IN THIS ISSUE:
From the Board
From the Editor
Inward & Outward
     Research News
     In Psychotherapy & Counseling
     Beyond Psychotherapy & Counseling
     Community Connections
     Stories of Transformation
Operational Update
     Contributors’ Circle
About OUTLOOK
About IFS
About the Foundation

From the Board

Fall Greetings! Welcome to the November edition of OUTLOOK, the Foundation for Self Leadership’s community bulletin.

This OUTLOOK brings you news on the continued development of IFS research, as well as other activities to promote the application of IFS in realms outside of traditional psychotherapy.

Independent IFS research supported by the Foundation has already produced the recognition by NREPP/SAMHSA of IFS as having evidence of effectiveness for specific conditions, with some additional outcomes noted as promising. With stronger empirical evidence, such listing would lead to third-party payers embracing IFS Therapy. These are early steps in building a foundation on which further research can be conducted, with the intent to expand the areas listed as evidence-based.

Perhaps more importantly, we can apply what we learn to further develop the Model and its applications. Inside this edition you will also learn about very exciting new programs that will expand the horizons of public awareness about Self-leadership, and how the awareness of parts can help bring inner, and outer, harmony.

OUTLOOK will continue to provide a forum for the IFS community so we can support, inspire, and learn from one other. As always, we appreciate those who are able to help support Foundation activities, whether as volunteers or advocates or through financial support. We sincerely thank you for your interest in, and engagement with, the Foundation for Self Leadership!

On behalf of the Board of the Foundation for Self Leadership,

Harley Goldberg, D.O.
Chair, Board of Directors

Return to Menu ↑

From the Editor

As a community bulletin, inside theses pages of OUTLOOK, we are pleased to inform and delight you with IFS community-building and Foundation-related endeavors. As you will see, the past six months have been productive.

Among some of the items presented here, you will find exciting developments on our new global campaign and the many advances toward our mission, both of which strengthen our reach of IFS, internally and externally. In addition, we feature inspiring articles of new applications of IFS through art, business, and counseling, along with captivating IFS Interest Groups, and an interview with Dick all sure to engender your curiosity, connection, and creativity. It is our hope that with these periodic updates, you will find your place within our ever-expanding community to connect with others and share your own thoughts and experiences. We invite you to take a ride with us. All are welcome. _MLG

The Trauma Center, in collaboration with a group of IFS-certified therapists, has recently completed data collection on the first study of IFS for adults with PTSD who have a history of childhood trauma.

About the Study: A total of 17 individuals participated in the study, all with current severe PTSD diagnosis and depressive symptoms and exposed to trauma before age 18. They received 16 60-minute sessions of IFS treatment. Study subjects participated in four different assessments before, during, and one month after treatment. There was no control group in this pilot.

Observations from the study will be presented in more detail at the IFS conference this November. Here is a sneak preview: Initial results are very promising. These preliminary findings from this small sample size show a statistically significant decrease in self-reported PTSD and depressive symptoms. Results held steady during the course of the treatment and were maintained 30 days after treatment.

The study team* plans to publish final results in 2017; so please be on the lookout for an announcement from the Foundation regarding publication!

In addition to the first nearly completed research project, as many of you know, Northeastern University, the Trauma Center, and a group of IFS-certified therapists have embarked on a second study funded by the Foundation. This new pilot study, now under way, examines physiological changes that occur during IFS treatment for both therapist and client. It is expected to provide novel information on the attunement between therapist and client as well as how the body responds to IFS work. It will also help set criteria for future larger-scale, randomized controlled studies.

The two studies mentioned above were reviewed through an Independent Review Council before being funded by the Foundation. They were funded through the generous support of this community.

*The trauma research team consists of: Hilary Hodgdon, PhD, Principal Investigator; Wendy Hrubec, LICSW, Project Manager; Frank Anderson, MD, Senior Clinical Supervisor; Jacqueline Kikuchi, PhD, Initial Screener; Elizabeth Southwell, Study Site Coordinator; Richard Schwartz, PhD and Ann Sinko, LMFT, Treatment Supervisors; and Pilot Study Therapists—Fran Booth, LICSW; Jeanne Catanzaro, PhD, LICSW; Rina Dubin, EdD; Marushka Glissen, LICSW; Suzanne Hoffman, PsyD; Paul Neustadt, MSS, LICSW; Jessica Reed, LICSW; Larry Rosenberg, PhD; and Martha Sweezy, Ph.D. A group of individual volunteers is involved in the fidelity portion of the study, coordinated by Lizzy Southwell.

