Recorded Workshop

Spirituality Without Bypassing

IFS As A Spiritual Path 

With IFS Founder Dick Schwartz, Ph.D. & Lissa Rankin, MD

Take this workshop anytime

Have you had a history of meditating your parts away like clouds in the sky? Or hoping your yoga practice or manifestation rituals or mantras would make your pain go away and lead you to a permanent state of pain free enlightenment? 

Have you been using your spirituality as a way to avoid confronting abusive people, letting people who hurt you off the hook, or tolerating behaviors that aren’t tolerable in the name of compassion? Maybe you even have a “Self-like” part that uses an IFS-bypass to justify not protecting yourself when your parts are being mistreated.

Many trauma survivors are drawn to spiritual seeking, but can wind up in spiritual cul de sacs that prevent them from bringing healing to the “parts” that have been burdened and are in need of healing.

Join IFS Founder Richard Schwartz, PhD & Physician/ Author Lissa Rankin, MD for a weekend online workshop about the natural spirituality of self, that doesn’t bypass our “parts”.

Featuring

  • Interactive online workshop;
  • Multi-media presentation;
  • ​Supportive trauma-informed community;
  • ​Practices to support your spiritual development without bypassing your parts;
  • ​A journey to loving more deeply, intimately, and justly.

Take this course at your leisure

Dr. Lissa Rankin

New York Times bestselling author, doctor, researcher, and teacher.

Dick Schwartz, PH.D

Internal Family Systems (IFS) founder and family therapist, author, and teacher.

Part 1

  • Common Parts In Spirituality
  • ​Open Discussion
  • IFS Demonstration

Part 2

  • 9:30 am PST - How to Meditate without Bypassing
  • ​10:00 am PST - Parts Processing
  • 11:45 am PST - Self-Led Spirituality

In this workshop we will guide you in:

  • Understanding Internal Family Systems (IFS) as an antidote to spiritual bypassing and as a trauma-informed spiritual path you might choose to follow;
  • Learning what spiritual bypassing is- and how to stop using your spirituality as a way to avoid healing your traumatized parts;
  • Liberating yourself from belief systems that interfere with your capacity for intimacy- with yourself, with other people, with nature and the planet;
  • ​Finding the middle path between spiritual bypassing and cynical skepticism, opening space for the sacred in your life;
  • ​Gaining insight into how New Age and religious belief systems can actually oppress and harm people in marginalized groups;
  • ​Finding the baby in the bathwater - What do we keep from our spiritual teachings? What do we let go of?
  • Learning how to practice critical thinking, healthy skepticism, reality checking, social justice conscious ethics, and good boundaries;
  • ​Cultivating the gifts of all your emotions and all your parts, especially healthy anger and parts that protect you from having your boundaries crossed;
  • ​Cultivating sacred systems of meaning and spiritual practice in a grounded, non-bypassing manner;
  • ​Staying open to the mystery (without magical thinking).
Students will also receive a PDF edition of Lissa's new, not yet published book: Love Bigger: An Exploration of Spirituality Without Spiritual Bypassing

What Is Spiritual Bypassing Anyway?

Spiritual bypassing refers to the use of spiritual or religious beliefs and practices like mindfulness meditation as a way to avoid or bypass unhealed trauma, necessary conflict and confrontation, or painful emotions. 

Spiritual bypassing also refers to the tendency to use spiritual concepts to rationalize away experiences of injustice or discrimination, instead of recognizing and taking action to address systemic issues like racism or socioeconomic inequality. Spiritual bypassing involves using spiritual concepts, such as "Everything happens for a reason" or "Just let go and trust the universe" or “Get out of your victim story,” to deny or minimize the importance of negative emotions or life challenges, rather than confronting them directly and dealing with them in a healthy way. 
 
While spirituality can be a valuable source of comfort, support, community, and guidance, spiritual bypassing can lead to emotional and psychological issues, including a lack of self-awareness, disconnection and dissociation from reality, and an inability to address personal and societal issues with an activist’s oomph. 

