Investigating Internal Family Systems Addressing Shame, Trauma & Addiction

Learn more and register at https://www.eomega.org/workshops/investigating-internal-family-systems

Addiction is a complicated and devastating experience for many people. Associated feelings of shame and failure often present a barrier between an individual and their true Self.

Because addiction can also be a symptom of trauma, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model is a compassionate means to revisit trauma, initiate healing, and in turn, help the individual address addiction behaviors.

IFS was founded in the 1980s, when family therapist Dr. Richard Schwartz asked patients why therapy was not relieving their suffering. He learned 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.

Dr. Schwartz also found that as patients focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by 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.

In this weekend retreat with IFS founding developer Dr. Schwartz, we:

• Review the history and development of the IFS model of therapy
• Learn the three categories of sub-personalities that most often present: manager parts, firefighter parts, and exiled parts
• Identify how the IFS model understands the primary route to healing trauma and addiction

Come explore how addiction and trauma can be addressed without shame, and create a space for understanding and empathy, with the evidence-based psychotherapy of Internal Family Systems. By helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their protective inner parts, IFS facilitates inner and outer connectedness.

Learn more and register at https://www.eomega.org/workshops/investigating-internal-family-systems