Full Course Description

Trauma Certification Training: Step-By-Step Integration of IFS & EMDR for Innovative and Effective Treatment

This product is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or affiliated with the IFS Institute and does not qualify for IFS Institute credits or certification.

This course is not affiliated with EMDRIA and does not qualify toward EMDRIA credits or training

Program Information

Objectives

Identify best practices in working with complex trauma and in providing trauma-informed care
Utilize CAPS-5, PCL-5 and other appropriate clinical evidence-based assessments to identify traumatic events, a PTSD diagnosis, and complex trauma
Evaluate clients for racial trauma and/or stress from discrimination or oppression-based trauma
Examine current evidence-based modalities for trauma treatment
Identify the process of memory reconsolidation and its importance in effective trauma treatment
Examine research on EMDR, IFS and integrating these models in trauma treatment
Distinguish similarities and differences in EMDR and IFS theory and principles
Identify the evidence-based Three Phase Framework in Complex Trauma Treatment
Define the role of self-compassion in resilience building
Identify qualities of Self, the function of Self, and three types of parts in Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
Determine how to use resource development installation in collaboration with a client’s parts
Identify factors that impact effectiveness of EMDR treatment

Outline

What is Trauma?

Diagnostic Criteria and Symptomatology

The continuum of traumatic stress
Individual, intergenerational and collective trauma
Pre-verbal trauma, attachment trauma, and developmental trauma
Social determinants of health
How common is trauma?
Symptoms of PTSD and complex trauma
DSM-5-TR (TM) PTSD criteria for adults and children
Other stressor-related disorders
Co-morbidities and differential diagnosis
Defining trauma-informed care

Screening and Assessment

Tools to Understand Exposure and Symptoms

Recognize possible trauma symptoms in your client
When to use PTSD screening tools
How to talk with clients about trauma and its symptoms
Self-report and clinician-administered measures for adults
Interview-based assessments for children
Symptoms of past trauma in older adults
Evaluate racial trauma, discrimination, and oppression
Minority stress in marginalized populations
Assessment of suicidality, substance use, and risk-taking
Cultural adaptations for assessment
Management of symptoms that arise during assessment

Evidence-Based Trauma Treatment

Finding What Works for Your Client

Current research on trauma treatment modalities
Guidelines for PTSD treatment and working with complex trauma
Evidence-based, trauma-focused psychotherapies
Non-trauma-focused approaches that work
Innovative research on transtheoretical approaches
Three-phase treatment framework: stabilization, reprocessing, re-integration
Benefits, limitations, and risks of the three-phase framework
Scripts for educating clients about trauma treatment options
How to help clients decide whether and when to focus on trauma
Protective and resilience factors
Trauma treatment across the lifespan
The role of moral injury
Working with marginalized populations
Neurodiversity and trauma treatment
Trauma treatment for active duty military and veterans
Limitations of the research and potential risks

EMDR & IFS Integration

A Transdiagnostic, Three-Phase Approach to Healing

Overview of EMDR & IFS Therapy
How IFS and EMDR align in core healing principles
The impact of traumatic stress on the brain
Clinical indicators of unprocessed traumatic memories
What actually occurs during trauma reprocessing
Neural networks, stuck parts, and memory reconsolidation
How parts get stuck and stay stuck
Why integrating IFS into EMDR can heal trauma
Signs that a client would benefit from integrating IFS into EMDR
Switching to EMDR when using IFS steps
Research on EMDR, IFS, and integrating IFS into EMDR
Benefits, risks, and limitations

The Complex Trauma Recovery Roadmap

IFS-Informed EMDR Phase 1: History Taking & Treatment Planning

Consent, collaboration, pacing, and choice in treatment planning
Communicate realistic expectations
How to develop an effective working alliance
Strategies to increase clients’ sense of safety in therapy
Strengths-based and empowerment practices
Integrative emotion regulation strategies
Orienting, retrieving, containment, connection
Use of container and healing place resources with parts
Relational resourcing – lessons from polyvagal and attachment theories
Installation options with parts
Integrative case conceptualization
Lessons from polyvagal and attachment theories
Identify parts in a client’s system
Mapping strategies for titration, pendulation, and stabilization
Unblending and externalizing techniques to engage clients
Use language with a trauma-informed lens
Cultural humility in practice
How to assess the client’s social support system
Demonstration and case examples

IFS-Informed EMDR Phase 2: Preparation & Resource Development

Tapping resources to strengthen inner sense of connection
Somatic interventions and sensory resources to connect with parts
Rhythm, movement, and orienting strategies for dissociative parts
Nuances in working with pre-verbal trauma and young parts
How to support self-compassion and sense of agency
Options for guiding clients to get to know their parts for stabilization
Legacy burdens and gifts from transgenerational trauma
What to do when the ancestors show up
Resourcing with culturally-based strengths
Case examples

IFS-Informed EMDR Phase 3: Assessment

How to know when your client is ready for trauma reprocessing
Contraindications for trauma reprocessing
Consent-based processing and preventing backlash in the client’s system
Identify trauma targets and choose EMDR targets from an IFS lens
How to help clients who have trouble naming targets
Explain and utilize the subjective units of distress scale
Techniques for clients who have difficulty with imagery
Effective use of the validity of cognition scale
Adapt assessment questions to honor parts
Case examples

IFS-Informed EMDR Phase 4: Desensitization and Support

Bilateral stimulation options and how to decide which to use
Identify when reprocessing traumatic material is getting stuck
How to know when to intervene or not
Learning your IFS options to help clients get unstuck
Close a complete or incomplete session to support stabilization and regulation
Demonstration and case examples
Practice case vignettes to identify which IFS intervention to use

IFS-Informed EMDR Phases 5-8: Using Connection with Parts for Enhanced Healing

How IFS interventions can strengthen installation of positive qualities during phase 5
IFS-informed ways to work with remaining somatic charge during phase 6
How to help clients get unstuck during installation and body scan
Deepen therapeutic gains with IFS interventions during phase 7
Honoring the client’s system and pacing in phase 8

Additional Considerations

How to tell that progress is being made
When is trauma reprocessing complete?
Assess clients for termination
An integrative approach to closure and termination
Therapist countertransference and vicarious traumatization
Future directions of integration in psychedelic-assisted therapy

Target Audience

Counselors
Addiction Counselors
Social Workers
Marriage and Family Therapists
Psychologists
Psychiatrists
Psychotherapists
Other Mental Health Professionals