Summary of Susan McConnell's Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 We rely far more on what is being said than how it is being said. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors’ lives depended on this ability, and today we rely on it solely before spoken language evolved.

#2 Somatic IFS therapists focus on the body in order to better understand and communicate with their clients. They develop the practices of Somatic Awareness, Conscious Breathing, Radical Resonance, Mindful Movement, and Attuned Touch and bring them to every step of the IFS model.

#3 The first step is for the therapist to assess whether the client’s external situation allows them to engage in a process of inner work. The client’s safety often comes down to basic physical needs of their body. Do they have food, shelter, and adequate medical care. Are they safe from physical harm.

#4 The therapist role can bring up our vulnerable parts. We find the fears in our body rather than trying to relax. We bring a quick moment of compassion and reassurance to the fearful part.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669351627

IRB Media

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Book preview

Insights on Susan McConnell's Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

We rely far more on what is being said than how it is being said. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors’ lives depended on this ability, and today we rely on it solely before spoken language evolved.

#2

Somatic IFS therapists focus on the body in order to better understand and communicate with their clients. They develop the practices of Somatic Awareness, Conscious Breathing, Radical Resonance, Mindful Movement, and Attuned Touch and bring them to every step of the IFS model.

#3

The first step is for the therapist to assess whether the client’s external situation allows them to engage in a process of inner work. The client’s safety often comes down to basic physical needs of their body. Do they have food, shelter, and adequate medical care. Are they safe from physical harm.

#4

The therapist role can bring up our vulnerable parts. We find the fears in our body rather than trying to relax. We bring a quick moment of compassion and reassurance to the fearful part.

#5

When a client is physically safe, the therapist should then attend to their safety in the therapy office. This may involve changing the furniture in the room, air temperature, lighting, and any objects that may interfere with a sense of being safely held.

#6

The therapist and client get agreement on how to work together and what to work on. The therapist listens to the client’s verbal as well as nonverbal communication. The therapist is listening for incongruences between what the client is saying and how they are saying it.

#7

The IFS therapist is trained to ask, Where do you find this part in or around your body. The Somatic IFS therapist does not ask this question. Instead, the therapist brings awareness to the client’s somatic experience and the therapist’s nonverbal communication to help the client turn their attention inward to connect with the part.

#8

The process of differentiating the part from Self involves establishing a relationship with the part. To help the client keep their attention focused on the part, we may ask questions about the part’s location, the qualities of the sensations connected with the part, and how those sensations change over time.

#9

The fifth step in the process of differentiating the part from the Self is to befriend the part. We ask how the part feels toward the client, and whether it is aware of the client’s Self being present with it. We bring in some of the Somatic IFS practices to anchor this relationship in a physical reality.

#10

In IFS, we consider the same categories of parts as in IFS: protectors, which include managers and firefighters, and exiles, because most often they have been exiled for their own or the system’s protection.

#11

The body is always there, and protectors use