IFS Training for Therapists Waiting on Level 1

If you're a licensed therapist who wants real training in Internal Family Systems, you've probably already done the first two steps: you decided on the IFS Institute's Level 1, and then you discovered the lottery. Maybe you've entered it once. Maybe you've entered it four times. Either way, you're in the strange position of being fully qualified for a training you cannot schedule — and wondering what to do with the years in between.

This post is a plan for those years.

My name is Conor McMillen. I'm an IFS-trained life coach — trained by the IFS Institute in 2014 — and I've practiced IFS daily since. Today I teach the model to individuals and practitioners, including through programs that appear later on this page, so I have a horse in this race and I'd rather say so now than let you find out at the bottom. (I am not affiliated with or endorsed by the IFS Institute, and nothing I offer is IFS Institute certification.)

The wait, in plain numbers

From the Institute's own admissions pages, as of late 2026: Level 1 admission in North America is limited to licensed or credentialed mental-health professionals. Entry runs through a randomized lottery with a $75 non-refundable application fee, and even eligible clinicians often wait years for a seat. When a seat does come, tuition commonly runs somewhere in the $3,000–$4,000+ range — a recent online cohort totaled $3,990. I've broken down the full pricing picture in what IFS training actually costs, and compared every real training path — the Institute's and everyone else's — in the full comparison.

When I trained in 2014, none of this existed. Admission was an invoice you could pay — I was the only non-licensed person in my cohort. The lottery is the price of the model's success, and in my mind it reflects something genuinely good: demand for depth. But if you're the one holding a lottery ticket, that's cold comfort.

Competence and credentials run on different clocks

Here's the reframe I'd offer, and it comes from watching a lot of practitioners learn this model: the lottery controls when you get the Institute's seat. Your training can start tonight.

The seat matters — it's the only entry to the Institute's certification ladder, and if the official credential is part of your plan, keep entering. Nothing below competes with that. But the two run on different clocks. The therapists I've watched become genuinely skilled with parts work built that skill in their own systems and their own practice rooms, mostly before any training container blessed it. The waiting years are the classroom.

So here is what I'd do with them, in order.

Step one: make your own system the first classroom

IFS is the rare modality where your own practice is practitioner development. You cannot lead a client's system from a part — the calm, curious, and compassionate presence you'll one day offer a client gets built in your own system first. Every hour you spend meeting your own protectors is an hour of training, and it's available to you tonight, free.

If you haven't worked the model on yourself yet, start there before buying anything: the complete guide to self-led IFS covers the whole territory, and the Six Fs — the step-by-step protocol for meeting a part — is the single most practical skill to develop first. Read the books slowly; they're not something to get through. This foundation is also, not incidentally, what will make Level 1 land deeper when your number comes up.

Step two: walk through the Institute's open doors

Plenty of what the Institute offers is open to everyone right now — online courses, workshops, the annual conference. The material comes straight from the source, costs a fraction of Level 1, and in the Institute's own vocabulary lets you describe your work as "IFS-informed." The structural limit is that these are consumption experiences: you'll learn about the model, often beautifully, without a practice container around it. Take them anyway. They stack with everything else on this page.

Step three: add a structured container that stacks

Two independent programs give you a real practice container years before your lottery number comes up — and nothing you learn in either is wasted when Level 1 arrives. These paths stack; they don't compete.

If you carry an active caseload and want a live weekly cohort, look at IFSCA's Stepping Stones — 16 weeks online, a three-hour live session each week, cohorts capped at 21, founded by the late Derek Scott, one of the most generous IFS teachers outside the Institute. It's built for practicing therapists and counselors, and it's the program I point caseload-carrying clinicians to most often.

If you want the applied, action-oriented lens alongside your clinical frame, that's what I built the Self-Led Coaching Academy for — three months online, $799, with three optional one-on-one calls with me. Therapists take it for the same reason they read outside their modality: the coaching lens — unblending, protector work, self-leadership in service of a client's goals — complements clinical work rather than replacing it. Graduates are certified as Certified Self-Led Coaches, and I want to be exactly as clear about my credential as I'd want anyone to be with you: it is SLCA's own certification, not IFS Institute certification, and no independent program can sell you that.

Step four: get the deep education now

The gap most waiting therapists feel isn't introductory material — it's depth. Exiles, polarizations, the trauma-adjacent edge, live demonstration of the actual protocol. That's the territory of my IFS Education Intensive — the 14-hour training that practices and clinical teams hire me to teach, now available on demand, recorded live with a cohort of four licensed clinicians, three of them new to IFS. It's $499, there's a free preview so you can judge the teaching before paying anything, and it was built for exactly the person this post is written for: a clinician who wants the full protocol taught deeply, now.

And if you have colleagues in the same waiting room — your practice, your consultation group — the live version runs for self-organized groups of three to six, customized to your people.

Using IFS with clients in the meantime

You're licensed, so unlike the coaches I wrote the companion guide for, scope is already yours — the thing to get right is representation. The line I'd hold: describe your IFS education accurately ("IFS-informed," or name the specific training), bring the model in at the depth your training actually supports, and let your existing clinical judgment govern the pace. Parts language, unblending, befriending protectors — many clinicians integrate these well before formal certification. The deeper unburdening work rewards more training and supervision, and IFS itself hands you the pacing rule: never go faster than the slowest part — yours included.

Common questions

How long is the Level 1 waitlist?
There's no published queue — it's a randomized lottery per cohort, not a first-come line, so there's no "your place" to check. Eligible clinicians commonly report entering multiple rounds across several years before drawing a seat. Keep entering each round; the drawings are independent.

Can I practice IFS with clients before taking Level 1?
If you're licensed, using an IFS lens within your existing scope is between you, your training, and your judgment — the model isn't licensed property, and "IFS-informed" exists precisely to describe this stage. Represent your education accurately and match depth to training.

Will independent training count toward IFS Institute certification?
No. Institute certification requires the Institute's own trainings. Independent programs — IFSCA's, mine, anyone's — grant their own credentials, and a program that implies otherwise deserves your skepticism. What independent training gives you is skill and a practice container while you wait, not a shortcut through the Institute's ladder.

What will Level 1 cost when my number comes up?
Commonly ~$3,000–$4,000+ depending on format — a recent online cohort ran $3,990, plus the $75 per-round application fee along the way. The full cost breakdown covers Level 1 and every alternative path.

Is the deep material really teachable outside the Institute?
The model is published, the literature is rich, and skilled teaching of it exists in several containers — the Institute's remain the reference point, and I'd never claim equivalence. What I can tell you is what I teach and where it comes from: daily practice since 2014 and the protocol taught end to end. Judge any teacher — me included — by a free sample of the actual teaching, not by claims.

If you take one thing from this page: the lottery decides when the Institute's seat arrives, and you decide when your training starts. Begin in your own system, take the open doors, choose a container that stacks, and let the waiting years make you the clinician who's ready on day one of Level 1. Never go faster than the slowest part — including in a career.

All the best,
Conor McMillen

I am not affiliated with or endorsed by the IFS Institute. "IFS" and "Internal Family Systems" refer to the therapeutic model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. Admissions policies, costs, and program details above reflect published information as of late 2026 and change over time — verify current details with each provider. This page is educational and is not legal or clinical advice.