Why Should You Work With An IFS Consultant
Maybe you’ve just wrapped up your Level 1 Internal Family Systems training, and you’re well on your way to getting your official certification from the IFS Institute. Now, you’re thinking about how you can properly introduce this new modality into your practice so that you can best serve your clients. You’re eager to apply these new techniques. But even after completing your training, you still have lots of questions about IFS, and you don’t quite know where to begin.
Even if you have many years of experience as a therapist, you might benefit from working with an IFS consultant who can provide you with expert guidance throughout this process. Let’s explore the specific upsides of working with an IFS consultant.
Integrate IFS With Other Modalities
Figuring out how to integrate IFS with other therapeutic modalities in your clients’ treatment plans can be complicated. Maybe you’ve primarily been working with modalities like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or other somatic approaches. You may be wondering how to best incorporate a therapeutic approach that emphasizes “parts” like IFS. An experienced IFS consultant who possesses a deep working knowledge of other therapeutic approaches can help walk you through this process.
Recognizing How Your Own “Parts” Show Up
Therapists are only human. Every therapist has their own inner work to do. But this should not take place in your therapy sessions with clients. By working with an IFS consultant, you can recognize exactly how your own “parts” might disrupt your work with clients. This is an opportunity to get in tune with yourself and become more aware of any internal work you may need to address as you begin offering IFS to your clients.
Support For Highly Sensitive Therapists
Many people choose to enter the mental health field because they are sensitive to the needs and emotions of others. Essentially, therapists are often Highly Sensitive People, or HSPs. It’s only natural that they choose to pursue careers in helping professions. However, this also means that lots of therapists are especially susceptible to burnout. This is because they can have a tendency to take on their clients’ emotions.
What if you’re an HSP and a therapist? When you’re engaging in IFS work with your clients, you may notice that it activates your own trauma and triggers emotional pain. An IFS consultant can help you strengthen your emotional regulation skills and set boundaries around your clinical work.
Cultural Competency
When you apply IFS techniques to your work with clients, they will inevitably reflect on how their immediate and extended families, as well as their wider communities and dominant culture have affected their beliefs, self-perception, and overall emotional well-being. Therefore, any therapist working with IFS must deepen their cultural competency. A qualified IFS consultant can assist you in identifying your own blind spots when it comes to navigating working with clients with different identities than you embody and/or clients from cultures different from your own. You can learn how to your own intersectionality shows up and impacts the therapeutic relationship. You can also learn how to respectfully acknowledge and therapeutically work with the ways different aspects of your clients’ multifaceted identities, including their race, religion, gender, ethnicity, or even neurodiversity, impact their internal systems.
Gain A Third-Party Perspective
Finally, working with a consultant allows you to gain a valuable third-party perspective on your approach to IFS therapy. No matter how many years of experience you have under your belt as a therapist, everyone has unique strengths and weaknesses when it comes to working with clients. It can be difficult for you to develop an objective perspective on your own skill set. A consultant can suggest ideas that you might not have thought of on your own. It might even reinvigorate your passion for this profession!
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Are you curious about better integrating IFS into your practice? Working with an IFS consultant can help. Reach out to discuss your options for scheduling your first session.