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First Richard C. Schwartz Research Fellow Selected

First Richard C. Schwartz Research Fellow Selected

Dilara Ally, PhD, MSW will join the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion to conduct Internal Family Systems Research, funded by the Foundation for Self Leadership

“We are thrilled to fund this fellowship in honor of the significant contributions that Dr. Richard Schwartz has made to the mental health field. We are especially pleased to have it housed at the Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School where Dr. Schwartz has been a faculty member for the past decade, and at CMC, which has been developing an academic Center of Excellence for IFS training, research and clinical practice”, said Toufic Hakim, PhD, Executive Director of the Foundation for Self Leadership. Read more.

Ten Years

A DECADE OF ACHIEVEMENT

This year, the Foundation for Self Leadership marks a decade of advancing emotional, relational and societal healing. We pause to remember the many milestones that were achieved through a robust partnership with supporters, practitioners and researchers from the IFS community.

Together, we have accomplished much in the Foundation’s focus areas: adding to the evidence about IFS, catalyzing access to IFS by broadening applications in various settings, and expanding the visibility of IFS. Learn more.

The Foundation for Self Leadership has launched an entirely new magazine, PARTS & SELF. Completely web-based, it has been designed with the user in mind and edited with an eye toward a broad audience and thought-leadership. Read more

What’s in a name?

A contemplation on the name of our new, web-based magazine.

The Ukraine Crisis – A Joint Statement

THE WAR ON UKRAINE - A JOINT STATEMENT

As the Russian-Ukrainian war continues, we are reaching out to let you know that the IFS Institute and the Foundation for Self Leadership, along with the rest of the IFS community, stand firmly with you, the people of Ukraine. We extend our support and love to the Ukrainians who face attacks, uncertainty, and the sudden loss of homes and loved ones. What we have been observing violates our core values of humanity, harmony, and love.

We would like to share with all of you some resources that may help provide support - and for some, a greater understanding of the roots of the war with an IFS lens.

“Hate cannot drive out hate.
Only love can.”
_Martin Luther King Jr., 1964 Peace Nobel Laureate

A Bridge Between Us

At a time of societal crises, doing what we each can to maintain and engage in dialogue with others and in our communities is our best contribution to establishing societal harmony, contribute to peacemaking, and put our shoulders to a movement toward a better future for all.

The Foundation is hosting a series of conversation entitled, A Bridge Between US, to take part in this important effort of building dialogue. Read more & join us.

Black and White

“We see the world not as it is, but as we are.”
__Exact attribution not accurately known

In today's society, extremely polarized in the face of a historic movement toward racial and social equity and justice, we're called upon to look inward in order to fully understand what comes up for us individually: pain, needs, concerns... and explore how to address them.

Please join the Foundation's innervention program that deal with such issues.

Black and White

“The arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice.”
_Martin Luther King

We Stand with Equity & Justice for All

At the Foundation for Self Leadership, we stand in solidarity with all of those across the United States and the world who are seeking equity and justice for all.

The events of this past week remind us that our Black sisters and brothers continue to experience the effects of inequality and acts of injustice at the hands of individuals, institutions, and governments. We stand in solidarity with you, fully aware that we can no longer look the other way. We recognize that the pain of generations has spilled over. We hold you in our hearts, empathize with your struggles, and mourn the many senseless deaths and the suffering that ensues and lingers. We respect and defend your rights to stand tall, march with purpose, express your concerns with audacity and nonviolence, and speak truth to power. In so doing, you give voice not only to Black people everywhere but also to every member of a minority community who lives in fear for being who they are.

Read More

“A hero is an ordinary individual
who finds the strength to persevere and endure
in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”
_Christopher Reeve

mask hope 2020

With gratitude and compassion, our hearts are with all of you out there… each of you a hero, whether serving on the front lines or struggling to breathe, committing special acts of kindness or helping to sustain our societies’ basic needs, trying hard to cultivate calm and hope while sheltering at home, without a home, or adjusting to a new reality of schooling and work.

We wish you health and resilience in this challenging and lingering crisis and beyond.

Please stay connected and tell us how you're coping and accessing Self leadership to find solace and strength during these unusually difficult months. Consider sharing your stories, drawings and illustrations, audio and video messages on the Foundation’s social media platforms.

And consider taking part in our innervention program, designed to provide you guidance on how to cope effectively in today’s crisis and what may come next. Share it widely. Invite others, schoolteachers and school staff, business owners and entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, and parents to listen in and use the collection of valuable tools. Many could benefit. We make this offering to lend a helping hand and a warm hug from afar.

You’re in our thoughts. Please stay safe.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
_Ralph Waldo Emerson

Envision with us a world in which…

Hope is resilient.

Individuals of any generation, profession, or background trust that they have what it takes within them to face any challenging moment or darkening hour.

Each of us is enabled to bring a healthy dose of compassion, curiosity, calm, and love to adversities around us.

This is the promise of Self-discovery and Self-leadership: that we each host inner wisdom that can guide us in the toughest periods of our lives.

Driven by this vision, the Foundation is leading efforts and programs to promote access to inner wisdom by fostering Self-discovery and development as a path to emotional healing and wellbeing.

The Foundation promotes the lens, language, clinical protocol, and paradigm of internal parts and Self leadership, which are key elements of the evidence-based IFS model, as a vehicle for personal growth, individual and relational healing, and greater harmony in our lives. We are working in many settings to foster peace of mind for a more peaceful world.

