Better Together: EFT and IFS

Better Together: EFT and IFS

Lori Marchak, ICEEFT SUPERVISOR and certified ifs therapist

With Jennifer FIEBIG, Ifs assistant trainer

Experiential Workshop, Thursday-Sunday, February 8-11, 2024

IslandWood Retreat Center, Bainbridge Island, Washington

and On-Line, Sunday afternoon, February 4, 2024

21 NBCC Credit Hours for Mental Health Professionals

Limited to 35 Participants

 

Are you an Emotionally Focused Therapist who is intrigued with the Internal Family Systems model? An IFS therapist who would like to offer a more loving and co-regulating presence for your clients? Do you want to explore the cutting edge of psychotherapy, grounded in neuroscience? Come join us as we expand our therapist presence and skills while integrating both models and beyond.

IslandWood is a 250-acre retreat center in Puget Sound, a 30-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle. Spend time set aside each day to enjoy the forest, meadow, pond, and sea. Time in nature supports deeper connection with oneself, others, and the learning material. Enjoy creative, delicious, and sustainably sourced meals in the dining room. Sleep and socialize in elegant, rustic, and comfortable lodges. 

We’ll celebrate all that EFT and IFS models have given us and honor the challenges they present us. We will see, hear, and appreciate each other for our accomplishments and struggles. Through experiential learning, we will grow our connection with our own selves and nervous systems by grounding in both models, simultaneously.

7 Generations Statue

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), developed by Sue Johnson, continues to expand in recognition and popularity. It is perhaps the most respected and most empirically supported model of couple therapy. EFT is increasingly appreciated as a general model of psychotherapy for individuals, families, and groups.

At the same time, Internal Family Systems, developed by Richard Schwartz, is spreading at lightning speed, not just in the psychotherapy world, but across a wide range of professional disciplines.

IFS and EFT have fundamental similarities. Both are radically de-shaming, seeing “negative symptoms” as positive attempts to maximize belonging. In both models, therapists work experientially, learning to deeply attune, resonate, and respond to the client’s moment-to-moment experience.

Yet IFS and EFT have fundamental differences. EFT prioritizes the attachment relationship, beginning with an attachment relationship between the client and therapist as the primary source of healing. IFS assumes the existence of an intact, infinite, and spiritual Self within each of us, and prioritizes one’s own Self as the primary source of healing. From a client perspective, EFT and IFS sessions feel very different. With lack of collaboration between model leaders, practitioners who are attracted to both models can become lost and confused while attempting to bring them together.

This experiential workshop helps clinicians clarify what is the same, but said in a different language, and what truly differentiates the Emotionally Focused Therapy and Internal Family Systems models. It shows clinicians how they can playfully, creatively and powerfully integrate these models in a manner that resonates with their own parts and Self. This workshop focuses on teaching and practicing new, emergent concepts and techniques that arise when working from both the EFT lens and IFS lens simultaneously. These include cultural burdens and attachment, encounters with parts, developing the ability to say “no” before “yes,” encouraging mistrust, and working with ANS states and protection around those states.

We will create an intimate, accepting and caring container. From there, we will encourage our parts to be seen, validated, and supported as they resonate with and react to different ways of working more powerfully with our clients. We will emerge with more clarity and understanding of ourselves and how we want to approach our clinical work. We will be encouraged to be open and creative while learning and appreciating existing models. 

Better Together has been approved by NBCC for NBCC credit. Trusted Journeys, Inc. is solely responsible for all aspects of the program. NBCC Approval No. SP-4413.

IslandWood is a non-profit environmental education campus on Bainbridge Island, an iconic ferry ride from downtown Seattle. IslandWood preserves six different natural ecosystems, offers miles of trails, and a variety of activities for exploring nature. A sustainably-built infrastructure offers a variety of meeting, lodging, and activity spaces to support learning, creativity, and community building.

Appreciate inspired, organic, and delicious meals cooked by IslandWood’s chefs, catered to vegan, gluten-free, and other special dietary needs. Stay in one of three lodges, choosing from a variety of room types. Relax in your lodge’s great room to warm by the fireplace, read, play games, and connect.

