Honoring Pam Krause: A Legacy of Leadership, Mentorship, and Heart
At the 2025 IFS Conference, we had the profound honor of recognizing Pam Krause with the 2026 IFS Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary contributions to the IFS community over nearly three decades of service, leadership, and mentorship.
For 27 years, Pam has helped shape not only how IFS is taught, but how it is lived. Her impact is woven into the very fabric of IFS training worldwide. She has mentored generations of trainers, developed core curriculum, and helped build rigorous pathways for leadership through programs such as the Assistant Trainer Program and Lead Trainer Development. Her influence is reflected in the many trainers and practitioners who proudly name her as a mentor.
During the award ceremony, Crystal Jones, one of Pam’s longtime mentees and colleagues, spoke to Pam’s profound impact as both a teacher and a human being. First encountering Pam as her Level One trainer in 2018, Crystal described being drawn to Pam’s warmth, clarity, and deep love for the model — a connection that grew into years of mentorship, collaboration, and friendship.
“Pam’s excellence is matched only by her humanity and her deep love for this community.”
— Crystal Jones
Pam is widely recognized for her depth and clarity as a teacher, as well as for the humanity she brings into every learning space. Whether teaching with handwritten notes lining the walls, sharing humor, or offering steady guidance, she creates environments rooted in care, clarity, and Self energy. Her commitment to cultivating diverse leadership has helped ensure that IFS continues to grow and reach communities around the world.
Pam’s journey with IFS began with a long drive, a mimeographed flyer, and an immediate knowing that this work mattered. From those early days learning directly from Richard Schwartz, through years of learning, stumbling, growing and leading, Pam has embodied the belief that we do not teach without learning — and that leadership is built through generosity, mentorship, and relationship.
“The greatest gift of this work has been the people. Teaching and learning are inseparable, and relationships are what have sustained me all along the way.”
— Pam Krause
Pam Krause’s legacy lives on not only in the many trainers, clinicians, and communities she has touched, but in the ripple effect of healing that continues through their work. She is living proof of the transformative power of IFS and a reminder that when teaching is rooted in Self energy, care, and courage, it truly can change the world.
We are deeply grateful to Pam for her life’s work, her leadership, and her heart. It is an honor to celebrate her and the lasting impact she continues to have on our community.
Honoring Einat Bronstein: A Global Legacy of Wisdom, Love, and Leadership
At the 2025 IFS Conference, we were also proud to honor and recognize Einat Bronstein with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary contributions to the global growth of Internal Family Systems. For decades, Einat has been a bridge — across cultures, continents, and communities — carrying the heart of IFS into the world with wisdom, humility, and deep Self leadership.
As one of the earliest international trainers and International Partners, Einat played a pivotal role in expanding IFS beyond its origins in the United States. She helped bring IFS training to 11 countries, empowering practitioners to root the model within their own cultures and contexts. Her work has shaped not only the spread of IFS globally, but the way it is taught — with cultural sensitivity, relational depth, and reverence for our shared humanity.
During the award ceremony, colleague and mentee HeaKyung Kwon spoke to Einat’s ability to embody the model she teaches. Whether training therapists, mentoring future leaders, or building international partnerships, Einat brings clarity, depth, and a profound respect for the humanity of everyone she encounters. HeaKyung shared that witnessing Einat teach is not only an education in IFS, but an experience of Self-led presence in action.
“Einat doesn’t just teach the model — she embodies it. Watching her teach inspired me not only to believe in IFS, but to become it.”
— HeaKyung Kwon
In her own remarks, Einat reflected on what has sustained her throughout her journey with IFS: gratitude, relationship, and love. She spoke of the model’s universality — how its simple, profound truths resonate across cultures, histories and belief systems— and described Self as love itself, a bridge between us and everything. She emphasized that teaching and learning are inseparable, and that every trainee, client, colleague, and community has shaped her as much as she has shaped them.
“Self is love. If we continue this work — one person, one family, one community at a time — our world truly can become better.”
— Einat Bronstein
Einat also honored the many relationships that ground her work — her fellow trainers, international partners, students, clients, and the global IFS staff, and her family, whom she described as the fuel of her soul. She closed by acknowledging the collective pain in the world today, offering a vision rooted in compassion, healing, and an open heart.
Einat Bronstein’s legacy lives in the countless practitioners and communities she has helped cultivate around the world. Her work reminds us that IFS is not only a therapeutic model, but a living expression of love, connection, and shared humanity. We are deeply grateful for her vision, her devotion, and the enduring global impact of her life’s work.