Professional trainings that bring the magic of Presence into deep healing work.
Our core program, Awakened IFS, unlocks your innate wisdom and healing power. You develop the loving Presence necessary to draw out the evolving intelligence of Internal Family Systems.
What makes Awakened IFS different?
We believe Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a living model that continues to teach us more about how it wants to be used to serve the awakening of the planet.
While we teach the classic IFS methodology, or what we call the “bottom-up” approach to healing, we also teach the “top-down” approach.
In bottom-up, you learn to heal parts one by one to gain greater access to Self, the awake aware core of every human.
In top-down, you learn to access Self directly, connect to Spirit, and live and work from Presence.
In other words, you become a conduit for Divine energy. Parts soften, internal systems reorganize, and IFS becomes an even more powerful tool for transformation.
Note: The Institute for Healing and Awakening is not affiliated with the IFS Institute. We are, however, deeply indebted to IFS developer Richard C. Schwartz. His teachings have inspired us, and we are grateful for his generosity in sharing the model. Internal Family Systems and IFS are trademarks of the IFS Institute and used here with authorization.
Join us for a Free Informational Webinar
Meet founders Guthrie Sayen and Barti Bourgault
Bring your questions about Awakened IFS-1
Wednesday, August 19
12:00 - 1:00 PM Eastern Time (New York)
Awakened IFS trainings
for coaches, therapists, spiritual directors, dietitians, and other healing practitioners
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Awakened IFS-1
October 2026
A six-month foundational training for practitioners seeking to offer the full protocol for Internal Family Systems.
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Awakened IFS Consultation Group
November 2026
A community of practitioners who use IFS. Includes Q&A, demos, and case studies. Wednesdays, 12:00 - 1:30 pm Eastern Time (New York.)
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Awakened IFS-2
January 2027
A six-month intermediate training for IFS practitioners who are seeking greater competence and confidence working with complex systems. This is a prerequisite for AIFS-3.
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Awakened IFS-3
September 2027
A six-month advanced training for IFS practitioners seeking mastery. You will learn to work with guides, past lives, and other spiritual resources. You will also learn how IFS integrates with other models. This is a prerequisite for the certification program.
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Awakened IFS Certification
April 2028
Students who have completed AIFS-3 will be invited to join a six-month Awakened IFS certification program. Being certified by The Institute for Healing and Awakening as an Awakened IFS practitioner signifies your capacity to practice IFS from a state of awake awareness.
“We believe that to help others transform, we must transform. To end suffering in others, we must end suffering in ourselves. And to facilitate awakening in others, we must wake up ourselves.”
Who is Awakened IFS for?
It is for healing professionals who recognize that it’s how you show up that makes all the difference.
It’s your state of being that allows clients to go deeper, which leads to lasting transformation.
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Coaches
Support clients in moving beyond self-criticism, inner conflict, and limiting beliefs by helping them build a relationship with their internal world. Awakened IFS provides a powerful framework for creating the kind of transformation that is both profound and sustainable.
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Therapists & Social Workers
Deepen your clinical work with an experiential approach that helps clients heal at the deepest levels. Learn to work with protectors, exiles, and polarized parts while cultivating greater Presence, nervous system regulation, and compassionate witnessing.
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Dietitians & Other Health Professionals
Food, physical health, and wellbeing are deeply connected to our emotional lives. Whether you work in nutrition, functional medicine, or holistic wellness, Awakened IFS offers a relational approach for understanding the protective patterns that block healing and behavior change.
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Spiritual Directors
Expand your capacity to hold sacred, compassionate space while helping others connect more deeply with Presence, intuition, and Divine wisdom. Awakened IFS bridges psychological healing with spiritual awakening, supporting transformation at both levels.
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Holistic & Integrative Practitioners
This training welcomes somatic practitioners, bodyworkers, breathwork facilitators, yoga teachers, energy healers, and other helpers who want to bring a deeper understanding of the inner world into their work. If you're seeking more live practice, mentorship, and experiential learning, Awakened IFS can help you embody — not just understand — the model.
