COURSE

Healing From Childhood Trauma With IFS & Self-Compassion

Did you experience trauma as a child? If so, sadly that might have affected every level of your mind-body system. And research now tells us that this experience is far more widespread than previously thought. It's helpful to understand that trauma exists on a spectrum from mild to severe. And that common experiences like bullying at school, or growing up in a high-conflict home, can be extremely stressful and potentially traumatic for a child. These painful experiences in childhood can affect the way we think, the kinds of self-beliefs we have, the way we process emotions and how vulnerable we are to psychological problems like chronic stress, anxiety and depression. On this eight-day course, you will learn all about what you needed to flourish as a child – and what problems it causes when those core developmental needs are not met. You will also learn about the importance of your temperament, what you needed to develop secure attachment and, when that attachment was not as it should be, why you might have developed an insecure (anxious or avoidant) attachment style. This might have affected your relationships throughout your life, especially romantic ones. And this is one of the many ways that traumatic or neglectful early childhood experiences can cast a long shadow over your life. You will also learn all about Early Maladaptive Schemas, or schemas for short – neural networks in your brain which powerfully affect how you think, feel and behave. The course will guide you through what we mean by childhood trauma, as well as emotional neglect. And you will learn about the internal system of parts you would also have developed – both young parts to hold painful memories, beliefs and experiences, and protective parts who try to make sure these young parts never get hurt again. We will look at these parts through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a warm, compassionate model of psychotherapy that offers a revolutionary approach to healing your wounded parts. This will be enriched by the skill of self-compassion, a 2,500-year-old Buddhist approach to healing painful states such as stress, anxiety and depression. You will learn that this skill can be developed and used in conjunction with IFS, to treat yourself and your parts with greater kindness, care and compassion. This course offers a rich blend of teaching and experiential exercises, including Compassionate Breathing, Colour Breathing, Safe Place Imagery and a range of self-compassion and IFS practices. There will also be frequent opportunities for journaling, to develop and embed your learning, as well as the chance to ask Dan Roberts anything you like in the classroom. The key message of this course is that, whatever you went through as a child, it's never too much and never too late to heal. At the end of this journey you will feel greater hope, optimism and determination to find the healing you so deserve. Join a leading expert on healing from childhood trauma for eight days that could just change your life.

Anxiety Depression Healing Psychology Guided Imagery Stress & Anxiety Recovery & Healing Science Visualization

Meet your Teacher

Dan Roberts

Robertsbridge, UK

Dan Roberts is a Psychotherapist, Writer and Teacher. As an Advanced Accredited Schema Therapist, Trainer & Supervisor and Internal Family Systems Therapist, he specialises in working with complex trauma, but helps people with a wide range of psychological problems in his private practice. He provides online therapy for people throughout the world, as well as teaching and writing about psychology and all aspects of mental health and wellbeing. Dan draws from a wide range of proven, trauma-informed models in his work including schema therapy, internal family systems therapy, trauma-informed stabilisation treatment, cognitive behaviour therapy, mindfulness-based self-compassion and compassion-focused therapy, enriched by his long-term interest in mindfulness, compassion and Buddhist psychology. He teaches webinars and workshops, supervises mental-health professionals, creates guided meditations for Insight Timer and writes a blog covering all aspects of mental health and wellbeing on his website.

8 Days

3.9k students

4.9 stars

16 min / day

Anxiety

English

Lesson 1

What You Needed As A Child

In this first lesson, you will learn about two key concepts: attachment and temperament. All babies are born ready for secure attachment with their caregivers, but if that is not possible for any reason, you may have developed an insecure attachment style. This will have affected your ability to form close relationships – especially romantic ones – throughout your life. You will also learn about temperament and why these lifelong personality traits shape the degree to which painful childhood experiences affected you. The experiential practice in this lesson is Compassionate Breathing, which will help you calm and soothe your nervous system and painful feelings like stress, anxiety or upset.