To get to IslandWood, fly into SeaTac airport, Seattle. Take the lightrail from SeaTac north to the Pioneer Square Station. From there, walk downhill to Seattle’s downtown ferry terminal and catch the ferry to Bainbridge Island. On Bainbridge Island, you can take the group shuttle, or use one of several local transportation options. IslandWood is less than 5 miles from the ferry terminal. For detailed travel directions, see below. 

Check in at IslandWood will be at 12:30 pm on Thursday and checkout at 2:00 pm on Sunday. It is not possible to stay at IslandWood before or after these times. For those wanting to arrive on Bainbridge Island early or stay longer, there are nearby hotels, airbnbs, and restaurants.
Learning is an Adventure. It helps to have a map.

Brittany Burch, Houston, TX

I truly cannot recommend this training any higher – 6 stars wouldn’t even be high enough. It was a game changer!
By integrating IFS into my EFT skill set, I’ve seen significant growth in my work with both individual clients & couples. Lori’s exquisite attunement modeled a style that demonstrated how to slow down, deepen and resonate with clients in a way that is a palpable shift in my work. And Jenny’s mastery of IFS brought to life how to apply this approach in a way that had previously eluded me. The experiential components interspersed with lecture gave us ample opportunities to practice new skills in a way no other training has offered. February cannot come soon enough – learning from these two master clinicians was like drinking from a well of wisdom that rehydrated and revitalized my passion as a psychotherapist. And this next training is sure to be even more nourishing. I cannot wait!

Mark Scheffers, Kalamazoo, MI

I had tried on my own to integrate IFS and EFT in my work with couples. I knew both models helped facilitate change but found myself slipping into one or the other as I worked. If I had leaned toward IFS in a session I felt like I’d missed something EFT would have contributed. If I leaned toward EFT in a session I would come away feeling like I hadn’t gone as deep as if I had used a little IFS. When I heard about the “Better Together Training” I signed up right away. I’m so glad I did. The training helped me see the different models like two layers of one process as I work. Each enriching the other. The training gave a boost to my work. I know I will continue to learn from the intersection of the two models for a long time to come.

Laura C Spiller, Ph.D.

I am a certified EFT therapist and Supervisor Candidate who loves the road map that EFT provides and embraces the guideposts provided by the EFT stages, steps, and moves of the Tango. EFT training has provided me with the ability to bring healing presence and attunement to my clients in their loneliest, darkest places. I was unsure about opening up to the IFS approach; however, Lori Marchak’s Better Together training opened up new, deeper levels in my clinical work. I experienced new ways of being exquisitely attuned to my clients inner world. It was like a new level of tango opened up, where I could move forward and *back* with the client. Previously, I tried to validate the protective moves and organize the secondary emotion to get to the vulnerability under the clients protection. In this training I learned how to dance more effectively with all parts of the client in an even more attuned, responsive manner that helps the client listen to and honor their protection. This deeper work with protectors is allowing clients to experience a more expansive and safe inner world, and provides greater access and tools for bringing care and light to those darker, isolated parts. This training potentiates the non-pathologizing stance of EFT even further, helping therapists befriend and experientially validate their client’s protection, providing an even more powerful healing container. The safe and supportive environment of the training also helped me see and care for my own parts that come alive in my clinical work.

Warren Michelson, Missoula, MT

For me, who loves big ideas and deep insights, the finest measure of a training is its applicability.
I started using the frames and confidently curious stance of this unique training Monday morning, back in my office with my lovely, suffering couples.
This training-experience (because it is both!), brings together, maybe for the first time, EFT and IFS in a highly interactive, experiential retreat format. IFS “parts language” can help couples explore the most vulnerable attachment fears and injuries with less overwhelm. EFTs attachment focus can help us find, feel and finally welcome home (love on) our exiled parts. Hope to meet you at a future EFT & IFS Together experience!

