Foundational Somatic IFS Therapy Workshop

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All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

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Speaker

Marcella Cox, LMFT, CEDS-C Related seminars and products

Kindful Body

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Marcella Cox, LMFT, CEDS-C, is a therapist, author, and speaker who has dedicated her career to treating eating disorders, disordered eating, body shame, and trauma. She is a Level 3 trained IFS therapist and on the teaching staff of Susan McConnell, developer of Somatic IFS, an approach that blends the IFS model of therapy with embodiment practices. Marcella trains and supports clinicians in utilizing IFS and Somatic IFS through professional consultation, workshops, trainings and retreats. She is committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and empowering learning environment where participants can explore the transformative potential of Somatic Parts Work. Her certifications as a body trust specialist, Safe and Sound protocol provider, mindful self-compassion teacher, as well as her studies of Somatic Experiencing inform her work. She recently contributed the chapter on IFS and disordered eating in Altogether Us: Integrating the IFS Model with Key Modalities, Communities, and Trends (Pivotal Press, 2023). Marcella is also founder of Kindful Body, providing online therapy and nutrition counseling for eating and body issues in California.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Marcella Cox maintains a private practice and has employment relationships with IFS Consultation Collective and Kindful Body. She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Marcella Cox is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals.”

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Objectives

1. Define two basic assumptions of the IFS model and its non-pathological approach.
2. Identify 3 types of parts in the IFS model.
3. Examine the potential risks, contraindications, and other considerations associated with using the IFS model.
4. Identify challenges and limitations in the existing research into the IFS framework.
5. Examine the preliminary evidence supporting the effectiveness of body-oriented trauma therapy in reducing PTSD-related symptoms.
6. Choose techniques that combine top-down and bottom-up processing in treating trauma
7. Utilize somatic awareness in working with their own parts and their client’s parts.
8. Use conscious breathing skills to develop a relationship with their own therapist parts and their client’s parts.
9. Determine how mindful movement can allow interrupted developmental phases of yield, push, reach, grasp and other stuck patterns to be released.
10. Examine how attuned touch physically, imaginally, with nature and voice can support building relationships with protectors and exiles, as well as with the unburdening process.
11. Identify two risks and benefits of the use of ethical touch in psychotherapy.
12. Identify 2 ways embodied Self energy can support the Somatic IFS approach to healing trauma.
13. Identify risks and potential limitations of somatic techniques in the treatment of trauma. 

Outline

Day 1

Overview of the IFS Model

• Key assumptions of the IFS model
• Explore protective and vulnerable parts
• The self and its role in healing
• The concept of burdens and how they manifest physically
• The role of protectors and exiles in the body
• The flow of the model
• Research, risks and treatment limitations

Introduction to Somatic IFS

• Somatic IFS overflow
• Key concepts of the model
• Benefits of Somatic IFS
• Research, risks, and treatment limitations

Integrate Somatic Awareness into the Somatic IFS Model

• The language of somatic awareness
• The three dimensions of awareness
• Therapist use of somatic awareness
• Working with parts and self
• The process of witnessing
• Somatic awareness experiential exercises

Integrate Conscious Breathing into the Somatic IFS Model

• Therapist use of conscious breathing
• Polyvagal Theory and conscious breathing
• Breathing and parts
• Conscious breathing experiential exercises

Day 2

Radical Resonance in the Therapeutic Process

• About radical resonance
• Therapist use of radical resonance
• Resonance communication physiology
• Address attachment wounds
• Radical resonance experiential exercises

Integrate Mindful Movement into the Somatic IFS Model

• About mindful movement and therapist use
• Protectors and movement
• Restore flow and healing trauma
• Mindful movement experiential exercises

Attuned Touch in the Therapeutic Process

• About attuned touch and therapist use
• Ethical considerations and safety protocols
• Experiential exercises
• How trauma can affect touch

Embodied Self-Energy: The Core of Transformation

• Beyond the 5 Practices
• Qualities of self
• Self-leadership
• Unburdening and self-like parts
• Experiential Exercises

The Somatic IFS Therapist

• Embodied presence and attunement
• Track verbal and  nonverbal communication
• Cultivate curiosity and compassion
• Address therapist’s own burdens
• Establish body time
• Skilled communication and integration

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counsellors
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians
• Others in caring profession