IFS Talks is an audio series to deepen connections with the Internal Family Systems Model through conversations with lead trainers, authors, practitioners and users. In these audio interviews, we will have the opportunity to draw out aspects of IFS Lead Trainers and skilled presenters to create a user-friendly format for listeners to get to know each trainer or practitioner, their background, in and before IFS. With candid, self-led dialogue, trainers and practitioners can share their specific interests with listeners interested in deepening their inner knowledge and IFS practice. Cece Sykes, Susan McConnell, Mary Kruger, Pam Krause, Lisa Spiegel, Martha Sweezy, Art Mones, Ann Sinko, Paul Neustadt, Frank Anderson, Larry Rosenberg, Toni Herbine-Blank, and many more among the interviewees. Among the topics in theTalks: - All Erotic Parts are Welcome, with Larry Rosenberg - IFS, Trauma and Neuroscience, with Frank Anderson - From Reactive to Self Led Parenting, with Paul Neustadt - IFS as a Metamodel of Therapy, with Art Mones - The Role of Legacy Burdens on Anxiety, Depression and Shame, with Ann Sinko - Shame and Guilt as central for IFS work, with Martha Sweezy - Bringing IFS to Children and Parents, with Lisa Spiegel - IFS with Children and Adolescents, with Pam Krause - IFS on Addictions and Eating Disorders, with Mary Kruger - Embodying the Internal Family, with Susan McConnell - Bringing IFS to Extreme Parts, with Cece Sykes
Facilitating access to Self in Internal Family Systems therapy involves shifting from a goal of reaching an ideal state to increasing moments of awareness and regulation. Rather than forcing clients into a calm, "Self-led" state, practitioners focus on "unblending" by honoring the protective roles of parts that fear lo...
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy offers a non-pathologizing framework for addressing physical illnesses by treating somatic symptoms as communications from internal parts. Rather than viewing the body as separate from the mind, this approach identifies how chronic stress and trauma-related burdens manifest physica...
Integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy with psychedelic-assisted medicine provides a powerful framework for trauma resolution by leveraging the brain’s heightened state of neuroplasticity. Psychedelics effectively relax protective parts, enabling rapid access to core "Self" and previously inaccessible "exile...
Autism functions as a condition of sensory surplus, where the brain’s predictive processing mechanism struggles to filter sensory noise, leading to heightened sensitivity to uncertainty and increased metabolic demand. By integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) with this framework, individuals can move away from defic...
Grief functions as a systemic experience rather than a linear process, requiring a shift from problem-solving to witnessing. Western culture often pathologizes pain, yet IFS therapy emphasizes that grief is a natural, ongoing expression of love that requires space for internal parts to be heard. When pain remains unwit...
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy provides a transformative framework for working with children and families by shifting the focus from behavioral correction to understanding underlying protective parts. By externalizing these parts through play, art, and sand tray activities, children gain the distance necessary t...
The "Fire Drill" technique provides a structured Internal Family Systems (IFS) framework for therapists to manage countertransference by unblending from activated parts and accessing self-leadership. By visualizing challenging interactions, clinicians can identify specific triggered parts, translate nonverbal client co...
In this episode of the podcast, Paul Neustadt, a clinical social worker and IFS Senior Co-Lead Trainer, discusses self-like parts within the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model. Paul defines self-like parts as those that hold our sense of identity and manage our lives, often with positive qualities and values. The conv...
The podcast explores the alignment between modern neuroscience and the concept of multiplicity of psyche, particularly the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model. Neuroscientist Katja Winnick explains how the modular nature of the brain, with its multiple parallel systems for decision-making, supports the IFS idea of a ps...
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy provides a framework for distinguishing between shame and guilt, where shame functions as an identity-based "I am" belief often held by exiled parts, while guilt acts as a relational "I did" experience. Protective parts frequently carry maladaptive guilt, particularly in parentifie...
Exiles represent the core vulnerability and sensitivity within the internal system, holding unhealed trauma and pain without a functional protective role. Healing these parts requires establishing a safe, attuned connection with "Self" energy, allowing the individual to provide the comfort and understanding that was ab...
The climate crisis triggers complex psychological responses, including existential dread, grief, and trauma, which often manifest as protective parts within the human psyche. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy offers a framework to acknowledge and befriend these protective parts—such as those that dissociate or deny...
Self-led motherhood utilizes Internal Family Systems (IFS) principles to empower mothers to regulate their internal systems, fostering healthier attachment and emotional availability for their children. By teaching mothers to identify and unblend from reactive parts, these programs enable them to access self-energy eve...
Trauma and dissociation-informed Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy requires integrating phase-oriented treatment to ensure client safety and efficacy when working with complex PTSD and dissociative disorders. Joanne Twombly, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma, emphasizes that while IFS is a powerful modality,...
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy requires adaptation to effectively support the autistic brain, body, and mind. Rather than relying solely on interoception to locate parts, therapists can facilitate connection through cognitive dialogue, acknowledging that parts may manifest as thoughts or external statements. Dis...
Autism functions as a difference in perception driven by a brain that struggles to update its predictive models, leading to an overweighting of sensory information and a heightened need for predictability. Sarah Bergenfield, a somatic psychologist and IFS practitioner, explains that this neurological reality causes the...
In this interview podcast episode, Dr. Richard C. Schwartz, the creator of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, discusses the concept of the "self" within IFS, its dual nature as both an inner leader and a boundaryless state, and its role in healing. He addresses the spiritual dimensions of the self, its connection...
In this episode of Explorations in Psychotherapy, Joanne Twombly discusses her new book, "Trauma and Dissociation-Informed Internal Family Systems," and the integration of trauma-informed knowledge with IFS to treat complex PTSD and dissociative disorders. She addresses misunderstandings between the IFS and trauma trea...
Internal Family Systems (IFS) offers a compassionate, nuanced framework for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by addressing the underlying protective system rather than solely focusing on symptom reduction. OCD symptoms often stem from a neurological "brain glitch" that triggers hypervigilant managers and fi...
In this episode of Explorations in Psychotherapy, Einat Bronstein, an experienced IFS therapist, discusses the nature and healing of exiles in IFS therapy. She defines exiles as capsules of pain holding memories, beliefs, and energy from traumatic events, and identifies different types of exiles, including pain exiles,...
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