

9:00 – 10:40am | Family Intake
10:40 – 11:00am | Break
11:00 – 11:45am | 1:1 Therapy Sessions, Individual Sub-Systems, Couples
11:45 – 1:00pm | Lunch Break
1:00 – 1:30pm | Logistics and Care Coordination
1:30 – 2:20pm Family Session
2:20 – 3:10pm Debrief & Day-2 Prep (Clinicians Only)

Day 2

Moving Toward Healing Together

9:00 – 9:30am | Family Therapy Didactic
9:30-10:20am Family Session
10:20 – 10:30am | Break
10:30 – 11:00am | Individual Recommendations Meetings
11:00 – 11:30am | BREAK
11:30 – 12:20pm | Review of Initial Findings and Family Treatment Plan

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Planning your visit to our family intensive in San Diego

When’s the last time you took a family trip—not just to get away, but to reconnect, heal, and grow together? Our 2-day family intensive is designed to maximize support without getting in the way of family connections. Make meaningful change and lasting memories with a total reset in beautiful, sunny San Diego—away from the triggers and routines of everyday life.

Treatment takes place in our Sorrento Valley clinic, close to the famous cliffs and beaches of La Jolla. While we do not arrange travel or accommodations, we’re more than happy to make recommendations about neighborhoods to book an Air BnB or hotel and local restaurants and activities we enjoy with our own families—like the San Diego Zoo or La Jolla Cove.

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FAQs

Who is allowed to come to the intensive?

Anyone who is central to the family system, whether or not they are in your immediate family. For example, some families will bring a grandparent if they are heavily involved in the day-to-day life of the family—and are an important part of the change process.

What if one of my family members refuses to go?

Although it is preferable that all relevant family members attend, it’s fairly common for willing members to attend family intensives to gain clarity, get the ball moving, and show the absent family member(s) that they are committed to the process and ready to do their part, regardless of others who are unable/unwilling. There is still much healing to be done with whomever is present for the family therapy intensive. If you’d like, we can book a consultation prior to the intensive to discuss concerns with any reluctant family member. We are used to handling resistance, and we offer low-pressure, individual rapport-building to help everyone feel safe and open to attending. We can’t guarantee that your family member will attend the intensive after the consultation, but we are happy to offer our skills in helping them say yes.

An intensive with my family sounds valuable, but exhausting. Are we just screaming at each other for two days?

We understand how overwhelming a family intensive can seem. There will be intense moments, but we structure the day with breaks and individual sessions so everyone has time to be heard and understood. Trust that our family therapists are trained to hold you and your family members in these intense moments and support safe connection if things start feeling intense.

There’s so much going on in my family. What do we focus on?

Many families arrive overwhelmed, hurt, frustrated and skeptical. Our job is to be curious, listen, guide discussion, and begin to knit together a picture of how the family unit functions, their values/culture, communication patterns, coalitions, role expectations, individual vs group needs, and what goals sit within the collective. We enjoy this process and are competent leaders, even when we find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of a family sequence that is new to us, but quite old for you. Common reasons families work with us in intensives are parent-child conflict, trauma, increasingly distant family relationships, major mental health challenges, addiction, navigating high-stress life transitions like divorce, before or after a loved one’s residential or IOP eating disorder treatment, and before or after a loved one’s residential or IOP addiction treatment.

How do I pay for an intensive?

Unfortunately, our family intensives are not covered by typical insurance plans. You can review our standard payment schedule here.

What happens after the intensive? How do we make sure everything we heal stays that way?

Families value intensives because they help quickly identify dysfunctional patterns, open up communication, and clarify an effective treatment plan for the months ahead. We understand your desire to formalize treatment insights and apply them to your day-to-day life.. Rest assured that you’ll leave with greater insight, effective treatment recommendations, and the ability to schedule aftercare support with the Pathways team. If you’re local, we can even help with outside treatment referrals.