Trained in IFS

There’s a lot of talk these days in IFS circles about training – who’s authorized, who’s “certified,” who’s truly qualified to teach or practice Internal Family Systems. Scroll through social media long enough and you’ll see it: therapists introducing themselves with titles like “Level 3-trained” or “the only certified IFS therapist in my area.” There’s a kind of quiet hierarchy in those words – an implication that certification equals mastery, that the Institute’s blessing equals embodied wisdom.

But my experience tells a fuller, messier, and more human story.

Yes, there are therapists trained through the IFS Institute who are extraordinary – deeply Self-led, humble, and healing in their presence. I’ve met them, learned from them, and felt changed by the way they hold space. And yet, I’ve also met others with the same certificates who I would never refer a client to – not because they’re bad people, but because they haven’t yet turned inward. They know the language of IFS, but not its soul. They can map protectors, but not meet their own.

And I say that without judgment, because the same can be said for any lineage of teachers – including my own. I’ve trained therapists under the banner of Self-Leadership and Healing, my own version of IFS. Some are thriving, living and practicing in ways that honor the essence of the model. Others… not so much. A certificate doesn’t create Self-leadership any more than a wedding ring creates love. It’s a marker, not a manifestation.

This is why I sometimes chuckle when people talk about “unauthorized trainings.” The IFS Institute, bless its human limitations, has more demand than it can handle. In that gap – the gap between hunger and access – many have stepped forward. Some do it well. Some don’t. But the deeper question, to me, isn’t who has permission. It’s who is living the work.

There’s a part of me, I’ll admit, that still wants the official certification – the gold seal of approval, the nod that says, You’re legitimate. But when I sit with that part, I realize it’s chasing something it already has: worth. My Self knows that legitimacy isn’t granted from the outside. It’s lived from the inside. It shows up in how I lead my system, how I relate to others, and how I keep learning, not to be seen as competent, but to become more whole.

And that, I think, is what truly makes someone an IFS therapist – not the signature on a certificate, but the signature of Self on their life. The willingness to keep meeting their own parts. The humility to know they’re always still learning. The courage to embody what they teach.

Because at the end of the day, no one becomes a good IFS therapist by attending a training. They become one by living a Self-led life long after the training ends.