Discover the innovative intersection of somatic therapy and Internal Family Systems (IFS), featuring 5 core practices to transform modern therapeutic approaches.

Enhance your clinical practice and patient outcomes by skillfully uniting body and mind through an evidence-based therapeutic modality—endorsed by leaders in the field, including Richard Schwartz.

Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy introduces a cutting-edge therapeutic modality that merges the elements of somatic therapy, such as movement, touch, and breathwork, with the established principles of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model. Authored by Susan McConnell, this multifaceted approach is crafted for therapists, clinicians, somatic practitioners, mental health professionals, and anyone interested in innovative healing techniques. A valuable contribution to mental health treatment, this guide offers a new horizon for those engaged in the well-being of others.

This comprehensive, bestselling guide presents:

• 5 core practices: somatic awareness, conscious breathing, radical resonance, mindful movement, and attuned touch, designed for seamless integration into therapeutic work.
  
• Strategies to apply these practices in addressing a range of clinical conditions including depression, trauma, anxiety, eating disorders, chronic illness, and attachment disorders.
  
• Techniques to assist clients in identifying, understanding, and reconciling their 'inner worlds' or subpersonalities, leading to improved emotional health and behavior.
  
• A compelling combination of scientific insights, experiential practices, and real-world clinical stories that illuminate the theory and application of Somatic IFS.
  

Highly regarded mental health professionals, such as IFS founder Richard Schwartz, have applauded this essential guide. By weaving together holistic healing wisdom, modern neuroscience, and somatic practices expertise, this book serves as a crucial resource for psychotherapists across various disciplines and laypersons seeking an embodied self.

Applying somatic principles to the Internal Family Systems model

Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy introduces a new therapeutic modality that blends principles of somatic therapy--like movement, touch, and breathwork--with the traditional tools of the Internal Family Systems framework. Broadening the benefits and applications of the IFS model, author Susan McConnell introduces 5 core practices that mental health professionals can apply to their practice: somatic awareness, conscious breathing, radical resonance, mindful movement, and attuned touch. Clinical applications include the treatment of depression, trauma, anxiety, eating disorders, chronic illness, and attachment disorders.

Within the IFS framework, clients will learn to identify their "inner worlds"--the discrete subpersonalities within each of us that hold emotions, perceptions, and belief systems, and that affect our behavior and emotional wellness. Body-based somatic tools are incorporated into therapy as patients learn to recognize different facets of their internal family and reconcile the needs of subpersonalities--like their inner child or internal manager--to bring more harmony to their physical and emotional well-being.

“Susan McConnell brilliantly weaves together science, clinical stories, and experiential practices to bring Somatic IFS to life for her reader. The deep wisdom she embodies from years of studying the bodymind is felt in each of the five practices that are the foundation of Somatic IFS and in her clear yet lyrical explanation of the body systems that inform each practice. McConnell is an expert guide to learning to listen to somatic stories and finding the way to Embodied Self.”
—Deb Dana, LCSW, author of The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy

“Susan McConnell writes from her heart and her embodied experience, as a counselor and an explorer in the somatic world. This book is an expression of her whole life and career, and yet the ideas are kept alive and honest through the immediacy of her practices—in psychotherapy, in somatics, and in spirituality. I hope that this book is read widely both in and beyond the IFS community.”
—Susan Aposhyan, LPC, author of Body-Mind Psychotherapy