Agenda

“The Expansive Self ~ Healing from the Inside Out”

Chimney Corners Resort Frankfort, Michigan

Thursday, October 3rd, 2024:

1:00 ~ 2:30 pm    Check In                                                

2:45 pm    Welcome/Opening Remarks: Tanis Allen, LMSW  -  The Lodge

3:00 ~ 5:30 pm Opening Plenary Session: “It’s in Every One of Us ~ Expansive IFS”

Beth Jerva, LMSW,  Tanis Allen, LMSW, and Sabrina Santa Clara, LPC

Through IFS meditation, somatic release, and writing practices, participants will be guided to turn inward and listen deeply to their parts within the supportive container of expansive Self-energy which we will build together as a group. Sabrina will then lead us through an exploration of Expanded IFS, which recognizes and incorporates three fundamental components of healing. These include the Inner World (e.g. Self and parts. somatic experience), the Outer World (e.g. community, nature, etc.) and the world which transcends physical form (e.g. resources such as our ancestors, guides, Source, etc.). This session will introduce her unique approach that broadens the healing potential of the IFS model beyond the realm of Self-energy alone.

5:30 ~ 8:00 pm     Dinner at Rock’s Landing

Friday, October 4th, 2024:

8:00 ~ 9:00 am    Morning Yoga in the Lodge

Beth Jerva, LMSW, PRYT, RYT  (Non-CE Offering)

10:00 am ~ 1:00 pm  Morning Plenary Session:

“Parts Work: IFS, Self and Healing the Healer”

Tom Holmes, PhD

In this day-long experiential session, participants will experience the practices that Tom has developed for his “healing the healer” workshops that he’s led worldwide over the past 30 years. The activation of Self-energy will include movement and music, the use of art to identify and clarify currently active parts, and a body-mind “journey to Self.” The ways in which the IFS model fits into historical views of the nature of consciousness will be shared to deepen our understanding of IFS as well as to support therapists as they work with clients from varying cultural backgrounds.

1:00 pm       Lunch

2:30 pm ~ 5:30 pm Afternoon Plenary Session:

“Parts Work: IFS, Self and Healing the Healer” (Continued)

Tom Holmes, PhD

5:30 ~ 8:00 pm      Dinner at Rock’s Landing

8:30 pm      Entertainment in The Lodge:     AnnMarie Rowland   Singer/Songwriter

Later           Bonfire (weather and energy permitting) and more music in Woodsmere Cottage

Saturday, October 5th, 2024:

 8:00 am ~ 9:00 am      Morning Yoga in The Lodge

Beth Jerva, LMSW, PRYT, RYT (Non-CE Offering)

10:00 am ~ 1:00 pm    Morning Plenary Session: 

“IFS: Stand-Alone or Combined With Adjacent Modalities? Let’s Talk!”

Beth Mullen-Houser, PHD, Hanna Soumerai Rea, LICSW and CIFST, Jan Mullen, LCSW, and Sabrina Santa Clara, LPC and CIFST

In two 2023 surveys of IFS providers, a majority of respondents indicated that they infuse IFS with other modalities, including mindfulness/breathwork, Jungian analytic work, other attachment models, EMDR and dreamwork. Is IFS best as a stand-alone intervention or combined with other modalities, and if so, when? Are client and/or provider cultural identities important to this decision? Are there ways in which these modalities already overlap, or crucial ways in which they differ? In this workshop, empirical research on psychotherapy integration will be reviewed. Next, an expert panel and participants will be invited to discuss pros and cons of combining IFS with other techniques and whether client characteristics including trauma history, cultural background and identity affect this choice. Discussions will include the influence of client cultural identity on comfort level with psychic multiplicity in the decision whether to utilize pure IFS or integrate with other approaches.

1:00 pm     Lunch

2:30 ~ 5:30 pm    Afternoon Workshop Sessions:

1.  “Caring for the Caregivers: Relearning to Love Our Firefighters”

Shelly Johnson, LMHC, CIFST, and Gina Abbeduto, LCPC, CIFST

This workshop will focus on the protectors in the therapist’s system who use high levels of spontaneity to help the therapist navigate challenging situations, both in the office and in daily life. The culture of mental health professionals favors internal worlds of clinicians that are often driven by highly managerial protectors given the nature of their roles which involve caring for others: ensuring safety, teaching, leading insightful explorations and helping to manage relationships. These managers, while highly effective at times, may limit the clinician’s intuitive playfulness and lead to disconnection from the naturally free-spiritedness of the firefighters.

Participants will be assisted to identify when their managers have commandeered the therapeutic process, as well as to explore their manager’s fears of the firefighters taking over while in session. They will examine avenues of creativity and playfulness that have been blocked, both personally and professionally, as well as consider ways to regain access to their natural lightheartedness through the soothing application of music, movement and artwork. This workshop will provide participants with additional skills to bring greater balance and optimism to not only their clinical practice, but to their personal life and relationships as well.

2.      “IFS and Authentic Relating: Finding Wholeness Through Connection”

Sabrina Santa Clara, LPC, CIFST, R-DMT, RYT

Despite advancements in treatment approaches including IFS, rates of depression and anxiety persist without decline. At the core of our collective suffering lies one fundamental issue: disconnection. This disconnection spans various realms - from ourselves, from one another, our families, the environment and even the Divine. To truly address this epidemic, we must challenge the prevailing culture of isolation, defensiveness and excessive focus on individualism.

What’s needed is a paradigm shift towards fostering greater connection and attunement, supported by a framework grounded in Interpersonal Neurobiology that promotes safety and regulation. We require an approach that not only integrates our internal landscapes but also acknowledges the importance of our external interactions. By incorporating Authentic Relating practices into the existing IFS framwork, we have the potential to catalyze a transformative revolution toward greater healing and integration.

  3.     “The Fragments of Our Lives: SoulCollage Meets IFS”

            Pricilla Boyd, LCSW, M.Ed

This experiential workshop will be an integration of the powerful processes of SoulCollage (developed by Jungian analyst Seena Frost) and IFS.  Participants will have the opportunity to create cards that represent parts of themselves (managers, firefighters or exiles) and in so doing allow expression, obtain clarification, and develop understanding of their personal history and functioning.  Participants will learn the benefits of this expressive therapy and its correlation to parts work to support clients in their quest for self awareness and personal power.

5:00 pm       Recreational Activities and Dinner (on your own ~ suggestions and directions will be provided)

Later             Music Jam and Singing:  Woodsmere Cottage

Sunday, October 7, 2024

9:45 am         Morning Meditation and Music

10:30 am ~ 1:00 pm     Closing Plenary Session:

“Finding the Solid Ground of Self”

Tanis Allen, LMSW, CIFST, and Beth Jerva, LMSW, PRYT, RYT

In her book, “Atlas of the Heart,” Brene Brown writes: “So often, when we feel lost, adrift in our lives, our first instinct is to look out into the distance to find the nearest shore. But that shore, that solid ground is within us. The anchor we are searching for is connection, and it is internal.” In IFS, we call this internal “solid ground” Self. But all of us, therapists and clients alike, do find ourselves lost when stress, trauma and the difficulties of like cause us to feel disconnected from our Selves.

This closing session will guide participants through a discussion and exercises exploring the impact of these experiences on both our own and our clients’ bodies, nervous systems and internal systems of parts, and will offer strategies for finding our way back to that solid ground of Self. We will also utilize an advanced IFS technique to 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.

1:00 pm ~ 1:30 pm                 Closing and Send-Off

Tanis Allen, LMSW, CIFST