KEEPING THE SACRED, LETTING GO OF OPPRESSION & BYPASSING

Many people who wake up to the damages caused by spiritual bypassing understandably flip 180 degrees into cynical skepticism, with contempt for anything metaphysical or spiritual. 

Yet we need not throw out the baby with the muddy bathwater. Trauma survivors who have been drawn to spiritual seeking and the bypassing that tends to ride shotgun with it can embark upon a trauma-informed, non-bypassing spiritual recovery process. 

IFS shows us a possible path for such a spiritual recovery journey. 

While the founder of IFS and its practitioners do not claim to be on a spiritual path or ascribe to any particular religion or belief system, the non-bypassing practices of IFS are compatible with many belief systems and can enhance whatever spiritual life you might already have without competing or expecting you to adopt some rigid dogma.
SPIRITUALITY IS A NATURAL BYPRODUCT OF IFS

You don’t have to believe in anything to begin having spiritual experiences as the result of IFS trauma healing work. It’s as if our natural spirituality is right there, ready to shine the minute we heal enough parts that may be blocking our spirituality. Experienced IFS practitioner discover that what some might consider spiritual “woo” shows up frequently in client sessions.

  • The Gifts Of The Spirit: At the root of every genuine spiritual path is the quest for love, compassion (not just for others, but for our own parts), truth, healing, service, and justice. All of these emotions, states of awareness, and ways of being are a natural consequence of healing our parts and opening up to Self-leadership At the root of every genuine spiritual path is the quest for love, compassion (not just for others, but for our own parts), truth, healing, service, and justice. All of these emotions, states of awareness, and ways of being are a natural consequence of healing our parts and opening up to Self-leadership.
  • Love & Intimacy: IFS offers the “how” of pursuing intimate relationship as a spiritual path. Not only does IFS offer us the “how” of self-compassion. It also allows those we are truly intimate with the chance to become our “tor-mentors” while also helping us learn to love ourselves and others. If a spiritual path does not include bringing more love to ourselves, our relationships and our communities, it is likely not a path worth pursuing. A tor-mentor is not the same thing as framing an abuser as a teacher (a common spiritual bypassing way of letting abusers off the hook of accountability.). A real, healthy tor-mentor practices IFS with you- both of you deepening intimacy and growing together as a path of love and intimacy.
  • ​Synchronicity: The more parts get healing, the more we inhabit what IFS calls “Self,” the more frequently we experience outer world synchronicities that can feel like mysterious, even magical affirmations that we are on the right path, even if we don’t know where we’re going. These synchronicities may even play out as outer “redo’s” of old traumatic patterns, anchoring the inner “redo’s” we implement and practice during unburdenings.
  • Meditation: Those who benefit from meditation practices can learn non-bypassing meditation practices, like The Path meditation, to strengthen Self energy and regulate the nervous system while also healing parts.
  • ​Mystical Experiences & Non-Dual Awareness: The more parts are healed, the more Self energy comes on line, the more those who practice IFS as a path of recovery also tend to experience mystical experiences or what some might call experiences of “non-dual awareness” (in other words, “No Bad Parts.”).
  • Spirit Guides & Angels: What some might identify as spiritual helpers from the other side- spirit guides, angels, animal totems, etc- frequently show up in IFS work as aspects of Self that portray themselves in the inner world as objects of support, comfort, and guidance. 
  • ​Entities: What some might call “entities” show up as “unattached burdens” and can be released without the need to unburden them.
  • ​Social Justice: Any spiritual path worth pursuing is rooted in the notion that all beings matter equally and there are no “better than” or “special, chosen people. As Harvard professor Paul Farmer said, “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.”

