In this course we look at an IFS understanding of experiences that get called mania, psychosis, OCD, schizophrenia, and other non-ordinary states.

What if nothing you’ve been taught about psychosis, mania, or OCD is the full picture?

What if voices, intrusive thoughts, visions, and altered states are parts trying - in the only way they can - to communicate something important?

These are experiences we’ve been taught to: 

  • Fear

  • Diagnose

  • Manage

But what if these states are not random, not broken -
but organised, protective, and meaningful?

5-week live online workshop
Group 1 starting July 16

Group 2 starting July 27

A different way of understanding

Experiences that get labelled as psychosis, mania, OCD, schizophrenia, and other non-ordinary states can feel overwhelming — both for the person living them and for friends, family and practitioners trying to support them.

 

Many practitioners are left wondering:

  • How do I respond to this?

  • What is actually happening here?

  • How do I make this person see more clearly?

  • How do I stay connected without reinforcing or shutting things down?

In Internal Family Systems (IFS), we begin from a different place:

That these are not simply symptoms to eliminate —
but expressions of parts trying to protect.

Even when they appear chaotic, intrusive, or extreme,
there is often an underlying logic, intention, and intelligence.

What if these experiences make sense?

Parts don’t always communicate in ways that are easy to understand.

 

Sometimes they show up as:

  • metaphoric or poetic language

  • auditory voices

  • intrusive thoughts

  • compulsive urges

  • expansive or accelerated states

  • visions or altered realities

These are not mistakes.

 

These ways of communicating are not a form of brain anomoly but a carefully constructed ways of communicating, to allow the client to feel safe from internal and external scrutiny, while still protecting the system from being overwhelmed by the pain that exiles carry and want known.

 

When we learn how to listen differently, what once felt confusing can begin to reveal meaning.

If you’ve ever sat with a client experiencing:

  • voices or visions
  • intrusive or obsessive thoughts
  • compulsive behaviours
  • manic or highly activated states
  • or other forms of altered reality

…and found yourself:

  • Unsure how to respond
  • Afraid of getting it wrong
  • Pulled between convincing, frustration, rationalizing or confusion
  • Or sensing that there is meaning here, but not knowing how to access it?

You’re not alone.

And you’re not missing something.

You may simply not have been shown a way to listen to what is under what is said.

When these experiences are met differently:

  • Fear can begin to soften in the client and practitioner
  • Parts who create intrusive thoughts or bring overwhelm can begin to be held in clarity and compassion.
  • Meaning can emerge from what once felt chaotic
  • The practitioner and client can work as a team to understand these experiences better.

Not by forcing change —
but by relating to these experiences in a fundamentally different way.

Times & Dates

We recognise that people joining this course come from very different financial realities and parts of the world.

In the spirit of community care, accessibility, and shared support, we offer three contribution options. We invite you to choose the option that feels most aligned and sustainable for your system and circumstances.

When we stop trying to fix or silence these experiences, we open the possibility for something else to happen.

 

Understanding
Connection

And meaningful change