FREE INTERNAL FAMILY

SYSTEMS (IFS)
Printable Worksheet
WORKSHEET
WORK
Client Reaction SHEET
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______ ___

Developed by
will fall into one of two main _
Sympathetic Hyper-arousal categ_ories____,__
or Parasympathetic Blunting* ______
. ______
______

Frank Anderson, M.D.

Is your client’s reaction hyper
or hypo-aroused? ____________
________________________

©2018 Copyright statement

©2018
Copyrig
ht statem
ent

An effective tool to use with your clients today!

 Getting Beyond Extreme
Trauma Reactions

Clients with complex trauma often develop extreme protective

responses in an attempt to keep the emotional pain away.
When encountering these extreme reactions, it’s common
for therapists to feel frustrated, overwhelmed, bored and at
times reactive themselves. As a result, therapy can get stuck
and clients can begin to feel unsafe and re-experience the
helplessness they felt in their original trauma.

On the following pages is an exercise that helps therapists

identify the roots of these extreme responses while
simultaneously identifying their own parts that get activated
when clients get triggered. Techniques that are rooted in
neuroscience are shown to overcome these extreme symptoms
and gain access to the traumatic wound that ultimately needs to
be healed in a safe, non-shaming way.
 WORKSHEET
Client Reaction

Think of a client who gets “triggered” or has an extreme reaction during a session.

Bring them up in your mind’s eye

Put them in a room that has a window and a door with a lock on it.
Stay outside the room and have them do the extreme behavior.
Pay attention to the quality of the energy coming from them through the window to you.

Does their reaction feel high, intense, overwhelming or come with a lot of excitement? For example,
rage, panic or self-destructive impulses. Write that down here.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

Or does their reaction feel low, slowed down, disconnected or withdrawn (for example, numbness,
dissociation or shame)? Write that down here.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

Most extreme trauma reactions will fall into one of two main categories,
Sympathetic Hyper-arousal or Parasympathetic Blunting*.

Is your client’s reaction hyper or hypo-aroused? ____________________________________

©2018 Copyright statement

 WORKSHEET
Your Reaction

Think of a client who gets “triggered” or has an extreme reaction during a session.

Bring them up in your mind’s eye

Put them in a room that has a window and a door with a lock on it.
Stay outside the room and have them do the extreme behavior.
Pay attention to the way you’re reacting to your client’s extreme response.

Are you getting nervous, controlling, intellectual or feeling out of control? Write down your response here.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

Are you feeling bored, disconnected, angry or trying too hard to pull them out of this state? Write
down your response here.
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

Is your response Hyper or hypo-aroused? _________________________________________

©2018 Copyright statement

*Sympathetic Activation (hyper-aroused)
Clients in a state of sympathetic activation (hyper-aroused) often have little access to rational thinking
due to their prefrontal cortex being temporarily off-line. They subsequently are in a state of high
emotions and increased physical sensations without the ability to calm themselves or down-regulate.
See if your parts are willing to relax or step back and allow you to handle this situation. Perhaps they
are willing to go into a waiting room in your mind’s eye and watch you handle this?
Here are some top-down strategies that can help clients recover from sympathetic activation.
• Provide a rational perspective. Help your client “make sense” of their reaction.
• Validate their experience and help them put their feelings into words.
• Clearly, calmly and compassionately name your trust in their ability to recover from this
temporary overwhelming state. “I know you will not be here for-ever and will be able to feel
differently very soon.” “I’m here to help you.”
• Don’t be overly emotional or focus too much on their physical sensations as this can escalate
their activated state.

*Parasympathetic Blunting
Clients in a state of parasympathetic blunting have an overly active prefrontal cortex and their dorsal
branch of their parasympathetic nervous system is activated, temporarily giving them little access to
their thoughts, feelings or physical sensations.
Here are some bottom-up strategies that help clients recover from parasympathetic withdrawal because
they’re shut down
• Help them try to bring their physical sensations back on-line. “Can you move your fingers?” “Can
you wiggle your toes?”
• Next see if they have access to their emotions. “Can you tell me what you are feeling right now?
• Slow things down and hand over control. Blunting generally takes longer to recover from
compared to activation. “You’re the boss, take as much time as you need.” “I’m here with you.”
• Don’t be overly intellectual; here gentle empathic responses are best.
Being aware of the parts of you that get activated, having them step-back and responding to your
client’s extreme response in the correct manner, will help those extreme parts relax, thus giving you
access to the wound they are so tenaciously protecting.

©2018 Copyright statement

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