Enhance your connection to Self and others while strengthening your IFS skills and understanding.
About the group
IFS discovered me in 2015 when I happened upon an interesting workshop at Kripalu in Lennox, MA. I was burning out in community mental health and looking for a way to be more effective without feeling like I was losing my capacity for resiliency. Coincidentally there was an IFS level I training in Maine starting just a few months after the workshop and I got the last opening. What followed was a journey of discovery and healing that continues to unfold for me as a therapist in private practice.
Some seven years later I am still learning and growing, and find myself passionate about using IFS as a model to help people learn, heal, and grow. To me it incorporates so many components of therapeutic models and spiritual traditions that I find myself going deeper and deeper into the model while seeing no limitations. I am motivated to connect and support IFS professionals and provide a direct experience of this powerful framework. I believe we cannot take our clients farther than we’ve gone ourselves, and I’m committed to doing my own work and supporting other Healers doing theirs.
About Tom Cannon
I am an LCPC, practicing since 2008, with a private practice in Brunswick, Maine. I work with adolescent and adult individuals and have a background in meditation, mindfulness and yoga which informs the work that I do. I have been practicing IFS since 2015, have participated in numerous IFS trainings since my Level I training in 2016. I currently participate in two IFS peer supervision groups, and recently completed a Level II training with Dick Schwartz and Martha Sweeney. I have honed my skills training in education since 1992, having taught multiple courses and topics at USM and SMCC, and served as a Clinical Educator II at Maine Health. I am passionate about using and learning about IFS, and hope to impart my knowledge of the model to IFS practitioners seeking to hone their skills and deepen their practice of the model.
The details
This new IFS Consultation Group aims to connect IFS professionals with a focus on using the model in a way that matches your own style while being consistent with the principles of IFS. Below is a brief overview of the proposed session structure:
Format: 90 minute sessions, monthly
• Brief member check-in (20-25 min)
• Training on a particular tenet or technique of the IFS model led by supervisor (30 min)
• Group discussion of case conferences and direct applications of the model (30 min)
• Wrap up and planning for next session (5-10 min)
Discussion topics: Sample topics could include direct parts access, bringing more self- energy to our work, challenges with introducing the model to new clients, dealing with stubborn protectors, unburdening exiles, legacy burdens, common dynamics in typical client presentations: anxiety, depression, addiction, etc.
Group size: 4-6 (max) + supervisor
Pre-requisite: participants must be interns or licensed practitioners who preferably have been clients of IFS therapy
Cost: sliding scale $30-40
Location: In-person in Brunswick with an opportunity to join online
Minding What Matters 