Using IFS to Find & Develop an EMDR Target is a two-hour recorded webinar presented by Bruce Hersey for psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage & family therapists who have taken EMDR basic training.

It will describe using Internal Family Systems methods to engage the EMDR client in Phases One and Two to identify possible targets for EMDR processing and focus in on the most appropriate immediate target. How different types of parts are organized can inform navigation in these phases.

Bruce shows how IFS helps determine whether there is enough Self-Presence for trauma processing, or whether there are blended parts to sort and select for IFS-Informed targeting in the preparation Phase.

The webinar includes PowerPoint slide lecture with Q & A, discussion, & several interactive demonstrations of the process with participants from live workshops. Fidelity to both methods is maintained as course material is developed from standard EMDR (Shapiro, 2018) & IFS (Schwartz & Sweezy, 2020; Anderson et al., 2017) background texts with supplemental references, and the instructor is an IFS Approved Clinical Consultant, an EMDRIA Approved Consultant and has completed a Coherence Therapy Intensive Intermediate training.

Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) is an evidence based (Hodgdon et al., 2022) ego state therapy which offers unique qualities that match key components of the EMDR’s foundational Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model.

IFS methods have been utilized in the context of EMDR therapy to enhance therapist-client communication about their internal experience and trouble-shoot processing difficulties (Gomez & Krause, 2013).

Both IFS and EMDR have been described as experiential psychotherapies which can facilitate a form of neuroplasticity called memory reconsolidation, which uniquely unlocks and rewrites implicit memories that underlie many of the symptoms treated with these methodologies (Ecker et al., 2012).

Some concepts and language from Coherence Therapy support and clarify key IFS concepts around exploring positive (adaptive) intentions behind symptoms with curiosity, compassion & persistence (i.e., Self-presence), while also mirroring the requisite dual attention condition for EMDR processing.

These additional conceptual tools enable the IFS-informed EMDR therapist to more consistently generate juxtapositions (a critical condition required for memory reconsolidation), beginning in the Assessment Phase of EMDR and continuing through the subsequent phases of the EMDR Standard Protocol (Ecker & Bridges, 2020; Ecker et al., 2012).

Just as the SUD scale in conventional EMDR is used to measure state-binding affect energy (Seigel, 2022; Shapiro, 2019), urges, rather than affect, bind the disturbed state in the case of protective parts (Knipe, 2019; Popky, 2005).

A comprehensive scale to assess activation of defenses and target protective parts for processing — the Level of Urge to Protect (LUP) scale — which subsumes the Popky and Knipe scales, is introduced.

Additional precision in targeting underlying implicit memories, through application of memory reconsolidation research via Coherence Therapy, can increase the accuracy of identifying and elaborating appropriate positive and negative cognitions in the Assessment Phase.

A protector’s Negative Cognition can reveal an underlying Protector Positive Intention (PPI) (Ecker, 2012; Schwartz & Sweezy, 2020), which is more useful in targeting these parts for EMDR processing (Knipe, 2019).

The overlay of an IFS perspective via an IFS-informed Assessment Phase advances the widely understood consciousness attributed to the target of EMDR processing as ego states by consolidating the separate notions of an adaptive network and adult ego state into a single coherent relational consciousness which relates to the target from its own adaptive, compassionate perspective (the Self) and embodies the inherent healing capacity of a person known in both EMDR & IFS.

Learn to use the Presence of Self (POS) scale, as an additional tool to measure the engagement and integration of the adaptive information network and assure functional dual attention (similar to the VOC scale), beginning in phase two (Kolodny & Mazero, 2023).

1. Identify one essential IFS task of EMDR Phase One.

2. List two essential IFS tasks of EMDR Phase Two.

3. Describe two human qualities IFS would attribute to the adaptive and target networks.

4. Describe a form of ‘Negative Cognition’ that applies to Protector Parts.

5. Explain what is meant by Biggest Part in the Room.

6. List the two types of energy that maintain the parts in their burdened state.

7. Identify the two conscious relational entities involved in Functional Dual Attention.

8. Explain the difference between how IFS-Informed EMDR defines the target v. conventional EMDR.

References – Home Study Course Using IFS to Find & Develop an EMDR Target - 2.0 CE

Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the Emotional Brain: Eliminating symptoms at their roots using memory reconsolidation. New York: Routledge. (LO4)

Ecker, B., Bridges, S.K. (2020) How the Science of Memory Reconsolidation Advances the Effectiveness and Unification of Psychotherapy. Clin Soc Work J 48, 287–300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-020-00754-z (LO4)

Gomez, A. M. & Krause, P. K. (2013). EMDR Therapy and the Use of Internal Family Systems Strategies with Children, In A. M. Gomez, (Ed.), EMDR Therapy and Adjunct Approaches with Children (pp. 299–345). New York, NY: Springer publishing. (LO1,2,4,5,7,8)

Knipe, J (2019) EMDR Toolbox: Theory and Treatment Methods for Complex PTSD and Dissociation. (Second Edition). Springer, New York. (LO4,6)

O’Shea Brown, G. (2020) Internal Family Systems Informed Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: An Integrative Technique for Treatment of Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, International Body Psychotherapy Journal, 19 (2). (LO1,2,3)

Popky, A.J. (2005) The De-tur Method. In R. Shapiro (Ed.), EMDR Solutions, New York: Norton. (LO4,6)

Siegel, D. J. (2020). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are (3rd ed.). The Guilford Press. (LO6)

Schwartz, R.C. & Sweezy, M. (2020). Internal Family Systems Therapy (2nd ed.). New York NY: Guilford Press. (LO5)

Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Basic principles, protocols and procedures (3rd ed.) New York, NY: Guilford Press. (LO6)

Twombly, J. H., & Schwartz, R. C. (2008). The integration of internal family systems model and EMDR. In C. Forgash & M. Copeley (Eds.), Healing the heart of trauma and dissociation with EMDR and ego state therapy (pp. 295–311). New York, NY: Springer publishing. (LO1,2,3,5,7,8)

van der Hart, O., Groenendijk, M., Gonzalez, A. Mosquera, D., Solomon, R. (2014). Dissociation of the Personality and EMDR Therapy in Complex Trauma-Related Disorders: Applications in Phases 2 and 3 Treatment Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, Volume 8, Number 1, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1933-3196.8.1.33 (LO3,7)

Watkins, J.G., & Watkins, H. (1997) Ego States: Theory and Therapy. New York: Norton. (LO6)

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