Description
Richard C. Schwartz – Addictive Behaviors as Self-Preservation: Key Insights from the Internal Family Systems Model
- Faculty:
- Richard C. Schwartz
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 27 Minutes
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Copyright:
- Oct 16, 2020
Description
By looking at addictive behaviors – from drugs and alcohol to sex, technology, and binge eating — as means of self-protection and a way of staving off deep personal pain, the IFS model provides a model of treatment that avoids power struggles, and feelings of shame and judgment that can often accompany treatment for trauma and addictions.
Watch IFS developer, Richard Schwartz, demonstrate how IFS is used with addictive behaviors and see how the IFS model is a compassionate means to revisit trauma and initiate healing, and in turn, helps the individual to address the subsequent addictive behaviors often without the need for extended grounding techniques at the beginning of treatment.
Developed over the past four decades, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model offers both a conceptual umbrella under which a variety of practices and different approaches can be grounded and guided and provides a set of original techniques for creating safety and fostering Self-to-Self connection in traumatized clients.
Outline
Multiplicity & the Self
- Evolution of the IFS approach
- Multiplicity of the mind
- Stumbling on to the self
Internal Family System (IFS) with Trauma
- IFS techniques:
- Honoring protectors
- Dealing with the overwhelm
- Witness and retrieve exiles
- Unburden trauma memories, beliefs and emotions
Keys to Working Safely with Addictions and Trauma
Faculty
Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D. Related seminars and products: 23
Owner
The Center for Self Leadership
Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., earned his Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy from Purdue University, after which he began a long association with the Institute for Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and more recently at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, attaining the status of associate professor at both institutions. He is co-author, with Michael Nichols, of Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the most widely used family therapy text in the United States.
Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems in response to clients’ descriptions of experiencing various parts – many extreme – within themselves. He noticed that when these parts felt safe and had their concerns addressed, they were less disruptive and would accede to the wise leadership of what Dr. Schwartz came to call the “Self.” In developing IFS, he recognized that, as in systemic family theory, parts take on characteristic roles that help define the inner world of the clients. The coordinating Self, which embodies qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion, acts as a center around which the various parts constellate. Because IFS locates the source of healing within the client, the therapist is freed to focus on guiding the client’s access to his or her true Self and supporting the client in harnessing its wisdom. This approach makes IFS a non-pathologizing, hopeful framework within which to practice psychotherapy. It provides an alternative understanding of psychic functioning and healing that allows for innovative techniques in relieving clients symptoms and suffering.
In 2000, Richard Schwartz founded The Center for Self Leadership in Oak Park, Illinois. Dr. Schwartz is a featured speaker for many national psychotherapy organizations and a fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and he serves on the editorial boards of four professional journals. He has published four books and over 50 articles about IFS. His books include Internal Family Systems Skills Training Manual (with Frank Anderson, M.D. and Martha Sweezy, Ph.D) (PESI, 2017), Internal Family Systems Therapy (Guilford Press, 1997), Introduction to the Internal Family Systems Model (Tarcher, 2001), and The Mosaic Mind (with Regina Goulding) (Trailheads, 2003), as well as Metaframeworks (with Doug Breunlin and Betty Karrer) (Jossey-Bass, 1997). Dr. Schwartz lives and practices in Brookline, MA and is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard School of Medicine.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Richard Schwartz is the Founder of The Center for Self Leadership. He receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc.
Non-financial: Richard Schwartz is a Fellow and member of the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.