IFS and EMDR Integration: Self-energy & Adaptive Neural Networks

May 26

As the popularity of IFS surges, IFS and EMDR integration is coming up more and more frequently during clinical consultation calls. Both of these modalities are powerful and complex tools for treating trauma and related issues, and bringing them together can result in a smoother, more attuned and effective healing experience.

Here are a few key concepts and a practice to help you begin to integrate these modalities to foster wellbeing and resiliency, for yourself and your clients.

Key concepts for using both IFS and EMDR to enhance daily experience.

The IFS concept of Self-energy correlates directly with the EMDR concept of adaptive neural networks.

IFS

IFS trusts that every person has at their core the positive resources of Self-energy: a source of intuition, connection to life all around us- the energy in each of us that holds our capacity to heal. The term Self-energy in IFS refers to the source of calm, clarity, wellbeing and lightheartedness and is often described by listing the “8 Cs”: the qualities of Calm, Curiosity, Compassion, Connectedness, Courage, Creative, Confidence, and Clarity.

The IFS model provides some great language for understanding what gets in the way of living a life infused and directed by Self-energy. When someone has a traumatic experience, protective parts, known as managers and firefighters, will step in to find immediate although often haphazard and costly “solutions” to help us avoid similar unwanted experiences and emotions in the future.

Managers seek to avoid vulnerability by acting preemptively to ensure we stay on track; think perfectionism, people-pleasing, self-critical inner dialogs – all manager-driven behaviors.
Firefighters come in as soon as something feels like it’s going awry, often with a single-minded focus of getting rid of the experience and the unpleasant emotions the experience brings up. Some examples of firefighter behaviors are over-sleeping, over-exercising, shopping sprees, substance misuse, fits of anger, and a number of other ways we distract and disconnect from what’s painful or vulnerable underneath.
Exiles are the parts of us that hold trauma and related negative beliefs about us. It’s helpful to think of firefighters and managers as protecting us from the emotions of exile parts.

EMDR

In EMDR, the experiences, knowledge and skills that support our ability to function are held in adaptive neural networks, whereas trauma memories are stored in negative neural networks, as unprocessed raw material that is still connected to all the negative attributions of the original event. The EMDR model tells us that before we can integrate trauma memories so they no longer intrude on our ability to live fully in the present, we need to make sure we have a strong and accessible adaptive neural network. That way, when we are ready to address the traumatic memories, they can be gently activated, reprocessed, and integrated into the adaptive neural networks. Much of EMDR therapy is focused on building up the adaptive neural networks, which are absolutely essential for successful memory work.

Bringing IFS and EMDR together

Self-energy by nature is always present underneath protective parts or patterns, and each of us has adaptive neural networks that hold our successes, moments of connection and awe, and the values that make us who we are. Whenever we can foster connection to Self-and/or to our adaptive neural networks, we are opening the door to improvements in daily experience- we begin to turn the dial towards wellbeing.

Both IFS and EMDR provide powerful tools to build up our capacity to experience the good, to live by our values and recognize our worth. As we find ways to increase access to Self-energy and build up the adaptive neural networks, we increase wellbeing and satisfaction, and build up the strong foundation needed to reprocess trauma memories and overcome unhelpful and outdated protective patterns (think isolation, rumination, numbing with harmful and addictive behaviors).

There are so many creative ways to build up these capacities, and here is a little exercise that can get us started. As you develop your own practice, you will find more ways to connect to Self-energy and grow adaptive neural networks.

A way to bring the concepts into practice

Practice 1 - Connect with one of the “8 C’s” and enhance. This can be done in a therapy session or as an at-home journalling exercise, with the option of adding in some EMDR resource tapping in either setting.

Pick a “C” quality that resonates and registers as important in life. (8c’s = Calm, Curiosity, Compassion, Connectedness, Courage, Creative, Confidence, and Clarity.)
Map out the quality on a blank sheet of paper, using words, drawing, doodles, colors, etc., adding in associated experiences, mentors, inspirational images, quotes or poems.
Add to your map: Think of 1-3 times you experienced this quality in the recent past, and make note of all the sensory details of the experience. (It’s optional here to bring in some EMDR and enhance with slow bilateral resource tapping, assuming you can connect with the positive emotion that goes with the memory.)
Ask: What is the felt experience of having more of this “C” quality in your body? Where is it in the body, and if it had color, shape or texture, how would it show up? (We can enhance this with slow bilateral too, as long as it’s positive.)
Consider: How things will be different moving forward with more access to this particular “C” quality. What would you think, do or say differently?
Identify 1-3 ways to bring more of this quality into your daily life and identify tangible steps to support integration, adding these into the calendar or planning next steps in whatever ways fit.
Visualize: “Playing a mental movie” of how the next few days, weeks or months will be as you have more access to the “C” you are focusing on. This helps develop the adaptive neural networks around the concept of the particular “C” quality, so it’s easier to access this quality later on.
Repeat as needed, working to enhance as many “C” qualities as you want over time.