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Addictive processes often carry pain, shame, and confusion—for clients and clinicians alike. As IFS practitioners, we’re invited to see beyond the behavior and toward the protective systems that keep deeper wounds hidden.
In this 4-part live webinar series, IFS Senior Trainer Cece Sykes offers a fresh and compassionate approach to understanding and healing addictive behaviors. With deep clinical insight and warmth, Cece guides us into the internal systems that fuel compulsive patterns—and toward the parts that long for connection, safety, and transformation.
Whether you're working with substances, food, gambling, or other addictive processes, this series will help you feel more confident, attuned, and prepared.
Introduction and System Mapping
Someone with an addiction has trauma. The systemic view is a whole systems view. Discover the three most common roadblocks therapists face when trauma and addictive processes intersect, and learn how IFS offers a compassionate way forward. During this session we'll map client systems, welcome acting-out parts without shame, and create space for deeper healing to emerge.
Reimagining Firefighters: Positive Intentions with Negative Behaviors
Uncover the wisdom behind firefighters’ sometimes extreme strategies. Clarify their pain-medicating motivations, distinguish them from managers, and explore practical ways to honor their intentions while guiding them toward less harmful roles. This session will feature a live demo selected from participant submissions.
Universal Managers and Therapist Parts; Get in Relationship not in Control
Meet the “focusing out” manager parts and explore the subtle impact of Self-like behaviors. Learn how to compassionately reframe control parts, shift from managing to relating, and deepen your therapeutic presence through real-life case consultations.
Exile Connection & Compassionate Witnessing
Learn safe, effective ways to connect with exiles and witness their stories with care. Differentiate one-way from two-way street witnessing, and practice softening protective systems to allow for deeper Self-to-part healing. We will also welcome real-world case consultations from participants.
Let’s Get Started.
Enroll Today!
4 Live sessions, each two and a half hours long
Connect with a global learning community
within our IFS
Learning Hub
Certificate of
Completion for 10 IFS CE Credits
Cece Sykes, LCSW, is an IFS Senior Trainer, author and consultant with over forty years of clinical experience specializing in recovery from trauma and addiction.
One of the founding trainers in the IFS Institute, Cece has educated therapists around the world on the IFS model and on her approach to treating addictive processes. Her original chapter on addiction appears in Innovations & Elaborations (2016) and her recent book IFS Therapy for Addictions: Trauma Informed Compassion-Based Interventions for Substances, Eating, Gambling and More with Martha Sweezy and Richard Schwartz was released in 2023.
Let’s Get Started.
Enroll Today!
