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)

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Awakened IFS trainings
for coaches, therapists, spiritual directors, dietitians, and other healing practitioners

  • Awakened IFS-1

    October 2026

    A six-month foundational training for practitioners seeking to offer the full protocol for Internal Family Systems.

    Learn more

  • 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.)

    Learn more

  • 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.

    Learn more

  • 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.

    Learn more

  • 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.

    Inquire here
“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.”
— Guthrie Sayen

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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • [From personal healing to practitioner confidence]

    “IFS transformed my life, then Awakened IFS gave me the skills and confidence to do the same for others. I looked forward to each weekend, with its mix of masterful demos, step-by-step guidelines, group practice and community Q&A. I now can't unsee everyone's parts and the power of this methodology, and will be forever grateful to Guthrie, Barti, and the supporting team of experienced coaches who brought this to life."

    — Derek Haswell

  • [A grounding presence I can return to]

    “Guthrie creates and holds a beautiful space that allowed me to be vulnerable and open for healing and learning in a safe environment. His grounding presence and peaceful energy enabled me to access a deeper place within myself that now I am able to go back to in my daily life and also share the same openness and grounding presence with others on a personal and professional level.”

    — Fernanda Suarez

  • [Access to Heart-Courage and Embodied Confidence]

    “The approach to parts work that I learned from Guthrie and Barti is absolutely foundational to my own well-being and my ability to more fully show up to my life, my parenting and my calling in the world. It's helped me access more heart-courage and embodied confidence, as I know that I have an abundance of ways back to center -- back to my core Self and to my inner knowings. My gratitude for my time with them continues to unfold, as the gifts of the work continue to be revealed. “

    — Nicole Feola

  • [Coaching as a Doorway to Deeper Connection]

    "Guthrie’s approach is unique in that he doesn’t just master coaching techniques and skills, but uses them as a tool to deepen the connection with oneself, which becomes a powerful agent for healing and personal growth."

    — Dmitry Dumik

  • [Learning from Two Distinct, Complementary Teaching Styles]

    “Through Awakened IFS I have learned from demonstrations of the highest order from Guthrie and Barti. Guthrie with his creativity and Barti with her structure, the duo bring in different perspectives to the coaching process. To me this has been an incredible journey into what is deep compassionate presence.”

    — Rashish Sahasranama

  • [Anchoring in Something Beyond Fear and Survival]

    “By bringing curiosity and compassion to my internal family, new relationships could arise and a greater, gentler force was able to energize my being. I learned to anchor my deepest self in something beyond fear and survival; a healing force that resonates closer to love.”

    — Meditation Teacher and Coach, Kim Ruggiero, MA

Learn from experienced IFS facilitators and fellow finders on the path to awakening.

This training is 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

  • Awakened IFS is a Presence-based training that teaches you how to safely use the IFS model in a healing relationship to support your clients in accessing their own confidence, calm and creativity – so they can be in choice in their lives, finding the answers they are seeking within themselves.

    This is an ICF-approved training providing 40 CCEs – 32 core competency hours and 8 resource development hours.

    It is also appropriate for therapists, spiritual directors, dietitians. or others who are experienced practitioners in the healing arts.

    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.

  • Our trainings provide you with the fundamental skills to work in healing relationship with another. In addition, you will acquire advanced skills that distinguish you from other practitioners.

    Here is what sets us apart:

    • Our offerings are both personal development workshops and professional trainings. Your healing and awakening supports you in facilitating the healing and awakening in others.

    • We bring people like you, healers and seekers, into intimate and loving relationship with yourself and with Spirit.

    • We believe healing and awakening are relational processes. Therefore, we create safe and intimate circles where you are invited to take the risks necessary for foundational change. We limit our training cohorts to 36 students.

  • 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 the contents of consciousness -- thoughts, emotions, and sensations -- and realizing that you are consciousness itself, that which experiences thoughts, emotions, and sensations.

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic methodology that is in alignment with the principles of coaching — that we are already whole, wise, good, and fully resourced. It is a constraint-release model (removing obstacles) that does not pathologize the client.

    IFS looks at a client’s system as being one made up of multiple parts. (For example, “A part of me is frightened about this, and a part of me is excited.”) When parts come into relationship with Self (with a capital S — your client’s true nature), they soften back and allow Self to lead. Self is naturally confident, calm, clear, courageous, connected, compassionate, creative, and curious.

    The model was developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, with whom Guthrie Sayen, the creator of Awakened IFS, has deep connection and great respect.

  • Our programs go beyond teaching the basic skills of being in healing relationship with another. They offer you training in how to shift into full presence: equanimity, clarity, and confidence. We also show you how to amplify that in your clients.

    We often have therapists, spiritual directors, dietitians, and other healing practitioners in our IFS trainings due to the range of topics we cover, the emphasis on Spirit, and the degree of safety and intimacy cultivated in our classes.

  • You may call yourself an Awakened IFS practitioner.

    For graduates of Awakened IFS-3, we are offering a certification program. If you complete this six-month program, The Institute for Healing and Awakening will certify you as an Awakened IFS Practitioner.

    Note that this is not a certification from the IFS Institute.

    We pride ourselves on the quality and depth of our trainings and strive to graduate highly skilled, Self-led practitioners.

Still have questions?

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