In this episode of IFS Talks, Nancy Sowell, Martha Sweezy, and IFS founder Richard Schwartz join us to explore their new book, IFS Health Therapy: Treating Trauma-Related Physical Illness & Toxic Stress.

Together, we discuss the relationship between chronic stress, trauma, internal parts, and physical health; working compassionately with pain, dissociation, shame, suppressed emotions, and protectors that resist healthier habits; and how IFS can complement, rather than replace, medical care. 

The conversation offers clinicians a thoughtful, non-pathologizing approach to supporting mind-body healing.

This week I welcome Nancy Sowell to the podcast to kick off Season 8. She spearheaded the intervention program behind the landmark study with medical patients that helped establish IFS as a promising treatment, and she wrote a book about what IFS has to offer our physical health.

This one also feels like a full circle moment. Nancy was my lead trainer when The One Inside was just getting started.

In this episode we talk about how chronic stress, childhood adversity, perfectionism, and burdened parts affect our physical health, and what IFS can offer.

This episode of Facing the Moment explores the profound impact of physical illness, chronic conditions, and disability on the human experience

Host Toufic Hakin, PhD, welcomes Nancy Sowell, MSW, LICSW, a lead Internal Family Systems (IFS) trainer and psychotherapist, to discuss how individuals can maintain their identity and find meaning when their bodies no longer cooperate as expected.

Throughout the conversation, Nancy shares her personal journey with psoriatic arthritis, offering a unique perspective that blends professional expertise with lived experience. The discussion delves into the deep connection between physical pain and emotional suffering, noting that both activate the same regions of the brain.

An Interview and Conversation with Nancy Sowell and her daughter, award winning author Melissa Febos, professor and director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa and author of numerous books (e.g., Girlhood, Body Work, The Dry Season).