Susan McConnell - Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy

With Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy, 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. Susan 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: Engaging theRhythm of Regulation

This excellent book takes a very interesting look at family systems therapyfrom a very somatic perspective. The theory and method of Somatic IFS really comes alive through case vignettes, clinical examples, practical exercises, and reflections. Referencing many other body-oriented practices, therapists, and researchers, this book offers an up-to-date, pragmatic method of working somatically with people: a methodology which other psychotherapistsespecially those from non-somatic disciplinescan readily learn from.

Courtenay Young, UK body psychotherapist, editor of the International Journal of Psychotherapy

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 practicesin 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: Principles, Techniques, and Practical Applications

A brilliant psychotherapeutic integration of mind and body by a wise and experienced somatic practitioner who weaves Internal Family Systems therapy into a method that facilitates the achievement of an Embodied Self. Through descriptions and explanations of the five practices of Somatic IFS, illustrative case examples, and guided practices, the author connects the gifts of ancient medicine and contemporary neuroscience to the benefit of professionals and laypersons alike. A unique and timely book.

Marcel A. Duclos, LCMHC, LPC, ACS, Diplomate, AMHCA, certified Core Energetics therapist, certified IFS therapist

Copyright 2020 by Susan McConnell. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California

Cover design by Howie Severson
Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in Canada

Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy: Awareness, Breath, Resonance, Movement, and Touch in Practice is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McConnell, Susan, 1948 author.
Title: Somatic internal family systems therapy : awareness, breath,
resonance, movement and touch in practice / Susan McConnell ; foreword
by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2020] | Summary:
Applying somatic principles to the Internal Family Systems model
Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy introduces a new therapeutic
modality that blends principles of somatic therapylike movement, touch, and breathworkwith 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 Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020006693 | ISBN 9781623174880 (trade paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Family psychotherapy. | Mind and body therapies. |
Self-consciousness (Awareness) | Breathing exercisesTherapeutic use. |
Movement therapy. | TouchTherapeutic use.
Classification: LCC RC488.5 .M3918 2020 | DDC 616.89/156dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020006693

I am very honored and excited that Susan McConnell has finally written this book that brings all of her wisdom from years of somatic study and practice to the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, which I developed with lots of help from Susan along the way.

I remember those early years fondly. I had worked out the basics of IFS by the time Susan and I met around 1993, and she joined a small group of therapists I was leading in Chicago who were experimenting with our clients and each other to help me expand it and flesh it out. Those were exciting times and we all became very close to one another. While I am delighted with how IFS has now exploded in the US and around the world, I also long for those early days when we were more of a tight-knit little family searching for how to get it to where it is now.

Prior to meeting Susan, I had been collaborating with Ron Kurtz, the developer of Hakomi, a somatic- and mindfulness-based psychotherapy that complements IFS well. Ron and others in the Hakomi community had already influenced my approach to parts by making me aware of the importance of locating them in the body and directing communication with parts to those body locations. I also learned the value of sometimes letting a part take over and move ones body at times so that it felt fully witnessed.

Susan was a Hakomi trainer and a strong advocate for IFS to include even more somatic components, and now it does. She also became a leader in that growing IFS community. She was one of the first lead trainers and became a mentor to many of the subsequent ones (she was our first director of staff development). She had a passion for helping start things and was at my side for a lot of trainings, recording my talks and helping create experiential exercises with me on the fly. She was my trusted advisor through that time, and she produced the first training manual out of all that material she had been recording. For all of that I am eternally grateful.

She also had the courage to let me know when I was out of line. The parts of me that I leaned on to overcome my shyness and begin bringing IFS to a skeptical and sometimes hostile world of psychotherapy were not the parts best suited to leading a community. I needed someone to call me out when I was acting arrogant or thoughtless, and Susan and a few others often rose to that occasion. Because I trusted her and knew how much she cared for me and the future of IFS, I could hear it from her and I worked with those parts.

Over the years I have increasingly explored the relationship among what I call Selfthe undamaged, healing essence within us allparts, and the body. It is quite fascinating how parts can expel your Self from your body and how, when you are disembodied that way, it is more difficult for your Self to lead your system. So I have found the embodiment of Self to be an important goal in IFS. Self needs to be in the body to have enough purchase to be a good leader, and it is hard for parts to sense the comforting presence of Self when it is not embodied. When that is the case, parts, like parentless children, are in constant anxiety and become increasingly extreme. When Self is embodied, it is like the parent has returned home and the children can relax and be children.