Step 3
Discovery & Beyond
Master the art of working with blended protector systems
in IFS-informed EMDR.
Join us for two immersive days of live training, experiential learning, and advanced clinical application designed for therapists who have completed Step 2 and are ready to work with exiles, unburdening, and the full arc of IFS-Informed EMDR processing.
Step 3 is intended for participants who have completed Syzygy Step 2: IFS-Informed EMDR, and who are ready to move beyond protector work into the deeper layers of trauma — navigating blending, dissociation, looping, and stuck processing with confidence and clinical precision using the Discovery framework developed by Bruce Hersey.
Why Take This Course
Expand your range and bring the Syzygy Model™ to full expression by entering Phase 2.5 Discovery, a structured clinical process that respects and befriends protector parts.
During this live, 2-day workshop, you will:
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Master the Discovery Process for Blended Protectors
Learn Syzygy's signature Discovery process for befriending and gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of blended protector parts before reprocessing begins. You'll develop greater confidence in recognizing when to shift into Discovery, allowing therapy to move forward with greater safety, respect, and precision for your client's system.
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Navigate Complex Protector Dynamics with Confidence
Refine your ability to work with looping, dissociation, protector backlash, and other challenges and risks that commonly emerge with complex trauma. You'll learn how to assess shifting protector systems, maintain Functional Dual Attention, and remain grounded in Self-led clinical decision making when sessions become unpredictable.
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Develop Your Greatest Clinical Instrument - Your Own Internal System!
Step 3 invites you to explore the parts of the therapist. Through experiential learning, you'll discover how your own protective system influences the work and your clinical decision-making. As your relationship with your own parts deepens, so does your ability to recognize, trust, and work skillfully with the protector systems of your clients.
We offer Step 3: Discovery & Beyond in two learning formats so you can choose what works best for you!
Live, Virtual Workshops
Participate from anywhere to attend this 2 day experiential workshop via Zoom. Includes lecure, live demonstrations, and small group practice sessions with personalized guidance (3:1 or 4:1 participant-to-Guide ratio). A stable internet connection and quiet, private space is recommended for the virtual workshop.
In-Person Workshops
(Limited Locations)
Prefer to learn face-to-face? Join us for one of our limited selection of on-site workshops for a more intimate learning experience!
Upcoming Virtual Dates
August 6 & 7, 2026 (Thurs/Fri)
9am-4:30pm EST
with Crystal Whitlow and Tina Taylor
November 12 & 13, 2026 (Thurs/Fri)
9:00am-4:30pm EST
with Michelle Richardson and Elizabeth Venart
Upcoming In-Person Dates
New Jersey (Philadelphia area)
*This workshop is capped under 20 participants for a very intimate learning experience! Get on the waitlist now!
Location: Mindful Soul Center for Wellbeing
207 White Horse Pike, Haddon Heights, NJ 08035
*15 minutes outside of Center City, Philadelphia
For Hotel Suggestions, email hello@syzygyinstitute.com
Course Details
Who Should Attend
- EMDR therapists who have completed Syzygy Step 2 and are ready to deepen their mastery of the Syzygy Model through advanced clinical application.
- Trauma therapists seeking greater confidence working with blended protector systems, dissociation, looping, protector backlash, and other forms of clinical complexity that can emerge during EMDR.
- Clinicians who want to strengthen their capacity to recognize the parts of both the client and the therapist, using Self-led awareness to navigate Discovery, countertransference, and complex clinical decision-making.
Continuing Education Information
13 Continuing Education Credits approved by EMDRIA, ASWB, NBCC, APA, and IFS Institute re-certification. NY Boards. For state specific information, please visit the CE Info Page.
- You must attend the entire training live to be eligible for credit. (in-person and virtual)
- No partial credit awarded.
How To Prepare
To get the most from Step 3, we recommend:
- Completion of Syzygy Step 2 and familiarity with the core principles of the Syzygy Model, including Protector Positive Intention™, the Presence of Self (POS) Scale, the Level of Urge to Protect (LUP) Scale, and Functional Dual Attention.
