Kay Gardner is a senior Lead Trainer for Internal Family Systems (IFS). She is a therapist, trainer, and international workshop leader known for her deep integration of IFS, spirituality, and energetic awareness.

She has been in private practice for 40 years in Chicago. With decades of clinical experience, Kay brings a uniquely intuitive, grounded, and spiritually informed approach to working with parts, Self energy, and the inner world.

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Kay is an IFS Institute–approved consultant and has trained and mentored therapists worldwide. Her work emphasizes the energetic and spiritual dimensions of IFS, helping practitioners recognize how Self energy, intuition, presence, and subtle awareness naturally arise in the therapeutic process.

 

She is particularly known for:

• Exploring Self energy through a spiritual and energetic lens

• Working with guides, intuition, and inner wisdom within IFS

• Bridging traditional psychotherapy with contemplative and spiritual practice

• Supporting therapists in deepening trust in the inner healing intelligence of clients

 

Kay’s teaching style is experiential, spacious, and deeply respectful of the sacred nature of inner work. She invites therapists to slow down, listen more deeply, and allow transformation to unfold organically rather than through effort or technique.

 

Through her retreats, workshops, and consultations, Kay supports therapists in integrating spirituality into IFS in a way that is ethical, grounded, and firmly rooted in Self leadership.

 

Kay is co-founder of the Women's Circle, a woman’s program in Chicago and also has led various workshops around the country for men and women including Persephone's Journey, Men and Their Mothers, Women and their fathers, Legacy burdens, and Sacred Theatre for couples.  

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