This PROGRAM Is For You If You:

  • Are interested in learning more about IFS as a spiritual path from IFS founder Dick Schwartz, who was very surprised by this!
  • Are seeking a healing path towards a sacred life with fewer down sides than many spiritual bypassing paths; 
  • Are seeking a healing path towards a sacred life with fewer down sides than many spiritual bypassing paths; 
  • Seek genuine personal growth and a very personal spirituality that also connects you to the collective, promoting self-awareness, emotional healing, inner harmony, and an impetus towards social justice;
  • Have been spiritual seeking instead of healing trauma because of emotional pain or inner conflicts you didn’t realize you were escaping;
  • Cultivate a deeper understanding of yourself and unlock your innate capacity for growth, resilience, and connection;
  • ​Are drawn towards a more authentic, grounded, less dissociative spiritual journey without avoidance or escape from life's difficulties;
  • ​Yearn for the kinds of deeper, more intimate relationships IFS as a spiritual path can help foster;
  • ​Seek a non-dogmatic, non-religious, inclusive approach to spirituality;
  • ​Are a mental health professional, spiritual counselor, coach, or spiritual leader interested in helping support clients who have experience spiritual abuse and desire spiritual healing;
  • ​Are interested in self-compassion and empathy;
  • ​​​Seek inner peace and balance during chaotic times.

YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:

  • Empower yourself with the psycho-education you'll need to protect yourself from those who encourage you to spiritually bypass; 
  • Learn more about Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a practice for compassionately loving and comforting “parts” of you that may be afraid of getting flooded with painful feelings so you can be more in touch with your true Divine Self;
  • Learn a meditation practice and spiritual path that does not ask you to get rid of the ego, avoid the monkey mind, have your thoughts pass on by like clouds, keep your vibe high, be all One, resist polarizing, unify, eliminate “negative” emotions, or otherwise bypass your natural, healthy emotions or your traumatized parts;
  • Find a loving community of open-hearted, empathic, non-demonizing, trauma-informed spiritual seekers who will welcome you gently with tender acceptance as a spiritual bypasser in recovery (because they are too!) Especially if you’re defecting from an oppressive religion or the oppressive New Age, you’ll need a safe “off ramp”;
  • ​Learn how to avoid the tendency to shame, criticize, or judge your spiritual bypassing parts or Self-like parts harshly (Once you understand why you may have done this, you’ll love this part so tenderly and help it relax so you can feel and ground and integrate intense emotions safely within the wholeness of your own heart.);
  • ​Get to know the parts of you that feel painful emotions (like fear and rage) so you can understand how they think they’re trying to protect you, help them heal, and use them to participate in sacred activism;
  • ​Lovingly and gently wrestle with any uncomfortable emotions that arise when you feel into any disillusionment, confusion, betrayal, or sadness you may feel because you have lost trust in certain spiritual leaders or because you’re realizing your comforting spiritual practices and beliefs might be harming you (and others) more than they’re helping;
  • Are a mental health professional, spiritual counselor, coach, or spiritual leader interested in helping support clients who have experience spiritual abuse and desire spiritual healing;
  • ​​Are interested in self-compassion and empathy;
  • ​Seek inner peace and balance during chaotic times;
  • ​Discover a fully embodied, emotionally intelligent spiritual path that does not bypass, demonize, transcend or reject any natural human emotion;
  • Commune with others who are healing scared or angry parts and finding badass courage on the other side of the healing process.

Your Teachers

About Lissa Rankin, MD

Dr. Lissa Rankin is a best-selling author, holistic physician, and sought-after speaker who has dedicated her life to helping individuals heal and thrive by connecting with their authentic selves and embracing spirituality without bypassing. As a pioneering thought leader, she has inspired countless people to cultivate a more mindful, compassionate, and balanced approach to life, rooted in self-awareness and emotional healing.

With a unique blend of expertise in both conventional medicine and alternative healing modalities, Dr. Rankin brings a holistic perspective to personal growth and well-being. Her passion for empowering others to nurture their inner wisdom and innate healing capacities has led her to explore the transformative power of Internal Family Systems (IFS) as a spiritual path.
Because her blog and Daily Flame emails quickly garnered a large readership, she was able to publish her first book in 2010 and has been blessed to have her last 7 books published. Her third book, the New York Times bestseller Mind Over Medicine, has sold over 300,000 copies in 28 languages. Her latest book Sacred Medicine was published in 2022.

In addition to putting in her 100,000 hours and writing every day, in 2012, Lissa founded the Whole Health Medicine Institute, where she and a team of luminary faculty train physicians and other health care providers about “Whole Health” and the “6 Steps to Healing Yourself.” 