- A willingness to explore your own internal system as part of the learning process. Step 3 includes experiential exercises that examine the therapist's parts, countertransference, and the role of Self-energy in guiding the Discovery process.
- Curiosity, humility, and compassion for yourself and others as you deepen your clinical judgment through live demonstrations, experiential practice, and thoughtful reflection alongside a community of advanced learners.
What You Will Learn
Learning Objectives
1. Explain the difference between the conventional EMDR Assessment Phase target elements and the Discovery target elements.
2. List two beneficial by-products of the Discovery process.
3. Describe two primary tasks of the therapist during Discovery.
4. Identify two ways Discovery employs Onno van der Hart’s suggested modifications of EMDR processing for complex clients.
5. Describe the effect that processing protectors (defenses) has on the level of emotional intensity of underlying trauma material.
6. Discuss the relationship between protectors (defenses), implicit memory & memory reconsolidation.
7. Explain what is meant by "flipping the protector."
8. Explain the difference between Discovery and Desensitization.
9. List two types of energy that organize parts.
10. Explain why in Discovery we start with the most blended part.
11. Identify the two components of a well-formed Protector Positive Intention (PPI).
12. Explain what is meant by the Level of Urge to protect (LUP).
13. Describe what is meant by a Discovery Contract.
Course Description
Our Step Three: Discovery & Beyond 2-Day Advanced Live Experiential Workshop, is a 13 hour live advanced IFS-Informed EMDR course for psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, and marriage & family therapists who treat individuals with a trauma history and have taken Syzygy Institute's Step Two (IFS-Informed EMDR 2-Day Experiential Workshop). Fidelity to both methods is maintained as course material is developed from standard EMDR (Shapiro, 2018) & IFS (Schwartz & Sweezy, 2020; Anderson, 2021; Anderson et al., 2017) background texts with supplemental references, and each workshop is led by an instructor who has completed IFS training and certification by the IFS Institute and has completed 6 or more hours of Coherence Therapy workshop training. Learn the details via PowerPoint slide lecture, Q & A discussion, and case examples. Observe the process being set up and carried through into healing with live volunteer demonstrations, and guided practice in the roles of client and therapist.
Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) is an evidence based (Hodgdon et al., 2022) ego state therapy which offers unique qualities that match key components of the EMDR’s foundational Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. IFS methods have been utilized in the context of EMDR therapy to enhance therapist-client communication about their internal experience and troubleshoot processing difficulties (O’Shea Brown, 2020; Gomez & Krause, 2013; Twombly & Schwartz, 2008).
Both IFS and EMDR have been described as experiential psychotherapies which can facilitate a form of neuroplasticity called memory reconsolidation, which uniquely unlocks and rewrites implicit memories that underlie many of the symptoms treated with these methodologies (Ecker et al., 2012). Concepts and language from Coherence Therapy support and clarify key IFS concepts around exploring positive (adaptive) intentions behind symptoms with curiosity, compassion & persistence (i.e., Self-presence), and healing sequence (Anderson, 2021) while also mirroring the requisite dual attention condition for EMDR processing. These additional conceptual tools enable the IFS-informed EMDR therapist to more consistently generate juxtapositions (a critical condition required for memory reconsolidation), beginning in the Assessment Phase of EMDR and continuing through the subsequent phases of the EMDR Standard Protocol (Ecker & Bridges, 2020; Ecker et al, 2012).
In this course, we dive deeper in exploring the Discovery process outlined in previous IFS-Informed EMDR workshops and move all the way through healing (desensitization/reprocessing, retrieval, unburdening). It combines strategies and perspectives from Coherence Therapy derived from memory reconsolidation research, IFS, and EMDR in a gentle, organically unfolding way (Anderson, 2021; Ecker et al, 2012). It begins with the recognition that parts involved in the target network may be organized differently (Watkins & Watkins, 1997), with protectors organized by urges more so than affect (Knipe, 2019; Popky, 2005), paving the way for limited and safer indirect trauma processing (Knipe, 2019; van der Hart et al., 2014).
