Ray Howard • LICSW • Psychotherapist

Welcome to my Practice

Hi Folks–thanks for checking out my practice.    To serve as a certified IFS psychotherapist providing direct care to clients, or as an approved consultant for IFS certification teaching the model, is an honor that brings me deep satisfaction.  I discovered IFS in June of 2007 at the annual trauma conference in Boston, where Dick Schwartz presented a brief video of one of his sessions.  In the video, Schwartz said to his client, “Tell the part you hear it and ask the part to tell you more…”  I had a visceral response in which a pronounced voice inside said, “That is how I’m going to work.”  Looking back, that was a therapist part and he knew the next step.  I enrolled in the training program the next Monday and I’ve been part of the IFS training community since.

In my practice, I provide psychotherapy to individuals and couples as well as consultation to licensed mental health clinicians seeking certification in IFS.  I’m trained in IFS through level 3, and I’ve completed advanced training in IFIO (Intimacy from the Inside Out), the IFS couple training program, founded and run by Toni Herbine-Blank.  I’ve worked as a program assistant multiple times for IFS-I in level 1 and 2 trainings, and for IFIO in a basic skills training.   IFS, the Internal Family Systems psychotherapy model, recognizes the human mind is a system of personalities, or parts as they’re called in IFS, all of which work to carry us through difficult passages in life.  IFS is an accessible, sophisticated model based on common sense and curiosity that trains clients to listen to their mind in a new way.  IFS is an evidence-based model that is shown to be effective in the treatment of different mental health conditions.

Modern psychotherapy recognizes that as human beings, we flourish if we’re able to attach securely to significant others and to exist in sustaining relationship. With trauma, the loss of primary attachment generates a range of emotions that are difficult to understand or respond to. Grief, fear, anger, shame, and guilt come to mind.  Since many injuries occur early in life, young parts often take us into repetitive cycles where we move between harsh self-criticism, hedonistic distraction, over-identification with others, and isolative, extreme behaviors. In this cycle, often we feel alone, cutoff from people we love and need.  Psychotherapy, and IFS especially, jump-starts the healing process and focuses on the part-to-part relationships inside the individual and primary attachment relationships outside over the continuum of our lifetime.  The result is profound, often unprecedented clarity, confidence, connection, compassion, and courage towards our-selves and others, as well as patience, perspective, perseverance, and playfulness in our daily life.

Since 1997, the preponderance of people I’ve seen in my practice experience histories of developmental trauma.  Therefore, in order to provide the best care possible, I’ve trained in multiple evidence-based psychotherapy models that focus on the broad continuum of symptoms associated with this condition.  This curriculum includes: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT, 2004-07), IFS (2007-present), Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO—IFS Couple Therapy, 2012-present), Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR, 2012-14), Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP, 2013-16), Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT, 2017-2019), as well as the advanced diagnosis and treatment of addictions (BU School for Social Work, 2000-01), group psychotherapy (Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy 2002-04), .