Consultation in the Magic of IFS

~offered by horizon greene (they/she)~

(Queer and Trans) Internal Family Systems is a beautifully queer healing lineage that invites the practices of deep witnessing, trust-building, nurturing and self-attunement (the relational practices of safety and love) to help us feel whole and free.

IFS Supervision and Consultation
I am an experienced, Level 2 trained IFS therapist and am frequently a teaching assistant for the beautiful QTIFS** Program. I’m also an EMDR Certified Therapist, an EMDR Consultant and a Certified Body Trust Provider. Much of my practice is supervising and consulting with folx who want support developing an IFS/QTIFS practice, or in integrating IFS with EMDR, relational neuroscience, effective complex trauma treatment and/or Body Trust.

I love consulting with folx about IFS because this modality supports us in humanizing ourselves as therapists, in honoring the parts of us that feel responsible for perfection and in softening our hearts toward our own nervous systems, trauma histories and how we (and our parts) show up in the therapy room. And, IFS is extremely effective at helping us to co-create the conditions for healing with clients.

IFS with Dissociative Parts
Wise dissociation is a reliable protector in therapy and is a part of someone’s survivorship that will reliably show up in the therapy room. Our job as trauma therapists is to co-create the conditions for healing so that we can help our clients reach for the felt safety their wise nervous systems need to be able to metabolize what has so-far-been-unmetabolizable. This is the body of work we achieve in trauma therapy.

While its absolutely true that there is no emotion (or traumatic memory) that is too much for Self to be with, it’s also true that many of our clients have traumatic re-experiencing that makes it difficult for Self to be present. As a complex trauma specialist with over 24 years of practice experience, I am especially skilled at helping therapists know how to confidently and reliably create the conditions for safety with clients who are living with the ongoing impacts of complex trauma and attachment wounding.

IFS, Body Trust and Compassionate Inquiry
I use and teach a non-pathologizing approach to conceptualizing treatment and supporting the trauma survivors we work with. I approach eating disorders from a Body Trust/Body Liberation lens. And in the words of Gabor Mate, I believe in asking “not why the addiction, why the pain.” I believe all behaviors are an attempt at regulation and I seek to identify and treat the underlying trauma beneath any behavioral attempt to regulate.

What if you’re not trained in IFS?
IFS Level 1 Trainings are expensive and difficult to get into. Although I am now an experienced IFS-trained therapist, I started my own IFS studies with an asynchronous IFS learning program, a weekly IFS practice group and a fabulous IFS consultant. I’m happy to work with you wherever you are in your learning journey.

---

*QTIFS, Queer and Trans Internal Family Systems, is a beautiful, liberatory body of work, co-created and co-held by IFS therapists Sand Chang & Nic Wildes. You can learn more about their offerings here.