Return to Menu ↑

Call for Research Studies:

Interested in conducting research involving IFS? Have researcher colleagues who may be interested in examining the efficacy of IFS in various settings? Please submit a proposal to the Foundation or suggest IFS as a research theme to your colleagues and invite them to submit a grant application. For its research priority, the Foundation is seeking studies to award competitively assessing the effects of IFS on the clinical treatment of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and/or general addiction. For more information, please see our Research Review Guidelines or Research Priorities.

Return to Menu ↑

Drawing from Creativity to Enhance Other Self Qualities: ArtIFS

Using creativity as a starting point, and knowing that “drawing” has its own therapeutic mindfulness-inducing qualities, Nadine Menezes and Andreas Michael, MSc, have developed a practice that blends art with IFS. They have conceived of this approach after the two visited the Tate Modern art gallery in London during their Level One IFS training.

“Instead of going Freud about it, we went Schwartz, and found it was great fun,” shares Andreas. They call their approach, ArtIFS, and consider it a simple, yet insightful, process that guides individuals through various exercises and steps of the IFS model individually or in groups. During an ArtIFS session, participants are first introduced to IFS and guided through a “creative experience” that requires no artistic skills.

The process appears to make it easier for non-verbal parts to express themselves in new ways and be noticed. Both clients and practitioners seem to discover progress not normally experienced in talking IFS sessions since, as clients stated, parts appear to feel more real. What is created on paper comes from somewhere, so it seems harder for doubting parts to question it.

The process can take from one to four hours depending on client readiness. Diverse materials have been used: In groups, Nadine and Andreas have worked with simple ballpoint pen and paper; with individuals, they also tried paint and 3D objects. Different art forms can be included, like photography, music, and film.

In one part of the process, participants ask themselves questions about the creative experience, including ones common in an IFS practice, “How do you feel towards this part?” As parts express themselves creatively, clients have the opportunity to know and build relationships with them, leading progressively to unblending, witnessing, and inviting back positive qualities. In some sessions, there is preliminary work around retrieval and unburdening.

Clients take home their artwork to continue the work and check-in’s with the parts. Andreas and Nadine have been pleased with the results so far as clients/ participants often leave sessions with increased insight and calm. One participant sums up the experience, “I find it more helpful than talking traditional sessions elsewhere. It puts me more in touch with my feelings.”

The hope is to build out their London practice, conduct research and the effectiveness of the art/IFS connection, and broaden its dissemination to educational institutions, businesses, healthcare and private organizations.

Nadine and Andreas will be presenting a workshop at the Annual IFS Conference this November and look forward to meeting Conference attendees. They will be hosting the newly formed IFS in Art Interest Group (mentioned in this OUTLOOK). Interested in joining, please visit ArtIFS.org and like them on Facebook.

Return to Menu ↑

Embodying the IFS Model for Both Client and Therapist

One of the Foundation’s own, Editor and Donor Steward Associate Michelle Glass, has just completed a new book developed for both IFS clients and practitioners. The book and the process she presents within it are the culmination of many years of deep inner work and her recent counseling work as a certified IFS practitioner.

Return to Menu ↑

Beyond Psychotherapy
& Counseling

 

“This is an important undertaking for the Foundation in our work to foster social emotional learning by bringing notions of Parts and Self to the public, youth in particular.”

 

 

 

 

Editor’s Note: More information will be shared at the upcoming IFS Conference and in future communiqués about the Campaign showcased below, especially as exciting news about strategic partnerships become available. OUTLOOK is providing here adequate space to present its context and set the stage for the Campaign.

