Intent, Impact & Intercultural Competence: How to Successfully Navigate Difference

Jory Agate, Fatimah Finney, and Richard C. Schwartz

About this program:

This program explores how IFS can support intercultural competence, effective communication, and repair across difference. Led by Jory Agate and Fatimah Finney, the course introduces shared language and frameworks for understanding culture, identity, power, and conflict. You’ll learn how cultural conditioning shapes parts activation, conflict styles, and responses to rupture and repair. Using IFS alongside the Intercultural Development Continuum, the program offers tools for engaging difference with greater Self leadership and accountability. This course supports clinicians in building trust, navigating impact, and fostering meaningful repair in cross-cultural work.

This learning program was held live in Winter 2023.

Module 1: Shared Language

This module focuses on building shared meaning to support effective communication across difference. You’ll explore key concepts of intercultural competence and learn how IFS can help you remain Self-led when discussing identity, equity, and inclusion.

Module 2: Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC)

This module introduces the Intercultural Development Continuum as a framework for understanding how people engage across cultural differences. You’ll explore each mindset on the continuum, examine their implications at individual and organizational levels, and consider how parts may be activated within each stage.

Module 3: Culture, Conflict & Power

This module explores how culture shapes conflict styles and responses to rupture and repair. You’ll explore how power dynamics and parts activation shape responses to difference and learn how IFS can support repair.

Module 4: Intent vs. Impact

This module explores what happens when intent does not match impact and how ruptures can occur in cross-cultural interactions. You’ll learn how IFS supports accountability, repair, and trust-building when parts become activated.

What’s included:

This course includes approximately 4 hours of core teaching on the program’s main topic, along with around 5 hours of recorded live Q&A sessions facilitated by the instructor.

You’ll also get approximately 4 hours of exclusive bonus content featuring Dr. Richard Schwartz, the founder of IFS. These recorded demonstrations and case consultations offer rare, behind-the-scenes access to see the model in action. While these sessions may not always align directly with the program’s primary theme, they’re designed to deepen your overall clinical understanding and help you see how IFS principles show up across different contexts.

What are on-demand programs:

IFSI’s on-demand courses are recordings of some of our most loved advanced IFS programs led by IFS trainers and thought leaders who bring deep experience and insight. Learn anytime, at the pace your system needs.

Who is it for:

These offerings are ideal for those who are enrolled in or have completed IFS Level 1 Training, and those who have already participated in the IFS Online Circle. They’re designed to help you deepen specific skills, build confidence in niche areas, and feel more grounded in your work with clients.

CE Credit & Certificate of Completion:

Please note that these programs don’t offer professional CE, but each provides 14 IFS CE Credits to support your IFS certification or recertification path. An IFSI Certificate of Completion will also be available upon completion of this program.

Note: Materials and methods included in this course may include interventions or practices that are beyond your scope of practice. As a professional in your given field, you are responsible for reviewing the scope of practice, including activities that are defined by applicable law as beyond the boundaries of your practice, and applying your learning in compliance with your professional standards.

Meet Your Instructors

Jory Agate

Jory Agate, MA, LMHC, MDiv comes to the field of psychotherapy after a 10-year career in Unitarian Universalist ministry that focused on youth, families, sexuality, leadership development, and multiculturalism. In her current practice of psychotherapy and spiritual counseling she specializes in working with individuals, families, clergy, couples, and staff teams. Fluent in American Sign Language, Jory provides therapy for those who communicate in ASL. She maintains a private practice in Cambridge, MA and is a frequent trainer for IFS Institute, PESI, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Fatimah Finney

Fatimah Finney, LMHC, is a serial goal-setter, lover of new ideas, and imaginative thinker. She is a certified IFS therapist and maintains a private practice serving BIPOC and young adults. As an administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory, Fatimah is a consultant to individuals and organizations looking to build their capacity and skills in centering diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. Fatimah facilitates workshops on intercultural competence, microaggressions and mental health awareness with an aim to make workplaces more inclusive and equitable. Prior to her counseling and consulting practice, Fatimah spent much of her career providing in-home therapy to children, adolescents, and adults and serving in clinical leadership roles. Through her work in community mental health settings, she cultivated a strong commitment to helping therapists increase their cultural competence and clinical fluency with diverse populations.

Richard C. Schwartz

Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, is the creator of Internal Family Systems, a highly effective therapeutic model with a growing evidence base that de-pathologizes the multi-part personality. Richard is also the founder of the IFS Institute, which primarily offers training for professionals. He is currently a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate. Richard has authored or co-authored more than ten books on Internal Family Systems and related topics, including No Bad Parts and Internal Family Systems Therapy. He lives near Chicago with his wife Jeanne, Vice President of the IFS Institute, close to his three daughters and six grandchildren.