Trauma Training

Foundations of Internal Family Systems Therapy

A Beginner's IFS Training for Therapists and Helping Professionals

Trainer: Crystal Hines, LPC

On-Demand: Available with lifetime access for asynchronous learning. | This course was recorded on November 22nd, 2024.

Your clients have parts. The part that shuts down when a conversation gets too close. The part that pushes people away before they can leave. The part that carries the weight of everything that happened before they had words for it. You already see them. IFS gives you a way to work with them.

Foundations of Internal Family Systems Therapy is a beginner-level on-demand training with Crystal Hines, LPC, designed for therapists who want a comprehensive, experiential introduction to the IFS model. You will learn the core theory, essential skills, and clinical application of IFS, including how to build access to Self-energy, work with protective parts, and begin the healing process with exiled parts.

No prior IFS experience is required. This course includes lecture, live and recorded IFS demonstrations, mindfulness experientials, and skills practice in dyads. Walk away with a grounded understanding of the model and concrete tools to begin integrating IFS into your existing clinical approach.

Why TTI

Built for Learning. Designed for Belonging.

Shame-Free Space for Learning™

Because the best learning happens when you feel safe. Ask freely, show up fully, and learn in a relational, non-judgmental environment built for practitioners like you.

Expert Clinical Training

Expect real case examples, clear guidance, and a teaching style that makes even complex topics feel approachable so you can confidently use what you learn in session right away.

Where Learning Meets Community

Join a community of clinicians learning side by side, sharing real case insights and peer support so you can grow your skills with confidence alongside your peers in meaningful connection.

Practical Skills

Practical Interventions You'll Learn

In this foundation of IFS training, you'll learn how to:

Understand the IFS model from the ground up, including its theoretical framework, the concept of the mind as a system of parts, and how that lens changes the way you read your clients' presentations
Distinguish Self-energy from parts and apply that distinction clinically, using polyvagal theory to help clients and yourself understand what self-energy actually feels like in the body
Build rapport with protective parts using essential IFS skills, including how to interview protectors, understand their positive intentions, and help clients develop a compassionate relationship with the parts that have been protecting them
Work with exiles through the IFS unburdening process, supporting clients in accessing and healing the young, vulnerable parts that protectors have been keeping out of awareness
Recognize and work with your own therapist parts that show up in session, so your internal system supports the therapeutic process rather than complicating it
Integrate IFS into your existing clinical approach ethically and practically, including how to navigate the limitations of the model and differentiate it from other treatment modalities

What You Get

What's Waiting for You Inside This Training

On-demand IFS theory, live demonstrations, and clinical tools you can carry into your next session.

The IFS model from the ground up

The theory, language, and parts framework that change the way you read your clients' systems.

Self-energy through a polyvagal lens

Understand what Self-energy actually feels like in the nervous system, not just in theory.

Skills for building trust with protectors

Interview protective parts, honor their positive intentions, and help clients meet the parts that have been holding everything together.

The unburdening process with exiles

Support clients in accessing and healing the young, vulnerable parts that protectors have been keeping out of awareness.

Working with your own therapist parts

Recognize the parts of you that show up in session, so your internal system supports the work instead of complicating it.

Live and recorded IFS demonstrations

Watch the model in motion. See protectors interviewed, exiles met, and Self-energy come online in real time.

Ethical integration with your current approach

Learn how to weave IFS into your existing clinical work and when to draw on it within an integrative practice.

Lifetime access and CEs

Refresh the material anytime at your own pace. Earn ASWB and NBCC continuing education credits as you go.

Is This For You?

Who Is This Training For

This course was designed for mental health therapists who want to learn the IFS model, and it is open to any professional who works with people and wants to understand how parts work to shape human experience. No prior IFS knowledge is required.

