Mastering the Art of Unblending: Practical Ways to Help Clients Step Back from Their StucK Parts

Therapists and Wellness Professionals:

If you want to become more confident in helping clients who become flooded, frozen, or trapped in a rigid perspective, this course is for you.

This self-study course is taught by Colleen West, a Trauma-Informed Certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapist and Approved Consultant.

This course has 3 hours of content.

Colleen West

When Your Client Gets Stuck... and Perhaps You Do TOO

You know those moments in therapy when a client is so consumed by their emotions, or way of thinking that there’s no way to move forward?

In Internal Family Systems (IFS), this is called blending. It refers to the point at which a part of the psyche fully merges with the client’s Self, causing the client to lose perspective.

Unblending is the process of helping the client step back from the part that is overwhelming them just enough to look at what they’re feeling rather than being swallowed by it.

And when Unblending happens, it can leave you frozen alongside your client, unsure what to do, as the session stalls.

You may then doubt yourself, wondering if you’re skilled enough or whether IFS or the approach you’re using is actually working.

This course shows you exactly what you need to move forward in these moments.

Who CAN BENEFIT FROM THis Course?

IFS-Trained Therapists

At times, you feel lost when clients become blended. You want practical, creative tools to use in those moments when the standard IFS invitations just aren’t landing.

Therapists Trained in Other Approaches

You sometimes have difficulty when you or your clients become overwhelmed, shut down, or stuck in a perspective. You want strategies to help you and your clients get unstuck.

help clients Move Forward when they Become Trapped by their emotions or way of thinking

  • Recognize the signs that a client is blending before the session goes off track
  • Know what to do when verbal approaches stop working

  • Use somatic techniques to help clients externalize overwhelming parts

  • Help clients map their internal experience so their overwhelming feelings become workable

  • Work confidently with client parts that resist unblending or keep coming back

  • Understand your own blending as a therapist and what to do about it

  • Walk away with a structured approach you can use across a range of client presentations

This course offered simple techniques, yet quickly get to the heart of what's happening for clients.

I’ve taken many courses with the Mind Body Training Institute and keep coming back because of the intentionality behind everything they do. There’s a genuine emphasis on giving clinicians tools and methods that work.

This course offered techniques that are simple, yet quickly get to the heart of what’s happening for clients. I used the mapping exercise with a client, and she gained insight she hadn’t been able to access before, recognizing that her feelings of overwhelm weren’t one thing, but a conglomeration of different parts. We now have specific named parts we can work with.

The resources were well organized, the exercises downloadable, and the examples were great. The course was very helpful personally and professionally.

Meredith Fenton, MA-CMHC, LPC, NCC

Birmingham, MI

Colleen West

Meet Colleen West, Trauma-Informed IFS Certified Therapist, Trainer & Approved Consultant

Colleen West is a recently retired Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over 20 years of experience helping clients overcome simple and complex trauma.

As an IFS Certified Therapist and Approved Consultant, she devoted herself to training and mentoring psychotherapists, as well as to writing. Colleen integrated family systems, attachment theory, sensorimotor, and EMDR therapies into her trainings and consultations.

Colleen is the author of We All Have Parts: An Illustrated Guide to Healing Preverbal Trauma and The IFS Flip Chart.

 

WhaT you need to master unblending in 5 modules

Module 1: Foundations of unblending
(PRE-RECORDED)

Module 1:Foundations of Unblending
(PRE-RECORDED)

  • Understand the difference between blending and unblending and why it matters clinically
  • Learn the role of Self and why restoring it is at the heart of the work
  • Discover how physical objects can create workable distance from an overwhelming part

Module 2: Object-Based Externalization (PRE-RECORDED)

  • Discover how physical objects can help clients externalize parts they can’t yet talk about
  • Understand how placement and distance create psychological separation from a part
  • Learn the questioning protocols that deepen unblending

Module 2: Object-Based Externalization
(PRE-RECORDED)

Module 3: Module 3: Mapping Client Parts
(PRE-RECORDED)

Module 3: Module 3: Mapping Client Parts(PRE-RECORDED)

  • Learn how to use paper-based mapping to help clients organize their internal experience
  • Use maps to help clients maintain continuity and perspective between sessions
  • Track the relationships and cycles between parts so overwhelming feelings become workable

Module 4: Somatic Unblending
(PRE-RECORDED)

  • Recognize the body-based signs that a client is blending
  • Learn breath, posture, and bilateral stimulation techniques that access the nervous system directly
  • Help clients who are too activated for verbal approaches find their way back to Self

Module 4: Somatic Unblending
(PRE-RECORDED)

Module 5: Integration and Troubleshooting
(PRE-RECORDED)

Module 5: Integration and Troubleshooting
(PRE-RECORDED)

  • Bring objects, mapping and somatic approaches together into a single clinical sequence
  • Know what to do when a client cannot find separation from their part or immediately re-blends
  • Address common challenges including therapist self-consciousness and knowing what to do when nothing seems to work

Summaries and Key TakeAways

Summaries and key takeaways

Summaries and Key TakeAways​

These documents distill the essential points from each module. They’re designed to help you review key concepts, reinforce your learning, and apply the strategies from the course to your clinical work without rewatching hours of content.

