Integrating IFS (Internal Family Systems) Into EMDR Therapy: The Step-By-Step Guide to Complex Trauma Recovery

Clients with complex trauma often struggle with avoidance, dissociation, and increased symptoms during EMDR, making it difficult to support their sense of control and safety across treatment. In these cases, slower is faster, but how do you slow things down when EMDR is designed as an accelerated approach?

By integrating IFS therapy into EMDR, which enhances your ability to target symptoms in a more attuned and scaffolded way.

That is what you'll learn to do in this step-by-step guide, which is intended not only for EMDR and IFS clinicians, but for any provider who serves clients with a trauma history. Featuring case examples, handouts, worksheets, therapist scripts, and more, you'll learn how to:

• Use parts mapping to support stabilization and treatment planning in phase 1
• Befriend protector parts in phase 2 and receive their consent to proceed with processing
• Move through blocked reprocessing by restoring the Self-to-part connection in phases 3 and 4
• Invite parts to "try on" positive qualities and cognitions in phase 5
• Use somatic approaches to befriend parts in the body during phase 6
• Facilitate inclusion and closure for protective parts during phase 7
• Respect the client's system before returning to or beginning a new target in phase 8

Trauma treatment is not one size fits all. Some client parts will be more accessible with IFS, while others will be more easily discovered through EMDR. By using both approaches, you can better tailor trauma treatment for your clients, meeting them exactly where they (and their internal system) are.

Daphne Fatter, PhD, is a licensed psychologist, international speaker, author, and consultant dedicated to providing education on integrative trauma-informed therapies. She is EMDR certified, is an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, and has 20 years of experience providing EMDR for trauma treatment. She is an expert clinician in Internal Family Systems therapy, having completed over 460 hours of Internal Family Systems training, including training under Dr. Richard Schwartz, the founder of Internal Family Systems therapy, in 2019 and 2023. She is a thought leader in ways to integrate Internal Family Systems therapy with other modalities. As a certified ancestral healing practitioner, she also works with intergenerational and historical trauma.

Dr. Fatter received a master's degree in transpersonal counseling psychology from Naropa University. She was then awarded a doctorate degree in counseling psychology from Pennsylvania State University before completing a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at The Trauma Center under the direct supervision of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. She is the former military sexual trauma coordinator at the Fort Worth Veteran Affairs Outpatient Clinic. She has authored works on Internal Family Systems therapy, EMDR, countertransference, mindfulness, and ancestral healing. She provides engaging workshops, webinars, and trainings on trauma treatment, including treating PTSD, complex trauma, and complicated grief. She maintains a private practice in Dallas, Texas.