IFS and EMDR for Trauma Recovery: Why I Combine Both Approaches

You’ve probably heard the names: IFS, EMDR. They might have come up in conversation or during your research into healing trauma. You’re unsure what they are, how they differ, or if either is right for you.

This article is an honest attempt to explain both — how IFS and EMDR for trauma can support recovery — and to show you how I actually think about using them. Not as competing approaches where you need to pick the right one. As tools that each offer something real, each has genuine limitations, and each works best when adapted to what you specifically need at this moment in your healing.

If you have experienced complex trauma or childhood abuse, I have written a companion article that goes deeper into how both approaches apply to that specific history. This article is for anyone beginning to explore what therapy might involve and whether either of these approaches resonates.

This is the context within which I apply IFS and EMDR for trauma recovery — not as competing choices but as tools that each offer something real within a broader approach.

What IFS is and what it offers

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a parts-based therapeutic approach developed by Richard Schwartz. It is grounded in the understanding that we all have different parts within us. Some are healthy and balanced. Some carry the weight of painful experiences. Some work hard to protect us from feeling that weight.

IFS isn’t the only model that works with parts — parts work has a long history across many therapeutic traditions, including Gestalt therapy, ego state therapy, systemic constellation, and the work of Charles Whitfield. IFS has gained significant attention in recent years, partly through effective marketing, and offers a clear, accessible framework for understanding the inner world.

At its core, IFS aims to help people reconnect with what it calls self-energy — a calm, curious, compassionate inner presence that can support and guide the internal system toward healing. Parts are approached with curiosity rather than judgment. The goal is not to eliminate difficult parts, but to understand what they protect and help them release what they’ve been carrying.

IFS works well for anxiety, shame, inner critics, and the fragmented self created by trauma. The parts framework often makes intuitive sense to people who have long felt they contain contradictory selves. It can be an essential tool for expanding the window of tolerance and helping regulate a dysregulated nervous system.

I came to parts work through my own recovery from childhood trauma — not through IFS. Over two and a half years of training in systemic constellation, parts work, and somatic practices, these practices were a constant thread. My systemic coaching training was grounded in parts work and the observer role. My perspective is also influenced by Charles Whitfield’s work and Gestalt therapy. When I trained in IFS, much of it was already familiar to me. It offered me additional tools within a tradition I had been living and practising for years.

I use IFS-informed parts work with most of my clients. And I adapt it — because IFS in its purest form is not always the right fit for every person’s experience. It depends on what has happened to them and on their symptoms. The more complex and layered it is, the more you might benefit from a combined approach. The main limitations I see with pure IFS are in the context of complex trauma or childhood trauma: the rejection of stabilization tools, a tendency to over-identify with parts, and self-energy as a concept that some clients find inaccessible.

What EMDR is and what it offers

Let’s look at EMDR. EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in 1987. It uses bilateral stimulation — typically eye movements — to activate the brain’s natural capacity to process and integrate traumatic memories.

The theoretical framework behind EMDR — Adaptive Information Processing — suggests that our systems can naturally heal from emotional wounds. Traumatic experiences overwhelm that capacity. The memory gets stuck. EMDR aims to digest and integrate what could not be processed at the time.

EMDR is recognized by the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association, and several other major health bodies as an effective treatment for PTSD. The research is strong — particularly for single-incident trauma, where there is a clear beginning and end to what happened.

I used EMDR in my own healing — for systemic trauma and for final aspects of healing childhood abuse, particularly experiences that continued into my adult life. By the time I worked with it as a client, I already had the capacity for dual awareness. The preparation had been done. The processing could reach what it needed to reach.

What I value most about EMDR is its flexibility during the preparation phase. I can draw from any approach — parts work, somatic practices, grounding, resourcing — to build the foundation the client’s nervous system actually needs. The model doesn’t prescribe the preparation. It follows the client.

EMDR can be very effective for single-incident trauma, but it usually needs to be adapted for complex trauma or childhood trauma.

IFS and EMDR for trauma: How I actually use both

The trauma counselling field makes a significant mistake by selling modalities. EMDR. IFS. Somatic Experiencing. As if the approach is the product, and your job is to choose the right one. Since you are not trained in trauma counselling, you may not even have the background information to make an informed decision.