Lesson 2

How Trauma Affects Your Thoughts & Beliefs

The second lesson introduces some more key concepts from the schema therapy model, that of core developmental needs and Early Maladaptive Schemas, or just schemas for short. Core needs are the emotional nutrients that every child needs to flourish and thrive. When these needs are not met for any reason, you will have developed painful schemas in your brain, which have a powerful impact on how you think, feel and behave. You will also learn about childhood trauma and emotional neglect, what we mean by those terms and the kinds of wounding they can cause, especially to a highly sensitive, developing mind and body. Crucially, as you move through the eight days you will learn that this wounding can be healed, with the right kind of trauma-informed love, support and guidance. Today's experiential practice is a four-part Self-Compassion Meditation, which is designed to help you first calm, soothe and steady yourself, before connecting with your Inner Child and sending them warm, compassionate energy and support.

Lesson 3

Understanding Your Miraculous Brain

This lesson helps you understand some key concepts from neuroscience about your brain and nervous system, in a simple, jargon-free manner. It's crucial to understand how your amygdala, called the 'guard dog' of the brain, can become over-active if we experience trauma, leading to hypervigilance, emotional reactivity and a constant background sense of threat and unease. You will learn about the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for rational thought and calming more emotional parts of the brain, as well as beneficial qualities like mindfulness and compassion. And you will be introduced to the concept of 'neuroplasticity', which is both fascinating and hopeful, because it means that your brain can be moulded and changed over time, a crucial part of healing from trauma. Today's experiential practice is designed to help calm your amygdala and create a sense of safety and security – it's called the Safe Place Imagery and is a powerful technique for helping you feel calm, safe and peaceful.

Lesson 4

How To Regulate Your Nervous System

In today's lesson we focus on understanding your nervous system and how it can become dysregulated by childhood trauma. We also look at the linked survival response of fight-flight-freeze, which is key to understand when you are healing the legacy of traumatic experiences. What commonly happens when we go through traumatic experiences, especially in childhood, is that one branch of our nervous system – the sympathetic – becomes dominant, leading us to feel high-energy states like anger, stress and anxiety throughout the day. You will learn how to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn helps you feel calm, safe and at peace. The experiential exercise today is Colour Breathing, which offers a fast, effective way to de-stress and feel more grounded, stable and in control.

Lesson 5

Embracing Every Part Of You With Internal Family Systems

This lesson introduces the concept of 'multiplicity of self' – meaning you are not just a single self but have many subpersonalities, or parts. It takes you through the IFS model, including young, wounded parts (exiles) and the parts who try to stop them being hurt again (protectors). You will also learn about Self, the rich, healing resources inside that is kind, compassionate and loving. Self-energy is the healing resource you need to overcome childhood trauma, or any other kind of painful early experiences. The experiential practice today will guide you in developing compassion for your Inner Child, even if that feels a bit blocked or hard to access at first.

Lesson 6

Learning The Key Skill Of Self-Compassion

In this lesson, you will learn all about self-compassion and how to develop this crucial skill, even if you struggle to treat yourself kindly right now. Drawing from Dr Kristin Neff's research into self-compassion, and her Mindful Self-Compassion course and practices, you will learn how important self-compassion is for your mental and physical health. It's also a key resource for trauma healing and dovetails perfectly with Internal Family Systems therapy, which you learned about in the last lesson. In today's experiential practice, the Compassionate Friend Meditation, you will meet a wise, kind being who will offer you advice and support for anything you may be struggling with. This practice will also help you feel calm, safe and at peace.

Lesson 7

Transforming Your Inner Critic

This lesson focuses on the Inner Critic, because it's a crucial part of trauma treatment and healing. Viewed through an IFS lens, the Critic is actually seen as a protector – hard to grasp if you Critic is loud, harsh and relentlessly negative! But you will learn that although the Critic does cause a lot of problems inside, it doesn't mean to – it's almost always trying to either motivate or protect you in some way. And IFS offers the unique opportunity to get to know, understand and then transform your Critic so it becomes an internal ally, not an enemy. Today's practice is the Fire Drill Meditation, which will help you begin to engage with your Critic from Self, in a calm, steady and confident way.

Lesson 8

How To Flourish And Thrive After Trauma

In the final lesson, the previous seven days' teaching is summarised and brought together. There is also a focus on post-traumatic growth – how you can flourish and find health and happiness in your life, even after childhood trauma. This holistic lesson details the many things you can do to improve your mental and physical health, from building a regular yoga and meditation practice into your life, to getting good-quality sleep and eating a healthy diet – both of which are increasingly understood to be essential for every aspect of your health and wellbeing. The final practice, Imagining a Happier Future, will help you envision and build the kind of life you want, now and in the future.

