Integrating Internal Family Systems Therapy and Polyvagal Theory

CPD

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Speaker

Alexia Rothman, PhD Related seminars and products

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Alexia (Lexi) D. Rothman, Ph.D., is a certified IFS therapist and consultant in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Rothman has been in private practice since 2004. She has received extensive training in Internal Family Systems Therapy from IFS developer Dr. Richard Schwartz, and has assisted in multiple Level 1 and 2 IFS trainings around the country, as well as serving as a professional consultant for IFS therapists.

She is a United States Presidential Scholar who graduated summa cum laude from Emory University as a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar. Dr. Rothman received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA, where she was an Edwin W. Pauley Fellow and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She has held adjunct faculty positions at Emory University and Agnes Scott College.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Alexia Rothman maintains a private practice. She is co-hosts of the podcasts IFS Masters and Explorations in Psychotherapy. She is a paid trainer with the IFS Institute, and she receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. Dr. Rothman receives compensation as a consultant. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Alexia Rothman is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Georgia Psychological Association, and the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.

Objectives

1. Identify the basic principles of Polyvagal Theory and how PVT can inform and enhance application of any psychotherapeutic modality. 
2. Discuss how understanding Polyvagal Theory can help therapists implement IFS more safely and effectively, especially in the systems of clients with complex trauma. 
3. Utilize IFS strategies to shift clients’ nervous systems towards regulation and help them access their own capacity for healing. 
4. Develop skills to help clients foster attuned, trusting relationships with their hyperaroused and hypoaroused parts, as well as parts that strategically utilize adaptive survival responses, such as fight, flight, freezing, and numbing, for protection. 
5. Describe the impact of the therapist’s internal state on clinical work and how clinicians can use this awareness to facilitate client regulation and healing. 
6. Analyze, through observation and discussion of real video examples, how to seamlessly integrate IFS and PVT in treatment.

Outline

Fundamentals of Polyvagal Theory 

• Structure and function of the Autonomic Nervous System 
  • The regulated nervous system  
  • Adaptive survival states of the nervous system (fight/flight, freeze, shutdown/numb/collapse) 
  • Impact of trauma on the nervous system 
• Three operating principles of the Autonomic Nervous System 
  • Neuroception 
  • Hierarchy 
  • Co-Regulation 
• Fundamental goals of psychotherapy through the lenses of PVT and IFS 

Integration of IFS Theory and Polyvagal Theory 

• Translation of Polyvagal concepts to IFS terminology and vice versa 
• The relationship between parts and the nervous system 
• Self and the nervous system 

Polyvagal-Informed IFS Therapy Practice 

• How can an understanding of Polyvagal Theory underlie and support safer and more effective IFS practice? 
• The essential contribution of the Self-led, ventrally regulated presence of the therapist 
• Co-regulation and “internal co-regulation” in IFS therapy 
• Anchoring the client’s system in Self/ventral to enhance the safety and effectiveness of trauma work 
• IFS strategies for working with parts associated with sympathetic and dorsal survival states in the nervous system 
• Analysis of video examples of PVT-informed IFS work

Limitations of the Research and Potential Risks

Target Audience

• Psychologists
• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psychotherapists
• Other Mental Health Professionals 

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