Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems (IFS): Certificate Training

CPD

Faculty

Frank Anderson, MD Related seminars and products

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Frank Anderson, MD, completed his residency and was a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is both a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. He specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation and is passionate about teaching brain-based psychotherapy and integrating current neuroscience knowledge with the IFS model of therapy.

Dr. Anderson has lectured extensively on the Neurobiology of PTSD and Dissociation and wrote the chapter “Who’s Taking What” Connecting Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology and Internal Family Systems for Trauma in Internal Family Systems Therapy – New Dimensions. He co-authored a chapter on What IFS Brings to Trauma Treatment in Innovations and Elaborations in Internal Family Systems Therapy, and recently co-authored Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual.

His most recent book, entitled Transcending Trauma: Healing Complex PTSD with Internal Family Systems was released on May 19, 2021.

His memoir, To Be Loved, was released on May 7, 2024.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Frank Anderson maintains a private practice, is the co-founder of the Trauma Institute, and is the co-founding producer of Trauma Informed Media. He receives royalties as a published author. He receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Frank Anderson is a member of the New England Society Studying Trauma and Dissociation and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.

Additional Info

Program Information

Access never expires for this product.

Objectives

1. Integrate the IFS model into your clinical practice and accelerate the healing from complex trauma.
2. Identify, specify and clarify the protective parts of clients with trauma histories to help with assessment and treatment planning.
3. Offer an alternative view of symptoms and psychopathology, showing how client’s parts are actually trying to protect them from emotional pain and psychological pain.
4. Demonstrate how IFS translates common comorbidities into parts language, showing a non-pathological perspective of mental health disorders.
5. Communicate how IFS increases the therapist’s curious and compassionate self when working with clients who have trauma histories.
6. Differentiate a therapeutic issue from a biological condition for better decision making in your clinical practice.
7. Compare traditional attachment theory perspectives on healing to the IFS view (an internal attachment model) and learn to trust the clients’ internal relationship to heal their traumatic wounds.
8. Understand how to respond to the extreme symptoms of trauma by determining if they are rooted in sympathetic activation or parasympathetic withdrawal.
9. Demonstrate IFS specific therapeutic techniques that shift arousal and withdrawal, allowing quicker access to clients’ traumatic vulnerabilities.
10. Develop a deep understanding of how neuroscience informs therapeutic decisions in IFS therapy.
11. Integrate IFS with your current treatment approaches including EMDR, DBT, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
12. Compare IFS to traditional phase-oriented treatment and learn accelerated ways of accessing and healing traumatic wounds.

Outline

Treating the Various Types of Trauma

• Acute trauma
• PTSD
• Complex or relational trauma
• Developmental and attachment traumas
• Extreme or dissociative trauma

Internal Family Systems (IFS): Healing of Emotional Wounds

• The origins, goals & assumptions
• A non-pathologizing, accelerated approach, rooted in neuroscience
• Different from phase-oriented treatment
  • The importance of our protective responses
  • Deal with emotional overwhelm head-on
• Multiplicity of the mind – we all have parts
• Healing at the cellular level

Study limitations:  small sample size, no control group

Clinical considerations for clients experiencing abuse

Manage Common Co-Morbidities

• Depression, panic attacks, substance abuse, eating disorders, ADD and OCD
• A non-pathological approach
  • Comorbidities as protective responses to trauma
  • Symptoms as “parts of the self”

Differentiate Therapeutic Issues from Biological Conditions

• Intersection of biology and situation (“Real Mind-Body Medicine”)
• Therapist’s role in biology – When to refer and when to work it through
• Psychotherapy of psychopharmacology

The IFS Technique

Step 1: Identify the Target Symptom

• Identify the “target symptom”
• Apply meditation practices
• Separate the person (self) from the symptom
• Learn about its intention

Step 2: Gain Access to Internal Strengths & Resource for Healing

• Move from defensiveness to curiosity
• The “Self” of the therapist-countertransference redefined
• Access compassion to open the pathways toward healing
• Role of empathy in healing – the benefits and the downsides

Step 3: Find the Fear and Function of the Symptom

• Focusing on its fear
• The real story behind the symptom
• Foster the internal relationship

Attachment Disorders and Relational Trauma

• IFS as internal attachment work
• Attachment styles as parts of self
• Attachment trauma – the role of the therapist
• Heal relational wounds of childhood
• Client’s “Self” as the corrective object
• Work with preverbal trauma

The Neurobiology of Trauma

• Neuroscience for therapists – what you need to know
• Fear circuitry and the development of PTSD
• Extreme reactions and Autonomic Nervous System
• Rage to suicide and dissociation to shame

Dealing with the Extreme Reactions of Trauma

• Talk directly to the symptom-direct access
• Introducing the part to the “Self”
• Deal with the overwhelm – no need for building resources
• Therapist parts – How to stay clear and calm while working with clients in extreme states

How Neuroscience Informs Therapeutic Decisions

• Top-down and bottom-up strategies rooted in neuroscience
• When it’s necessary to take over and “be the auxiliary brain” for your client
• Sensing vs. making sense of things
• At home strategies

Step 4: Healing of Traumatic Wounds:

• Three phases to healing:
  • Witness the pain
  • Remove the wounded part out of the past
  • Let go of the feelings, thoughts and beliefs
• Science behind the healing – memory reconsolidation

Integrate IFS into Your Treatment Approach

• EMDR, DBT, Sensorimotor/SE and other methods
• Transformation vs adaptation or rehabilitation
• Going beyond the cognitive (experiential therapies)
• Integrate IFS with your current clinical approach

Live demonstrations
Meditations
Practice sessions

Please Note: PESI is not affiliated or associated with Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, or her organizations.

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