IT TAKES A COMMUNITY... New Common-Interest Groups

Building the Inner Team – An Essential Step for Executive Leadership

From One Hope Merchant to Another

As members of this community may know, IFS Developer Richard Schwartz, PhD, served on a panel at the Mind and Life Europe Conference in Brussels, Belgium, on September 9th. A major theme of the conference was how compassion and leadership can change the world when it comes to “Power and Care,” words used to describe the two perennial polarities (both inner and outer).

Jetlagged and just having arrived home from his European trip, Dick took the time with OUTLOOK Editor, Michelle Glass, to share his experience on Monday, September 19, with our community.

OUTLOOK: Thank you for taking time for this brief interview. First, let me extend my gratitude on behalf of our community for your important life’s work and our heartfelt congratulations for your recent presentation and discussion with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the two large IFS workshops you hosted at the Conference. Introducing IFS to this new community must have been a positive development. How was this experience overall for you?

DICK: Reactions by different parts, I guess: challenging, rewarding, and also frustrating.

O: I can imagine. To help provide better guidance to inner compassionate calm (what IFS refers to as Self), His Holiness commissioned the development of an Atlas of Emotion. Dr. Eckman recently unveiled this online application. What is your view through thenIFS lens of this Atlas of Emotions?

DS: I haven’t looked at it carefully yet. It seems to me that the Atlas of Emotions helps individuals identify emotions, but I don’t get a sense that it shows people how to work with emotions. It appears to me, and this is part of the frustration for me, that His Holiness is offering a very different paradigm when it comes to emotions. It may contradict the essence of IFS.

O: I see the big difference between identifying and working with emotions; can you say more?

DS: His Holiness has written at times that he sees there being “destructive/afflictive emotions” and there being “positive emotions.” His stated goal is to cultivate the positive ones and, in my interpretation, possibly ignore or override the negative/destructive ones. To do that, which was a theme throughout the conference whenever His Holiness would talk, one does so with willpower, effort, and discipline. I went into my presentation and discussion knowing of the differences between the two paradigms; but I am not sure if he followed my explanation contrasting his view with the IFS view. Maybe the view that no emotions are destructive did not sit well. Hence, some of my frustration. I was pleased to note that many people in that community received IFS well, especially when I later talked about the meditation community not understanding trauma. My afternoon workshops attracted about 250 people each, and I had people “go inside” and do parts work. Many participants in my workshops were presenters; so I believe my presentation had some impact on the community.

O: It is wonderful to have impact on so many in the meditation community, even if perhaps not with His Holiness. To tie back into what you said earlier, in a New York Times article earlier this year, the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying he hoped his Atlas “could be a tool for cultivating good in the world by defeating the bad within us... Ultimately, our emotion is the real troublemaker. We have to know the nature of that ‘enemy.’” In what ways might you reframe the view of the need to “defeat the bad within us” and the view of “that enemy”?

our inner enemies as we do for external enemies?” Truth is, I chickened out! I didn’t want to be the only one to ask him a direct question.

O: I for one appreciate your tireless Hope Merchanting, which showed up on stage, in that statement, by being an advocate for those parts of us who are at best ignored and at worst violently pushed away, particularly by most meditation practices. Can you speak to how it felt for your parts to make that remark on stage in front of His Holiness and how you felt he energetically responded?

DS: Overall, I was pleased to have been invited and felt proud. I had just figured out a few days prior what I was going to say to him. Let’s just say without going into details that the version I had sent to the moderator a few days before the event was not the version I could present. I had memorized it; so you could imagine my state of mind. However, I was inspired in the middle of the night by a better version, which I presented. Nonetheless, I got through it and realized at some point that the goal was to get the points out more broadly to the audience.

O: How many attended?

DS: There were about 2,000 in the audience, but I’m told up to a million in simulcast.

O: That is quite the reach. It is said in the IFS community, and you may have said yourself, that Self may be given different names in different spiritual views, Buddha-nature, Christ Consciousness, Otman, etc. If His Holiness were to understand that aspect of IFS more fully, do you feel he would be more receptive to helping transform inner ‘enemies’ and advocating people reframe this perspective?

