IFS session with Derek Scott, Commentary by Liz Phillips 5min trailer

This session is one in a series in which expert therapists from a variety of experiential schools
work with this client on the same presenting issue.
An unparalleled opportunity to compare and contrast the strategies and techniques of the different schools!
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Derek Scott:
I became interested in psychology as a teenager because I thought it could explain what was wrong with me. I took advanced level studies in college… but somehow all those dogs and bells, monkeys with wire mothers and drawings of neurons didn’t answer my question.

In the final year of my undergrad I specialized in Humanistic Psychology. Finally psychology [psyche (the human soul) + logos (the reason)] was talking about people. Encounter groups, human potential, Eastern religions, gender studies, cross-culturally informed perspectives; I was hooked.

Enter IFS. Several years ago I went to a retreat in Mexico to be immersed in a “new” therapeutic method called the Internal Family System. I remember being on the plane and hearing a voice in my head saying, “Are you nuts? You’re gonna be trapped with a bunch of strangers doing group therapy for a week?” To which another voice rejoined, “You’re asking me this now? On the plane?”

I met Dick Schwartz and Barb Cargill and discovered that those voices in my head belonged to different parts of my system that were trying to get my attention. Once I got that, and learned how they were mapped out, I was able to both heal (unburden) parts of my own system and know that the work I was doing was indeed facilitating permanent change in my client’s systems as well as supporting them in relying on their own Self energy.

Liz Phillips:
Liz Phillips is a Registered Psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). She sits on the Executive of the Board at the Ontario Society of Registered Psychotherapists (OSRP). Liz is trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS) Levels 1 and 2. She specializes in working with couples, particularly through Intimacy From the Inside Out (IFIO), the IFS model for couples work. This model has been a game changer for her work with couples and inspired her to develop IFIO-informed workshops for couples therapists. Liz is also trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples. She did her foundational therapy training at the Toronto Institute of Relational Psychotherapy (TIRP). TIRP’s feminist and anti-oppression lenses drew her to their training program. She trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Levels 1 and 2), a trauma-informed, somatic-focused approach.

Niall Geoghegan:
Dr. Geoghegan is a licensed clinical psychologist in Berkeley, CA. He was one of the original members of the Coherence Psychology Institute, along with Bruce Ecker, LMFT, co-founder of Coherence Therapy. From 2008-2015 he was a Certified Trainer through the Institute, coaching mental health professionals in the practice of Coherence Therapy. Dr. Geoghegan began training with Bruce Ecker in 2002.