Lissa has starred in two National Public Television specials, her TEDx talks have been viewed over 5 million times, and she leads workshops, both online and at retreat centers like Esalen, 1440, Omega, and Kripalu. 

Her latest health equity project is non-profit work committed to democratizing trauma healing and spiritual healing while eliminating the public health epidemic of loneliness, bringing Sacred Medicine out of its current status as a luxury good to anyone who needs it and is open to it, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, or gender identity. 

During the pandemic, Lissa played a public role in debunking “Conspirituality,” the Covid denialism, anti-vaccination propaganda, and conspiracy theories promoted by many wellness, yoga, mind-body medicine, alternative medicine, and spirituality influencers who got “red-pilled” during 2020. This shakeout anchored her platform as a physician influencer to trust who is grounded in science, open to the mystical, spiritually aware, and trauma-informed. 

Lissa lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her daughter Mira, who is also a writer, and her puppy Gaia, who would tell great stories if only she knew how.

About Richard Schwartz

Dick Schwartz, Ph.D., is a trailblazing psychologist, celebrated author, and compassionate visionary who has devoted his life to unraveling the mysteries of the human psyche. As the genius behind the game-changing Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy model, he has breathed new life into the world of psychotherapy, offering a loving, non-judgmental approach to personal growth and emotional healing.

A true pioneer in his field, Dr. Schwartz fuses psychology with spirituality, creating a holistic approach to personal development that honors the wholeness of the human experience. His deep understanding of the intricate dance of our inner parts allows him to help people tap into the power of self-awareness, self-compassion, and inner harmony without bypassing the very emotions and experiences that make us human.

With a rich background in family therapy, systems theory, and spiritual exploration, Dr. Schwartz has a unique ability to see the interconnectedness of our inner parts and the vital role they play in our overall well-being. His revolutionary IFS model is now embraced worldwide as a versatile and inclusive method for personal growth, offering invaluable tools for addressing unresolved emotional pain, inner conflicts, and relationship challenges.

About Shiloh Sophia McCloud 

For 30 years, Curate Shiloh Sophia McCloud has been devoted to nurturing the emergence of conscious community through self-expression. She has published 8 books, taught her curriculum at 3 universities, spoken at the United Nations for 8 years, financed over 7 galleries centering on women’s art and has provided millions of dollars of jobs for women around the world in the arts. While McCloud is an artist, storyteller and teacher, she is also a futurist who has founded one of the world’s largest global art movements, serving tens of thousands of students per month called Musea Center for Intentional Creativity®. 
She teaches a ‘path of practice’ in the arts, and offers ceremonies throughout the wheel of the year for people to repair their relationship with creativity, the earth and themselves. McCloud is a prolific painter with many sold out shows. She still paints weekly for both her own exploration and on camera for her global audience. 

She lives in Sonoma, California with her husband Jonathan and their two kitties Frida and Diego. The couple have a gallery on the Sonoma Plaza, Musette Atelier, as well as a campus featuring a classroom, film studio, kitchens, vineyard and art studios. Based on ten years of research in art, education and leadership, the McCloud’s opened a private university featuring an independent degree in the field of Intentional Creativity called a Curate. There are over 800 graduates from their certification courses, and the graduates, called the Guild, form the staff for Musea Center: Museum, University, Sanctuary, Ecosystem and Atelier. At Musea Center, love is at the Center! www.musea.org

INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS

In "No Bad Parts," Dr. Dick Schwartz, the brilliant mind behind the groundbreaking Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, lovingly invites you on a transformative journey to embrace the wholeness of your being. With his compassionate wisdom and genuine warmth, Dr. Schwartz reveals how every part of you – even those that may seem challenging or unlovable – has a valuable role to play in your overall well-being and personal growth.