Trauma comes in many different forms – some is an incident, some is relational, and some is due to enduring conditions like childhood trauma. The healing journey looks different for each form. Some clients resolved workplace trauma or trauma due to sexual assault effectively with EMDR. Parts work is a vital element for most clients I work with who have experienced childhood trauma or complex trauma. In many cases, I combine both parts work and EMDR to heal the wounds of parts. The reality is that some modalities work for some people and not others. They have different benefits and limitations depending on what happened to you and where you are in your healing.

What matters beyond any modality is the quality and health of the therapeutic relationship, the practitioner’s attunement, and whether the approach is being adapted to your specific nervous system and history, or whether you are being asked to fit the approach.

Using IFS and EMDR for trauma in practice often looks different for each client. In my approach, the Integrative Trauma Recovery Model™, I draw from EMDR, IFS-informed parts work, and somatic approaches. I adapt it to the client’s nervous system, needs, and lived experience. I also integrate anti-oppressive practices — because your trauma doesn’t exist outside of the systemic context you live in. Most mainstream trauma modalities were developed within dominant Western culture frameworks and don’t automatically account for that.This ensures the approach meets each person where they are, rather than asking them to fit the model.

Within that framework, my practice comes down to questions: What tools are most appropriate for you at this moment? How is it working for you? When do we need to adjust?

As a trauma-focused practitioner, I recognize the complexity of trauma. I adjust my approach to what has happened to the client. I have a toolbox – not a single approach – I can draw from to see what works. In my approach, using IFS and EMDR for trauma recovery may look different from session to session.

Sometimes the answer is parts work. Sometimes EMDR. Sometimes somatic practices. Sometimes a combination that shifts from session to session as your nervous system guides us. Sometimes boundaries or skill-building.

I have had clients tell me that parts work doesn’t resonate — they hated it and didn’t want to do it. I stopped. I did not reframe their response as a protective part blocking the work. I respect this boundary. Some of those same clients came back a year later and said, “I finally get it.” It makes sense now. Can we try it? Some clients never come to this conclusion. And that’s perfectly okay. The approach needs to serve the client’s recovery. When it doesn’t, I set it aside.

Beyond IFS and EMDR for trauma: What also matters

There is something that sits beneath both IFS and EMDR for trauma — and that no modality can provide on its own.

The therapeutic relationship. The quality and health of the connection between you and the trauma-focused practitioner. Whether that person can be genuinely present with your vulnerability, honest about what is happening between you, and capable of repair when something goes wrong.

Relational honesty and authenticity matter in the practitioner you work with. That doesn’t mean I disclose my life story or burden you with what I’m carrying. It means I stay honest about what is happening between us — in the room, in the moment, when it matters.

I can hold space for pain because I have faced my own. I am not afraid of shame because I have handled mine. My own healing taught me this, not any training.

The relationship is not the backdrop to the work. It is an essential part of the work.

Why this work is worth doing

I want to be honest about something that most therapy content avoids.

Without feeling the pain, we cannot feel more joy. If we avoid unpleasant emotions — if we manage them, suppress them, stay just far enough away from them that they can’t reach us — we stay stuck in them. The avoidance doesn’t protect us. It maintains the distance between us and our own lives.

This doesn’t mean trauma recovery is about suffering more. It means moving through what is already there — with support, at a pace your nervous system can integrate, with someone who can stay present alongside you — so that something else becomes possible on the other side.

We don’t do this work because we have to. We do it for a better present and future — for ourselves and for the generations that come after us. Trauma can be intergenerational. So is healing. The work you do on yourself changes how you show up in every relationship, every community, every life you touch.

Healing is not an obligation. You are not broken. You are a person who experienced things that were too much — and who adapted in the ways that were available. The work is to discover what else is possible now.

Not just the absence of pain. The presence of joy. The capacity to receive love, to feel pleasure, to be fully present in a moment that is simply good. That is what the work is for.

A note on fit

If you have experienced complex trauma or childhood abuse, the application of both IFS and EMDR looks different — the preparation is longer, the approach more layered, the integration of modalities more essential. I have written a companion article specifically on that: IFS or EMDR for Complex Trauma.

If you are curious about how IFS and EMDR for trauma can support your healing, I offer a free consultation where we explore what would work best for you. We can explore your history, where you are in your healing, and what your nervous system actually needs. Not which modality is right for you, but what you are carrying and what would help you move forward and how an integrative approach can help you get there.

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