Basic IFS Course for Couples
This six-week experiential, online course for couples gives you the opportunity to learn how use the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model on yourself for the purpose of mastering how to have hard conversations with your partner. In this class you will fine-tune parts of your personality and get on the right frequency to prior to and during connection with your partner.
About IFS
IFS Therapy recognizes that our psyche is made up of different parts (feelings, thoughts, beliefs, behavior patterns or somatic sensations), sometimes called subpersonalities. For example, one part of you might be trying to lose weight and another part might want to eat whatever you want. This is called natural multiplicity of the mind and is a radical paradigm shift from other psychologies that view the mind as either “normal” or “abnormal.”
Internal Family Systems theory teaches us that our parts take on distinct roles in order to protect us, navigate life, and survive. Two of these roles are what we call The Protectors: Managers and Firefighters. The third role is that of the parts being protected: Exiles. When you are working with parts using the Internal Family Systems model, you follow a set of steps that help you explore the parts from a consistent appreciative inquiry mindset. This is what Internal Family Systems calls Self.
DATES:
Wednesday nights 6:45-8:45pm EST, on Zoom
August 14, 21, 28
September 4, 11, 18
Class Format
Class format follows the kind of experience you will get in the Level I IFS training, on a much smaller scale.
For our course texts, we will use Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems Therapy, Second Edition 2nd Edition, and Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual: Trauma-Informed Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD & Substance Abuse, by Frank Anderson.
The course format includes:
- Brief didactic live teaching focusing on using the 6Fs
- Experience and practice of unblending from parts (“getting into Self”)
- Working with protectors
- Basic best practices with exiles
- Introduction to working with polarized parts
- Real-time practice learning to be in Self with your parts during communication and interaction with others in the group setting
Class Structure
Each week we will cover a brief concept with discussion, you’ll participate in a guided IFS-based meditation, watch or participate in a live demo, and break out into “home groups“ that will serve as the foundational social support during the course to help you process your learning and personal growth.
You’ll be assigned to a dyad each week and will be expected to schedule an online or phone meeting with this person in between classes to practice as facilitator and as a “client.” Guidance will be given for best practices during dyad work and in home groups.
Class meets via Zoom for two hours each week for six weeks, plus homework of 60–90 minute meetings with your dyad partner in between classes.
Course Goals
This invaluable practical course structure will prepare you for using IFS in your own practice and in your personal life and help sharpen your skills while you are waiting on the level one waiting list. IFS Level I graduates are also welcome and will appreciate the always-worth-practicing skills of befriending your own parts in the role of facilitator.
Cost:
- $399 if paid in full before August 5th
- $424 if registering after August 5th or for option to pay in two installments of $212, (once at the start of class and second payment due on week three).
Commitment is expected for participation in every class with up to one expected absence, if necessary, although this is not ideal. See refund policy, below.
About Your Instructor
Keith Miller, LICSW, has been practicing IFS since 2009 and has over twelve thousand direct clinical hours providing IFS psychotherapy to individuals and couples. He is Level III-trained and completed both basic and advanced Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO) trainings as well as being a Program Assistant for Level I. Prior to learning about IFS, Keith was using Voice Dialogue with clients. He also teaches a basic IFS and mindfulness-based stress reduction course for couples called Mindful Marriage, and has published and spoken about couples counseling, IFS and interpersonal neurobiology throughout the country. He is the director of a private practice with clinics in DC and Maryland, and is the host of The Soul of Life psychology and spirituality podcast. A dad to two teens, Keith lives with his wife in Maryland, where he recently began pursuing a lifelong goal of becoming a fixed-wing pilot.
Teaching Style and Philosophy
I have enjoyed learning IFS from many different teachers and therapists over the years. This has taught me that IFS is far more than the “model” that some of my intellectual parts like to think it is. Rather, I’ve come to experience IFS as a living, breathing being unto itself that is larger than each of us individually yet includes each of us—much like Self.
While I have parts that love to integrate IFS with the many other therapeutic modes that operationalize Self, my goal in teaching IFS Level I Prep is to help you learn IFS the way it’s taught in the Level One trainings—that is, as a distinct and comprehensive technology for healing unlike any other.
Perhaps in future courses, we will explore the myriad, advanced ways to use IFS creatively and even more powerfully when combined with other sophisticated tools such as the somatic focus of Deep Brain Reorientation (DBR) and the wonderful world of Mindfulness practice. But in this course—IFS Level I Prep–I hope you’ll appreciate us going “by the book.”
Required Texts
- Internal Family Systems Therapy, Second Edition 2nd Edition, by Richard Schwartz
- Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual: Trauma-Informed Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, PTSD & Substance Abuse, by Frank Anderson
Refund Policy:
If you decide not to take a class:
- If you cancel more than 2 days before the first class starts, you will receive a refund minus $50.
- If you cancel less than 2 days before the class starts, there is no refund.