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Ego States and Internal Family Systems (IFS) in Trauma-Informed Work

CLINICAL EVENTS

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Ego States and Internal Family Systems (IFS) in Trauma-Informed Work

Internal Family Systems

Nov. 7, 2026

10:00 AM - 1:15 PM (EST)

Virtual Event
3 CE Credits

Understanding your clients goes beyond symptoms—it requires insight into the internal systems driving their behavior.

In this training, you’ll be introduced to Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Ego State Interventions, learning how parts-based approaches can help clients safely process trauma, reduce internal conflict, and build greater self-leadership.

Walk away with practical, trauma-informed strategies you can immediately apply in your clinical work.

Understanding the complexities of our clients’ personalities and behaviors can be challenging. Tendencies to overdiagnose presentable symptoms can leave clients feeling labeled and hopeless about change. In this upcoming training, you will learn an introduction to the model of Internal Family Systems, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. This will include an overview of the framework of this model, the basic assumptions of IFS, and the goals of IFS therapy and Ego State Interventions in trauma-informed care.

This 3-hour training introduces clinicians to the integration of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Ego State Interventions within trauma-informed care. Participants will explore how parts-based approaches can support clients in safely accessing, understanding, and transforming trauma-related experiences without overwhelming the nervous system. The course highlights practical strategies for identifying protective and wounded parts, working with internal conflict, and fostering greater internal coherence and self-leadership. Through a trauma-informed lens, this training emphasizes pacing, attunement, and clinical decision-making when working with complex trauma, dissociation, and entrenched patterns. Attendees will leave with adaptable, evidence-informed interventions that can be integrated into a variety of clinical settings to enhance safety, deepen therapeutic work, and support lasting change.

Session Highlights
  • Describe the basic foundations of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model.
  • Discuss the different types of assumptions made with IFS Therapy and Ego State Interventions
  • Analyze how to identify parts and their relationships to each other and self as it relates to trauma-informed care.
Key Takeaways for Clinicians

“Working with trauma requires more than addressing symptoms—it requires understanding the internal systems that shape a client’s experience. In this workshop, you’ll learn how Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Ego State interventions provide a compassionate, trauma-informed framework for helping clients safely process difficult emotions and experiences.

You’ll explore how Internal Family Systems (IFS) helps clinicians identify protective and wounded parts, reduce internal conflict, and strengthen self-leadership without overwhelming the nervous system. Through practical clinical examples, you’ll gain strategies that can be integrated into a wide range of therapeutic settings.

The training also demonstrates how Internal Family Systems (IFS) can be combined with trauma-informed principles to improve assessment, treatment planning, and therapeutic outcomes for individuals with complex trauma, attachment challenges, and dissociation. You’ll leave with practical tools that can be applied immediately in your clinical practice.

Whether you’re new to parts work or looking to strengthen your trauma treatment skills, this workshop will help you confidently integrate Internal Family Systems (IFS) into ethical, evidence-informed care. Continue expanding your knowledge by exploring our Clinical Blog and Upcoming Clinical Events, while staying informed through organizations such as the IFS Institute and the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD)”.

This live interactive webinar is designed for behavioral health professionals, including:

  • Counselors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychotherapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Psychologists
  • Substance Use Disorders Counselors
  • Case Managers
  • Physicians
  • Other Mental Health Professionals
Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-IIMegan Salar, MSW

Trusted EMDR & Trauma Educator

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, is an author, educator, consultant, and professional trainer specializing in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, trauma-informed care, attachment, addictive disorders, complex trauma, and parts-oriented approaches. Her work helps mental and behavioral health professionals understand advanced trauma concepts and apply them with greater clarity, preparation, and respect for client readiness.

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, has trained thousands of professionals in the United States and internationally. Her teaching combines structured clinical concepts with practical examples, helping clinicians examine what may be interfering when trauma processing becomes blocked, repetitive, emotionally overwhelming, or disconnected from the client’s present capacity for regulation.

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, currently focuses on authorship, consulting, professional education, and training rather than providing psychotherapy through her public educational services. Her work emphasizes that sophisticated trauma treatment requires more than a technique: it requires assessment, informed consent, clinical judgment, pacing, cultural responsiveness, and an understanding of the client’s wider emotional and relational system.

