Trauma and Dissociation Informed Internal Family Systems: How to Successfully Treat C-PTSD, and Dissociative Disorders

by Joanne Twombly

Treat C-PTSD and dissociative disorders successfully.This book integrates dimensions from the Trauma and Dissociation field into the already excellent framework of standard IFS. With this book, you will gain the knowledge of how to treat Complex-PTSD and Dissociative Disordered clients safely, respectfully, ethically, and successfully. Learn in-depth information about this exciting new integration of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and the Trauma/Dissociation field in this extensive guide.

Inside, you’ll

Strategies to strengthen and support managers’ ability to manageIntegration of the powerful treatment modality of IFSCoping skills and affect management for all parts that will help clients get through the healing process more efficiently and protect their daily functioningThe ability to use basic hypnotic language to enhance the use and impact of the basic IFS process through simple hypnotic wording.Helpful ways of conceptualizing this therapyAnd more…Read Trauma and Dissociation Informed Internal Family Systems today!

Genres: Psychology, Counselling, Nonfiction

271 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 8, 2023

Reviews

[Eila Jameson-Avey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and informative. It was refreshing to read about dissociation. Unfortunately it didn’t explore all forms of dissociation. Also if you suffer dissociation this book is triggering.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so grateful this book exists. Many of us in the cPTSD and DD space love IFS but know its limits with complex presentations. I have actually struggled with guilt that I’m “doing IFS wrong” when I add in more Phase 1 stabilization with clients! I love Twombly’s creative and flexible approach that combines the unconditional positive regard for parts and concept of Self from IFS with the tri-phasic model of trauma treatment, EMDR, hypnosis, and structural dissociation. I learned so much from this and immediately put some of her ideas to use with clients, all of whom loved the interventions.

Some concerns:
- How she talks about gender dysphoria at the beginning...I'd like some clarification on her stance. Giving the benefit of the doubt because she mentions later that gender is a spectrum.
- Use of power when clients are in trance states. I don't have a solution here other than I would have liked more emphasis on ongoing informed consent and at least mentioning the power that goes with these interventions.
- The ebook had a lot of typos (missing words, repeated bullet points, etc.)

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book, in addition to listening to a large number of her interviews, made me feel like I’ve already become friends with Joanne Twombly…a professional dream of mine :)

Twombly’s writing and speaking beautifully embodies the Cs of Self towards both client and clinician. She exhibits unconditional positive regard for clients, is remarkably frank (and humorous!) about her own imperfections, and demonstrates pervasive faith in the presence of Self in each person.

This book is intended for IFS-trained therapists who are ill-informed about work with CPTSD and Dissociative Disorders (and would be significantly less helpful for therapists who are experienced with CPTSD already and wanting to know about IFS). Some chapters seem to have a lot of overlap with some of the techniques in The EMDR Toolbox (Knipe), but Twombly only references EMDR in passing and focuses on the IFS Framework.

At times, advice here seems like it might not jive with Steele, Boon and van der Hart’s “Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation”…but Twombly does pay tribute to them and highly recommend their work at one point in the book, so it may just be me that perceived the two sources to be dissonant(?).

Really my only qualm is in the editing and organization, but that didn’t affect my learning process.

[Jules Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The content of this book is needed in the field and vital to adapting IFS to working with people on the dissociative spectrum. The writing (and editing) is not great. Five stars for content, three for style.

[A.D. · Rating 1 out of 5]

In the opening pages of her book on Trauma and Dissociation-Informed IFS Therapy, Joanne Twombly writes, inexplicably, on the subject of transgender identity:

"There is also growing concern regarding teenagers who feel that they are in the wrong body and who rush to get it corrected. Teenage years are when people feel all sorts of different feelings and emotions coinciding with neurological changes and developments."

Make no mistake: this is a transphobic canard. The "theory" of "rapid-onset-gender dysphoria" which has been so popularized in media as of late is nothing more than a targeted misinformation campaign designed to stoke "concerns" about the legitimacy of trans identity in kids. The primary goal of this campaign is to strip vulnerable children of access to life-saving medical care.

Twombly clearly knows next to nothing about trans identity and is not qualified to speak on the subject.

I'm shocked and appalled that something like this could make its way into an otherwise serious book on therapy, published in 2023.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to modifying IFS for complex trauma.