Description
This workshop will be live streaming to online participants on February 5, 2026 from 8:30am – 4:00pm (Vancouver, BC)
Please adjust your start time according to your specific time zone.
Recorded footage and all course content (certificate, videos, quiz) will be available until March 9, 2026. Extensions cannot be granted under any circumstances.
Please allow 5 – 7 business days after the course airs for recorded footage to become available.
Developed by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) has become one of the fastest growing therapy models. IFS provides a transdiagnostic, non-pathologizing, evidenced-based approach to trauma treatment. In this workshop, Dr. Fatter will review the theoretical assumptions, goals for treatment, and steps of using the IFS model. Dr. Fatter will describe the role of memory consolidation in IFS and the function of the three parts in a client’s system. Research on IFS, risks and limitations will be discussed.
The role of the therapist and ways to ensure IFS is trauma-informed will be explored. Dr. Fatter will provide practical ways to begin conceptualizing clients clinical symptomology using an IFS framework. Multiple ways to get started in IFS will be taught to use IFS with adults, adolescents, and children. IFS techniques to address trauma-related fears and concerns of the client’s protective system will be provided. Specific IFS interventions to support stabilization, internal communication within the client’s system, and foster self-compassion will be taught.
Essential IFS interventions for complex trauma treatment including how to work with polarizations in a client’s system will be provided. Ways that IFS fits in a trauma recovery model and attends to the impact of traumatic stress on the brain will be discussed. In addition, ways to integrate somatic-based interventions to support emotion regulation will be addressed. IFS treatment plans and applying IFS to common outcomes of trauma including addictions, grief, moral injury, and dissociation will be discussed. Practical ways for clients to integrate IFS into their daily lives will be explored. Indicators of progress in IFS therapy will be addressed.
Applications of IFS with marginalized communities or clients experiencing on-going trauma exposure will be reviewed. IFS interventions to work with legacy and cultural burdens, the IFS terms referring to intergenerational and collective trauma, will also be taught. How to apply IFS to couples counseling and group therapy will also be reviewed.
This workshop will be didactic, interactive, and experiential. Videos and case examples will provide participants an opportunity see IFS in action. Dr. Fatter will also guide experiential exercises to demonstrate the IFS model and invite clinicians to have increased awareness of their own parts.