Professional Background

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, earned her master’s degree in clinical social work from Northwest Nazarene University in 2011. Her professional education and training have concentrated on EMDR, trauma, abuse, attachment, substance use, and the clinical challenges that arise when clients experience multiple overlapping concerns.

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, previously founded and operated an intensive outpatient treatment program serving people affected by trauma and substance-use concerns. Current publisher records state that the program received recognition for excellence in practice in 2019. That leadership background informs her understanding of direct clinical work as well as the organizational demands of delivering trauma-responsive behavioral healthcare.

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, now operates educational, coaching, consulting, and training services and is publicly identified as the owner and founder of The Mental Survivalist. Current professional profiles also identify her as a co-founder of the Institute of Traumatic Growth and Resiliency. These roles center on clinician development, trauma education, consultation, and the practical integration of EMDR-informed methods.

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, has developed training on EMDR foundations, complex trauma, addiction, attachment, children and adolescents, acute traumatic incidents, narrative techniques, ego states, internal parts, interweaves, and barriers that may interrupt memory processing. Her educational approach encourages clinicians to understand why an intervention is being used rather than treating bilateral stimulation as a stand-alone procedure.

Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, is the author of The EMDR Workbook for Trauma and PTSD, published by New Harbinger Publications in 2023, and EMDR For Dummies, published by Wiley in 2024. New Harbinger also lists EMDR Workbook for Addiction as a forthcoming 2027 publication.

Areas of Expertise

EMDR Structure and Clinical Application. Megan Salar, MSW, EMDR-C, ACADC, CCTP-II, teaches EMDR as a complete, phased treatment framework rather than an eye-movement exercise. EMDRIA identifies eight phases: history taking and treatment planning, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation. Her education emphasizes preparation, target selection, dual attention, monitoring, closure, and reassessment when treatment does not proceed as expected. Clinical Events’ guide to EMDR trauma reprocessing provides complementary background.

Complex Trauma, Attachment, and Clinical Pacing. Salar helps clinicians recognize that complex or developmental trauma may require additional preparation before direct memory work. Attachment history, dissociation, current safety, emotional tolerance, substance use, physical health, relational supports, and previous treatment experiences can all affect readiness. Her approach encourages therapists to slow treatment when greater stabilization, trust, or consultation is needed rather than interpreting every treatment barrier as client resistance.

Trauma-Informed Care. Trauma-informed treatment involves more than identifying traumatic events. It also requires attention to safety, transparency, collaboration, empowerment, cultural context, and the possibility that apparently unhelpful behavior developed as a protective adaptation. SAMHSA describes trauma-informed approaches as applicable across mental-health and substance-use services. Clinical Events’ evidence-based trauma-treatment guide places EMDR alongside other established and emerging approaches.

Addiction and Trauma-Related Coping. Salar’s ACADC background and former treatment-program leadership inform her education on the intersection of trauma and substance use. A person may understand the consequences of an addictive behavior while continuing to rely on it for temporary relief from memories, shame, physiological activation, loneliness, or emotional pain. Her teaching helps clinicians examine triggers, attachment patterns, urges, trauma-linked memory networks, relapse vulnerability, and the purpose served by the behavior without reducing addiction to weak motivation or character.

Ego States and Parts-Oriented Work. Her advanced education addresses internal parts, ego states, fragmented experiences, protective responses, and trauma-related conflicts that can become visible during EMDR. One part of a client may want change while another fears the consequences of becoming vulnerable. Parts-oriented assessment can help clinicians understand these conflicts compassionately, provided they avoid imposing labels or presenting a conceptual model as proof of a specific diagnosis. Clinical Events’ resource on IFS and ego states in trauma-informed work offers related clinical context.

Resourcing, Somatic Awareness, and Regulation. Salar teaches clinicians to strengthen present-moment stability before and during trauma processing. Resourcing may involve grounding, orienting, imagery, dual-attention awareness, supportive relationships, movement, sensory cues, or other individualized practices. Body sensations can provide useful information, but they should not automatically be interpreted as evidence of a hidden memory or particular trauma narrative. Clinical Events’ somatic therapy guide discusses grounding, interoception, movement, titration, and important clinical cautions.