Unblending Tool kit: 5 Resources to Support Your Work

  •  Course Companion Guide
     Key concepts, techniques, and session strategies for helping clients unblend.
  • Therapist Quick Reference Guide
    A cheat sheet with prompts, interventions, and reminders you can use during sessions.

  • Experiential Exercises Guide
    Exercises to help clients reduce overwhelm and gain perspective.

  • Recommended Resources Guide
    A list of resources to help deepen your understanding of unblending and IFS.

  • Office Setup & Materials Checklist
    A checklist for creating an in-person or online therapy environment to support unblending work.

Unblending Tool kit: 5 Resourcces to Support Your Work

This is a technique-rich course that therapists trained in any modality can benefit from.

As a counsellor trained in IFS and several other approaches, I came to this course very familiar with many of these ideas –  and I was still impressed.

Colleen brought together a wide range of tangible methods through the IFS lens in a way I hadn’t seen before.

She weaves in somatic tracking, polyvagal awareness, object externalization, and spatial mapping with great skill.

The pacing was excellent, the handouts were well-crafted, and her real client examples gave the course a personal depth that you don’t always get in professional training.

Emma Nelson, Counsellor

Auckland, New Zealand

READY TO SIGN UP?

If so, click the button…

$247

Special FEE

$147

SUMMARY OF WHAT YOU GET IN THE SELF-Study COURSE

5 modules with a total of 3 hours of content 

Videos, audios, and transcripts of all modules

Copies of the slides of all lessons 

Worksheets to help integrate your learning

Summaries and Key Takeaways for each of the 5 modules

Unblending Toolkit: 5 Resources to Support Your Work

180 days access to the course materials in our learning center – OR, download them and keep them forever

Certificate of Completion 

USA: NBCC CE credit available for 3 Clock Hours

CANADA: Submit the certificate to CCPA for CECs and CRPO for PD credits

AUSTRALIA: PD points available for PACFA and ACA

$247

Special FEE​

$147

I really enjoyed this course.

I have trained in many modalities, especially those focused on the brain and nervous system, including IFS. The course provided a valuable review, and I still found things worth adding to my work.

The focus on the therapist’s own parts in the room was a helpful reminder. It’s easy to get so focused on the client that you forget to check in with what you’re bringing to the session. I also appreciated the specific language Colleen offers for working with parts in the room.

The course reframed how I think about helping clients with their emotions. Labeling an emotion is just the start because nothing exists in a vacuum. That’s something I’m taking straight into my practice.

Amanda Lyons, Registered Psychotherapist

London, Ontario

Frequently Asked Questions

The course is geared toward psychotherapists, counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and any other helping professionals.

It is for both those trained in the IFS approach and those trained in other approaches who want help in moving clients forward when they are stuck.

While the course is grounded in IFS concepts, the techniques taught are practical tools that any therapist can use regardless of their training background. A brief introduction to  key IFS concepts is included in Module 1.

Yes, with care. The course specifically addresses how to work with severely traumatized parts, including when not to push for unblending and how to work with protective parts first. Ethical and pacing considerations are covered in Module 5.

This is a pre-recorded, self-study course. It includes 5 modules and bonus materials that are available immediately upon registering for the course.

You can download your certificate for 3 hours of course content once you pass the short course quiz.

USA
NBCC – The Mind Body Training Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 8016. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Mind Body Training Institute is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This program is approved for 3 clock hours.

Canada
CEC’s – CCPA (Canadian Counselling Association). CCPA will give CECs when you submit  your certificate to them.
PD points – CRPO  (College of Canadian Psychotherapists).  CRPO will give CECs when you submit  your certificate to them.

Australia
ACA (Australian Counselling Association)
5 OPD (Ongoing Professional Development) points

PACFA (Psychotherapists and Counsellors Federation of Australia):
3 hours of category A CPD

NBCC CE Credits available

1 PAYMENT OPTION:  $147 (Reduced from $247)
$147 CAD for Canadian residents (No GST)
$147 AUD  for Australian and New Zealand residents (Australians add GST)
$147 USD for Americans and all other residents.
 
 

If you don’t receive value from the course (highly unlikely) after 7 days of registering, you can ask for your money back.

You will have access to the materials in the learning center for 180 days (6 months) from the date you signed up for the course.

However, you can download all materials and save them forever.

Take the course for a
test drive for 7 days.

If you don’t find value after 7 days, we’ll refund 100% of your fee.

JOIN NOW

Whether you’re trained in IFS or use a different approach, you’ll come away from this course better able to spot when a client or you are stuck and know what to do about it.

$247

Special FEE

$147

still have questions?

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Mind Body Training Institute     All Rights Reserved     Disclaimer |   Privacy Policy

Mind Body Training Institute
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