Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS): Intensive Workshop

CPD

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Faculty

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD Related seminars and products

IFS Institute

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Richard Schwartz, PhD began his career as a family therapist and an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief, and in asking patients why, he learned that they were plagued by what they called "parts." These patients became his teachers as they described how their parts formed networks of inner relationship that resembled the families he had been working with. He also found that as they focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, confidence and compassion. He called that inner essence the Self and was amazed to find it even in severely diagnosed and traumatized patients. From these explorations, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was born in the early 1980s.

IFS is now evidence-based and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families, and more recently, corporations and classrooms.

In 2013, Schwartz left the Chicago area and now lives in Brookline, MA where he is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Richard Schwartz is the Founder and President of the IFS Institute. He maintains a private practice and has a employment relationship with Harvard Medical School. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Schwartz receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Richard Schwartz is a fellow of Meadows Behavioral Healthcare and is a member of the American Family Therapy Academy and the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy. He is a contributing editor for Family Therapy Networker. Dr. Schwartz serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, the Contemporary Family Therapy, the Journal of Family Psychotherapy, and the Family Therapy Collections.

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Objectives

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 affectively 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.

Outline

• 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

• 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

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

• 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

• Flashbacks
• Panic attacks
• Suicide
• Dissociation

Target Audience

• 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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