Mindy McGovern, LMFT, CST, Seattle, WA

The first iteration of this training was amazing. Lori and Jennifer provide such a wealth of experience and deep respect for EFT and IFS and how they can combine to create a richer therapist/client experience. I got so much out of their combination of didactic, experiential and hands-on learning. They create such a safe container that allows therapists more experienced with one model or the other to be vulnerable in exploring something new and leading edge. I would highly recommend this training and would be happy to answer any questions you might about participating from a participant’s perspective.

Kristin O’Hara, MS, LMFT, Woodinville, WA

Lori and Jenny did such a nice job demonstrating how to integrate IFS and EFT. From the very beginning, they created a safe and cohesive group that allowed for and encouraged personal exploration and growth. They showed us how to create safety with our clients through attunement and helped increase our awareness of and compassion for the burdens that we each carry and how this shows up in therapy. This training was so enriching for me both personally and professionally…plus it was a lot of fun!

Noah Roost, Portland, OR

Lori Marchak’s integration of EFT and IFS is invaluable. She helped me learn to befriend my clients’ most reactive and provocative parts. She provides hands-on, very applicable techniques to skillfully address the most challenging and stressful aspects of couples therapy (e.g. working with your clients’ rage, contempt, and dissociation). Since attending her workshop I have noticed more vitality and more effectiveness in my couples’ practice. I highly recommend the training to both individual and couples therapists interested in deepening their work with clients. Her training will help therapists bring more true acceptance and secure connection to ALL of their clients.

Workshop Participant

“Having taken all the EFT required trainings for certification; Externship, Cores I & II, Self AS Therapist, the supervisory hours to be qualified as “Advanced” as well as EFT Lab II, about 6 months of EFT Cafe, an in person two-day training with Les Greenberg on EFS, a workshop with David Schwartz and IFS workshops in person and on line, I learned so much from Lori’s day long workshop on synthesizing and integrating IFS & EFT. In my experience, EFT trainers rarely mention other modalities and seems to advocate ONLY the EFT script so if one wants to add other modalities, it is either actively discouraged or ignored. I believe the EFT “map” and staying on track is usually very useful. This perspective is the one which has been validated with data from Susan Johnson research and it may be more effective than incorporating other modalities but I have not seen data comparing strict EFT with data using EFT and IFS. There are times when I believe it is useful to incorporate IFS with EFT or to shift to IFS. Lori clearly demonstrated doing just that and clarified how to determine which modality might be more effective depending on the position of the client and the therapist. She made the “Tango” much more explicit and helped me filter the variables which indicate where the work is needs to be deepened in the “Tango.”

Workshop Participant

“I was fortunate to attend this workshop integrating EFT and IFS. I was awed by the clinical mastery Lori possessed in her demonstrations and didactic materials. I was confident I was in the presence of a clinician who was always present to the moment and people before her. She clearly was knowledgeable about both therapeutic models and able to speak to both fluently.

Workshop Participant

Lori Marchak is a brilliant woman with a gentle spirit. She exudes an aura of safety and confidence that makes it comfortable for anyone to be her client! I would not hesitate to refer anyone to see Dr. Marchak for individual, couple, or group counseling. And I’d refer any EFT-er or any IFS-er to attend her workshop.

Workshop Participant

Superb material – integrating two rather large theories into one. Both EFT and IFS have their strengths and together they are even more powerful. Dr. Marchak has blended the two and neither detracts from the other.

Lori Marchak, MS, Ph.D, LMFT, LCPC

Lori is an ICEEFT Therapist, ICEEFT Supervisor, and Certified IFS Therapist. A deeply experiential therapist, Lori has been at the forefront of bringing both EFT and IFS to the State of Montana. Lori has trained for over a dozen years in EFT, and is a founding member and training director for the Montana Community for EFT. Lori has worked closely with several EFT trainers, and has provided joint trainings with Roy Hodgson in Seattle and Debi Scimeca-Diaz in New Jersey. She led a Bozeman-based group practice grounded in IFS as well as EFT.

Lori’s clients travel from all over the country and internationally to work with her in three-day intensives designed to bring healing and transformation. Lori specializes in working with complex and generational trauma. Lori is passionate and gifted as a couple therapist, and finds intensive work with individuals incredibly meaningful as well. She is known for her ease, safety, and warmth, as well as her strength and confidence as a guide through deeper, underlying material.