The Discovery process works like a centrifuge. A burdened & blended internal system led by a protector is a solution, both in the sense of solving a problem and in that it is like a mixture containing dissolved components. A centrifuge unblends the solution into its separate components. In a blended internal system, these components are the Self, a protector, and an exile. Bilateral stimulation and attuned, informed curiosity, along with opportunistic and spontaneous Self-resourcing results in increasingly clearer differentiation of these components (Seubert, 2018; Twombly & Schwartz, 2008) until a critical mass of Self-energy flips the system from protection to healing (Anderson, 2021; Knipe,2019; Ecker et al, 2012). At this point, functional dual attention is obtained and sustainable, leading to rapid and powerful healing processes commonly observed in the most successful and effective EMDR or IFS sessions; desensitization/reprocessing, retrieval, unburdening, etc. (Schwartz & Sweezy, 2020; Anderson, 2021; Shapiro, 2018).
Discovery is a term taken from Coherence Therapy (Ecker & Bridges, 2020; Ecker et al, 2012). It means uncovering the emotional truth behind a symptom derived from implicit memory. It will make sense given the original context. Implicit memories are unconscious and reflexive, and they are at the heart of most of the symptomatic behavior and reactions we see in our clinical practices (Ecker & Bridges, 2020; Ecker et al, 2012). Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy guides us to understand that in healing work, we are almost certainly going to encounter protectors. These parts are responsible for what might otherwise be seen as resistance, acting out, etc., but they always have underlying positive intentions. They are embedded within an entire protective system of parts. (Schwartz & Sweezy, 2020; Anderson, 2021; Anderson et al., 2017). When we select a trauma target in EMDR, we necessarily activate this protective system, which can very often be complex and vigorous (Paulsen, 2018; van der Hart et al., 2014). Often, pushing forward with processing our selected target paradoxically induces resistance (Twombly & Schwartz, 2008). But backing up and doing intensive resourcing delays productive processing, sometimes indefinitely. This is the dilemma EMDR therapists routinely face (Paulsen, 2018; Shapiro, 2018; van der Hart et al., 2014).
Ideas from Coherence Therapy and IFS intersect at one point in the EMDR process, on the verge of the Assessment Phase. It is here that we can utilize sets of alternating bilateral stimulation in a new way to process protectors (Knipe, 2019; Seubert, 2018; Twombly & Schwartz, 2008; Popky, 2005). A way that is in-between resource installation and desensitization and has advantages of both. The Discovery process is a bridge from the Preparation Phase of EMDR to the Assessment Phase and beyond. It will clarify the protector's positive intention, uncover the original problems the symptom is designed to solve, and stimulate emerging Self-presence (Ecker & Bridges, 2020; Ecker et al, 2012). All this clears the way for a conventional Assessment Phase and Desensitization with Functional Dual Attention. This culminates at the point where continued bilateral stimulation and attuned, informed curiosity, along with opportunistic and spontaneous Self-resourcing results in increasingly clearer differentiation of these components until a critical mass of Self-energy flips the system from protection & defense to healing, as described above.
