Using Hypnotherapy to Help Access Hidden Parts Within Us - Discussion with Richard Schwartz, PhD

I first saw Richard Schwartz, PhD a few years ago during an online summit hosted by Diane Poole Heller, PhD, and could sense there was something unique and attention-worthy to the Internal Family Systems (IFS) psychotherapy model he was explaining in the treatment of attachment disorders and Complex PTSD. However, I must not have been ready for it at that time because I got sidetracked in grad school studying Mental Health Counseling and didn't take the time to do a deeper dive.

Fast forward two and a half years later and I stumble across the book No Bad Parts that Dick Schwartz had just recently published (his first book written for the public rather than academia). I started reading it and it just spoke directly to the core of me (Self, no doubt)! I was still in grad school and forcing myself through it while just dying inside because I wanted to be studying topics that really sang to my heart (like techniques and modalities that were effective for a transformational change).

No Bad Parts sung to me.

I had also been trained in a hypnosis technique ten years prior because that technique had been life-changing in my search for a cure for my PTSD spirals (QHHT, Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique). I had two levels of that QHHT training and was conducting sessions over the past decade, but not really going all the way with building it to a larger scale to access helping more people. The desire to do just that - to improve my skill to help more people - kept pulling at me inside.

So, I had made the decision to leap into truly enhancing my skills in hypnotherapy, clinical hypnotherapy, and transpersonal hypnotherapy. I signed up for classes with the Institute of Interpersonal c Hypnotherapy because it was an accredited diploma program with the Florida Board of Education. Little did I know that these two paths that seemed to be going in different directions would cross and become one life mission!

I had also recently made the decision to leap into truly enhancing my skills in hypnotherapy, clinical hypnotherapy, and transpersonal hypnotherapy. I signed up for classes with the Institute of Interpersonal Hypnotherapy because it was an accredited diploma program with the Florida Board of Education. Little did I know that these two paths that seemed to be going in different directions would cross and become one life mission!

When I started clinical hypnotherapy school (a nine-month program at approximately 30 hours per week) I had no idea where it was going to take me. I started reading Roy Hunter's book Hypnosis for Inner Conflict Resolution - Introducing Parts Therapy and learning about the three ego states we hold internally and how to process them in hypnotherapy.

So, when I stumbled across No Bad Parts by Dick Schwartz, I saw how inter-related the two models were - I could see that one had more of an entryway into revealing and talking with our inner Parts, but the other had a more comprehensive structure in relating to the Parts and then ultimately becoming Self-led.

This brings us to this video where I wanted to discuss the use of hypnotherapy in helping to reveal the Parts with Dick Schwartz directly - and the opportunity soon presented itself:

Now that I am nearly completed with my MA in Counseling (I switched to a non-licensure track, and I'll write about why I decided to do that in another post), I am driven and in full inspiration to learn as much as possible about both: Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Parts Therapy in hypnotherapy so that I can interweave both in guiding clients to efficient and effective transformation.

I am happy and overwhelmingly honored and grateful to announce that I have been accepted by the IFS Insitute to begin Level 1 training in Internal Family Systems (IFS) in January 2022!

More exciting things to come!

All my best,

Christine