We are IFS-Informed EMDR therapists. Using an IFS-Informed EMDR Therapy approach to treatment can be very helpful to clients in their healing journey from Complex PTSD, Somatic or Medical Trauma, Addictions and other types of issues.
IFS stands for (Internal Family Systems). It is a non-pathologizing therapeutic approach to getting to know and working with “parts” of a client. This approach to treatment recognizes that we all have various aspects to our self called, “sub personalities.” These sub personalities allow us to hold many different aspects of who we are. When we have experienced trauma in our life some parts of ourselves have to take on extreme roles such as: Protectors, Managers, Firefighter and Exiles. IFS-Informed EMDR works directly with these parts to identify and process the trauma that they hold. This allows the client to release the burdens that these parts carry and to let in new “unburdened” ways of being.
Working from a IFS-Informed approach we do not bypass a clients Protector parts to heal “Exiles” (wounded more vulnerable parts of the clients). Instead we befriend, get to know Protectors, learn their stories and receive permission to do the deeper healing work with EMDR therapy. In IFS-Informed EMDR we also use the clients Self (a clients Higher Self, Spirit, Inner Wisdom) to assist with the healing and the internal connection. Cultivating and strengthening Self- Energy allows the clients to experience a deep sense of healing from the inside out. This connection to Self in the healing process creates a deep internal attachment repair. It supports greater self compassion, resolution of life-long traumas and ability for the client to continue with their healing work independently after therapy is over.