About this course

Learning Objectives

• Explain how eating disorders function within the IFS model as protectors and exiles.
• Identify key strategies for integrating IFS into eating disorder therapy.
• Summarize how IFS can support clients with eating disorders by fostering self-compassion, internal harmony and a non-pathologizing approach to treatment.

Learning Levels

• Beginner

Target Audience

Course Instructor(s)

• 

  Theresa Chesnut, LCSW, CEDS-C

  Founder and CEO of The Chesnut Group

  Theresa Chesnut specializes in the treatment of Eating Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD), and issues related to anxiety, depression and stress. Her focus embraces the optimization of athletic performance as well as the resolution of conflicts arising within the family, particularly those pertaining to adolescent growth. Her therapeutic orientation is holistic, strength-based, and grounded in both psychodynamic and Internal Family Systems (IFS) theories. Theresa has worked with adolescents and adults for over 30 years, managing her clients’ challenges with Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorders. Previous to her having formed her own private group practice, she held the position of Clinical Director at The Healthy Teen Project (HTP), an adolescent, eating disorder-specific outpatient clinic. Before her tenure at HTP, Theresa held many roles over her 13-year stint at a national eating disorder residential treatment center, including Program Director, Lead Individual and Group Therapist, Program Director, Director of Regional Marketing, and supervising master level interns. She was also instrumental in a senior management role, starting new programs, training new staff, overseeing operations, creating policies and procedures for programs, and expanding existing practices into new geographic locations. Theresa lectures locally and nationally, both in person and virtually, on therapeutic interventions targeting the entire eating disorder recovery process. Over the last 3 decades, Theresa has lectured on college campuses as well as to allied professionals covering the state of the art of symptom identification and eating disorder prevention, therapeutic interventions. She has been trained in Family Based Therapy (FBT), Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), and has been an Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist for 2 decades; additionally, she has assisted in Level One Trainings. Theresa served as a Board member of the national Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA) from 2009-2017 and held board positions as the Secretary, Vice-Chair, and Chair. Additionally, she sat on several committees including the Conference Committee and Weight Stigma Awareness Week." Theresa currently runs an annual event - The Tri-State Eating Disorder Conference in Evansville, Indiana. She maintains group practices in California and in Indiana. The practice offers practicum internships for Masters level students. She is one of IADEP’s Certified Eating Disorder Specialists, in addition to being one of their Supervisors. Although she maintains her private practice in Northern California, she resides in Evansville, IN where she is a proud grandmother to 4 grandchildren and her therapy Shepadoodle, Stevie Nicks.

• 

  Richard C Schwartz, PH.D

  Dick Schwartz began his career as a family therapist and an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief and in asking patients why, he learned that they were plagued by what they called “parts.” These patients became his teachers as they described how their parts formed networks of inner relationship that resembled the families he had been working with. He also found that as they focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, confidence and compassion. He called that inner essence the Self and was amazed to find it even in severely diagnosed and traumatized patients. From these explorations the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was born in the early 1980s.

  IFS is now evidence-based and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families, and more recently, corporations and classrooms.

  Dick lives with his wife Jeanne near Chicago, close to his three daughters and his growing number of grandchildren.

Disclosure

References

• Riemersma, J. (Ed.), & Schwartz, R. C. (Eds.). (2023). Altogether us: Integrating the IFS model with key modalities, communities, and trends. Pivotal Press.
• Catanzaro, J. (2023). Unburdened eating: Releasing blocks to nourishing relationships with food and body using Internal Family Systems. Trailhead Publications.
• Forbes, Y., & Donovan, C. (2019). The role of internalised weight stigma and self‐compassion in the psychological well‐being of overweight and obese women. Australian Psychologist, 54(6), 471–482. https://doi.org/10.1111/ap.12407
• Braun, T. D., Riley, K. E., Kunicki, Z. J., Finkelstein-Fox, L., Conboy, L. A., Park, C. L., Schifano, E., Abrantes, A. M., & Lazar, S. W. (2021). Internalized weight stigma and intuitive eating among stressed adults during a mindful yoga intervention: Associations with changes in mindfulness and self-compassion. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 9(1), 933–950. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2021.1992282
• Lester, R. J. (2017). Self‐governance, psychotherapy, and the subject of managed care: Internal Family Systems therapy and the multiple self in a US eating‐disorders treatment center. American Ethnologist, 44(1), 23-35.