Jennifer Fiebig, LCPC

 Jenny Fiebig is a professional counselor based in Durango, Colorado. Her private practice focuses on helping individuals and couples heal from trauma, and most specifically trauma related to outdoor accidents. Her first career was in outdoor education and guiding. While working with people for long periods of time in a wilderness setting, she found the profound connection people shared to self, to others and to the landscape they were traveling within. She went back to school to pursue a graduate degree in Mental Heath Counseling, was exposed to IFS while working for a group practice in Bozeman, MT and has deepened her knowledge in IFS ever since. Jenny is an Assistant Trainer with the IFS Institute and IFIO, an Approved IFS Clinical Consultant for Certification, and in training to become a Lead Trainer for the IFS Institute. Jenny is excited to be in a teaching role with IFS Institute to bring this model to more healers around the world.

More Details

Benefits of attending this event:

  • Gain confidence in embracing and integrating both EFT and IFS models.
  • Develop a clear understanding of the similarities and differences between two popular and powerful experiential therapies.
  • Explore new, emergent concepts and techniques.
  • Deepen your work beyond what either model can provide on its own.
  • Become reinvigorated and re-inspired in your work
Learning Objectives

This workshop is designed to help clinicians

  • Articulate the key similarities and differences between EFT and IFS.
  • Translate between EFT and IFS terminology
  • Experientially compare and contrast the IFS and EFT therapist stances
  • Expand and deepen both the EFT and IFS models by bringing them together
  • Appreciate cultural burdens in understanding attachment trauma
  • Understand and practice the use of encounters in working with parts
  • Assess, welcome, and engage with client mistrust of the therapist
  • Apply more transparency and client collaboration
  • Work with and receive support for your own parts
  • Conceptualize working with ANS states and protection around those states
  • Deepen confidence and skill in working with anger/fear, collapse, and dissociation
  • Explain the neuroscience that supports an integrated model
  • Observe live sessions in integrated EFT and IFS.
Lodging at Islandwood

IslandWood is an acclaimed educational and retreat center in Puget Sound.

Healthy and delicious meals will be provided, including dinner on Thursday, a continental breakfast, hot lunch, and dinner on Friday and Saturday, and a continental breakfast and to-go lunch on Sunday. Food from the outside is prohibited. IslandWood’s chefs specialize in accommodating special dietary needs.

IslandWood provides several options for lodging Thursday through Saturday evening, Choose from a single, double, or triple room, or a bunk bed in a room that sleeps four. Each guestroom has a private bathroom. 

Schedule

All times are in Pacific Standard Time (PST)

Sunday, February 4 (On-line)

1:00-4:15 pm Workshop (On-line)

Thursday, February 8 (Bainbridge)

12:30 pm: Check in
2-5:30 pm: Workshop
6 pm: Dinner

Friday, February 9 (Bainbridge)

7:30 am: Continental breakfast
8:30-Noon: Workshop
Noon: Lunch
1-2:30 pm: Nature Break
2:30-6:00 pm: Workshop

6:00 pm: Dinner

Saturday, February 10 (Bainbridge)

7:30 am: Continental breakfast
8:30-Noon: Workshop
Noon: Lunch
1-2:30 pm: Nature Break
2:30-6:00 pm: Workshop

6:00 pm: Dinner

Sunday, February 11 (Bainbridge)

7:30 am: Continental breakfast
8:30-10:00: Nature Break and Room Check Out
10:00-1:45 pm: Workshop and to-go Lunch
2:00 pm: Departure

Prerequisites

Ideally, participants will have have (1) completed an EFT Externship and (2) either attended an IFS Level 1 training, or have familiarity with the IFS model from experience in personal therapy, books, or other trainings. 

Prior training is not as important as interest and curiosity in exploring new ideas in experiential therapy. 

