Healing Trauma

09/05/2026

FIRST IFS LEVEL 1 NEURODIVERGENCE-AFFILIATED TRAINING ( #1325, Moonlit Lagoon) kicked off with three-day-long Session 1, September 2-4, 2026.
I am sitting with the parts of me that are celebrating it and parts that still cannot believe it has happened. ❤️💃🎉🕺🌊😱🫣❤️
I would like to express gratitude to so many people who contributed to this training becoming reality. And, yet I know there are many more that has worked behind the scenes and maybe missed in this post. Please, let me know if I missed you and I will be glad to add you. 🙏❤️🙏
First and foremost, I am thankful to the neurodivergent IFS community at large that kept asking for this training, expressing interest and offering support. Your persistence is one of the reasons this training is happening. ❤️🫣❤️🫂
My co-lead trainer Mel Costa has been such a great partner in constructing and executing the curriculum, advocating for the training’s needs and shining her amazing Self-energy on the whole endeavor. ❤️🫂🙌❤️
Our 14 member International and multiply diverse Advisory Council that Mel and I have assembled included IFS trainers, PAs, and level 1 trained folks, all identifying as neurodivergent. Council Members are as follows: Margaret Conley, Yoav Bartov, Carol Shilliday, Nayeli Garci-Crespo, Alessio Rizzo, Cedar Zorc, Korrie James (Korrie Xavier), Alicia Jackson, Bridge Kelly, Bobbi-Jo Molokken, Hannah Monarch, Sandra Adeleye. We met for the first time almost a year ago. The Council provided Mel and I with feedback, suggestions, ideas as we worked on developing curriculum for and integrating accommodations into this training. 🙏❤️🫂
Our Assistant Trainer and one of the Council Members, Margaret L. Conley, has been providing team and administrative support, contributing beautiful neurospicy ideas and shining her vibrant Self energy on the team and participants. 😍❤️💃🏿🙏
Our 12 member PA team has been holding participants in a variety of small group spaces and supporting Trainers’ team through multiple contributions on the front lines and in the background. Nayeli Garci-Crespo, J-d Neubauer, Mel Herff, Sofia Olson, Lirone Losoff, Bobbi-Jo Molokken, Jennie Reitter, Eric Ramirez, Hannah Monarch, Robyn Van Brunt, Korrie Xavier, Lisa Dube.
❤️🙏❤️🙏🫂
My next gratitude goes to the IFS Institute for supporting the trainers’ team and collaborating with us to bring this training forward. They have also been working tirelessly behind the scenes modifying existing structures and putting new ones in place to create container and continuous support for participants and staff. We had many meetings over the two years preceding this training allowing us to put this first first version out.
Last but not least, lots of gratitude to our 36 participants who took a risk to jump into the first time ND training. You have been everything we dreamt of and more.
So far this training has helped me identify new and exciting trailheads (some of my parts are rolling their eyes as I am writing this). As I work through them, I can feel my ability to hold complexity is increasing. So, I am grateful to all the folks who have been showing me what needs to still be healed inside. ❤️
I am asking our neurodivergent IFS community and IFS community at large to continue holding us in Self energy through the next 3 months (and 11 full training days). Even though all IFS level 1 trainings hold a lot of complexity of human experiences and parts, this training has an extra layer of complexity added to it due to multiple past traumatic learning experiences for everyone involved and a vast range of learning and sensory needs. Thank you 🙏❤️🙏

05/11/2026

Invite you to read my new article: "Complex Trauma, IFS and Client trust" published on Medium:

In my individual and group IFS consultations with other mental health professionals I often hear a variant of the following question: “How…

05/06/2026

How can we apply IFS with complex trauma clients? Come to the workshop on May 22-23, 2026 to learn more. Registration link is in the comments.