DS: I don’t know. I think I made this point more clearly in the Q&A segment about this other place inside of us. Because I was told earlier that His Holiness might be offended by comparisons to Buddha-nature, I described it using the language His Holiness and the Buddhist community are familiar with: as, this place that is between power and care parts that might have some element of Buddha- nature. It might not change his opinion. I am told that in higher levels of Buddhist practice, there actually is compassion for those “destructive emotions,” but the public is taught to be harsh with them.

“I was pleased to note that many people in that community received IFS well, especially when I later talked about the meditation community not understanding trauma...”

DS: Well, my last statement to His Holiness was along those lines. I said something like, “Why don’t we approach our inner enemies in the same way you want us to approach our external ones, with compassion.” Again, I don’t get a sense it had impact. However, there was a positive assessment of that quote and case study I gave in His Holiness’ newspaper. So maybe some folks, maybe younger ones, are open to consider alternative views; older people in the movement may be too committed to what they learned originally.

O: Good to hear. During your time on stage with His Holiness, he remarked that what each “expert” presented was “a good start, but that it was really only the tip of the iceberg, that it is much more complex than you know.” How did you take that statement and had you more time with him, what would you have said?

DS: If I could engage him live on stage (I had difficulty understanding His Holiness on stage) and if I had more time, I would have directly challenged the prevalent view by saying, “What do you think of having as much compassion for

O: What sort of exchange did you have with other thought leaders at the Conference?

DS: It was interesting to watch His Holiness interact with panelists. Throughout the conference, there were fascinating conversations with smart people. I made some very good connections with experts in their fields and hope to maintain these relationships, which might serve to be an opening to bring IFS ideas to other fields, including economics. There was some intrigue about the idea that we have personalities, not just one personality, and how that would change economic theory in a big way.

O: It is always exciting to make new connections and to bring IFS to many different sectors. We look forward to seeing more progress for IFS, both scientifically and spiritually, especially as new scientific evidence is being sought, and of the Model bringing healing to our planet, as more and more of us become Hope Merchants along your side.

DS: Thank you, Michelle. It was fun to do this with you.

Return to Menu ↑

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

The clinical IFS treatment protocol is a rigorous process that has been well honed over the years. Its application is designed to guide the client through various stages of discovery, from the unveiling of Self and traumatized, exiled Parts within the system, to the unburdening of these Parts and scheduling regular check-ins with them. All this happens in a safe client-therapist space.

Outside that space, maintaining this Self-to-Parts relationship is a very personalized experience and varies from individual to individual. Beyond the modality, the IFS paradigm may be accessible to all and applicable to one’s daily activities. Stories of Personal Transformation in this section, like the vignette presented below, are designed to showcase individualized experiences, aha moments, and applications of IFS.

Oh Creeto, you must be exhausted!

Perfectionism, we’re told, paralyzes us, drowning us into anxiety or depression, giving us the illusion of righteousness and exclusivity. But it won’t happen to me, I assured myself for the longest time. I quietly embraced perfectionism as my MO, my special gift, believing in my core, it appeared, that this was my nature.

My “functioning depression,” you ask? I called it melancholy. My physical exhaustion? Nothing but a casualty of striving and stretching.

Without ever noticing it, my “unrelenting standards” schema affected those around me, no matter how hard I tried to be sensitive or understanding, bearing its brunt without hesitation instead of passing it on. I rarely took time to savor successes; but of that too I was unaware. Instead, I would focus on the next race or analyze what could have been done better in the previous one. Apart from a short-lived gracious bow, I did not take in applause or standing ovations given occasionally along the way.

This was my call or quest to “reach the unreachable star,” impossible as it was! Everything had to be performed with such originality, thoroughness, elegance, precision, and harmony that I became in every instance, and again unknowingly, an inseparable part of the process. The creator becoming the creation; how devastating an outcome, but I ignored it.

I even sought perfection in how I behaved and interacted with others. Was it all due to a powerful fear of failing, as if failure was not a necessary human experience? I dismissed it off hand too as it would be a threat to my very essence, shredding my worth to pieces.

So when a loving partner alluded to aloofness and arrogance that she saw seeping through me, my system went into lock down. Sirens! What are you talking about? Are we talking about the same caring, sociable, humble me? How can my quality standards make me appear (even to a silent few) as disconnected or one-upping others? It was just an innocent desire to think big, do much, move fast, fueled by a passion to do good! “Holier than thou” is what had come across.