Getting to IslandWood
SeaTac to the downtown Seattle Ferry Terminal:
To catch the lightrail, go toward baggage claim from your arrival gate. Once you are in the baggage claim area, look for signs to direct you to the lightrail station. From baggage claim, it’s a 5+-minute walk up an escalator then through a covered parking garage. Once you’re at the lightrail station, puchase a ticket for Pioneer Square at one of the automated ticket booths. Head upstairs to catch the northbound train. Trains leave every 10-20 minutes. 
Get off at Pioneer Square (10 stops, 30 minutes later). Be sure to get up and go over to the door to be ready to jump off as the train approaches the station. 

You’ll get off the train in an underground station. Take an elevator or escalator up to the street level. Exit onto Third Avenue, then down Columbia Street to the waterfront (10 min walk). Here’s a link to navigate by foot from Pioneer Square station to the Ferry Terminal at 801 Alaskan Way.

Follow the flow of people and the signs to catch a Bainbridge-bound ferry. Purchase a one-way ticket for less than $10. The return fare is no charge.

Ferry Schedule:
Bainbridge bound ferries leave every 50-60 minutes on a schedule. Follow this link for the current schedule: 

Bainbridge Island Ferry Schedule

Transportation on Bainbridge Island:
On the Bainbridge side, catch a shuttle we have reserved ($2 per person), or take a taxi:
  • The BI Ride is a bus service ($2.00 per person or an ORCA transfer) that will pick you up at the ferry and take you to IslandWood. We are planning to make this shuttle available for those coming in on the xxx pm ferry.   
  • Viking Cab:  360-244-4420 

  • BI Ride: 1-844-424-7433 

  • TOUR BAINBRIDGE – an excellent local company for booking transportation. https://www.tourbainbridge.com/

  • Lyft and Uber also work

 

Policies and Procedures

Confidentiality of Participant Information and Breaches of Confidentiality

Trusted Journeys, Inc. will ensure that participant information, including name, contact, and payment information, will be kept confidential. In the case of a breach of confidentiality, Trusted Journeys will contact the participant.  

Program Complaints

If a participant or potential participant would like to express a concern about Lori Marchak or a continuing education program provided by Trusted Journeys, the individual may  email Lori Marchak at trustedjourneys@gmail.com, Laura Spiller, drspiller@lauracspillerphd.com, training coordinator, or Tahlia Rainboldt, t.rainboltphd@gmail.com, training coordinator. Although we do not guarantee a particular outcome, Trusted Journeys will consider the complaint, make any necessary decisions, and respond within 30 days.

Fees, Refunds, and Cancellation

The fees, refund, and cancellation policy are located on the registration form, below. 

Attendance

Credit will be given for live attendance only. Partial credit will be given based on hours in attendance, when the participant attends at least 6 hours of the live training. 

Disclosure or Use of Client Information in a CE Program

Client information must not be disclosed by a presenter or participant unless proper informed consent has been obtained for use in a continuing education program.

Room price includes tax and gratuity.
Please list the name(s) of another (others) you want to room with
Price: $385.00
All inclusive meals include Dinner on Thursday, Continental Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Friday and Saturday, and Continental Breakfast and Packed Lunch on Sunday. Price includes tax and gratituity.
$0.00
As an training participant I affirm that I have training and educational qualifications to practice legally as a professional mental health practitioner or am currently in a formal training to be a professional mental health practitioner. I also agree to abide by a mental health professional code of ethics. I will follow legal confidentiality requirements regarding all client and participant information shared in the training. I understand that this training does not count toward certification in EFT or IFS, and that Trusted Journeys, Inc. is not affiliated with ICEEFT or The IFS Institute. Enrollment in this training constitutes an agreement to hold harmless Trusted Journeys, Inc. and all presenters and trainers from any and all claims, actions, and judgements, including all costs of defense and attorney’s fees incurred in defending against claims.
Tuition may be transferred to another colleague by contacting Lori Marchak at trustedjourneys@gmail.com. Refunds are available, less an administrative fee, up to one month before the training. Four months or more before the training the fee is 20%. Three months and up to one month before the training the fee is 40%. No refunds are available within a month of the training.