The Empowered Through Compassion Podcast

Not a Trigger, It's A Trailhead

Episode Summary:
In this conversation, we explore what it really means to understand IFS as a relational therapy. Alyce and I discuss how attention itself is relational, how Self-energy becomes an internal secure base. Everything happening inside our system shapes how we show up in our external relationships.
We talk about titrating small changes, noticing shifts in Self-energy, and reframing “triggers” as trailheads into deeper awareness and healing. This episode invites you to see IFS not simply as a model of parts, but as a pathway toward secure internal attachment and relational integration with ourselves and others. 
If you’re interested in how IFS and attachment theory deepen trauma work and everyday relationships, this episode offers both clinical clarity and practical insight.
Topics Discussed:
How attention itself is relationalWhy IFS is fundamentally a relational therapyNoticing and strengthening Self-energyReframing triggers as trailheadsTitrating small shifts instead of forcing changeHow internal relationships shape external onesGently leading and creating boundaries with our children
About Our Guest:
Alyce Messer, LCSW-S, is an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant and IFS Level 2-trained therapist specializing in complex trauma and therapist wellness. She integrates EMDR and IFS to help clinicians and clients cultivate differentiation, Self-leadership, and healing through secure internal attachment.
At its core, this conversation is about how the core of healing is really cultivating relationship, both with ourselves and others. 

Listening to Pain and Dissociation with IFS and EMDR

In this episode, David speaks with Tina Taylor, a Syzygy trainer, IFS Institute assistant trainer, and contributor to IFS Informed EMDR. Together, they explore the intersection of IFS, EMDR, pain, dissociation, and safety in trauma healing.
Tina shares how EMDR was instrumental in addressing her social anxiety, and how IFS later helped her heal legacy burdens connected to that anxiety. This layered healing highlights how different models can work together to address both symptoms and deeper roots.
Tina offers a powerful theme when working with pain: “Pain is communication.”Rather than something to eliminate or override, pain can be understood as a message from parts of the system. Some parts may amplify pain to be heard, while others attempt to suppress or escape it. IFS allows us to slow down and listen to what pain is asking for.
The conversation also explores dissociation and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Tina reflects on how IFS can look different when working with highly dissociative systems and why goals and pacing matter deeply in this work. While there are clinicians integrating IFS with dissociation, there is currently no dedicated IFS Institute training focused specifically on DID, beyond the Level 2 trauma track.
David and Tina discuss how dissociation itself can be understood as a meaningful communication from the system. The work begins not with pushing toward exiles, but with safety, stability, and strengthening managers so the system can regulate more evenly.
A key takeaway is the importance of cultivating Self energy as a form of resourcing. Tina notes that the amount of Self needed, the “critical mass of Self,” is relative to the intensity of the burden being held. Protectors often know what the system is ready for, and IFS invites us to trust them.
As Tina emphasizes, IFS gives us a simple but profound instruction:“Just ask.”

Integrating IFS and EMDR with Dr. Kendhal Hart

In this episode we sit down with Dr. Kendhal Hart, clinician, educator, author and trauma expert who has spent years refining how Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) can be brought together in a structured, relational, and highly usable way. Dr. Hart’s work helps therapists move beyond seeing these models as separate tools and toward an integration that honors both clinical structure and the lived experience of clients.
A central theme of our conversation is how couples therapy can be relational, safety-focused, and bring in elements of trauma and parts. We also reflect on making therapy more accessible for people with diverse nervous systems and learning styles — specifically how clinicians can be taught more specific about strategies in IFS to help them understand concepts of direct access and Self.
Dr. Hart is the author of Treating Trauma with EMDR and IFS: A Clinician’s Guide to Integrating Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy with Internal Family Systems, the first full-length book dedicated to this integration. This guide offers clear, practical steps for integrating IFS across all eight phases of EMDR, and it has become one of our favorite resources, together with my book, for clinicians seeking depth, coherence, and compassion in trauma work.
If you are a clinician interested in thoughtful, grounded, and relational trauma therapy, this conversation is for you!
Check out Dr. Hart's website here: kendhalhart.com
Check out her book here:
https://www.amazon.com/Treating-Trauma-EMDR-IFS-Desensitization/dp/1648487076/ref=sr_1_1?crid=19GPVFUYOZ2X2&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.dJHFPN7PsVEdJS-txTB1OIkvKCpE3Iuhazeep5zeOOU.w0xvDgDGUIJTPgbsiBETYStLgdw2mwHSESa00afmi8o&dib_tag=se&keywords=kendall+hart&qid=1768189580&sprefix=kendhal+hart%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-1

