Anyone! We can use intensives to treat a wide range of concerns and diagnoses from infants with torticollis or delayed motor skills, to children with a brain injury or recovering from a serious illness. Our most commonly treated diagnoses using intensive therapy include Cerebral Palsy, other neurologic disorders, and chromosomal or genetic disorders.

Therapy intensives can be in addition to a child’s ongoing therapy, to help speed up progress towards a specific goal or help jumpstart progress again with a child who has plateaued.

Some families choose to attend an intensive session a few times a year rather then a traditional therapy schedule because it works better in their routine, or they live in a rural area and they cannot easily receive weekly services.

A therapy intensive at Bloom typically consists of physical therapy for 2-3 hours/day, 4 days/week, for 3 weeks. However we are always open to customizing an intensive program for your child! For example, if they have a 1 week break from school to attend the intensive, you have a younger infant who may not tolerate 3 hours, or you want a longer intensive!

Treatments that are utilized during intensives (when deemed appropriate by your therapist)

• Perception Action Approach

• Manual Therapy

• Strength Training

• Kinesio-Taping

• Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation

Each child and family is unique and there is never one “right” treatment for everyone! What we love about intensives is that children make fast progress, which can increase motivation and confidence with skills. This often makes it easier to carry over skills to home or school. We also love to support children who are recovering from a procedure such as botox injections, serial casting, surgery, etc because we want them to maximize the benefit from the procedure. You are the expert in your child, and we are here to answer any questions to help you determine if an intensive is the right fit!

We will do intensives for children up until age 10, and older children on a case by case basis.

To start the process of scheduling an intensive, you can use the interest form below or give us a call!

We will start by making a plan of care for your child, including how many hours of therapy per day, days per week, and total length we recommend.

We are open Tuesday-Friday 8:00-4:00 and will coordinate our availability and your schedule to find appointment times.

Depending on availability, we might plan your intensive to start right away or a couple months out. If your child has a scheduled procedure, or you want to utilize school breaks for an intensive we recommend contacting us in advance!

If a child will be receiving more then 1 hour of therapy in a day we typically schedule a break between sessions to eat, rest, nap, etc.

Therapy intensives are private pay only as insurance companies have limits on the units of service that can be provided each day. If your child has not completed a PT eval with us, we will perform an eval on your first day at our standard rate. Treatments during the intensive are billed at $115 per hour. We can work within your budget to create a plan of care that will work for your child! We can also accept HSA, FSA, or ESA funds for payment.

At our first session we will perform an evaluation, talk about your child’s history with therapy services, and work with you to set goals for their intensive. This day may be slightly shorter, so that we can spend time after the evaluation to generate a treatment plan specific to your child. (If your child has had an evaluation with us in the last 6 months we will most likely jump right into treatment on the first session!)

Perception Action (PA) uses gentle, hands on guidance from the therapist to allow a child to perceive new information from their environment, and act on that new information to generate movement. This allows children to develop variable, adaptable, and complex movement patterns which then allows them to lean new skills and/or improve their function.

You can learn more at https://www.perceptionaction.org/primary-concepts-of-the-perception-action-approach

We work incredibly hard to make physical therapy a positive experience for our patients. We focus on getting to know your child so we can use actives that are motivating to them. True to their name intensives are “intense” and can be fatiguing and challenging at times. We do our best to utilize appropriate rest breaks and the right level of challenge to help your child progress in a positive way!

We require 30 days notice to cancel an intensive if your plans change; if you cancel less then 30 days from the start date you will be charged a cancellation fee equal to 15% of your total estimated cost.

During your intensive, we know life can be unpredictable. We ask that you contact us as soon as you know your child is sick, or unforeseen events occur. We will make reasonable efforts to reschedule the missed appointment. In the extreme case that your child will miss 4 or more days of their intensive we may recommend rescheduling the intensive to another time. If a family is a no-show/no-call to a scheduled appointment they will be held to our standard no-show fee which is 100% of the therapy rate.

If your therapist is sick or unable to work due to unforeseen events, you will not be charged and we will make reasonable efforts to reschedule your session. In the extreme case that your therapist will be out for 4 or more days, we will reschedule your intensive.

We recommend your child wear clothing that is comfortable and easy to move in. If your child has any orthotics or communication devices we ask that you bring them to every session. If your child has any mobility equipment such as crutches, walker, gait trainer, etc we will work with you on if/when to bring them.

Please bring water and snacks for your child, and they can also bring a comfort toy if they would like!

We require that an adult caregiver is present for the duration of each session. Siblings are welcome to join but will not be allowed to play on our equipment so please plan accordingly.