Agenda
“Coming Home to Self: Following the Light Within”
Chimney Corners Resort Frankfort, Michigan
Thursday, October 2, 2025:
3:00 - 7:00 pm Check In/Settle In (Dinner on your own)
7:30 - 8:30 pm Welcome and Opening Session: The Lodge
“Being the ‘I” in the Storm ~ Courage, Care and Compassion”
Tanis Allen, LMSW, ACSW, CIFST
In our opening circle, we will begin to turn inward and listen deeply to our parts within the supportive container of expansive Self-energy which we will build as a group. Given the current circumstances in our world, we are, at turns, holding both our own frustrated, grieving, outraged and despairing parts along with those of our clients and loved ones, in what can feel like a constantly triggering emotional storm. We will set our intentions together as we enter this time set apart from all this to tap into our collective wisdom and begin an exploration of the courage, care and compassion residing in every one of us and within the group.
As Dick so appropriately notes in “No Bad Parts,” when speaking of holding our center in trying times: “This is quite a challenge in some circumstances - when you face threatening people or events, for example. And yet, amid the terror or the rage, the Self in each of us is always there ~ the ‘I’ in the storm, the calm depth beneath the rolling waves. There is always Self.”
Friday, October 3, 2025:
8:00 ~ 9:00 am Morning Yoga in the Lodge
Beth Jerva, LMSW, PRYT, RYT and Mary Beth Thomas,
10:00 am ~ 1:00 pm Morning Ses
“Pathways to Parts: Exploring Massage Therapy, Puppetry and Grief Through IFS”
Mark Saltzman, LMP, IFSP
In this highly experiential session we will explore how IFS can merge with massage therapy and puppetry to support grief. We’ll learn how bodywork can help our parts feel safe, how puppetry can both externalize and give voice to our parts, and, using both to explore unspoken loss, how IFS can foster compassionate integration.
This unique approach creates powerful healing by honoring the body’s wisdom and the need for creative expression, offering a multi-dimentional path through grief. Participants will learn the benefits of somatic work and expressive therapies as they are coupled with IFS to support both themselves and their clients in their quest for internal alignment and embodied presence.
1:00 pm Lunch in the Lodge
2:30 pm ~ 5:30 pm Afternoon Session:
“Pathways to Parts Exploring Massage Therapy, Puppetry and Grief Through IFS”
(continued)
7 pm Dinner
8:30 pm Music and Stories Singer/Songwriter Kelly Shively
Saturday, October 4, 2025:
8:00 am ~ 9:00 am Morning Yoga in The Lodge
Beth Jerva, LMSW, PRYT, RYT and Mary Beth Thomas,
10:00 am ~ 1:00 pm Morning Session:
“The Symphony of Self ~ The Spirit of Music”
Gina Abbeduto, LCPC, CIFST
Music, spirituality and our experience of Self-energy go hand in hand, especially when it comes to healing. In this session, we will explore and celebrate the meaning of music and song in our own internal worlds as IFS therapists, and in those of our clients. A solid body of research has validated that the use of music in therapeutic settings can reduce stress, manage pain, improve mood, aid in recovery from neurological conditions and positively impact anxiety, depression and even psychosis. We strengthen our natural ability to Self-heal by connecting with the vibrations of sound frequencies which have been found to promote physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. In wisdom traditions all over the world (including within our own IFS community), music is used to connect people, as a form of prayer to call forth feelings of awe, surrender, trust and peace, and as a portal to the spiritual realm.
We will experientially experience this power through musical meditations and journaling to navigate internal pathways with our parts, as well as examine the benefits of using music in clinical settings. To do this, we will identify and explore the goals of music-based therapy and the ways in which it can be integrated with IFS, as well as deepen our understanding of the interventions, skills and techniques which musical therapies offer to address cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritual concerns. Throughout this experience we will also “play” with how to incorporate music as a conduit to the true spirit of our Selves. As the musician Bono has said, “Music can change the world because it can change people,” which is a kind of grace that we need now more than ever.
1:00 pm Lunch in the Lodge
2:30 pm ~ 5:30 pm Afternoon Session:
“Following the Light Within ~ The Spiritual Wisdom of IFS”
Tanis Allen, LMSW, ACSW, CIFST
Our much-loved IFS elder, Michi Rose, once wrote: “The Self is our link to the Source; (it) opens us to be fully who we are. To access the Self is to access the Source. Although it seems as if the unlimited is outside of us and enters into us through the Self, in another sense we are already unlimited within. The source is already inside of us. We only need to awaken within. The Self is the Source.”
With the help of the teachings of Michi Rose and other IFS elders including Kay Gardner, Monique Lange, Tom Holmes, Paul Ginter, and Ann Sinko, along with teachers such as Caroline Myss, Sandra Ingerman, and others, we will discuss the spiritual aspects of IFS and the power it holds to awaken the sacred within.
7:00 pm Dinner
Later Bonfire, Stargazing, Music and Stories
Sunday, October 5, 2025
10:00 am Music and Meditation
10:30 am ~ 12:30 pm Closing Session:
“Being Fully Present With Courage, Care and Compassion: Allowing Our Parts to Speak”
Tanis Allen, LMSW, CIFST
Our closing circle will offer a time to both acknowledge and invite parts that wish to speak about their experiences during the weekend to do so in an embodied and Self-led way. Through guided meditation, body-centered practices, parts sculpting and connection to the guidance of nature surrounding us, we will tap into the power of the group’s Self-energy such that a deeper integration of our experiences in retreat together emerges and insights gained will be highlighted.
Again, as Dick relates in his book “You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For,” incorporating a quote from the 19th century philosopher William James at the turn of the century: “you are drops of the same divine ocean or sparks of the same eternal flame, part and parcel of the wider Self.” This session will help us strengthen our skills for becoming more fully present to ourselves, our clients and those we care about as we “walk each other home” to that wise, spacious, compassionate and loving harbor within that we call Self.
12:30 pm Closing and Send-Off
Tanis Allen, LMSW, CIFST