04/13/2026

04/02/2026

Tammy Solenberger and I talked about ways to adjust IFS therapy to working with complex trauma and many other things IFS:

Podcast Episode · The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast · March 30 · 42m

03/23/2026

Applying IFS with Autistic and ADHD Adults through a Neurodiversity-Affirming Lens

📅 April 17–18, 2026
🕘 9:00 AM–6:00 PM ET
💻 Live Online on Zoom

🌿 Registration is now open

We’re pleased to be offering this workshop again this spring:

This 2-day experiential workshop is designed for IFS-trained mental health professionals who want to deepen their understanding of how to work with Autistic and ADHD adults in ways that are respectful, attuned, and affirming.

Together, we’ll explore:

✨ what neurodiversity and neurodivergence can look like in the therapy room
✨ how to understand Autistic and ADHD clients through an IFS lens
✨ where classic IFS protocols may need to be slowed down, adapted, or revised
✨ the role of the nervous system, sensory experience, and ableist culture in shaping distress
✨ practical exercises and small group practice to support real integration

This training includes both theoretical teaching and experiential learning, offering space not only to learn new material, but to embody it.

🎓 15 IFS credits for certification or recertification
🎓 15 CEUs for licensed mental health providers in the U.S.
📜 Certificate of attendance available with attendance requirements met

🔗 Registration is now open:
https://irina-diyankova.ce-go.com/applying-ifs-with-autistic-and-adhd-adults-through-neurodiversity-affirming-lens-09-03-2026-267 #

Scholarships are available -- https://forms.gle/6ZDpTk8gU4BcuJ72A

For questions, please reach out to Nicole House at
[email protected]

03/23/2026

03/23/2026

First day of Euro-Global Summit on Autism research & awareness in Berlin, Germany has been very interesting and exciting (see pic of the program). Practitioners from multiple disciplines including researchers, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, primary care doctors, psychiatric nurses, coaches, anthropologists, teachers, advocates and autistic people and many countries around the world including Germany, France, Ireland, India, UK, U.S., Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia presented on a variety of different autism-related topics.
I got to present on ‘Making psychotherapy more neuroinclusive for autistic adults and adolescents’.

02/10/2026

Spots are still available in the consultation group "IFS with complex trauma clients".
GOALS:

Exchange support re: integrating IFS into clinical practice with complex trauma clients;
Case consultation on clients with complex trauma (and potentially neurodivergence) backgrounds, including case conceptualization, working on therapists’ parts, case discussion, role playing client or therapist (presenter’s choice);
Continue practicing IFS skills, including parts detection, unblending, parts externalization, direct access, etc.;
Continue to explore therapist's own system, especially the parts that get activated by working with neurodivergence.
Continue exploring the impact of larger systems, such as mainstream culture, white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, on the clients with the aforementioned presentations.

FORMS OF WORK (Participants' choices):

*Roleplaying your challenging client with facilitator being in a therapist role
*Facilitator working with your parts activated by a client
*Watching & discussing a demo tape
*Case discussions
*Q&A

ELIGIBILITY:

•Licensed Mental Health Professionals with active client load
•Completed at least Level 1 IFS training, open to Level 2 and Level 3 trained clinicians
•Carry at least one complex trauma client on the current case load

DETAILS:
•3 meetings, 2 hrs each on Mondays 3:00 – 5:00 pm ET (New York) on the following dates: 02/16/26, 03/09/26, 04/13/26
•Max 6 group members, all of the group hours may be applied towards IFS certification
•Platform: Zoom
•Cost: $250
Full fee is due at the time of acceptance
After the start of the group, no refunds are issued with the exception of the rare emergency (those are considered on a case by case basis)
Registration link is in the comments.

02/10/2026

Spots are still available in the IFS support group for neurodivergent mental health professionals.
If you would like to spend time in the community of like-minded individuals where you dont need to mask, please, come on in. If you would like to explore topics that have a major impact on both your personal and professional lives , such as executive functioning challenges, neurodivergent burnout, impact of neurotypical culture, sensory system regulation and many more, please, come on in. Topics are offered and chosen by the group memebers.
Registration link is in the comments.