WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER
Day One | November 28
3:30 PM – 12:45 AM CST
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION | To Forgive
or Not to Forgive: Releasing the Pain of Emotional Trauma
3:30 PM – 5:00 PM CST
Frank Anderson explores different dimensions of
forgiveness: When it's premature and when it's forced, when it's used to avoid feelings
of pain and betrayal, whether it's necessary to fully heal from abuse, whether it serves the
victim or the perpetrator, and when it leads to true acceptance and freedom.
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Session 2 | IFS Skills for Working
with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
5:15 PM – 6:15 PM CST
Karen Harrington reveals the importance of using a
trauma-informed IFS therapy approach when working with clients with Complex PTSD and dissociative
disorders to prevent worsening clients' symptoms.
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Session 3 | Applying an IFS
Therapy Lens to Attachment Strategies: Connecting Clients to Themselves and Others
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM CST
Dr Loranie Leas reveals how viewing attachment
strategies developed in childhood through the lens of IFS therapy offers insight into how we connect
to ourselves and to others. Using attachment theory and IFS theories together can help clients
create more secure relationships inside and outside.
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Session 4 | Integrating IFS
Therapy Perspectives and Psychosexual Therapy for the Management of Sexual Function and
Dysfunction
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM CST
Kate Dempsey shows how parts work can be an
extremely helpful therapeutic approach for addressing a wide range of sexual issues, which can
present as feelings of shame, pain, disgust, fear, or negative body image.
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Session 5 | IFS Therapy-informed
Relationship Counselling: The Intimate Relationship as a Container for Healing
9:15 PM – 10:15 PM CST
Dr Susi Fox describes how you can use parts work in
Relationship Counselling. You'll gain skills you can use in your daily life to enhance
relational connections in both personal and professional relationships.
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Session 6 | Adapting IFS Therapy
Strategies in Group Settings: Therapy, Supervision & Consultation
10:30 PM – 11:30 PM CST
Dr Shaun Dempsey shares growing evidence in the
power applying IFS therapy strategies to clients in group therapy and for clinicians in group
supervision and group consultation. Discover the benefits that can be obtained in group therapy that
simply cannot be obtained in the individual space.
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Session 7 | Pain Management
Utilizing IFS Therapy Interventions: The Connection Between Pain and the Mind
11:45 PM – 12:45 AM CST
Dr Adele Stewart provides a new way of
conceptualizing pain so you can confidently use IFS interventions to offer your clients better pain
management in your therapy practice. Case studies will support concepts such as the relationship
between tissue damage and pain, pain as a protective buffer, and the critical interconnection
between safety, danger, fear, and pain.
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Day Two | 29 November
3:30 PM – 11:00 PM
CST
Session 1 | This is Who I Am:
Supporting Non-pathologized, Self-Led Gender Diversity in Clinical IFS Therapy-focused
Practice
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM CST
Dr Polly McGee looks at how parts work can support
clients to work with the burdens and conflicts of their truths while growing up with dominant gender
norms. Discover how to use IFS approaches to safely, inclusively, and therapeutically support all
parts of gender-diverse clients and their families.
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Session 2 | Somatic Internal
Family Systems Therapy: Working with Parts Through the Body
4:45 PM – 5:45 PM CST
Sonia Milohanic discusses how Somatic IFS therapy
practices provide a map into the sensory richness of the 'bodymind'. This tool can help IFS
therapy and parts work therapists include the body's stories and support clients beyond survival
towards greater wholeness and aliveness.
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Session 3 | Using IFS Therapy
Skills with Individuals and Families Caught Within the Cycle of Addiction
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM CST
Jen Nield reveals how traditional approaches to
addiction focus on ceasing the use of substances or actions driving the addictive process. And IFS
therapy recognizes that the parts engaged with the addictive process have positive intent. So,
rather than eliminating them, we seek to assist them to find preferred ways of doing their job.
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Session 4 | IFS Therapy-informed
Journal Writing: Skills to Deepen Relationships of Our Inner Parts
7:30 PM – 8:30 PM CST
Leona Dawson bases this introduction to the art of
IFS therapy-oriented journal writing on the 200+ research studies reporting that therapeutic
journaling can improve people's physical and emotional health. Discover how you can use it in
your practice, and how your clients can use this process to stay connected with parts between
sessions.
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Session 5 | Emotion Regulation
Using IFS Therapy Skills and Strategies
8:45 PM – 9:45 PM CST
Jackie Burke will discuss regulation from different
therapeutic lenses before an in-depth exploration of how we build regulated capacity using an IFS
therapy approach. You'll develop the skills and confidence to help your clients face the
internal experiences they most avidly avoid in a way that is both effective and easy.
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Session 6 | Using Brainspotting
and IFS Therapy Themes to Support Neurodivergent and Highly Sensitive People
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM CST
Sarah Mitchell introduces clinicians to a unique way
of supporting Autistic, neurodivergent (ND), and highly sensitive (HS) clients' systems to help
them process and heal within the IFS therapy framework. Explore the role of the visual field in
memory, and how it can be used to externalize and map parts in a powerful and engaging way.
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Day Three | 30 November
3:30 PM – 11:00 PM
CST
Session 1 | Integrating IFS
Therapy Skills and Synergetic Play Therapy
3:30 PM – 4:30 PM CST
Elsha Young will explore how IFS therapy skills and
Synergetic Play Therapy can complement one another in child and family therapy. Discover therapies
to help children understand and befriend their parts, how to establish client safety and rapport,
and create a therapeutic relationship and environment where all parts are welcome.
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Session 2 | Whole-School
Wellbeing: An IFS Therapy-informed Paradigm
4:45 PM – 5:45 PM CST
Shawnee Schmid provides examples of worksheets,
expressive art methods, and a composite case study to illustrate the healing potential for promoting
whole-school wellbeing from the inside out. Discover new perspectives in your work with children and
young people.
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Session 3 | Interpersonal
Neurobiology, Transference, Shame & Enactment: Making Use of IFS Therapy Perspectives
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM CST
Stephanie Mitchell shows you how to apply IFS
therapy theoretical perspectives with clients who have experienced early developmental and
relational trauma and who use transference, projection, and enactment as a path to healing. Discover
the current research on Interpersonal Neurobiology, shame, and relational psychotherapy and how
these relate to our work as therapists and practitioners.
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Session 4 | A Compassionate
Journey with Suicidal Clients through an Internal Family Systems Therapy Lens
7:30 PM – 8:30 PM CST
Katie Norwell discusses how to use IFS therapy
principles to navigate suicidal ideation with empathy and understanding. Uncover positive intentions
behind suicidal thoughts, fostering healing and growth. And discover how to create a safe, nurturing
space for all parts of a clients' psyche.
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Session 5 | Psychosis through the
Lens of IFS Therapy: A Relational Approach to Working with Non-ordinary States
8:45 PM – 9:45 PM CST
Stephanie Mitchell reveals how to view psychosis
through an IFS therapy lens. Through a mixture of didactic and experiential learning, you'll
gain an understanding of how to work with clients who experience voices, visions, and other
alternative experiences.
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Session 6 | Enhancing Leadership
with IFS Therapy Strategies
10:00 PM – 11:00 PM CST
Helen Foot offers her work as both example and
encouragement for anyone who is thinking about the IFS model could enhance their leadership in the
workplace.
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