Sample Agenda
Discovery and Beyond
Sample Agenda
Timeline/Schedule
Zoom or In- Person (times are listed in US Eastern, unless otherwise specified in course listing)
DAY 1:
9:00 – 9:30 AM | Welcome, Introduction
9:30 – 10:30 AM | Lecture
Bruce Hersey's Discovery Process
Working with Blended Protectors
Therapist Parts Drill
10:30 – 10:45 AM | Break
10:45 – 11:15 AM | Lecture
GPS & Biggest Part in the Room: Uncovering Blended Protectors
11:15 – 11:45 AM | Biggest Part Demo
11:45 – 12:30 PM | Biggest Part (Exercise 1)
Practice in triads: Therapist, Client, Observer
Reference: Exercise 1 in the Workshop Manual
12:30 – 1:00 PM | Lunch Break
1:00 – 1:15 PM | Practice Debrief
1:15 – 1:45 PM | Lecture
The Discovery Target
Direct Access, Dual Attention, PPI & LUP
1:45 – 2:30 PM | Discovery Target Demo
2:30 – 2:45 PM | Break
2:45 – 4:15 PM | Discovery Target Practice (Exercise 2)
Practice in triads: Therapist, Client, Observer
Reference: Exercise 2 in the Workshop Manual
4:15 – 4:30 PM | Wrap-Up & Q&A
Reflections and discussion
DAY 2
9:00 – 10:00 AM | Lecture
Discovery as a Restricted Protocol
Discovery Interweaves - Informed Curiosity and Resourcing Emerging Self
10:00 – 10:30 AM | Discovery Interweaves Demo
10:45 – 12:30 PM | Discovery Interweaves Practice
Practice in triads: Therapist, Client, Observer
Reference: Exercise 3 in the Workshop Manual
12:30 – 1:00 PM | Lunch Break
1:00 – 1:30 PM
Shifting to Desensitization
Disconfirming Knowledge
Role of Self
1:30 – 2:15 PM | Discovery Demo
2:15 – 2:30 PM | Break
2:30 – 4:00 PM | Practice Exercise 4
Practice in triads: Therapist, Client, Observer
Reference: Exercise 4 in the Workshop Manual
4:00 – 4:30 PM | Wrap-Up & Q&A
Reflections and discussion
Bibliography
Schwartz, R.C. & Sweezy, M. (2020). Internal Family Systems Therapy (2nd ed.). New York NY: Guilford Press. (LO10,11)
Seubert, A. (2018) Becoming Known: A Relational Model Utilizing Gestalt and Ego State-Assisted EMDR in Treating Eating Disorders. Journal of EMDR Practice & Research. 2018, Vol. 12 Issue 2, p71-85. 15p.
DOI: 10.1891/1933-3196.12.2.71. (LO2,3,11,13)
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Basic principles, protocols and procedures (3rd ed.) New York, NY: Guilford Press. (LO1,9)
Twombly, J. H., & Schwartz, R. C. (2008). The integration of internal family systems model and EMDR. In C. Forgash & M. Copeley (Eds.), Healing the heart of trauma and dissociation with EMDR and ego state
therapy (pp. 295–311). New York, NY: Springer publishing. (LO3)
van der Hart, O., Groenendijk, M., Gonzalez, A. Mosquera, D., Solomon, R. (2014). Dissociation of the Personality and EMDR Therapy in Complex Trauma-Related Disorders: Applications in Phases 2 and 3 Treatment Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, Volume 8, Number 1, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/1933- 3196.8.1.33 (LO3,4,5)
Watkins, J.G., & Watkins, H. (1997) Ego States: Theory and Therapy. New York: Norton. (LO9)
Course Pre-Requisites
Step 1: This is an introductory course to IFS Therapy. Suggested preparation includes any form of self-learning in the model such as relevant reading, podcasts, being a client of IFS Therapy, etc.
Non-EMDR therapists are also welcome to take this course.
Step 2: EMDR Basic Training and Syzygy Institute Step 1.
Step 1 is waived if you have taken IFSI Level One.
Step 3: Syzygy Institute Step 2: IFS-Informed EMDR
See more in the FAQ about IFS background and training requirements.
Other Syzygy Courses:
Digital Courses will be most helpful if you are EMDR Basic Trained and have some IFS knowledge.
The Overture of the Syzygy Model course is geared towards EMDR or IFS therapists interested in the integration. No Syzygy training pre-requisite.
All of the guides were wonderful and truly appreciated their expertise! I feel each of them has a unique blend and experience that enriched each of my breakout sessions.
- Virtual Workshop Participant
See what our participants are saying about this course!
This training clarified so much that I have been grappling with, as I have aimed to effectively the integrate IFS and EMDR- thank you!
- Virtual Workshop Participant
This is the second time I've taken the Discovery course. .... excellent instructor and the session guide and plans were instrumental in helping me understand this course. I truly enjoyed it and am looking forward to putting what I've learned into practice. Thank you for this. I feel so much more confident in using this technique.
