OVERVIEW

Internal Family Systems for Leadership, Coaching, and Organization Development is organized by Cape Cod Institute (CCI) and will be held from Jul 20 - 24, 2026 at Nauset Regional Middle School, Orleans, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Course Description:
In today’s complex and rapidly changing workplace, effective leadership requires more than strategic thinking and decision-making. It calls for emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and the ability to cultivate environments of trust and collaboration. The Internal Family Systems (IFS™) model, originally developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz as a therapeutic approach, is now being applied to leadership, organization development, management, and coaching, offering a dynamic framework for leading with clarity, compassion, and balance.

Join Dr. Richard Schwartz for this week-long immersion designed to help anyone in an influential leadership role, including executives, administrators, coaches, managers, consulting psychologists, supervisors, mediators, HR professionals, community organizers, creators, educators, and lawyers, integrate the transformative principles of IFS into their professional practice. Dr. Schwartz will be joined on Wednesday by special contributor David Hoffman, who is a mediator, attorney, and John H. Watson, Jr. Lecturer on Law at Harvard University, for a day focused on IFS approaches to conflict resolution and negotiation.

Throughout the week, participants will gain tools to increase presence and Self-leadership in their roles, explore internal conflicts and habitual patterns that influence their leadership, and apply IFS principles to working effectively with groups, teams, and differences. The program will also examine what it means to lead from an open-hearted state and how this approach can enhance resilience, communication, and organizational harmony.

This workshop blends live instruction, guided exercises, case studies, demonstrations, and small-group discussions to deepen personal insight and enhance professional effectiveness and positive impact. Prior experience with the IFS model is not required.

Course Objectives:
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:

Describe the core principles of Internal Family Systems (IFS) as they apply to leadership and the workplace
Distinguish clinical versus leadership applications and describe ethics
Identify Self-led versus Part-driven leadership patterns in themselves and others
Describe how internal beliefs and patterns can influence workplace behaviors
Apply IFS techniques to increase self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and compassion in professional interactions
Describe how IFS approaches to resolve conflict, negotiate effectively, and address ambivalence in challenging situations
Summarize IFS strategies for working with teams and groups
Discuss how the IFS model approaches difference and can foster inclusion and collaboration
Discuss how to build Part-to-Self trust and address internal conflicts that impact leadership effectiveness
Design a plan for integrating IFS principles into existing leadership, coaching, or consulting practice to enhance professional impact