Internal Family Systems Therapy: Heal Wounded Parts, Transform Protective Parts, and Deepen Connection with Self
- Foundational principles and goals of IFS
- Understand different parts of your clients' internal system
- Parts Led Systems vs Self-Led Systems
- IFS, Cultural Identities, and Intersectionality
- The 8 C's of Self-energy and how to recognize Self in session
- Applying an IFS lens to Case Conceptualization
- Case Examples
Steps of IFS Therapy and How to Get Started
- The IFS approach to assessment and treatment planning
- Experiential exercise: Identifying your own therapist parts
- Develop a relationship with clients' core self and develop self-leadership skills
- Facilitating communication and collaboration between parts
- Guided Experiential Exercises to help clients identify and connect with different parts
Working with Protector parts of the client
- Integrating IFS into your first session: video demonstration
- Parts Mapping: live demonstration and dyad practice
- The 6 F's of IFS - a step-by-step protocol for getting to know parts
- Addressing common protectors, such as avoidance, dissociation, and numbing
- Live demonstration and debrief
Working with Wound Parts
- How to identify that traumatic memory is activated
- Work with exiles to help clients process and heal from traumatic experiences
- Memory Reconsolidation: Why IFS is Effective
- How to integrate IFS therapy experiences into clients' daily lives
- Video demonstration of unburdening with debrief
- Dyad practice: Clinical signs a client is ready for unburdening using case examples
IFS Therapy for Trauma, PTSD and Complex Trauma
- How IFS differs in emotion regulation strategies from other approaches
- Common therapist missteps in IFS
- Address trauma-related fears and concerns by working with protective parts
- Developing self-leadership in clients to increase their resilience and coping skills
- IFS techniques to help clients release emotional and physical trauma stored in the body
- Navigating polarizations in the client's system
- Working with dissociation using IFS interventions
- Working with Substance Abuse with IFS interventions
- Case Examples
- Extended case example: Working with suicidality through an IFS lens
- How does IFS address Intergenerational, collective and ancestral trauma
- Working with Marginalized Populations
IFS for Anxiety: Working with Anxious Parts to Reduce Their Intensity
- How IFS shifts a client's relationship with anxiety and reduces symptoms
- Identify "worrier" or "perfectionist" parts that activate in response to anxiety triggers
- Facilitate communication with anxious parts to understand their motivations
- Unburden exiled parts and release blocked or stuck anxiety-related emotions
- Practice self-compassion and self-care to reduce anxiety over time
- Case Examples
- Dyad practice exercise: Working with anxious parts in clinical vignettes
An Internal Family Systems Approach to Grief: Providing Stability and Support for Clients Navigating the Grieving Process
- The latest grief research and DSM-5-TR Prolonged Grief Disorder Criteria
- Self-leadership to provide a sense of inner stability through the grieving process
- Exiles in grief and how they can be accessed and worked with in IFS therapy
- Integration of Art, Writing, Ritual & Cultural Practices with IFS
- Using IFS to identify and process secondary losses
- Working with acute loss, ambiguous grief, prolonged grief disorder
- Intergenerational Trauma: Legacy Burdens
- Case examples
Integrating IFS with EMDR and Other Modalities
- Key integration points between IFS and EMDR
- Introduction to STARR (Self Tapping for Attachment Readiness and Repair)
- When to use IFS vs. EMDR vs. integrated approach
- Brief overview: IFS integration with ACT, CBT, Somatic approaches
- Case examples demonstrating integration
Additional Considerations in IFS
- Using IFS in Groups
- IFS & Therapeutic Relationship
- IFS & Countertransference, Vicarious Trauma, & Burnout
- Therapist Self-Disclosure
- Medications in IFS
- Exploration of countertransference - recognizing therapist parts in session
- Limitations of the research & what we still don't know
- Potential risks and contraindications
- When IFS may not be the right fit: client considerations