EMDR Barriers and Interweaves. When processing loops, stops, or repeatedly returns to the same material, Salar helps clinicians consider whether the client needs additional preparation, a revised target, greater attention to protective parts, or a carefully selected cognitive, relational, somatic, or parts-oriented interweave. The purpose is not to force movement but to understand what the client’s system may require for treatment to continue safely and meaningfully.

Clinician Training and Consultation. Her professional education translates complex theory into case examples, decision-making questions, practical language, demonstrations, and adaptable tools. Salar’s work is intended to help clinicians strengthen existing competence, identify treatment limitations, and recognize when consultation, referral, or a different level of care is more appropriate than continuing with an intervention that is not serving the client.

Authored Publications
  • The EMDR Workbook for Trauma and PTSD: Skills to Manage Triggers, Move Beyond Traumatic Memories, and Take Back Your Life
  • EMDR For Dummies

 

After this training, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the basic foundations of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model.
  • Discuss the different types of assumptions made with IFS Therapy and Ego State Interventions
  • Analyze how to identify parts and their relationships to each other and self as it relates to trauma-informed care.

10:00 -10:05 am – Introduction

10:05-10:30 am – Foundations of Parts Work in Trauma

10:30-11:00 am – Mapping the Internal System

11:00-11:30 am – Working with and Understanding Protective Parts

11:30-11:45 am – Break

11:45-12:15 pm – Accessing and Supporting Wounded Parts

12:15-12:45 pm – Working with Dissociation & Complex Trauma

12:45-1:05 pm – Integration & Clinical Application

1:05-1:15 pm – Q&A

Beginner.

Registration Cost

Registration $67 | Nov. 7 | Virtual Event | 3 CE Credits | 10:00 am – 1:15 pm ET

Registration Deadline:  Nov. 7, 2026

Cancellation Policy

All registrations are non-refundable. However, you may request a full credit toward a future training if:

  • You notify us at least 72 hours before the event starts.
  • Credit is valid for up to 6 months from the original event date.
  • No credit will be issued for no-shows or cancellations made on the same day.
  • When you register for an event, you agree to these terms

Please email [email protected] to request a credit or reschedule.

A total of 3 CE credits are available.

Additional Approvals Pending.


ASWB ACE

Clinical Events, LLC, (provider # 2201) is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 11/01/2025 – 11/01/2028.

NBCC

Clinical Events, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved   Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7643 Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Clinical Events, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

NAADAC

This course has been approved by Clinical Events, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #320899, Clinical Events is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

NY State Board of Psychologists

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0292.

NY State Board of Psychoanalysts

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0073.

NY State Board of Social Workers

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0828.

NY State Board of Mental Health Counselors

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0329.

NY State Board of Marriage & Family Therapists

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0140.

NJ State Board of Social Workers & Professional Counselors

The New Jersey Social Work Examiners Board accepts ASWB ACE Provider credits. The New Jersey Professional Counselors Board accepts NBCC-approved CE provider credits.

All Other States Social Workers & Professional Counselors

All other states accept ASWB ACE Provider credits and NBCC-approved CE provider credits. Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their jurisdictions. States and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Florida Certification Board

Clinical Events is approved by the Florida Certification Board (FCB) to offer continuing education programs (Provider # 5527-A).

Canada Social Workers

BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, and QC accept ASWB ACE-approved provider programs to meet licensure renewal requirements.  Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their province. Provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Canada Counsellors

Clinical Events is an NBCC-approved provider.  Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their province. Provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Please contact us if you would like to inquire about applicable approvals for your continuing education (CE) needs.

Each professional is responsible for understanding and meeting the specific CE requirements set by their individual licensing board or regulatory agency. We encourage you to reach out to your licensing body directly to confirm how our programs apply toward your licensure renewal.

Questions:  [email protected]

In accordance with continuing education standards and requirements, the presenter discloses that they have no relevant financial relationships, affiliations, or conflicts of interest to report.

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