Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS): 2-Day Experiential Workshop

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As a young therapist, I often struggled to get results. I avoided my client’s internal emotions and instead tried to control the difficult symptoms I was seeing – which led to heated arguments and frustration rather than progress.

When I started listening closely to my clients, I finally discovered the answer to healing and transformation…

As clients would talk about their different parts (and how the parts felt pain and emotions), I realized that was the key – we have to free each part from the trauma, abuse, attachment injuries and suffering that they feel.

Since I began developing Internal Family Systems (IFS) 30 years ago, it has been scientifically tested to be effective at helping a wide variety of mental health conditions – such as trauma, addiction, anxiety, and depression – which is why it is one of the fastest-growing approaches in therapy.

Hailed by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, IFS will transform your clients’ lives as they learn to heal themselves. No more therapist directives or insights, rather IFS will provide a connection with your client that creates lasting healing.

Please join me in this unique recording. I will give you valuable feedback, guided instruction, and share powerful in-session videos of IFS in action. I want to give you the skills you need to use IFS, so you can improve what you’re doing in the therapy room – and see transformation in your clients’ lives.

Richard Schwartz, PhD

Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., earned his Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy from Purdue University, after which he began a long association with the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and more recently at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, attaining the status of associate professor at both institutions. He is co-author, with Michael Nichols, of Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the most widely used family therapy text in the United States.

Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems in response to clients’ descriptions of experiencing various parts – many extreme – within themselves. He noticed that when these parts felt safe and had their concerns addressed, they were less disruptive and would accede to the wise leadership of what Dr. Schwartz came to call the “Self.” In developing IFS, he recognized that, as in systemic family theory, parts take on characteristic roles that help define the inner world of the clients. The coordinating Self, which embodies qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion, acts as a center around which the various parts constellate. Because IFS locates the source of healing within the client, the therapist is freed to focus on guiding the client’s access to his or her true Self and supporting the client in harnessing its wisdom. This approach makes IFS a non-pathologizing, hopeful framework within which to practice psychotherapy. It provides an alternative understanding of psychic functioning and healing that allows for innovative techniques in relieving clients symptoms and suffering.

In 2000, Richard Schwartz founded The Center for Self Leadership in Oak Park, Illinois. Dr. Schwartz is a featured speaker for many national psychotherapy organizations and a fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and he serves on the editorial boards of four professional journals. He has published four books and over 50 articles about IFS. His books include Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual (with Frank Anderson, M.D. and Martha Sweezy, Ph.D) (PESI, 2017), Internal Family Systems Therapy (Guilford Press, 1997), Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model (Tarcher, 2001), and The Mosaic Mind (with Regina Goulding) (Trailheads, 2003), as well as Metaframeworks (with Doug Breunlin and Betty Karrer) (Jossey-Bass, 1997). Dr. Schwartz lives and practices in Brookline, MA and is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard School of Medicine.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Richard Schwartz is the Founder of The Center for Self Leadership. He receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.

Non-financial: Richard Schwartz is a Fellow and member of the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy.

1. Summarize Internal Family Systems (IFS) steps, concepts, and techniques to inform the clinician’s choice of treatment interventions.
2. Develop a deep understanding of how neuroscience informs therapeutic decisions in IFS therapy.
3. Identify, specify, and clarify the protective parts of clients who have a history of trauma to help with assessment and treatment planning.
4. Articulate the IFS belief that all parts want something positive for the client and how the parts will use a variety of strategies to gain influence within the internal system.
5. Compile an alternate view of client symptoms and psychopathology, showing how client’s parts are trying to protect them from emotional and psychological pain for purposes of client psychoeducation.
6. Demonstrate how IFS translates common comorbidities into parts language, showing a non-pathological perspective of mental health disorders as it relates to clinical treatment.
7. List three protocols of IFS and how to apply them when working with clients who have complex developmental trauma.
8. Explain the three categories of sub personalities that clients most often present in therapy.
9. Identify and describe the qualities of self to improve client engagement.
10. Identify the seven most common manager fears and how to effectively address each one in session.
11. Explore how clients are forced into their extreme roles of being managers and firefighters in order to protect and defend the system from pain.
12. Discover common stuck points for IFS therapists in relation to assessment and treatment planning.

Internal Family System (IFS)

• Origins of IFS – the work of Richard Schwartz, PhD
• A non-pathologizing, accelerated approach rooted in neuroscience
• Apply inner resources and self-compassion for healing
• How to heal implicit memory wounds
• Study limitations: small sample size, no control group
• Clinical considerations for clients experiencing abuse

The IFS Technique

Step 1: Identify the Diagnoses & Symptoms

• Assess the diagnoses: PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and eating disorders
• Apply meditation practices
  • Find the symptom, focus on its fear
  • Separate the person from the symptom
  • Become curious about it
  • Find the real story behind the symptom

Step 2: Gain Access to Internal Strengths & Resource for Healing

• Move from defensiveness to curiosity
• Access compassion to open the pathways toward healing
• Foster “internal attachment” work
• The “Self” of the therapist-countertransference redefined

Step 3: Healing of the Traumatic Wound

• Three phases to healing the wound:
  • Witness the pain
  • Remove the wounded part out of the past
  • Let go of the feelings, thoughts, and beliefs

Empowering IFS-Specific Grounding Techniques

• Flashbacks
• Panic attacks
• Suicide
• Dissociation
• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Nurses
• Chaplains & Clergy
• Other Professionals Who Work within the Mental Health Fields

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