4.9 (336)

Recent Reviews

Beverly

January 5, 2026

Thank you for this course. The work seems never ending for some of us. 🩵

Karen

December 8, 2025

Dan is a warm, caring instructor with much knowledge. Thank you

Sara

October 30, 2025

Filled with wisdom, knowledge, resources, kindness & compassion. This course can absolutely help you on your healing journey.

Pria

September 24, 2025

I am very interested in IFS and found Dan’s voice to be soothing. But the last meditation was disappointing and triggering. He has us imagine a day 5 years into the future and repeatedly brings up our “partner.” I’m single with a history of trauma connected to relational harm. I don’t know if I will ever have a partner and don’t think it’s healthy to suggest to someone in my situation that we can’t hope for a fulfilling life without a partner. I resisted having to picture a partner and tried to picture my fulfilling single life, and it was challenging. The meditation just felt harmful-a therapist and mindfulness teacher suggesting I have to have a partner to find fulfillment.

Nick

September 12, 2025

Great course, and introduction to healing trauma thank you, I will listen again. It has helped to give me a feeling of cautious optimism for my healing journey, thank you 😂

Scott

August 19, 2025

Outstanding! Answer so many questions. Connected dots to why I feel and experience the things I do as an adult — because of childhood traumas. But most importantly I see and feel how these can be resolved once and for all without beating my “self” up. My Self is just fine. It’s my parts that I need to engage to understand and resolve unmet needs, issues, etc that they believe help me (and they did when I was a child) but actually their help is not needed anymore. I have felt like a flawed, broken person my whole life. And that there was no fixing it. I just had to figure out a way to cope with my issues as is, fight them, keep them pushed down, and make the best of the cards dealt to me because it’s just bad luck and nothing I can do will change that — or me. Not true. Not even close.

ilinca

August 17, 2025

Very wise course, and very kind too! Thank you 🙏🤗

maureen

August 4, 2025

This has been the most helpful practice. I am so very grateful. It has come at very difficult time in my life but I feel I have something to pick myself up with thank you ❤️

Tracy

July 31, 2025

Very informative with helpful practices.

Trever

July 30, 2025

This was really helpful and insightful thank you much!

Torie

July 30, 2025

Bravo brilliantly done . This course was so helpful

Mona

July 23, 2025

Outstanding!

Chuck

July 20, 2025

The course has hit on everything I’ve been working on for the last 12 years. It also shows the most two important things 1. I must give myself the credit I deserve for the work I have done 2. There is always more work to do. I have more understanding of the negative critic, the stories I tell to myself about myself, my actions and behaviors and what’s mine and what others. Thank you for this informative and inspiring information and activity

Rachel

July 13, 2025

Excellent

Danna

July 11, 2025

Incredibly helpful and informative course. I highly recommend it 🙏

Alessandra

July 9, 2025

This course is full of compassion and kindness. Your work has gifted me with a fresh and more open perspective on IFS, less demanding and more approachable. Thank you.

Maria

July 8, 2025

Like so many have said and I repeat 🥰 Dan, your kind, warm and gentle guidance has made such difference in my healing journey. IFS’ approach and philosophy reasonates with me and I have learned so much from you! What makes the difference is your knowledge and respect for this therapeutic model. I love your courses, guided meditations and talks ♥️certainly one of my favorite on Insight Timer. Many many blessings to you 🙏🏽

Lisa

July 5, 2025

Thank you for this course. I always knew something wasn’t right in my life and so have been exploring through meditation and meditation courses on Insight Timer for the past 7 years after my parents’ passing. After a health scare in Dec. of 2024, I lost 20 lbs. in 6 months by following the Atomic Habits book through consistency with eating, exercise, and meditation. I am realizing just the past few months since retiring that I still need to heal from childhood trauma in order to feel peace, happiness, and fulfilled. Your course has helped to see ways that I can start working on healing - through IFS and counseling, that there is hope, and that it’s never too late. Thank you so much!

Mary

June 12, 2025

So easy to listen and relate to. Very helpful information and practices for someone exploring care for trauma.

Nancy

May 18, 2025

Dan Roberts is absolutely the most amazing heartwarming and compassionate therapist. It has ever been my pleasure to experience. His skillful approach for such a sensitive topic as healing childhood trauma was beautiful, calm and nourishing, helping me see a bright future for myself and my Internal family systems parts.

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