Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) provides a revolutionary treatment plan for PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and more.

Using a non-pathologizing, accelerated approach—rooted in neuroscience—IFS applies inner resources and self-compassion for healing emotional wounding at its core. This new manual offers straight-forward explanations and illustrates a wide variety of applications. Easy to read and highly practical.

• Step-by-step techniques
• Annotated case examples
• Unique meditations
• Downloadable exercises, worksheets

IFS Is Evidence-Based

Thirty years ago, IFS creator Richard Schwartz, PhD, listened to his clients describing the behaviors and fears of their most extreme parts. He found that the inner world of all his clients was characterized by parts who have a positive intent for the client but had taken on extreme roles in an effort to be safe. He also discovered that these extreme parts would become less disruptive and more cooperative once their concerns were addressed and they felt safer.

IFS views psychic multiplicity as the norm: we all have parts. In addition, every part has a good intention for the client, and every part has value. When clients listen to all their parts, they can heal their wounded parts.

Today, IFS, which has established a legacy of efficiency and effectiveness in treating many mental health issues, is being heralded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk as a treatment that all clinicians should know.

Committed to promoting compassion, hope, healing and non-violence in a troubled world, Dr. Frank Anderson specializes in understanding and treating the effects of psychic pain and trauma. He travels around the world as a proponent and instructor of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) psychotherapeutic modality an evidence-based treatment that offers an accelerated path to self- awareness and healing of emotional wounds. Unique as both a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, he specializes in the treatment of trauma and dissociation in his private practice and is passionate about teaching brain-based psychotherapy and integrating current neuroscience knowledge with the IFS model of therapy.

Martha Sweezy, PhD, is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, a program consultant and supervisor at Cambridge Health Alliance, and the former assistant director and director of training for the dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) program at the Cambridge Health Alliance. She is the co-editor/co-author of the books Internal Family Systems Therapy: New Dimensions, and Innovations and Elaborations in Internal Family Systems Therapy, as well as co-author of the book Intimacy from the Inside Out: Courage and Compassion in Couple Therapy. She has a therapy and consultation practice in Northampton, MA.

Richard D. Schwartz, PhD, developed the Internal Family Systems (IFS) in response to clients descriptions of experiencing various parts many extreme within themselves. He noticed that when these parts felt safe and had their concerns addressed, they were less disruptive and would accede to the wise leadership of what Dr. Schwartz came to call the Self. Because IFS locates the source of healing within the client, the therapist is freed to focus on guiding the client s access to his or her true Self and supporting the client in harnessing its wisdom.

He has published four books and over 50 articles about IFS. His books include Internal Family Systems Therapy, Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model, and co-author of Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, The Mosaic Mind, and Metaframeworks. In 2000, he founded The Center for Self Leadership. Dr. Schwartz lives and practices in Brookline, MA and is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard School of Medicine.