Internal Family Systems Model of Psychotherapy (IFS)

 

Lois is Levels 1, 2, & 3 trained and has been a Program Assistant for a Level 1 training as well as co-leader for many Introduction to IFS weekend trainings and other IFS trainings. She has also focused her study and training in Somatic Internal Family Systems (SIFS)  which is an arm of IFS that focuses on the somatic or body based parts in an individual's system. She has been a Program Assistant for Susan McConnell, the founder of Somatic IFS in numerous retreats and a number of trainings that Susan has led.   Lois has also developed the use of IFS in working with attachment trauma in children and their families and has produced two workbooks for children and their parents. She has done numerous trainings in the use of IFS with children and families and has taught on this topic numerous times at the IFS Annual Conference.  Lois is an approved consultant for those who have completed Level 1 training and wish to pursue IFS certification.  She has also consulted with IFS informed clinicians who are attempting to learn the basics of IFS while on the waiting list for a Level 1 training.

 

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)

 

Lois has been fully trained in EMDR and became an approved consultant by submitting to additional training and consultation. She was also the EMDRIA Regional Representative for Central Pennsylvania until just a few years ago when  EMDRIA decided to engage in a different model of support and education for EMDR practitioners. Lois has used EMDR in her trauma treatment work with children, adolescents and adults as a part of the integrated trauma recovery protocol that she developed in her outpatient trauma treatment program in Central PA.  Lois has been working for many years with clinicians who have had the EMDR basic training and who are looking to become certified in EMDR. She has also been asked to consult with certified EMDR clinicians who feel in any way stuck in the process with a particular client.

 

Clinical Supervision and Consultation

 

When Lois was a partner in a dual diagnosis private practice in Pennsylvania she was thrust into doing clinical supervision for the interns of the program. She felt very inadequate and searched for trainings and books to assist her in being helpful and not unknowingly hurtful to students working to become new professional counselors. When she entered the doctoral program at Penn State she appreciated the specialized classes on clinical supervision that she obtained and at that point made a commitment to develop a curriculum for Masters Degreed professional helpers in the provision of Clinical Supervision. She modeled her curriculum after the NBCC/CEE certification requirements for the Approved Clinical Supervisor credential of which she had become as a result of her experience and the PSU training. For many years Lois taught "The Clinical Supervision Series" at her trauma center. This was a series of six full day trainings over the course of a year on various topics related to best practices in clinical supervision. She also offered supervision of supervision (SoS) to the graduates of her trainings. Eventually PESI noted her series and contracted with her to do face to face trainings and eventually a webinar on Clinical Supervision.  Since then Lois  has provided 30 hour trainings in clinical supervision as well as clinical consultation to professionals in Canada as well as programs for particular groups of clinicians in numerous countries.  Lois continues to support clinical supervisors of all different professions in their goals of becoming high quality clinical supervisors or clinical consultants in their own various work settings.

 

Trauma and Attachment Treatment

 

In 2008 Lois facilitated a work group of area clinicians and practitioners in the development of a cutting edge outpatient trauma treatment center. The group met every two weeks for a whole year and began cross training each other in various trauma treatment modalities. Many of the persons in the group became the foundational professionals of the Individual and Family CHOICES Program in State College, PA. In 2009 CHOICES opened it's doors as both a treatment center and a training center where area professionals could get high quality training in EMDR, IFS, Intensive Trauma Treatment and Attachment Focused Treatment. We also offered trainings by the staff in Expressive and Art Therapies, Body centered work and Neurofeedback. Lois as the owner and Executive Director continued working with children, adolescents and families holding her own caseload but also by acting as a co-therapist/consultant with the traumatized children and familes of the other clinicians at the facility. Lois continued this work up until May of 2020 when due to the Covid-19 pandemic it became clear that CHOICES needed to go through a transformational process and Lois felt that she needed to support the clinicians through administrative duties that included writing grants and finding funding sources to keep the program open and the staff working. The use of safe electronic communications and meetings became a priority and Lois also focused on that for the rest of the staff. In 2021 CHOICES was in its 13th year of operation and Lois decided that it was time for her to retire from direct face to face treatment of clients and their families. An opportunity arose for CHOICES to join a larger agency that could continue to support the CHOICES mission of providing cutting edge trauma treatment to the central Pennsylvania community and beyond. While Lois continues to consult and train others on trauma and attachment issues and treatment she is now focused on some writing projects and spending time with her granddaughters who she loves dearly.

 

Tele-mental Health

 

Lois started her own small and private telemental health/counseling and consultation practice in 2013 after being fully trained and certified in telemental health through NBCC/CEE. Her experience in trauma work and her telemental health experience resulted in requests from numerous agencies as well as PESI to do trainings for other professionals on providing telemental health services during the trauma of the pandemic. Lois has also provided free trainings via PESI on this topic in the early months of the pandemic as an outreach to help fellow professionals get started with what for many was a very new and different method of providing therapeutic services. Lois retired her Telemental health credential in October 2023 as she is no longer taking clients in her online counseling practice.