Trauma and the Internal Family Systems Model: Releasing Personal and Legacy Burdens

The first day of the workshop will focus on helping clients release personal burdens related to traumatic experiences in their lives. An overview of the clinical applications of IFS in trauma work will be presented. You will learn through didactic teaching, interactive dialogue, demonstration, and live interviews. 

During the second day, the focus will be on understanding and releasing legacy burdens. Legacy burdens are powerful organizers of our minds and behaviors. Dr. Schwartz will teach about the beliefs and emotions we and our clients absorb from family, peers, ethnic groups and cultural contexts regarding ourselves and/or groups with whom we identify, as well as groups we consider “other.”  We will explore the sources of those burdens and the fears of releasing them. This work is critically important to create more peace and less divisiveness in our often-fractured world. Through the concept of legacy burdens and the path to healing them, Dr. Schwartz will posit a way of understanding ethnic, racial and other differences related to intersecting identities that create paths to a more ethical and just approaches to working across differences between and among the people with whom we work.

Dr. Schwartz will discuss contraindications to using IFS therapy as well as the ways the model can and cannot be easily integrated with other approaches to trauma work. He will discuss current research on the model including limitations of the data and needs for further study.

Statement of Need: Prior to the pandemic there was a greater need for trauma trained mental health professionals than there were clinicians available. Currently, we are living in a time of significant added stress, trauma, complicated grief, and uncertainty. IFS is a model that was developed as an intervention to support clients with dangerous trauma reactive behaviors who were not responding well to traditional methods. This two-day workshop will provide clinicians working with a wide range of clients and traumatic reactions many concepts and methods to enhance their capacity to serve this population. 

Participants will learn how to:

• deal with client “resistance” more effectively and with less effort
• utilize the clients’ Self  to repair attachment injuries
• recognize the IFS model as an internal attachment model
• identify the effects of trauma on parts and Self
• have a sense of how to utilize the model in treating trauma
• gain some awareness of their own parts and how those parts impact treatment
• explore the sources of burdens and fears
• identify strategies for releasing burdens and fears

Individual Registration: $350, Regular rate:$370.
Early registration deadline is January 31, 2022. 
NEAFAST members may access a discounted rate of $330. Black Therapists Rock, National Association of Black  Counselors and all BIPOC clinicians may access an equity rate of $280. 
​Please contact us for discount codes. No application is required.

12 CEs will be available at an additional cost of $40 paid upon registration for social workers, mental health counselors, psychologists and marriage & family therapists.

12 CEs for IFS Certification will be available at no fee for those who are IFS Certified professionals.

Learn More and Register  Here