Intensive Somatic Parts Work for Trauma: A Complete Workshop on Using IFS Therapy with Body-Based Tools

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

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.

Handouts

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.”

Additional Info

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For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com

This product is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

Objectives

1. Identify 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. Evaluate 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. Determine how burdens from culture, families, and personal experiences disrupt embodiment.
8. Utilise somatic awareness in working with parts.
9. Explain how mindful movement can allow interrupted developmental phases of yield, push, reach, grasp and other stuck patterns to be released.
10. Determine how attuned touch can support building relationships with protectors and exiles.
11. Identify two risks and benefits of the use of ethical touch in psychotherapy.
12. Examine how resources (movement, nature, breath, touch, mindfulness practices) can be used for increasing Self energy.
13. Identify 2 ways embodied Self energy can support the Somatic IFS approach to healing trauma.
14. List 5 qualities, and the nonverbal expression of those qualities, associated with the state of Self energy.
15. Identify two types of fears and concerns about embodiment.
16. Identify 3 qualities of an embodied Self-led therapist.
17. Determine how Somatic IFS principles can be used to address the impact of collective trauma and societal burdens on individuals.
18. Identify risks and potential limitations of somatic techniques in the treatment of trauma.

Outline

• Key assumptions of the IFS model
• Core concept of the model
• Explore protective and vulnerable parts
• The self and its role in healing
• The flow of the model
• Research, risks and treatment limitations

• The impact of trauma on the body and mind
• The concept of burdens and how they manifest physically
• The role of protectors and exiles in the body
• The importance of embodiment for accessing self-energy and facilitated healing
• Memory reconsolidation and its role in healing trauma

• Somatic parts work overview
• Key concepts of the model
• Benefits of somatic parts work
• Somatic parts work techniques
• Research, risks and treatment limitations

• Didactic Teaching: Learn how to integrate somatic awareness into each step of the IFS model of therapy, plus many key learnings about using present-moment awareness in the body in parts work, including:
  • Definition and importance
  • The body as a source of wisdom
  • The three dimensions of awareness
  • Working with parts and self
  • The process of witnessing
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in guided somatic awareness experiential exercises to deepen your experience of somatic awareness: to experience aspects of somatic parts work, to illustrate teaching points, and to explore its application in the therapeutic process.

• Didactic Teaching: Learn how to integrate conscious breathing into each step of the IFS model of therapy, plus many key learnings about using breathwork in parts work, including:
  • The bridge between internal & external
  • Benefits and applications
  • Techniques
  • Breathing and parts
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in guided conscious breathing experiential exercises to deepen your experience of conscious breathing: to experience aspects of somatic parts work, to illustrate teaching points, and to explore its application in the therapeutic process.

• Didactic Teaching: Learn how to integrate radical resonance in the IFS model of therapy, plus many key learnings about therapeutic benefits of resonance in parts work, including:
  • Definition and significance
  • The resonant therapist
  • Right brain communication
  • Address attachment wounds
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in guided radical resonance experiential exercises to deepen your experience of radical resonance: to experience aspects of somatic parts work, to illustrate teaching points, and to explore its application in the therapeutic process.

• Didactic Teaching: Learn how to integrate mindful movement into each step of the IFS model of therapy, plus many key learnings about using movement in parts work, including:
  • Movement as expression and communication
  • The role of protectors and exiles
  • Mindful movement and the IFS mode
  • Restore flow and healing trauma
  • The six limbs and core movements
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in guided mindful movement experiential exercises to deepen your experience of mindful movement: to experience aspects of somatic parts work, to illustrate teaching points, and to explore its application in the therapeutic process.

• Didactic Teaching: Learn how to integrate attuned touch into each step of the IFS model of therapy, plus many key learnings about using touch in parts work, including:
  • The power of touch in healing
  • Ethical considerations and safety protocols
  • Explore different types of touch
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in guided attuned touch experiential exercises to deepen your experience of attuned touch: to experience aspects of somatic parts work, to illustrate teaching points, and to explore its application in the therapeutic process.

• Didactic Teaching: Learn about embodied self-energy in IFS and somatic parts work, including:
  • Beyond the 5 practices
  • Qualities of self
  • Self-leadership
  • Unburdening and self-like parts
  • The holographic model
  • Embodied spirituality
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in embodied self energy experiential exercises: to deepen your experience of embodied self energy, to illustrate teaching points, and to explore its application in the therapeutic process.

• 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

• Work with parts that fear embodiment and dissociation & case example
• Navigate anxiety and depression & case example
• Address disordered eating and body shame & case example
• Pre-recorded demonstration

• Understand societal burdens
• Address systemic issues
• Collective healing
• Experiential Exercises: Engage in practices to explore the impact of societal burdens on the body and mind, and develop strategies for addressing these issues in therapy

Target Audience

• Counsellors
• Social Workers
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Addiction Counsellors
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians
• Others in Caring Profession