The MOST-ASKED questions about IFS Intensives.

INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS THERAPY INTENSIVES - WORLDWIDE AND ONLINE with lucy orton

LUCY ORTON OFFERS IFS INTENSIVES AND ONLINE IFS RETREATS GLOBALLY.

QUESTION 1: WHAT IS IFS (INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS THERAPY)?

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an incredible form of psychotherapy that identifies and addresses the various sub-personalities, or ‘parts’ within us. The underlying concept of IFS is that we all have parts living within us that fulfil both healthy and more extreme roles.

Life events or trauma, can force parts to take on extreme roles (e.g. anger, shame, distress, sadness). However, these internal roles are not fixed and can change with time, understanding and processing.

IFS has been used very successfully to treat anxiety, depression, abuse, PTSD, eating disorders and many other issues. IFS addresses all of our most wounded parts, offering them a voice, a healing space to share their unique perspectives on our past trauma and to explain how what they have been doing to this point has had good intentions and aimed to protect us. With the support of an IFS-trained professional, we are able to create a constructive and healing dialogue with these parts. By acknowledging them and learning about them, we are able to heal them, to help them release their pain and to move forward, unburdened by the stuck energy that is locked inside them. Clients repeatedly report feeling lighter, more confident, to have ‘found their voice’ and to have returned to their truest selves following their IFS work. In short, their healing of their ‘parts’ provides the domino effect of greater ease and freedom in all areas of their lives.

IFS offers a healing blueprint for living and a pathway, where you can move forward with your hopes and dreams instead of feeling at war with yourself. It uses tried and tested techniques from neuroscience such as memory re-consolidation. As a result of its successful outcomes, more and more people are seeking out IFS and trained therapists to help them get to where they want to be, to heal from their past and to thrive into their futures.

QUESTION 2: WHAT IS AN INTENSIVE? HOW DOES THIS DIFFER FROM REGULAR THERAPY?

An intensive therapy experience offers the unique chance to focus and take a deeper dive into your healing. Typically an intensive is at least 3 hours and we offer packages up to 14 hours in length, spread across consecutive (or closely-spaced out) days.

The nature of how intensives work means healing can be both accelerated and even more transformational than the results of typical therapy schedules (such as weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). While these more typical modes of therapy can be fantastic for many clients, offering a regular touchpoint into looking after yourself holistically, an intensive is a different approach which is becoming increasingly popular and in-demand with clients who want fast AND deep healing, that lasts.

QUESTION 3: So, why Would you choose an intensive approach?

Clients come to me for IFS Intensives for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes they are working with a non-IFS-trained therapist (I am IFS Institute trained and committed to this modality) and want to explore healing via this unique model.

Sometimes clients arrive feeling stuck and in need of deeper healing work like you are looking for some deeper healing work with a particular block. Other times clients feel they are struggling to connect with their true self and feel that they haven’t cracked the therapy code with their weekly session experience or their current modality.

Sometimes clients come to me because they want a retreat-style intervention but without the need to travel to a faraway destination in order to access this level of deep healing. Most of my intensives take place online and I offer lots of ideas to create your own ‘retreat-style’ in the planning stage for your intensives. However, I do accept bespoke proposals which can be considered for in-person IFS Intensive retreats in SE Asia; if this is of interest to you, send me a message here to discuss your needs and goals.

Intensive approaches are gaining attention globally and across modalities and disciplines (for example the growth in psychedelic intensives, EMDR intensives, occupational therapy intensives and more). Research is growing in this area as their increased effectiveness continues to be measured and quantified.

question 4: How is an IFS intensive structured and set up?

For brand new intensive clients, I offer a 20 minute free consult to see if you are a good fit for this approach and for working with me as your partner. Once you’ve made the decision to go ahead, we will identify what kind of IFS Intensive you would like in terms of length of overall session and the way in which the intensive sessions are broken up, then we get to work scheduling those into your diary as soon as schedules allow (waiting lists can apply).

Following these practicalities, your personalised IFS Intensive workbook will be sent to you, so that you can fill it out in time for your 90-minute pre-intensive session.

Next comes the pre-session, during which we work together to fully ground the process and hone in on your area(s) of focus, your goals and to review work submitted from your personalised workbook.

Once the pre-session has been done (and sometimes we find some healing is already occurring as the system is so primed for change at this point!), we will get to the deep work of the intensive format you have chosen. My most popular package is 3 days of 3 hours for this deep and life-changing work but exact pathways can vary dependent on needs and budget.

If this is of interest to you and you’d like to connect and get started on your IFS Intensive journey, I’d love to hear from you on the link below.

With warmest wishes,

Lucy Orton

IFS Therapist | Counsellor