From Military Service to Healing: Trauma, Loss, and EMDR

What happens when military service, racial trauma, profound loss, and EMDR converge into a path of healing, purpose, and compassion?
In this powerful episode of Empowered Through Compassion, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Arielle Jordan. She is an army veteran, trauma therapist, EMDR consultant and trainer, author, and advocate whose work sits at the intersection of lived experience and evidence-based healing.
Dr. Jordan shared her experience serving in the military as a Black woman and mother, naming both the strength she developed through service and the racism she endured within military systems, and her devastating loss of her daughter and father in a short period of time. Her story is an inspirational one, where she was able to move through adversary with grace and determination.
Dr. Jordan spoke with honesty about how EMDR became not just a professional modality, but a deeply personal pathway for healing. We explored how trauma lives in the body and how compassionate, attuned therapy can help people metabolize pain that feels unbearable. Her work brings a vital racial trauma lens to EMDR, reminding clinicians and clients alike that trauma is often both personal and systemic, and must be treated with humility, cultural awareness, and care.
Her incredible books are:
Holding Space: My Story of Grief, Remembering, and Thriving After Traumatic Loss
United We Serve, United We Heal.
Find out more about Dr. Jordan here:
https://www.ariellenjordan.com/
#EmpoweredThroughCompassion #TraumaHealing #TherapyPodcast #HealingConversations #CompassionCentered #EMDRTherapy#EMDRConsultant #TraumaInformedCare#Psychotherapy #TherapistLife #VeteranMentalHealth #MilitaryTrauma #GriefAndHealing #LossAndResilience#InvisibleWounds #RacialTrauma #BlackTherapists #HealingJustice #SystemicTrauma #RelationalHealing#NervousSystemHealing #AttachmentHealing #HealingTogether #PodcastEpisode #NewEpisode #MustListen #DeepHealing

Traveling Through Multiple Worlds of Wicked: For Good

Welcome to this latest episode. I am so thrilled to welcome back Jamie Marich to the podcast. In this episode we returned to Wicked and dove into a discussion about how Wicked: For Good can connect to therapy, trauma, parts, and of course politics.
Jamie is a leader in trauma treatment, EMDR, dissociation, queer-affirming healing, and expressive arts therapy. They are also the author of many important books and a powerful voice in the trauma community.
So, Jamie was a perfect guest to speak about how deeply Wicked has touched both of our systems, and how we can connect this powerful story to our work in the field. We explored some of the symbolic language of the movie, and how the narrative could be integrated into trauma work.
Wicked offers a story about oppression, identity, longing, courage, and hope. We can also see our political climate of fear and manipulation reflected in this story. The resistance to this, we learn, is friendship. 
A powerful message of this movie was how we can see things from multiple perspectives. It was great riffing on this with Jamie in this episode. We explored how Glinda was able to step outside of her "bubble" and observe some of the ways she was adding to the evil of the universe.
For my system it was also so interesting to see the multi-dimensional aspects of Glinda, and how she had a lot of sadness that was being exiled in her system.
It was so much fun to speak with Jamie about the magic in this movie, and about the magic of being a part of multiple worlds (such as Elphaba). Stepping out of our perspective, and being able to hold the multiplicity really does seem to enable magic! 
We even got a chance to speak about Jamie's new book, Queering EMDR, which is such a gift to the therapy community! I hope you enjoy this special episode!
 
You can learn more about Jamie's work at:
jamiemarich.com
Jamie's newest published book:
instituteforcreativemindfulness.com/queering-emdr.
Jamie's Substack:
jamiemarich.substack.com
David's Substack:
empoweredthroughcompassion.substack.com.
 

The Art of Healing Trauma with Coherence Therapy

In this episode of Empowered Through Compassion, I sit down with psychologist Dr. Tori Olds to explore the simple and profound act of slowing down. Tori is known for her clarity, depth, and ability to translate complex emotional processes into something the body can feel. Our conversation centers on what becomes possible when we pause long enough to listen to the quiet truths living inside us.
Together we explore Coherence Therapy and the idea that symptoms are not random. They are expressions of implicit emotional learning. These learnings often formed early in life, outside of conscious awareness, and continue to shape how we protect ourselves. Coherence Therapy gives us a way to bring these emotional truths into the light, making the implicit explicit. When people can see the juxtapositions or mismatches between what they consciously believe and what their inner emotional world holds as true, real transformation becomes possible.
Tori and I also talk about the elegance in the language and pacing of Internal Family Systems. Both of us have found that integration of models invites a more complete picture to understand how our inner systems are structured, and how we can heal trauma. 
If you have ever felt stuck in the same emotional patterns, or sensed that something deeper is guiding your reactions, this conversation offers insight into what is going on in your mind and how it connects to your emotional history. This episode is an invitation to turn toward all of it with compassion.
 