- Virtual Workshop Participant
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Don’t Miss Out on Future Workshop Dates and Early Registration Opportunities!
Frequently Asked Questions
about our Experiential Workshops
What can I expect at an IFS-Informed EMDR Training Program Workshop?
Our experiential workshops all follow a similar schedule which includes: lecture, live demonstrations with audience volunteers, and experiential practice groups.
Workshops are capped at 30 participants and often have up to 10 program guides in addition to the trainer(s). This allows for a more connected training experience over Zoom.
Some in-person workshops are capped lower depending on available space and staffing.
Practice sessions occur 3-4 times over the course of the workshop. Although usually these are triads or foursomes. Program Guides lead the practice session.
Q&A opportunities happen throughout the workshop.
What is an experiential practice session?
Practice sessions are opportunities to apply what you're learning in professionally guided practice sessions. Each participant rotates through the roles of therapist, client, and observer.
To foster connection and community, groups will rotate throughout the workshop. This allows you to engage with a variety of participants, experience different "clients," and navigate new situations in a supportive environment.
This workshop is a professional development experience, and while personal insight may arise, practice sessions are not intended to be therapy.
The primary focus is on the learning process for the person in the therapist role. If you are in the client role, we encourage patience as your therapist learns, pauses, reflects, resets, or consults with the program guide.
We trust you to take care of yourself during these sessions and our program guides are an additional layer of support due to the vulnerability of experiential learning experiences, regardless of the role you are in.
I am not IFSI Level 1 trained but have taken other IFS trainings before. Do I have to take Step 1?
In order to be waived from Syzygy Institute Step 1, your prior IFS training experience must have included at least 5 hours of supervised experiential practice sessions. If you have participated in a training of this nature, you can complete the Pre-requisite Fulfillment Request Form for consideration.
We will not waive Step 1 for personal IFS work in therapy or retreats, webinars, digital courses, or live or recorded lecture courses such as the IFS Institute Online Circle, PESI, and other such courses.
This requirement is in place so that our participants have both a beneficial and safe learning experience with the IFS-Informed EMDR integration in Step 2 and 3 courses. IFS scaffolding is necessary for integrating these modalities safely and effectively.
Do I need to be an EMDR Therapist to participate in Syzygy Institute workshops?
Non-EMDR therapists are welcome to participate in our Step 1 Intro to IFS for EMDR Therapists and will benefit from this experiential introduction to the basics of IFS therapy!
What is the Cancellation Policy?
IFS-Informed EMDR Training Program Workshops (Step 1, 2, 3)
Cancellations and transfers are allowed up to 30 days before the event start date, subject to a $75 administrative fee.
No refunds will be provided for cancellations made within 30 days of the event.
If you request a transfer within 30 days of the event, it may be possible only if your spot can be filled from a waitlist (if one is available) and there is an open spot in a scheduled workshop for you to transfer into. A $150 administrative fee will apply to this transfer due to the additional time and resources required.
Overture of the Syzygy Model Training
Refunds are permitted until 30 days before the event date. Requests for refunds or transfers within 30 days of the event will not be approved.
Digital Courses
No cancellations or refunds. Access is for 6 months.
Requests meeting the criteria listed above must be submitted to hello@syzygyinstitute.com. Please include your name, contact info, registration information (workshop, date), and the nature of your request (transfer/cancel).
Will I receive Continuing Education credit for this workshop?
YES. Syzygy Institute is an approved provide by several entities including EMDRIA, IFS Institute, NBCC, ASWB, and APA. Please see our continuing education page for course specific approvals. Please note: You must be in attendance for the entire duration of the workshop.
I have to miss part of the workshop. Will I still get continuing education credit?
You must attend live workshops in their entirety in order to receive continuing education credit. No partial credit will be given.
Note: Please review our Cancellation Policy before making changes to your workshop plans.
If I am a therapist that has advanced training, can I skip ahead to Step 3: Discovery & Beyond?
No. Step 3 builds upon the Syzygy Model of IFS-Informed EMDR. Therefore, you must complete Step 2.
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