First Research Grant Awarded by the Foundation...

After an independent review, the Foundation Board approved a funding request for an IFS research study by the Trauma Center at Justice Resource Institute in Brookline, MA. The 11-month, $23,240 project, entitled “Pilot Intervention Study: IFS Therapy for the Treatment of PTSD and Complex Trauma” is a collaboration between the Center and a group of independent consultants.

The Trauma Center’s Hilary Hogdgon, PhD, serves as the study’s Principal Investigator and Wendy Hru- bec, LICSW, who leads the team of consultants, as project manager. The study, during which 15 subjects will receive 16 weekly, 90-minute IFS sessions by IFS-certified therapists, will examine through inde- pendent evaluators changes in symptom levels at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and one-month follow-up. Assessment will be conducted on scales for PTSD, dissociation and depression, as well as self-regulation, self-compassion, and intero- ceptive awareness.

The study is in its second quarter and steadily progressing. Preliminary results will be shared at the 2015 IFS Conference.

New IFS Study in Substance Abuse in Progress...

Bringing his experience as a substance abuse treatment expert clinician to the Addiction Treatment Program of the University Alabama at Birmingham (which operates within the medical school’s teaching hospital), Tom McLure, MA, MEd, is currently preparing to launch a new research study on the efficacy of IFS in the treatment of substance abuse. The study will be supported by professor emeritus researcher Nick Stinnet, PhD, and IFS- trained psychotherapist Tara Harvill, MA, LMHC, LMFT. “At this preliminary stage, Tara and I suspect that our work will likely focus on opiate addiction,” says McClure. “We will consider specific interests in consultation with a research advisory council that we’ll assemble with input from the Foundation over the next couple of months. Working in the research-rich environment of UAB Medicine will afford us many research opportunities well into the future.”

Developing Basic Resources for IFS Research...

The Foundation has funded a comprehensive annotation project, through which a series of IFS-related publications will be reviewed, archived, and summarized. Key data about the publications and editorial comments regarding its research content will be provided. The intent is in the medium term for the results to be posted in an online searchable database.

Jennifer Matheson, PhD, LMFT, is leading this effort, assisted by Kristen Myshrall, a graduate student in Marriage and Family Therapy at Central Connecticut State University. The effort, which will eventually involve in one of its future phases a volunteer under the supervision of Matheson, will review a total of 136 publications identified at this stage, which include articles, chapters, books, and graduate theses.

IFS invigorates our practice and empowers our clients. It promises deeper positive change inside ourselves and in our world. This is why the Foundation sees it as our purpose to help bring IFS to the world.

IFS to be reviewed for listing on NREPP...

The joint application that the Foundation and the Center for Self Leadership submitted on behalf of IFS in 2014 to the National Registry for Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) of the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was accepted for review. Having cleared the preliminary phase of the review pro- cess, the Foundation and the Center will await the next phase of the review during which independent reviewers will rigorously evaluate the “Quality of Research” and “Readiness for Dissemination” of the IFS model. “We are very pleased that the published results of our randomized controlled trial on the effects of an IFS-based intervention on outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis will serve as the basis for this NREPP review,” said Nancy Shadick, MD, MPH, member of the Foundation Board and author, with IFS therapists, Nancy Sowell, MSW, LICSW; Suzanne Hoffman, PsyD; Shelley Hartz, RN, CS; Fran Booth, LICSW; Martha Sweezy, PhD, LICSW; Paul Neustadt, LICSW, MSS; Rina Dubin, EdD, Lic Psy; Joan Atkinson, LICSW, DCSW; Amy Friedman, LICSW; Patricia Rogers, LICSW; and Fernando Augusto, PhD, of the peer-reviewed research paper. “The listing of IFS on NREPP would be a major milestone for the model and its clinical application; it is clearly one of many steps we need to take as we continue to foster independent research about its efficacy.”

Listing on NREPP provides the public and professional practitioners with detailed information about interventions that “promote mental health or prevent or treat mental disorders, substance abuse or substance use disorders.” Inclusion of an intervention is based on empirical findings that indicate statistically significant outcomes. The proof-of-concept research study indicated that IFS had a significant effect on improving depressive symptoms, self-compassion, and joint pain.

Beyond Psychotherapy

Pixar’s “Inside Out” to be Pre-Screened for the IFS Community...

In collaboration with the IFSNewEngland group, represented by Suzanne Hoffman, PsyD; Gail Hardenbergh, LICSW; and Fran Booth, LICSW (all Certified IFS Therapists), the Foundation will be hosting a prescreening event of this new animation in the Boston area on June 17 at 6:30pm at the Showcase Cinema de Lux at Legacy Place Theater, in Dedham, MA. A reception will follow the event. Please visit FoundationIFS.org and, for those in New England, check your emails for further details.

When the film’s trailer was shown at the 2014 IFS Conference and other venues, it generated an enthusiastic response. The animated “emotion picture,” as the credits suggest, promises to be highly entertaining, showcasing “little voices in our heads.” The connection with elements of the IFS model is strikingly obvious. 

Inspired by this connection and interest in the community, the Foundation convened a planning team that worked for several months to explore and organize a collaborative event with Pixar and Disney. Conversations with Disney’s marketing group and some of the movie’s producers and directors at Pixar ensued. And the event became reality.

The trailer and the film’s social media campaign portray the characters the way the IFS model portrays “parts.” This begs a series of questions, which most of us are whispering to each other: How will the plot evolve? How will the parts end up behaving? Is there a wise Self in the script? We must curiously await the film’s release to discover more.

This initiative is consistent with the Foundation’s interest in promoting IFS to children and the lay public.

Efforts to develop an “IFS in Business” program initiated...

The applications of IFS continue to expand steadily outside the realm of psychotherapy. Many a practitioner, upon their own initiatives, have introduced IFS into their own professional settings, from health, life and executive coaching to team-building; and from legal mediation and education to counseling of prisoners before re-entry.

Among them, a growing number of IFS-trained or- ganizational consultants and business coaches have been meeting regularly via conference call since the 2012 IFS Conference to share applications of the IFS model, receive peer coaching, and build community. “I believe it’s important to pay attention to this tribe and nurture it with regular contact,” says Brian Jaudon, who has convened and moderated these calls with participants from the U.S. and Europe. “We’re all pioneers in our own way and yet it’s good to remember that we’re all connected in our respective endeavors in our desire to bring Self leadership to the business community.”

The theme for the January 2015 call focused on IFS in Governance. Foundation Board member Mark Milton continued a conversation he had started earlier about the need to bring IFS more broadly to inform decision making and governance, and the timeliness of exploring and co-creating training programs in that space around IFS. Inspired by his presentation, an international work group from the “IFS and Business” community has begun meeting to explore an IFS training for executives and business coaches. In addition to Milton, the following IFS coaches and practitioners (Certified IFS Practitioners among them identified by an asterisk) have been engaged in this effort: Kevin Cheesebrough, Captain, USN (Ret.), ACC; Isabel d’Arenberg; Emily Filloramo; Toufic Hakim, PhD; Mark Hurwich, MBA (*); Brian Jaudon; Gabor Karsai; Anna Tansi, MSOD; and Nadine Theimann, PhD, PCC (*).

Bringing IFS to the non-therapeutic world is important because “any leadership, within an organization or interpersonal relationships (family, friends, etc.), begins with the Self of a person leading the Parts,” explains Cheesebrough, who is now convening the group. “Leading from Self enables the social awareness of others’ Self and Parts that will produce the environment for relationship management and improved leadership effectiveness.”