#EmpoweredThroughCompassion#IFS #InternalFamilySystems #CoherenceTherapy #TraumaHealing #SomaticTherapy #EmotionalLearning #PartsWork #SelfLeadership #MindBodyConnection #TherapistLife #HealingJourney #ToriOlds #PodcastEpisode #NeuroscienceAndTrauma #PresentMomentHealing
 
 

Trauma, Gaza, and the Power of Listening

In this episode of Empowered through Compassion, I sit down with psychotherapist, trauma expert and peace-journalism pioneer Annabel McGoldrick to explore one of the most urgent humanitarian crises of our time: the crisis in Palestine. We spoke about how healing works, and the importance of connection, balance and equality.
Annabel brings together nearly 25 years as a clinician specializing in trauma, EMDR and IFS-informed therapy, alongside her earlier career and passion in peace journalism. She has a deep commitment to opening up dialogue even for difficult and needed topics. We speak about how the silencing by our field, of the horrors that have been going on in Palestine feels antithetical to the healing work we are tasked to do.
Together, we explore how the story of Gaza has been told, and discuss how it might be re-told in ways that reclaim the voices of the those who continue to be oppressed and subjugated in this space. 
Annabel's event that she is organizing is called "Breaking the Silence: Trauma Therapists Talk about Gaza." Gabor Mate will be the guest of honor. You can buy tickets here: 
https://events.humanitix.com/breaking-the-silence-trauma-therapists-talk-about-gaza
The event will feature trauma therapists and activists to share wisdom and reflect on what it takes to truly listen to Palestinian voices, to understand deep collective wounds, and to consider how trauma-informed care intersects with humanitarian justice.
There will be emotionally powerful conversation, reminding us that amid conflict and pain, we have the power to listen to provide our presence, which are radical acts of peace! 
If you’re drawn to conversations that sit at the intersection of power, trauma, identity and hope, this episode is for you! I’m deeply grateful to Annabel for her generosity of voice and for modeling what it looks like to hold suffering with complexity and dignity.
You can find out more information about Annabel at her website:
https://emdrinsight.com 

IFS informed EMDR and Formation of the Syzygy Institute

In this episode of Empowered Through Compassion, I sit down with clinician-trainer Michelle Richardson, who is the co-founder of the Syzygy Institute. Michelle is a leading voice in integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. We explore how these two powerful models can be woven together to create deeper healing. Michelle shares how she has found how creating space and building meaningful relationships with protector parts can in itself be extremely healing.
Whether you’re an EMDR therapist looking for parts-work fluency, or an IFS practitioner exploring reprocessing protocols, this episode offers actionable insights, clinical humility & relational depth. Tune in to find out how you can deepen your clinical toolkit, and expand your confidence in parts-informed trauma work.
 
Syzygy:
https://www.syzygyinstitute.com/
 
Michelle's Practice:
https://mindfulsoulwellbeing.com/
 
#EmpoweredThroughCompassion #ETCmodel #IFS #EMDR #IFSInformedEMDR #SyzygyInstitute #TraumaTherapy #TherapyTraining #PartsWork #TraumaInformed

Connecting with Nature, Self, and One Another

In this episode of I speak with Musenge Luchembe, a gifted ecotherapist, licensed psychotherapist, and IFS-certified clinician who was a program assistant when I took my IFIO (Intimacy From the Inside Out) training.
In this episode, Musenge and I dive into how nature and the natural world can support deep healing, bringing together her work in ecotherapy, somatic modalities and couples work. She shares reflections on how being held by the land, the elements, and relational attunement fosters integration and opens the way toward wholeness.
You can find more about Musenge on her website: Musenge.com

Special Meditation: Nature Ally

Here is a special bonus to the upcoming episode with Musenge Luchembe. Throught this special ecotherapy meditation, she invites us to become a non-human being, and reconnect with nature's deeper and majestical powers.  This invites us into a space within that is quiet, spacious and alive. 
It's one of those moments you'll want to keep revisiting. And each time you return, you'll be able to find something new.