Click here to view current IFS learning opportunities. If you would like to be notified when a new cohort forms, please sign up for our list below.
IFS is a powerful, user friendly method of psychotherapy and personal growth work. IFS is a recognized, proven method for individual psychotherapy with a robust training program and thousands of certified therapists. It will help transform stuck parts of your clients and yourself into inner resources of strength, love, and freedom.

This 8-week course, taught by Bonnie Weiss, LCSW, will teach the basics of how to use Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) to work with clients and yourself to resolve psychological issues and heal underlying pain from the past and to enhance self-confidence and well-being. It is not a comprehensive training program. You will, however, become familiar with the basic steps of the IFS method and learn to identify and work with protector and exile parts. Most importantly, you will be inspired and supported to access and recognize your own capacity for Self-leadership. This core aspect of Self is the capacity that can heal the parts. The practitioner’s access to Self is the key ingredient to successfully utilizing the IFS methodology.

This live online program, via zoom, will consist of guided meditations, class lectures, IFS demonstrations, and opportunities for individualized feedback and guidance. The course will be taught by videoconference, so we can see each other, which enhances the group connection, making it safe for you to be open and vulnerable in class. Each class is recorded, so you can watch the recording of any class you miss. 

Between sessions, participants are required to read 2 chapters and conduct a 30 minute - 1 hour weekly practice session (done with another course participant)​ in order to practice skills. The text for the course is Self-Therapy: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Wholeness and Healing Your Inner Child Using IFS, A New, Cutting-Edge Psychotherapy, 3rd Edition by Jay Earley.

​Participants will receive 18 CEs following their conclusion of the course (CE credit will only be awarded for classes completed in real time).

Note: This course is not affiliated with the Internal Family Systems Institute (IFSI) or a substitute for IFSI's Level 1 training. To become IFS certified, you must complete the IFS Insitute's Level 1 training and requirements. 

Bonnie Weiss, MA LCSW is a teacher of the Internal Family System Method in online classes and workshops.  She has taught internationally in Australia, Israel, Germany, and Ireland. She is the former Director of the Gestalt Center of Long Island, and The Long Island Center for Eating Disorders. Her books include, Self-Therapy Workbook: An Exercise Book for the IFS Processˆ and Freedom from Your Inner Critic and Letting Go of Perfectionism  with Jay Earley. She lives and maintains a private practice in the Bay Area, CA.

Additional Program Information:

Target audience: social workers

Content level: intermediate to advanced

Learning objectives:

1.  Participants will be able to explain the basic concepts and steps of the Internal Family Systems Model of therapy.
2. Participants will be able to identify protective parts and practice developing relationships with them.
3. Participants will be able to identify exiled parts and practice developing relationships between Self and exile parts.

Outline and Agenda:

Class 1
  • Introduction to Internal Family Systems Model
  • Parts and Self
  • IFS Attitudes

Class 2
  • Blending
  • Unblending

Class 3
  • Resistant Parts
  • Unusual Approaches to Therapy

Class 4
  • Why Parts Take On Extreme Roles
  • Blending Detection 

Class 5
  • Meeting the Exile
  • Protectors Fears Activated Exiles

Class 6
  • Burdens
  • Witnessing

Class 7
  • Reparenting by Self
  • Reparenting by Re-do 

Class 8
  • Unburdening an Exiles
  • Checking with Protectors
  • Session Completion

Course interaction and system requirements:

This live webinar hosted on Zoom is fully interactive. Attendees may ask and answer questions throughout the presentation (using their microphones and/or the chat option). System requirements for Zoom can be viewed at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362023-System-requirements-for-PC-and-Mac.

Fee and registration:

Cost is $675 for 18 credits. Refunds are available for up to seven days prior to the program. After that, we offer credit that can be applied to a future program. Registration is open until the course is full. In some cases, we will enable a wait list option once the course is full.

Course completion and CE info:

To attend CE credit, social workers must log in at the scheduled time, attend the entire program and complete an online evaluation at the end of the program.

Certificates will be emailed out within 7 business days following receipt of evaluation.

CE credit is currently available for social workers in all 50 states. All other professionals (including psychologists, counselors, and marriage and family therapists) must confirm CE approval with their state board.

Bright Ideas Continuing Education, #1757, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Bright Ideas Continuing Education maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 11/19/2021-11/19/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 18 clinical continuing education credits.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) Training Course, Course #4884, is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by Bright Ideas Continuing Education as an individual course. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: 02/08/2023 - 02/08/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 18 clinical continuing education credits.

Bright Ideas Continuing Education is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0781.

​Bright Ideas Continuing Education is also authorized by the Board of Social Work Examiners in Maryland to provide social work continuing education. 

Our credits are also accepted by the New Jersey Board of Social Work Examiners.
​
If you have any questions, concerns or special accommodation requests, please contact us here.