This was an O’oh moment for me, a wake-up call of sorts. Maybe my quest was indeed causing me the pain and burnout that I kept on suppressing while moving forward, unfettered! I went on the internal offensive, attempting to take down the perfectionist fortress and tear down its watch tower. But the more I pushed, the more I was pushed against, bracing myself from the polar-opposite danger of coasting and swinging toward mediocrity—a truly frightening thought!

Then came the IFS viewpoint. A little window to a new vista. A reverse defogger turned on; the fog on the inside started to dissipate, letting me take it all in! It was my partner, now IFS trained, who shared elements of the IFS Model with me. What a nice offering!

The IFS call urged parts of me to step aside, and as objectively as possible, listen in the way I would to one of my sons, which was initially hard to do. The call triggered genuine curiosity about who is pushing me to the limit in all activities all the time. Might this be a well-meaning, good-intentioned protective part? I knew not, but I kept questioning.

If so, whom is the part protecting and why is the part being consistently critical of all I do? And whose voice was it? Then I (the system engineer) started assembling the pieces and reconstructing. While I had never forgotten defining childhood moments, I sidelined them. I had never lost sight of the 9-year-old, who was somehow connected to this, but he appeared like a distant acquaintance, rather than a much younger me. But there he was, in full sight, tender, tentative, and sitting on a green velvet sofa.

The IFS call urged parts of me to step aside, and as objectively as possible, listen in the way I would to one of my sons, which was initially hard to do.

There were many scenes. One, in high-resolution, transported me back to seventh grade and School Principal I.M., who had until then showered the little boy, Toofie, with nothing but praise.

I.M. called him to the front of the classroom on one “public” grade reporting day—an event that happened once a month during which students who scored 10-out-of-20 or lower on any course that month would be scolded and physically punished in front of their peers.

Little boy had had chicken pox that month, missed ten days of class, and did not score as impeccably on two of his eight courses as he had done consistently. He was called to the front and, for each the two courses, had to open his hands and stretch them out, palms facing up, to receive two hard blows from a heavy wooden stick—think a baseball bat with straight edges—swinging with the giant principal’s absolute power. An almost out-of-body experience. Little boy bit his tongue so hard to keep a scream from coming out, tears flowing down his face, embarrassed before the whole class, especially standing next to four of his classmates who commonly stood in front of the class and received 10 to 15 blows in a row without winking, emitting a single sound, or betraying in any way pain and concerns.

Little boy could not wait to get home. To his room directly. A whole afternoon of crying, his face deep into his green velvet sofa. The next day, he woke up with a bright rash across his forehead, fire-red, visible from across the playground. The rash stayed irritated for six months, despite intensive medical attention and an unsolicited home visit and apology by the principal. He walked around, his embarrassment and failure, his scarlet letter written on his forehead.

Not a serious event, in the big scheme of things. But for a little guy! I admit, I too felt embarrassment thinking back, then I was overcome with love for him. In my internal processing, Creeto also showed up, committed not to allow any of it to happen again. “Don’t you worry,” he appeared to be saying. “I’ll keep pushing so you won’t be hurt again or embarrassed again; and I’ll make sure you get your 20 over 20 every time.” How can I blame him: Right attitude, but a solution not quite so wise when seen through an adult’s lens—but it is the best he, young Creeto, could muster.

This was a significant insight or revelation. It was gained after persistent internal dialogue, conversations with my IFS-certified partner, and time with a seasoned and compassionate IFS therapist (after all, I live with a psychotherapist; so I am expected to seek therapy!). Whereas I was unaware of him, and for a while even fought him aggressively, I have now found compassion and gratitude for Creeto!

Creeto did not disappear into the sunset, though. When he shows up now, what I hear myself remind- ing him is that I am a tad more mature than Toofie, and that Principal I.M. is today but a frail old man who did not mean to hurt us then nor will he hurt us again.

Not to worry, Creeto. I will handle it from here on. You can rest now. Or maybe you will volunteer as my quality control officer. _TMH

Return to Menu ↑