Our current priorities are to support deep healing for returning war veterans, building conflict resolution know-how and inner resilience in schools for teachers and students, and enhancing emotional awareness and fitness through Take5, our innovative global advocacy campaign for kids, parents and sports coaches.

Welcome to the IFS Community

  • HEALING
    How effective are conventional treatments of lingering effects of trauma that result from abuse, abandonment, violence, or terrors of war?
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  • HEALING

    HEALING

    There is experiential evidence that IFS brings healing to those suffering from PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

    We now need to mount empirical data to expand evidence and broaden its impact--by encouraging and funding independent research studies.

  • HARMONY
    Is our harsh judgment of ourselves and others standing in our way of feeling peaceful within and building good relations with others?
    →

  • HARMONY

    HARMONY

    Looking at the human psyche through the IFS lens helps us become less judgmental and more compassionate.

    This is where the journey toward inner serenity and emotional wellbeing begins.

    With abundant disharmony within us and around us, there is great urgency to act...and spread the model across the globe.

  • UNITY
    Are our families, organizations & communities trapped in conflict and dysfunctionality?
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  • UNITY

    UNITY

    Our own inner congruence, which we may gain through IFS, can lead to greater harmony for our group.

    Through integrative systems-thinking, IFS gives us greater awareness of our inner system and access to qualities of Self leadership.

    Let us take the IFS model to our households, neighborhoods, and places of work.

IFS, founded in the early 1980’s by Dr. Richard C. Schwartz, serves as both a psychotherapy modality & a mental paradigm

In clinical settings, practitioners and patients have seen positive outcomes using IFS to treat trauma, depression, and anxiety. This is affirmed by a recent published study showing effects of IFS in reducing depressive symptoms. IFS effectively lends itself to applications far beyond psychotherapy, including management of one’s physical health, legal mediation, school counseling, business coaching, and even peacemaking. Read more about IFS.

Foundation News

Details

The Foundation is proud to have hosted the July 2020 virtual panel “Innervening: Uncovering Legacy Burdens of Racism.” As part of its “innervention” series, this informative and engaging panel of IFS leaders and professionals delved deep into how racism can be explained and addressed by using the IFS model of parts and Self and looking inwards.

By understanding our parts and collective traumas we can identify what creates these unwanted feelings and thoughts while also providing a roadmap to overcoming them. Using these concepts helps us explore ways towards self-improvement and behavior during times of racial tension. At one point the moderator posed the following question, “What parts have been most activated in your system today given the current events in the societal calls for greater racial equity and justice?” This is a question worth exploring for all of us who seek to grow and evolve as individuals AND for those of us seeking to be an ally and contribute to the larger conversation about racial justice and equality.

The panel consisted of moderator Requina Barnes (LICSW) and panelists Chris Burris (LCMHCS, LMFT), Fatimah Finney (LMHC), Nancy Sowell (MSW, LICSW), and Deran Young (LCSW). The Foundation is grateful for their involvement and rich insights. As Executive Director, Toufic Hakim, PhD, who produced this event stated, “This is the sort of dialogue and exploration that we must be having these days as our inner systems and societal systems get activated and traumatized again and again.” He added: “It’s high time for personal and societal healing and regeneration. A requisite step to that desired outcome is mustering the personal and collective courage to face reality, take stock in our history with all its blemishes, and own our missteps along the way, be they unconscious or deliberate, with deep compassion and humility.”

The November 2020 issue of OUTLOOK also features more information on this panel and its panelists, including a detailed summary of the entire conversation. A recording of the panel can be found on the Foundation’s YouTube Channel.

Details

The Foundation for Self Leadership is very pleased to announce that, following a rigorous independent review, it has approved the funding for a second study of IFS as a treatment of PTSD. This new large study will build on a previous pilot study of IFS and complex trauma, also funded by the Foundation through generous community support.

Referred to as Program for Alleviating and Resolving Trauma and Stress (PARTS Study), this rigorous Phase II randomized clinical trial will be formally launched on September 1, 2020. It will examine over the next two years IFS vs. a nature-based stress reduction program as a treatment for PTSD and opioid use. It will be conducted at the Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance community mental health center in Massachusetts, USA.

Details

With a unanimous and enthusiastic endorsement by its Board of Directors and staff associates, the Foundation for Self Leadership published a statement expressing firmly that it stands in solidarity with all of those across the world who are fighting for human rights, equality, and justice. The Foundation is deeply committed to supporting these essential human and societal ideals and operating in a way that espouses these values every day.

“It is important for us to double our efforts to promote a more peaceful, inclusive world while also aiding those are seeking to use the IFS model to improve their own lives along with the lives of those around them,” said Vicki McCoy, MA, Chair of the Board and Executive Director Toufic Hakim, PhD, on behalf of the organization. They echoed the essence of the statement, underscoring the belief that “each of us holds the right, as a breathing human, to think independently, speak freely, and be treated with dignity.”

The statement goes on to affirm that the Foundation for Self-Leadership “stands with our all brothers and sisters, of every color and creed, every background, identity and experience, who place love above hate and a strong desire to learn and understand before judgment and condemnation… with all those who proactively strive for equity, justice and peace and who desire to bring hope and be a light in the world that drives out the darkness.”

The full statement is posted on the Foundation’s website.