Program & Replays
Two Powerful Systems of Wholeness Meet and Co-create
Internal Family Systems and the Enneagram
Wholeness in an individual, a relationship, or a culture can be achieved and sustained if all the facets or parts of the individual or system are cared for and working together harmoniously. In the 1980’s, renowned therapist and academic Dr. Richard Schwartz began to develop powerful methods for people to find the various “parts” within them and invite those parts to experience greater wellbeing by working together. His work, Internal Family Systems, is one of the fastest growing therapeutic modalities in the world today. In the 1970’s, the ancient teachings of the Enneagram were being rediscovered and reconstellated through psychological understanding for our times. The Enneagram helps support us in seeing what we’re not seeing about our motivations, fears, needs, and qualities of ourselves that we have ignored, banished, rejected, or stifled.
For the first time ever, the Founder of Internal Family Systems will join with renowned Enneagram Teacher, Jessica Dibb, to have an unplanned and unplugged conversation to explore the interface between these two highly effective modalities of healing and self-actualization. Join the conversation to experience in real time the discoveries and delight that Dick and Jessica experience as they listen to one another and offer their honest and expanding insights. It may even be that new pathways for healing and transformation are born in this very session!
In This Session:
- Hear about the principles and methods of Internal Family Systems
- Discover the unique aspects of IFS that could empower students' work with the Enneagram for both trauma and higher levels of integration
- Discover ways that the understandings of the Enneagram about essential energies could bring new potentials to IFS
- Dr. Schwartz and Jessica talk about, and personally demonstrate, how breathwork could play an important role
Richard Schwartz, PhD
Richard Schwartz began his career as a systemic family therapist and academic. Grounded in systems thinking, he developed Internal Family Systems (IFS) in response to clients' descriptions of various parts within themselves. He focused on the relationships among these parts and noticed there were systemic patterns to the way they were organized across clients. He also found that when clients' parts felt safe and were encouraged to relax, clients would experience spontaneously the qualities of confidence, openness and compassion that he came to call the Self. He found that when in that state of Self, clients would know how to heal their parts.
IFS is now evidence-based and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families, and more recently, corporations and classrooms.
Dr. Schwartz lives in Brookline, MA where he is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
A featured speaker internationally, Dr. Schwartz has published many books and over 50 articles about IFS.
