The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute (PSI) is thrilled to have Richard Schwartz, PhD, as this year’s keynote speaker for its annual conference, Exploring the Inner Addict: Addiction, Spirituality and Internal Family Systems. Who is Richard Schwartz? Only one of the leading contributors to the field of psychotherapy today.
Richard Schwartz is the founder of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a therapeutic school that combines systems thinking with the view that the mind is composed of discrete yet intertwined sub-personalities or “parts” with their own viewpoint and purpose.
He began his career as a systemic family therapist and an academic. Grounded in systems thinking, Dr. Schwartz developed IFS in response to clients’ descriptions of various parts within themselves. He focused on the relationships among these parts and noticed that there were systemic patterns to the way they were organized across clients. He also found that when the clients’ parts felt safe and were allowed to relax, the clients would experience spontaneously the qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion that Dr. Schwartz came to call the Self. He found that when in that state of Self, clients would know how to heal their parts.
Through this lens, Schwartz will reframe addiction as sacred protection from deeper pain that can be healed and transformed with curiosity and compassion. Thus, loving our inner addicted parts is the key to liberating them.
A featured speaker for national professional organizations, Dr. Schwartz has published many books and over fifty articles about IFS. Learn more about Dr. Schwartz and IFS on the IFS Institute website. You can also watch him present on IFS here.
Friday, April 24, 2020
8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
UJA Federation of New York
130 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022
Early Bird registration is open through Feb. 29, 2020.
5.5 Continuing Education Credits and/or Units (CEUs) are available to LMFTs, LMHCs, LCSWs, LMSWs, and LCATs.
PSI is proud to partner with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the Interfaith Center of New York, The Internal Family Systems Institute and Trinity Church Wall Street.
The Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute is a non-profit, interfaith, interdisciplinary psychotherapy practice dedicated to offering services that treat mind and spirit as one.