Couples in distress enter therapy holding two goals that they now experience as mutually exclusive: to feel loved and to feel understood. Toni Herbine-Blank’s powerful new brand of couple therapy, Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO), offers a comprehensive conceptual map for achieving both goals. In a tour de force of elegant case illustrations wrapped around clear instruction, this book shows the IFIO therapist working with the natural subdivisions – or parts – of the human mind in a dyad, guiding and supporting couples to understand how they project childhood injury into current relationships and then, feeling threatened, frustrated and angry, lose track of their underlying needs to feel safe, connected and loved. With a focus on generating internal attachment stability to sustain each partner through the moments when the other is unavailable, couples in IFIO therapy reconnect with their essential needs, change their conversations and learn to make requests that invite rather than threaten in order to get those needs met.
Now significantly revised with over 70% new material, this is the authoritative presentation of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, which is taught and practiced around the world. IFS reveals how the subpersonalities or "parts" of each individual's psyche relate to each other like members of a family, and how--just as in a family--polarization among parts can lead to emotional suffering. IFS originator Richard Schwartz and master clinician Martha Sweezy explain core concepts and provide practical guidelines for implementing IFS with clients who are struggling with trauma, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, and other behavioral problems. They also address strategies for treating families and couples. IFS therapy is listed in SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices. New to This Edition *Extensively revised to reflect 25 years of conceptual refinement, expansion of IFS techniques, and a growing evidence base. *Chapters on the Self, the body and physical illness, the role of the therapist, specific clinical strategies, and couple therapy. *Enhanced clinical utility, with significantly more "how-to" details, case examples, and sample dialogues. *Quick-reference boxes summarizing key points, and end-of-chapter summaries.
Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) provides a revolutionary treatment plan for PTSD, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders and more. Using a non-pathologizing, accelerated approach -- rooted in neuroscience -- IFS applies inner resources and self-compassion for healing emotional wounding at its core. This new manual offers straight-forward explanations and illustrates a wide variety of applications. Easy to read and highly practical. Step-by-step techniques Annotated case examples Unique meditations Downloadable exercises, worksheets IFS is Evidence-Based Thirty years ago, IFS creator Richard Schwartz, PhD, listened to his clients describing the behaviors and fears of their most extreme parts. He found that the inner world of all his clients was characterized by parts who had a positive intent for the client but had taken on extreme roles in an effort to be safe. He also discovered that these extreme parts would become less disruptive and more cooperative once their concerns were addressed and they felt safer. IFS views psychic multiplicity as the norm: we all have parts. In addition, every part has a good intention for the client, and every part has value. When clients listen to all their parts, they can heal their wounded parts. Today, IFS, which has established a legacy of efficiency and effectiveness in treating many mental health issues, is being heralded by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk as a treatment that all clinicians should know.
Showing how to weave assessment into all phases of therapy, this indispensable text and practitioner guide is reader friendly, straightforward, and practical. Specific strategies are provided for evaluating a wide range of clinical issues and concerns with adults, children and adolescents, families, and couples. The authors demonstrate ways to use interviewing and other techniques to understand both individual and relationship functioning, develop sound treatment plans, and monitor progress. Handy mnemonics help beginning family therapists remember what to include in assessments, and numerous case examples illustrate what the assessment principles look like in action with diverse clients. See also the authors' Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Third Edition: From the First Interview to Termination, which addresses all aspects of real-world clinical practice, and Clinician's Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy.
In Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy: The Dynamics of Emotion, Love, and Power, authors Leslie S. Greenberg and Rhonda N. Goldman explore the foundations of emotionally focused therapy for couples. They expand its framework to focus more intently on the development of the self and the relationship system through the promotion of self-soothing and other-soothing; to deal with unmet needs both from the client's adulthood and childhood; and to work more explicitly with emotions, specifically fear, anxiety, shame, power, joy, and love. The authors discuss the affect regulation involved in three major motivational systems central to couples therapy - attachment, identity, and attraction and clarify emotions and motivations in the dominance dimension of couples' interactions.Written with practitioners and graduate students in mind, the authors use a rich variety of case material to demonstrate how working with emotions can facilitate change in couples and, by extension, in all situations where people may be in emotional conflict with others. Greenberg and Goldman provide the tools needed to identify specific emotions and show the reader how to work with them to resolve conflict and promote bonding in couples therapy.
You can help even the most conflicted, disconnected couples restore and heal their relationship. IFS Couple Therapy Skills Manual presents clinicians with a powerful, non-pathologizing approach to helping couples better understand themselves, their differences, and the underlying reasons for their suffering. Working from the lens of Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO) - a branch of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy - the authors provide a highly successful therapy that allows couples to feel understood, to decrease shame, and to reestablish loving connections. Inside you'll find: - Step-by-step techniques - Case examples - Experiential exercises - Clear treatment explanations - Downloadable worksheets
Internal family systems therapy, or IFS, is one of the fastest growing models of psychotherapy today. Focused on psychic multiplicity and the healing effects of compassion, this non-pathologizing therapy has been adopted by clinicians around the world. Internal Family Systems Therapy builds on Richard Schwartz’s foundational introductory texts, illustrating how the IFS protocol can be applied to a variety of therapy modalities and patient populations.Each chapter provides clear, practical guidance and clinical illustrations. While addressing questions from therapists who are exploring the model or wonder about its applicability, Internal Family Systems Therapy is also essential reading for knowledgeable IFS clinicians.
Internal Family Systems Therapy with Children details the application of IFS in child psychotherapy. The weaving together of theory, step-by-step instruction, and case material gives child therapists a clear roadmap for understanding and utilizing the healing power of this modality. In addition, any IFS therapist will deepen their understanding of the theory and practice of Internal Family Systems by reading how it is practiced with children. This book also covers the use of IFS in parent guidance, an important aspect of any therapeutic work with families or adult individuals with children. The poignant and humorous vignettes of children’s therapy along with their IFS artwork make it an enjoyable and informative read. Applies the increasingly-popular Internal Family Systems model to children Integrates theory, step-by-step instruction, and case material to demonstrate to therapists how to use IFS with children Contains a chapter on using IFS in parent guidance Includes a foreword by Richard Schwartz, the developer of the Internal Family Systems model
Developmental Couple Therapy for Complex Trauma provides therapists with comprehensive and practical guidance for integrating DCTCT into their work with traumatized couples. The book includes an evidence-based framework which emphasizes the importance of containing conflict and helps clients to build emotional regulation and mentalizing skills. The framework is an invaluable asset to all clinicians working with couples dealing with the ravaging impacts of complex trauma, who may not be able to benefit from traditional forms of couple therapy due to challenges in regulating emotions, mentalizing and other aspects of the complex trauma response that limit capacity to engage in relationships and couple therapy. The chapters guide you through the four key stages of DCTCT: Psychoeducation, Building Capacity, Dyadic Processing, and Consolidation. Each stage has accompanying activities and narratives in which to engage traumatized couples and includes a variety of case transcripts to illustrate the approach. Throughout the manual the author provides the reader with: insights from real-world scenarios based on her extensive clinical experience; worksheets that can be used as part of the therapeutic process; systematic analyses of the therapeutic process from the therapist’s point of view; comprehensive recommendations for further reading so that you can develop your expertise in any area of DCTCT. Never losing sight of the fact that the therapist plays an essential role as a coach and mentor for those undertaking couple therapy, this manual is a valuable tool for any clinician working to engage traumatized couples and equip them with the skills they need to develop and maintain a strong and vibrant couple relationship.