About this live event

Learning Objectives

• Describe the core IFS concepts of parts (managers, firefighters and exiles) and Self, and explain why the multiplicity that surfaces in psychedelic states makes IFS a fit for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
• Identify at least 2 IFS-informed preparation strategies, including attention to set and setting and asking protector parts for permission, that lower the risk of adverse reactions and post-session backlash.
• Describe the main effects, risks and contraindications of ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin and ayahuasca, and the legal and scope-of-practice limits clinicians need to work within.
• Apply at least 2 IFS-informed integration strategies to help clients turn what they learned in a medicine session into lasting change, and to respond when a client struggles afterward.

Learning Levels

• Intermediate

Target Audience

Agenda

Live event Instructor(s)

• 

  Martha Sweezy, PhD

  Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School

  Martha Sweezy, PhD, is an Assistant Professor part-time in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a research and training consultant at the Center for Mindfulness & Compassion at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and a psychotherapist in private practice. She writes a blog on topics related to IFS for Psychology Today, and co-hosts a podcast called System Updates: IFS Chitchat. She has co-edited, authored, and co-authored eleven published books on various applications of Internal Family Systems (IFS), including Wired to Feel: Autism as a Condition of Sensory Surplus. She teaches IFS therapy nationally and internationally. Website: https://marthasweezy.com

• 

  Richard C. Schwartz, PhD

  Founder, IFS Institute

  Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, is the creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a therapeutic model with an emerging evidence base that depathologizes the multi-part personality. He is the founder of the IFS Institute, which primarily offers training for professionals, and a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate. He has authored or co-authored more than ten books on IFS and related topics, including No Bad Parts and Internal Family Systems Therapy, and is a co-author of Psychedelic Medicine and Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy: A Clinical Skills Manual (PESI, 2026).

• 

  David Lovas, MD

  Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Private Practice

  David Lovas, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and writer. He co-wrote Psychedelic Medicine and Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy: A Clinical Skills Manual (2026) with Martha Sweezy, Richard Schwartz and Sunny Strasburg, and together they have taught workshops and co-led retreats. Formerly working in academia, Dr. Lovas received awards for his teaching and research at Harvard Medical School and Dalhousie University. Alongside his private practice, he is focused on translating science, IFS and depth psychology for a broader audience. He speaks and coaches internationally.

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  Sunny Strasburg, LMFT

  Founder, The Theradelic Approach

  Sunny Strasburg, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist, educator, speaker and author who specializes in training clinicians. She is the founder of The Theradelic Approach, which equips clinicians with trauma-informed psychedelic-assisted therapy methods by blending Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR, archetypal psychology and trauma-informed care, as detailed in her book The Theradelic Approach. She co-authored Psychedelic Medicine and Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy: A Clinical Skills Manual with David Lovas, Martha Sweezy and Richard C. Schwartz. She has trained more than one thousand clinicians in The Theradelic Approach, and her work has been featured by Stanford University, NPR, SXSW, EMDRIA, Psychedelic Science and the IFS Conference.

• 

  Chantelle Thomas, PhD

  Executive Clinical Director, Windrose Recovery

  Chantelle Thomas, PhD, is a licensed clinical health psychologist, executive clinical director, educator, and researcher specializing in trauma, addiction, and psychedelic-assisted therapy. With over 13 years of clinical trial experience across diverse psychoactive compounds, she serves as a clinical researcher, trainer, and supervisor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Her research background includes eight years as a study therapist, supervisor, and consultant on the MAPS Phase 3 clinical trials for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Dr. Thomas also serves as the Executive Clinical Director across Windrose Recovery, including The Manor residential treatment center, and is the founder and director of the Integrata Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy program. Her clinical and scholarly writing centers on inner-directed therapy, relational ethics, somatic tracking, and the integration of traumatic adaptations within altered states of consciousness.

Disclosure