Foundations of IFS is a strong fit if you are:

A therapist who has heard about IFS or seen its impact in consultation and is ready to learn the model properly from the ground up
Clinically trained but finding that traditional CBT or insight-oriented approaches are not getting to the parts of your clients that most need attention
An EMDR therapist wanting foundational IFS knowledge before pursuing TTI's EMDR and IFS Practitioner Program
A helping professional, educator, first responder, or healthcare worker who wants to understand parts work and apply it in your own context
A therapist looking to deepen your own Self-energy as part of your clinical development, not just add a new technique to your toolkit
Seeking NBCC or ASWB/ACE continuing education in IFS therapy in a flexible, on-demand format that includes experiential practice

Meet Your Trainer

About Your Trainer

Crystal Hines

LPC

Crystal Hines is a licensed professional counselor, TTI trainer, and founder of Align Therapy and Consultation in Firestone, CO. Her clinical work focuses on complex trauma, and she brings expertise in both EMDR and IFS to her practice, consultation, and training.

Through Align Therapy, Crystal and her team support therapists moving from surviving to thriving, offering EMDR consultation, IFS consultation, LPCC supervision, therapy for therapists, and process groups for therapists. She brings a brain-body-heart approach to her clinical work, grounded in her own lived experience as a complex trauma survivor and her commitment to doing her own healing alongside her clients.

Crystal is known for her direct, compassionate facilitation style and her gift for connecting with the parts of people that do not often feel seen. She teaches IFS not just as a model to apply, but as a way of being with clients.

Investment

Ready to Get Started?

Real IFS training without the gatekeeping price tag. Pay once, return whenever the work calls for it.

Course Price

$147

Lifetime access to the course - Refresh your skills anytime at your own pace. Get on-demand access after the live date.
Immediate clinical application - Walk away with tools you can use in your next session.
Flexible payment plans - Options to fit your budget.
CEs - Earn ASWB and NBCC CEs.

Additional Information

Course Details

Agenda

Introductions and Course Orientation
Overview of the Theory of IFS
Understanding Self-Energy
Curiosity Experiential
Understanding Parts of Self
Essential IFS Skills
Be with Parts Experiential
Healing Steps of IFS
Applying IFS
Applying IFS cont
Demo of IFS Session
Debrief Session
Working with Protectors
Therapist Parts
Externalizing Parts
Window of Tolerance and Self-Energy
Building Self-to-Part Relationship
Limitations of IFS
Wrap up lecture/Q&A

Learning Objectives

Integrate IFS therapy skills into current therapeutic practices.
Assess clinical mental health symptoms through the lens of protective parts of Self.
Distinguish between Parts of Self and Self-Energy.
Develop IFS strategies to use to get to know and build safety with protective parts of clients.
Analyze the concept of Self-energy through a polyvagal perspective.
Differentiate the IFS therapy model from other treatment modalities.

Prerequisites

This is not an EMDR training.

None! While this course was designed with therapists in mind, many professionals can benefit, including but not limited to:

Mental Health Professionals
Teachers and Educators
Healers
Yoga Teachers
Healthcare Professionals
First Responders
Lawyers and Law Professionals

Continuing Education

Trauma Therapist Institute is an approved continuing education provider. ACE, NBCC, EMDRIA, and APA CEs are available for this course.

Participants must complete the full training to receive credit.

ACE Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute, #1869, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/16/25 - 1/16/28. Social workers completing this course receive clinical continuing education credits.

NBCC Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7033. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Trauma Therapist Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

EMDRIA Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute is an EMDRIA Approved Training Provider. TTI courses are individually approved. CE Certificate will contain course approval number.

APA Approved Provider

Trauma Therapist Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education to psychologists. Trauma Therapist Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Course Completion

To receive a CE certificate, participants must complete the entire course, complete the post-test with a score of 80% or above, and complete the course evaluation. You may retake the post-test as needed. Once completed, a CE certificate will auto-populate to your online account.

Cancellation Policy

Please reference our cancellation policy here (bottom section of this page).