The Treatment of Trauma and The Internal Family Systems Model

Presented by Richard C. Schwartz, PhD on 05-22-2012 at 9 a.m. Pacific to 10:30 a.m. Pacific (1:30 p.m. Eastern)

Developed over the past two decades, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model is one of the fastest growing approaches to psychotherapy today. IFS offers both a conceptual umbrella under which a variety of practices and different approaches can be grounded and guided and a set of original techniques for creating safety and fostering Self-to-Self connection in interpersonal relationships.

During this web conference, Dr. Richard Schwartz, originator of IFS, will provide an introduction to the basics of the IFS model and its effective use with attachment and trauma.

This introductory web conference is designed to help clinicians:

  1. Identify the basic theory and principles of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy;
  2. Recognize the IFS model as an internal attachment model;
  3. Identify the effects of trauma on parts and Self;
  4. Utilize the Internal Family Systems model in treating trauma.

If you have any questions about this web conference or would like more information, please contact us here.

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Continuing Education (CE) Information

1.5 CE credits will be provided by GoodTherapy.org for attending this web conference in its entirety.

GoodTherapy.org is also an Approved Education Provider by NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals (provider #135463). Of the eight counselor skill groups ascribed to by NAADAC, this course is classified within counseling services.

GoodTherapy.org is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy.org, SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0395.

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

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Meet the Presenter

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD

Dr. Richard Schwartz's career began as a systemic family therapist and an academic. With Michael Nichols, Dr. Schwartz co-authored Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, which is the most widely utilized family therapy text in the United States. Dr. Schwartz served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Juvenile Research, and later he worked at The Family Institute at Northwestern University.

Grounded in systems thinking, Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems (IFS) in response to the descriptions of people in therapy about various parts within themselves. He focused on the relationships among these parts and noticed that there were systemic patterns to the way they were organized across those in therapy. He also found that when the "parts" of people in therapy felt safe and were allowed to relax, the individuals would experience spontaneously the qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion that Dr. Schwartz came to call the Self. He found that when in that state of Self, individuals would know how to heal their parts.

This approach to psychotherapy suggested alternative ways of understanding psychic functioning and healing and lent itself to innovative techniques for relieving suffering and symptoms. IFS is a nonpathologizing, hopeful framework within which to practice psychotherapy.

In 2000, Richard Schwartz founded the Center for Self Leadership (CSL) in Oak Park, Illinois. CSL offers three levels of training in IFS, workshops for professionals and for the general public, an annual national conference, publications, and DVDs of Dr. Schwartz's work through its website. IFS trainings and workshops are also being held in several European countries.

A featured speaker for national professional organizations, Dr. Schwartz is a fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and serves on editorial boards of four professional journals.

He has published five books and over fifty articles about IFS:

  • You Are The One You've Been Waiting For: Bringing Courageous Love to Intimate Relationships
  • Internal Family Systems Therapy
  • Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model
  • The Mosaic Mind: Empowering the Tormented Selves of Child Abuse Survivors (with Regina Goulding)
  • Metaframeworks (with Doug Breunlin and Betty Karrer)

If you're interested in any of Dr. Schwartz's books you can purchase them on the Center for Self-Leadership Website. There you can also find more information on regional workshops and over 20 training programs offered across the United States and Canada. Dr. Schwartz maintains a private practice in Oak Park, Illinois.

Continuing Education Provider Approvals

  • aceGoodTherapy.org is Approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • Logo GoodTherapy.org has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6380. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. GoodTherapy.org is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
  • Logo This course has been approved by GoodTherapy.org, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #135463. GoodTherapy.org is responsible for all aspects of their programming.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

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