In this episode, we sit with Cece Sykes, LCSW, a leadi trainer at the IFS Institute with over forty years of clinical experience in trauma and addiction recovery, to explore one of the most distinctive and challenging aspects of the IFS model: how therapists actually help clients find their way to Self.

Among the topics we explore in this conversation:

• What we mean when we talk about "accessing Self," and how someone might recognize that experience for themselves
• Ways to access Self beyond unblending, including tools clients can use on their own
• How to introduce the concept of Self without turning it into another standard to fall short of
• Why Self doesn't have to look the same in everyone, and how to avoid mistaking an unusual presentation of Self for a part
• Distinguishing genuine Self-energy from a protector that's very good at appearing calm, compassionate, or wise
  
• Working with protectors whose fear of more Self-access makes complete sense given someone's history
• What to do when a client says, "I don't think I have a Self"
• How the wish to access Self can itself become a source of pressure, and what to do about it
• The small, early signs that more Self-energy is becoming available, even amid distress
• Whether Self is fixed and undamaged from birth, or whether the capacity for it can be built and strengthened over the course of treatment
  
• What working with addiction and shame has taught Cece about helping people meet difficult parts with curiosity instead of judgment
• How the therapist's own access to Self shapes the work, and what happens when a helping part quietly takes the driver's seat
• Practices for therapists to use in the moment when their own parts get activated with a client
• Holding inner work alongside the outer realities of safety, relationships, and circumstance
• Adapting the language of Self across different cultural and spiritual frameworks
  
• Bringing a little more Self into the ordinary, activating moments of daily life, conflict with a partner, a triggering child or colleague
• Cece's own reflections on what she is still learning about this work
  

Whether you're new to IFS or a seasoned practitioner, this conversation offers both conceptual clarity and practical, in-the-room guidance for one of the model's most essential and elusive skills.
We hope you can enjoy it!

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We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community.
This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person.
It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

In this episode of IFS Talks, Nancy Sowell, Martha Sweezy, and IFS founder Richard Schwartz join us to explore their new book, IFS Health Therapy: Treating Trauma-Related Physical Illness & Toxic Stress.

Together, we discuss the relationship between chronic stress, trauma, internal parts, and physical health; working compassionately with pain, dissociation, shame, suppressed emotions, and protectors that resist healthier habits; and howIFS can complement, rather than replace, medical care.
The conversation offers clinicians a thoughtful, non-pathologizing approach to supporting mind-body healing.

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We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community.
This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person.
It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

In this special episode of IFS Talks, we welcome Richard C. Schwartz, Martha Sweezy, David Lovas, and Sunny Strasburg, authors of Psychedelic Medicine and Internal Family Systems Therapy: A Clinical Skills Manual.

Together, we explore why IFS and psychedelic-assisted therapy can be naturally complementary, and why the medicine itself is only one part of the therapeutic process. Our guests discuss the importance of preparation, respect for protectors, internal consent, careful pacing, therapeutic presence, clinical safety, and ethical practice.

The conversation examines how therapists can distinguish Self-energy from altered or dissociative states, decide when to intervene during challenging experiences, and respond to fear, overwhelm, shutdown, and protector backlash. We also consider sensitive questions concerning touch, boundaries, therapist readiness, personal experience with psychedelic medicines, and the assessment of clients for whom this work may not yet be safe.

Finally, we turn to integration: how IFS can help people make sense of psychedelic experiences, reconnect with every part of their system, and translate insight into meaningful and sustainable change.

We believe this is a thoughtful and clinically grounded conversation about the possibilities of bringing IFS and psychedelic medicine together, without losing sight of humility, consent, safety, and respect for the client’s inner healing intelligence.

This episode is intended for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice or encourage the use of psychedelic substances outside appropriately qualified, ethical, and legal settings.

We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community. This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person. It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.