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Freeing Self: IFS Beyond the Therapy Room

Freeing Self: IFS Beyond the Therapy Room showcases how the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model is being used in settings beyond the therapy room. The stories include Chapter 5. From Diet Mind to Dietitian to IFS Nutrition Therapist: The Journey of a Wounded Healer, written by Diana Dugan Richards. The book relates to the impact of IFS when working with a multiplicity of issues: decision-making, gender and sexual identity, money concerns, and beliefs that led to personal, collective, legacy, cultural, and unattached burdens. Chapter 5 relates to Diana’s movement from the talons of diet culture as a young tween through early adulthood to providing counseling to those who hold body tensions and struggles around food and their body. All the contributors detail their unique experiences of combining IFS with their passion or purpose in life, and of sharing the model with professional colleagues.

This book provides hope and vision for those trained in IFS with or without a prior therapy training who may at times feel invisible, othered, or alienated by the historical dominance of therapy culture within IFS Institute trainings.

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What People are Saying

“Diana’s chapter offers a delightful, frank, and intelligent recounting of her clinical journey, beginning with the punishing dogma of childhood “diet culture” to her appreciation (and eventual disillusionment) with the role of dietitian and culminating in her discovery of the baked-in compassion of IFS. Diana learned how non-judgmental acceptance and finding positive intention behind “negative” behaviours freed her clients (and her own system) from tangled cultural and family legacies about simply nourishing ourselves. She shows the IFS clinician and practitioner how to “teach less and explore and listen more,” sharing powerful clinical interventions and providing an impressive example of heart-led competence as an IFS Nutrition Therapist.”

Cece Sykes, LCSW Senior Trainer, Internal Family Systems Institute; author, Internal Family Systems Therapy for Addictions: Trauma-Informed, Compassion-Based Interventions for Substance Use, Eating, Gambling and More (2023)

“Diana Dugan Richards is dedicated to, and passionate about, bringing the IFS model to the world of dietetics and helping fellow clinicians become more comfortable with this powerful methodology. Her integration of IFS into her nutrition practice bridges the gap between nutrition and psychotherapy to maximize the kind of positive treatment outcomes that are hard to come by in traditional eating disorder treatment.”

Jeanne Catanzaro PhD, licensed clinical psychologist and approved IFS clinical consultant, is dedicated to helping people develop Self-led relationships with food and their bodies.

“Diana Dugan Richards is a strong storyteller. In her chapter she teaches and guides by walking us through some of her journey from dietitian to IFS nutrition therapist. In so doing, she illuminates and underlines major concepts of the Internal Family Systems model. We learn of the inner guidance she followed first in her immersion in Anusara yoga, that deepened further as she heard those core wisdoms embodied in IFS. Her most profound offer comes in the clarity she brings to seeing body image, weight and health through lenses that are increasingly clear of legacy and cultural burdens about our worth based on body size. Diana’s straightforward descriptions shine with invitation and possibility for fuller embodiment and authenticity both by clients and the professionals who journey with them.”

Rina Dubin is an IFSI solo lead trainer and a licensed psychologist in Newton, MA

“Thank you, Diana, for sharing with all of us this beautiful memoir of your personal and professional journey to becoming an IFS Nutrition Therapist. May the account of your journey to integrate IFS into traditional nutrition counselling inspire others in diverse fields to integrate core IFS principles into their work life. Your unique perspective is an inspiration to us all.”

Fran Booth LICSW, IFSI Lead Trainer

“Diana takes us on a fascinating journey of becoming an IFS nutritional therapist. She highlights the critical work of understanding one’s inner system when working with individuals around issues of body and/or weight. A must read for clinicians and participants alike.”

Jory Agate, LMHC, MDiv, Lead Trainer IFS Institute

“With passion and love, Diana Richards shares her personal and professional story of becoming an IFS nutrition therapist while always weaving in the IFS perspective. Thus creatively, the reader is introduced into seeing eating and body image issues through an IFS lens. The journey we take with Diana is heartwarming and richly educational.”

Sarah B Stewart, Psy.D., PLLC, Internal Family Systems Institute Trainer

At the end of the day…how do you want to feel?

Each day’s journey starts with the best intention that today will be different…only to venture off course again. “Should have’s” and “if only’s” flurry, then guilt, then we give in again. Reclaim vitality and energy! Come alive and present at the end of each and every day! Are you ready to Align…Nourish…Reconnect?

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