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Psychedelic Practitioners
Expanded states of consciousness often reveal the inner system with remarkable clarity. Awakened IFS provides a compassionate, Presence-centered framework for helping clients navigate what emerges before, during, and after psychedelic journeys. Learn to support healing, integration, and awakening while honoring the wisdom of each client's unique internal landscape.
Learn from experienced IFS facilitators and fellow finders on the path to awakening.
These trainings are led by IHA Founders Guthrie Sayen and Barti Bourgault. They combine deep personal practice with decades of teaching, facilitation, mentoring, and transformational work. Their playful chemistry invites Spirit into the room. They embody what they teach.
Guthrie Sayen, PhD, PCC
Guthrie trains practitioners worldwide. He is a former university professor and is the creator and lead teacher of this training. His style is clear, concise, relatable, and playful.
His humility allows for the cohort circle itself to participate in the teaching. We learn from each other. His access to transmitted wisdom is a result of his open loving Presence.
He co-founded The Institute for Healing and Awakening with Barti in 2024 because they felt the call to bring Spirit and the light of love to healing practices.
Together they want to support the evolution of global wellbeing by creating a college of light workers who are dedicated to this work. This is their passion.
To learn more about Guthrie go to the About page.
Barti Bourgault, MA, PCC
Barti has been working with Guthrie since 2018. Guthrie was her teacher, coach, and mentor before becoming her business partner in this journey of purpose.
She created and holds the infrastructure for the Institute. In class, she holds the room — often noticing what is landing and what is not. She ensures there is understanding. What she adds to the teaching answers the unasked questions.
She often plays the muse, supporting the evolution of the what is offered as she feels into what is being called forth. Her clarity of knowing is one of her greatest gifts. She can see the big picture while holding the details.
Both she and Guthrie have traveled a similar path of learning. Jointly, they bring the influences of mindfulness, developmental theory, cognitive psychology, consciousness studies, and embodiment into the conversation.
To learn more about Barti go to the About page.
Frequently asked questions
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Awakened IFS is a presence-based training that teaches practitioners how to safely use the IFS model in healing relationships.
We teach classic IFS as developed and taught by IFS founder Richard C. Schwartz. We refer to this as the "bottom-up" approach, where you work part by part to remove constraints on access to Self, awake awareness.
In addition, we teach a "top-down" approach. Here, we help you access Self directly through guided meditations, pointing-out instructons, and cultivating relational resonance.
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Our offerings are not only professional trainings, they are personal development workshops in which you will be transformed.
We help you step into the magic of Presence, where you are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole.
From here, you can facilitate healing and awakening in others.
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Healing is about wholeness, finding the parts of us that have been hurt and loving them back to health.
Awakening is about shifting out of thought-based mind into the clarity of awake awareness.
Awareness is about disidentifying with thoughts, emotions, and sensations, contents of consciousness, and recognizing yourself as consciousness itself.
When you, as a practitioner, heal and awaken, you can co-create the relational space that is conducive to deep and durable transformation.
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Awakened IFS is a presence-based training that teaches practitioners how to safely use the IFS model in healing relationships.
We teach classic IFS as developed and taught by IFS founder Richard C. Schwartz. We refer to this as the "bottom-up" approach, where you work part by part to remove constraints on access to Self, awake awareness.
In addition, we teach a "top-down" approach. Here, we help you access Self directly through guided meditations, pointing-out instructions, and cultivating relational resonance. -
Your personal growth isn't separate from your professional development, it is part of it.
We believe that you are your greatest asset. As you heal and awaken, you become more grounded, compassionate, and connected to your own inner wisdom. Your clients will naturally respond with greater trust, and their systems will start to soften and open.
You will both begin to expereince the magic of Presence. -
Our trainings are designed for coaches, therapists, spiritual directors, dietitians, bodyworkers, and other healing practitioners who want to deepen their ability to facilitate lasting transformation.
These trainings are valuable for both new and experienced professionals.
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Graduates may refer to themselves as "Awakened IFS practitioners" or "IFS-informed practitioners."
The Institute for Healing and Awakening is not affiliated with the IFS Institute, which has their own training programs and requirements for certification.