An open letter to the community from Founder Dick Schwartz and CSL Executive Director Jon Schwartz August 12, 2013
The Next 30 Years of IFS: Invitation and Announcement
Dear IFS Community, For 30 years, thanks to the significant efforts and contributions of many of you, IFS has broadened its reach within psychotherapy and beyond. For a fast-growing number of practitioners, IFS has become both their modality of choice for counseling clients, and a powerful paradigm for understanding the human psyche and advancing their own personal growth.
As you already know, the upcoming October conference will be an opportunity to reflect back on this 30-year journey and celebrate what we’ve built together. More importantly, it’s time to start planning for what we envision for the next 30 years of IFS – an era where IFS becomes evidence-based, commonly-recognized, and embraced broadly within the mainstream psychotherapy field; is more widely accepted within academic departments and among graduate students; is accessible to therapists of limited means and from diverse backgrounds; and is utilized by the lay public for navigating the challenges of relationships and daily life.
To help achieve this vision, we are very pleased to formally launch today the Foundation for Self Leadership, an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing IFS through funding IFS research, training scholarships, and public advocacy.
The Foundation will have an independent volunteer Board of Directors who will assume fiduciary and legal responsibilities and provide leadership and oversight for the Foundation’s initiatives and activities. The Board will interface with the IFS research committees and other key stakeholders, and will become another spokes-entity for the IFS model.
We are also pleased to announce today that Frank Anderson, MD, an IFS-certified psychiatrist who is known to many of you in a number of circles, has agreed to serve as Chair of the Foundation’s Board. Dr. Anderson has presented numerous times on IFS, served on the IFS Research Advisory Committee, and has strong connections within the mental health and neuroscience fields. He shares our far-reaching vision and is committed to helping build the Foundation with an effective group of directors whom he will introduce to the community shortly.
The founding board will serve for two years and will lead an initial fundraising campaign, which will kick off with a Friday fundraising dinner at this year’s Conference. You will hear more about the dinner and the full fundraising campaign over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, we hope you will join us in welcoming Dr. Anderson to his new leadership role, and we look forward to seeing you in Rhode Island on October 24.