Treating Complex Trauma With Internal Family Systems: Evidence-Based Tools

Date course created: February 2023

Ready to hone your skills in treating complex trauma and boost your credentials? The Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy course offers expert-driven insights to get you up to speed. This practical method empowers your clients to gain emotional control.
And the good news is that you can complete the IFS training online from the comfort of your home.
Keep reading to uncover how this innovative approach can revolutionize trauma treatment.

Most modes of psychotherapy believe that to have “parts” is pathological. NOT in Internal Family Systems (IFS). In IFS, the idea of multiplicity of the mind is normal. Every part has a good intention, and every part has value. Even for trauma survivors.

In the treatment of trauma, IFS differs from traditional phase-oriented treatments. Instead of starting with building resources in clients before processing traumatic memories, it welcomes extreme symptoms from the onset, learns about their positive protective intentions and gets their permission to access the traumatic wounds.

IFS is the treatment method that all clinicians should know. Nearly all clients with a trauma history have innate abilities that help them improve their mental health if they listen to their parts. IFS does just that. IFS is an evidence-based approach for clinicians working with traumatized clients. Once you see it in action, you’ll want to incorporate it into your practice!

Clients will leave your office with skills to use outside the therapy room to help them master their emotions. This experiential training will show video demonstrations and include exercises and meditation
techniques to use with your clients.

**This is a 5.75-CE noninteractive, self-paced online video course delivered in home study format via an industry-standard online learning platform**

Agenda:

00:00 – 00:38: Introduction; Connection Between Trauma and Love; Questions on Trauma Processing
00:38 – 01:07: Complex PTSD / Relational Trauma; Attachment / Developmental Trauma; Impact of Development on Trauma
01:07 – 01:36: Integrating IFS with Other Modalities; Client Consent; Polarities in Internal Family Systems
01:36 – 02:11: Preventative Parts; Experiential Meditation; Exploring Wounded Parts
02:11 – 03:02: Initial Steps in Therapy; Managing Intense Emotional Responses; Gender Dysphoria in Therapy
03:02 – 04:11: IFS Techniques; The Container Theory; Balancing Empathy and Compassion; Healing Perspectives
04:11 – 05:04: Addressing Psychosis; Exploring Neurobiology; Hyperarousal and Hypoarousal
05:04 – 05:46: Healing Attachment Wounds; Power of Shared Trauma; Healing Trauma; Post-Healing Considerations

Objectives:

a). After completing this training, participants will be able to present the IFS Model and design and practice ways to integrate IFS into your clinical trauma work. 

b). After completing this training, participants will be able to specify and work with your client’s parts as defined by developer Richard Schwartz, PhD. 

c). After completing this training, participants will be able to model and practice how to work with clinician’s own parts. 

d). After completing this training, participants will be able to critique an alternate view of symptoms and psychopathology, reasoning that these are ways your clients are trying to protect themselves from emotional pain and psychological wounding. 

e). After completing this training, participants will be able to state how IFS increases the therapist’s curious and compassionate self when working with difficult and challenging clients. 

f). After completing this training, participants will be able to learn and understand the neuroscience behind the healing process in IFS therapy.

Course Outline:

Target Audience:

Mental Health Clinicians & Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, Marriage & Family Therapists, Counselors, School Personnel, Youth Development Workers, Healthcare Workers.

Instructional Level: Intermediate

Instructor(s): Frank Anderson, MD

Material Author(s): Frank Anderson, MD

Frank Anderson, MD, completed his residency and was a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is both a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation. He is passionate about teaching brain-based psychotherapy and integrating current neuroscience knowledge with the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of therapy. Dr. Anderson is a senior lead trainer and program consultant for the IFS Institute with Richard Schwartz and maintains a long affiliation with Bessel van der Kolk at The Trauma Research Center. He serves as an advisor to the International Association of Trauma Professionals (IATP) and was the former chair and director of the Foundation for Self Leadership. Dr. Anderson has lectured extensively on the Neurobiology of PTSD and Dissociation and co-authored the book Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual. He wrote the chapter “Who’s Taking What: Connecting Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology and Internal Family Systems for Trauma” in Internal Family Systems Therapy-New Dimensions, and co-authored the chapter “What IFS Brings to Trauma Treatment” in Innovations and Elaborations in Internal Family Systems Therapy. Dr. Anderson maintains a private practice in Concord, MA. www.FrankAndersonMD.com

For additional information about this course, the instructors, or the material authors, please contact Content Assistance at content@onlinececredits.com.

Course Materials & Delivery Method:

• Course materials – The course is composed of a recorded presentation and written materials (e.g. a slide deck and/or other worksheets, manuals, or handouts as provided by the instructor). The slide deck and any additional worksheets or handouts (as provided by the instructor) are made available inside the Lesson module after a course is purchased.
• Delivery Method – this course is a recorded asynchronous, self-paced webinar training, and there is no access time limit or due date to complete it once enrolled. The enrolled learner will stream the recorded presentation and view the materials from their internet connected device via an industry-standard online learning platform.

CE Approvals:

Online CE Credits has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6795. Programs that do not quality for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Online CE Credits is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Mind Works Professional Education, Inc. DBA Online CE Credits, #1974, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: July 23, 2024 – July 23, 2025. Social workers completing this course receive [see advertisement] asynchronous distance learning continuing education credits.

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• Posttest Requirements – you must answer 80% or more of the Quiz questions correctly to pass. If you fail to pass the first time, you may attempt the quiz again until you are able to pass with a score of 80% or better. Quizzes are graded instantly and automatically by the learning management system once your attempt is submitted.
• Certificate of Completion – certificates of completion are automatically generated – downloadable from your Dashboard and emailed to you – once you view the Lesson materials and complete the Quiz and the course evaluation.
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