Loading the player...
Closed Captioning / Subtitles Available
Information
Internal Family Systems therapy: From Emotion to Integration
Copyright :
DESCRIPTION:
Session 1 – Introduction to IFS
Richard Simon, Ph.D. and Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
AN overview of how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy achieves balance and harmony within the internal system. A key to accomplishing this is recognizing the difference between parts and Self and elevating the Self to an effective leadership position. When the Self is in the lead, the parts will provide input while respecting the leadership and ultimate decision-making of the Self. This session covers:
• The evolution of IFS
• The differences between parts and Self
• How to work with Protectors and Exiles—two of the most common parts
• The importance of permission in parts work
• What makes the IFS approach unique
Session 2 – From Emotion to Integration: Clinical Demo & Analysis I
Richard Simon, Ph.D. and Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
• Identifying Parts—the First Steps
• Unblending Parts from Self
• Negotiating with protector through direct access
• Strategies for Working with Exiles
• Dealing with the fear of overwhelm
Session 3 — From Emotion to Integration: Clinical Demo & Analysis II
Richard Simon, Ph.D. and Richard Schwartz, Ph.D.
• Getting permission from parts
• Befriending fearful protectors
• Witnessing the loneliness of the exile
• Caring for the Exile
• Integrating Positive Qualities
• Indications and Counter-Indications for IFS
OUTLINE:
Understanding Parts & Self in IFS
• Parts are sub-personalities that interact internally in sequences and styles that are similar to the ways that people interact.
• It is the nature of the mind to be subdivided.
• All parts are valuable and want to have a positive role.
• Parts become extreme and can be destructive because of life experiences.
• Self is a different level of entity than the parts.
• Self is the seat of consciousness. It is invisible because it is the observing “you”.
• The Self contains qualities like compassion, confidence, curiosity, and perspective—the qualities of good leadership.
• The Self can be obscured by the extremes of parts.
The Basic Goals of IFS
• Releasing parts from their extreme roles so they can find and adopt their preferred, valuable roles.
• DIfferentiating client’s Self from parts so Self can help harmonize and balance the inner and outer life.
Working with Exile Parts
• Exiles are young, vulnerable parts that have experiences trauma and are isolated from the rest of the system for their own and the system’s protection.
• Exiles carry the memories, sensations, and emotions of past events and are stuck in the past.
• Exiles are easily flooded, so you need a calm, reassuring environment to approach.
Working with Protector Parts
Parts that run the day-to-day life of the person trying to keep exiles exiled by staying in control of events or relationships, being perfect and pleasing, caretaking, scaring the person out of taking risks by criticizing, apathy, worry, etc.
Firefighters: Parts that react when exiles are activated in an effort to extinguish their feelings or dissociate the person from them. Common firefighter activities include: drug or alcohol use, self mutilation (cutting), binge-eating, sex binges, suicidal ideation, and rage. They have the same goals as managers (to keep exiles away), but different, more impulsive strategies.
Case Study: Working with Protectors and Exiles—Two of the Most Common Parts
• Identifying Parts—the First Steps
• Unblending Parts from Self
• Negotiating with protectors through direct access
• With permission of protectors, begin working with exiles – witnessing, retrievals and unburdening.
• Strategies for Working with Exiles
• Throughout the process, keep your parts from interfering.
Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, IFS Institute
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.