“With our culture abuzz about the importance of self-love, world peace, spiritual awakening, and healing, few seem to offer the ‘how.’ How do we love parts of ourselves that hurt ourselves or others? How do we resolve our inner conflicts so we can participate in healing a divided world? How do we awaken to the divine within ourselves without bypassing our humanity? How do we heal trauma—and the chronic physical and mental illnesses it can cause? Without the how, we wind up feeling helpless to live in alignment with the core values and desire for optimal health that most of us espouse. Well, wait no longer. This book offers the ‘hows’ we've all been waiting for, sensible solutions that help you open your heart to even your most destructive ‘parts’ so that your divine Self can extend compassion to them while leading the way to wholeness. Internal Family Systems is a total game changer. I'm not exaggerating when I say this may be the most transformational book you'll ever read.” —Lissa Rankin, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine
Doctor, author, and trauma-informed medicine teacher Lissa Rankin, MD was on a decade-long quest to research her seventh book Sacred Medicine: A Doctor's Quest To Unravel The Mysteries of Healing when she bumped into the IFS model. Anecdote after anecdote from IFS therapists and their clients who were treating their traumas using IFS revealed a curious phenomenon: when people's traumas were getting treated with this cutting-edge treatment, at least sometimes, their mystery illnesses and chronic symptoms seemed to be improving.
 
Lissa's deep dive into IFS was a complete game-changer in her search for answers to why some people seem to have radical remissions from seemingly "incurable" or "terminal" illnesses- and others don't. This insight led her to write a revised edition of Mind Over Medicine, the New York Times bestseller published in 35 languages that was the centerpiece for a PBS special and several TEDx talks. She now trains physicians and therapists in the Whole Health Medicine Institute, using an IFS-informed approach to helping patients and clinicians optimize their chances of becoming "miracle prone." 

Bonus 1

Bonus 2

SIX  2-hour recorded Zoom Workshops with Lissa Rankin, MD

Unpack, debunk, and examine many unhelpful, confusing spiritual bypass teachings about fear, shame, anger, jealousy, anxiety, and other valuable and necessary human emotions.

​​Understand how your spirituality might have inadvertently allowed others to cross your boundaries (and you to cross the boundaries of others and yourself).

Get to know the parts of you that feel painful emotions (like fear and rage) so you can understand how they think they’re trying to protect you, help them heal, and use them to participate in sacred activism.

Bonus

Students will receive a PDF edition of Lissa's new, not yet published book. 

"Let me be crystal clear: if you’ve faced a tragedy and someone tells you in anyway, shape or form that your tragedy was meant to be, that it happened for a reason, that it will make you a better person, or that taking responsibility for it will fix it, you have every right to remove them from your life. Grief is brutally painful. Grief does not only occur when someone dies. When relationships fall apart, you grieve. When opportunities are shattered, you grieve. When dreams die, you grieve. When illnesses wreck you, you grieve. So I’m going to repeat a few words I’ve uttered countless times; words so powerful and honest they tear at the hubris of every jackass who participates in the debasing of the grieving:Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried."-Tim Lawrence
SEVEN 2-hour previously live recorded Zoom Workshops with Lissa Rankin, MD
SEVEN 60-minute previously recorded Zoom Classes with Lissa and Preeminent Faculty 

Learn what is meant by “spiritual bypassing” and examine whether you may have been practicing it in your spirituality, relationships, or work as a way to protect yourself from painful feelings or avoid conflict;


Spirituality Without Bypassing
US$97
Take this workshop anytime, anywhere.
If the cost of this workshop presents a financial hardship, we hope you will contact us for a sliding scale option. Please write to support@lissarankin.com 
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do I contact customer service?
Please contact us by sending an email to support@lissarankin.com
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In order to participate in this course, you will need to access our learning platform through a web browser like Chrome or Safari. Teachable is a platform that hosts all the material for the course, including class recordings. 

You will need a good connection to the internet. You can use a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone.
Do you offer stipends or adjustments?
We believe that money should not be an obstacle to healing. If you currently do not have the means please write to support@lissarankin.com
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A person who is visually impaired will be able to navigate our content using a reader and other common navigational tools. We do not rely on slides or other visual representations.
Screenshot of Lissa Rankin teaching in a video
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Once you have signed up you will log in to our learning platform where you will find all recordings and material.
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If  the cost of this program presents a financial hardship then we hope you will contact us for a sliding scale option. Please write to support@lissarankin.com