CE: 12 CEs total, read for more information on CEs
Fee: $180.00, read for more information on fees and scholarships
Program Description:
Trauma can upend a person’s entire system, resulting in pervasive PTSD symptoms, and emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and health consequences. This three-session institute will prepare participants with a foundation in Internal Family Systems (IFS), an evidence-based method of healing trauma that works by naming and working directly with a client’s vulnerable and protective inner parts, while emphasizing the client’s intuitive center and inherent healing capacity.
Tasha will introduce the theory and practice of IFS, walking participants through what IFS looks like from the first encounter to session conclusion, using clinical cases, real plays, and experiential practices. Participants will have opportunities to practice IFS techniques and receive feedback. Throughout, Tasha will emphasize how IFS can be adapted culturally and linguistically to address people’s identities, spirituality, and other intersectional systems that affect the formation of people’s parts. Because human clinicians have their own parts that can be vulnerable to overworking or becoming activated, which interact with clients’ parts, Tasha will provide practices to guide these interactions as well.
Learning will also be encouraged between sessions. Tasha will provide exercises for participants to practice between sessions to prepare for the final day, which will more heavily towards experiential practice.
Agenda:
Part 1
Introduction to IFS model, theory, language
Part 2
Suicidal parts and extreme behaviors for Marginalized Communities
Part 3
Legacy trauma and unburdening
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:
- Identify and describe at least 1 principle that underlies the development of the Internal Family Systems model of therapy.
- Discuss at least 2 basic assumptions of IFS regarding the non-pathological multiplicity of mind and the concept of self.
- Apply at least 3 cultural adaptations of IFS based on client culture.
- Explain the IFS concept of self and its role as a leader of the internal system.
- List three relevant parts and their functions.
- Explain why language matters in IFS and at least one example of how to adapt language to fit client needs in session.
- Explain to a patient the theory of how parts represent memories, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors of early childhood trauma.
- Articulate the core assumptions from IFS about client functioning in terms of internal system parts.
- Name and describe the 3 primary types of parts in IFS and their function.
- Describe at least 1 way in which their own parts may be impacting the therapeutic relationship.
- Demonstrate at least 1 method to repair rifts in the therapeutic relationship using the IFS model.
- Engage with at least one practice to help one’s own parts to relax and support the therapeutic relationship.
Trainer: Tasha Hunter, MSW, LCSW is certified level 3 Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist, who practices with a social justice lens, working mostly with Black women and LGBTQ+ clients. Since becoming a therapist in 2017, her experience includes working in community mental health, schools, and outpatient settings. Tasha specializes in treating clients who are working through parental abuse/neglect, white supremacy culture, life transition, grief, spiritual/religious trauma, and sexual identity. She is host of When We Speak Podcast, and author of a memoir, What Children Remember. Her private practice, Ascension Growth Center serves clients virtually in North Carolina, Kansas, and Florida. She is also an LCSW supervisor and consultant, trained and experienced with psychedelic-assisted therapy and ketamine-assisted therapy. She trains and speaks about trauma and related mental health topics and supports healers to progress on their anti-racist journey. She is also an Air Force veteran with more than twenty years of working with the military community. Her mission is to spread awareness about complex trauma and to give survivors a safe space to heal.
References:
- Baldwin, J. L. (2021). Internal family systems as an eco‐spirituality model: Hearing the cries, confrontation, and call from Covid‐19. Dialog : A Journal of Theology, 60(4), 379-387. https://doi.org/10.1111/dial.12715
- Hodgdon, H. B., Anderson, F. G., Southwell, E., Hrubec, W., & Schwartz, R. (2022). Internal family systems (IFS) therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among survivors of multiple childhood trauma: A pilot effectiveness study. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 31(1), 22-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2021.2013375
- Janes, E. E., Trevino, Z. R., Koehl, H., & Hung, Y. (2022). Internal family systems and spirituality: Implications for supervision. Contemporary Family Therapy, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-021-09625-2
- Lucero, R., Jones, A. C., & Hunsaker, J. C. (2018). Using internal family systems theory in the treatment of combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and their families. Contemporary Family Therapy, 40(3), 266-275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10591-017-9424-z
- McVicker, S. A. M., & Pourier, W. (2021). Two counselors envision IFS (internal family systems) therapy for addictions treatment in indian country. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 39(2), 175-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/07347324.2020.1846479
- Yong AG. (2020). Critical Race Theory Meets Internal Family Systems: Toward a Compassion Spirituality for a Multireligious and Multiracial World. Buddhist-Christian studies, 40, 439-447.
UNC Chapel Hill – Clinical Institute Program