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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Dr. Alexia Rothman is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Atlanta, GA, since 2004. She is a lead trainer for the IFS Institute, a Certified Internal Family Systems therapist, an international speaker and educator on the IFS model, and an IFSI-approved professional consultant. Dr. Rothman offers workshops and retreats on the IFS model throughout the U.S. and internationally. She co-hosts the IFS-based podcasts IFS Talks and Conversas IFS and has published a book chapter on the integration of IFS and Polyvagal Theory.
Dr. Rothman is a United States Presidential Scholar who graduated summa cum laude from Emory University as a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (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.
To learn more about her, you can visit her website at dralexiarothman.com

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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