SHOW / EPISODE

Healing Your Own Parts: IFS, EMDR, and Therapy for Therapists

Season 1 | Episode 21
42m | Oct 8, 2026

At five years old, Crystal Hines learned about grades and thought, “This is a way out.” That drive carried her through foster care, a full college scholarship, grad school, and a solo move to Colorado with no job and no connections. Years later, deep in her own healing, she realized something bigger. She became a therapist to help her own little parts heal.

In this episode, hosts Ashley Charbonneau and Morgen Villegas talk with Crystal, an EMDRIA-approved trainer and consultant and an approved IFS clinical consultant, about what trauma work really takes. She shares how EMDR and IFS changed her life as a client first. She explains why she doesn’t care about “big T, little t” trauma. And she talks about trying to change two toxic systems at once. (The systems won, so she built her own.)

IN THIS EPISODE:

  • How Crystal defines trauma, and why support matters more than the event itself
  • What it’s like to work as a school-based therapist in community mental health
  • Why so many therapists are craving their own deep work
  • Her thumbs up, thumbs down, and middle finger to the therapy field


GUEST BIO:

Crystal Hines, LPC, is the founder of Align Therapy and Consultation and the creator of IFS-Informed EMDR. She is an EMDRIA Approved Trainer and Consultant and an IFSI Approved Clinical Consultant with more than 14 years of experience in trauma work. She offers therapy for therapists, consultation, and training programs for clinicians who want to blend IFS and EMDR.

A complex trauma survivor with an ACE score of 10, Crystal found EMDR and IFS as a client first. She believes each person is the expert on their own healing, and that therapists living sustainable lives can change the world.

Crystal’s Links:


YOUR HOSTS:

Ashley Charbonneau, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, evaluator, clinical supervisor, consultant, and educator. She works with people affected by the legal system, with a focus on offender accountability, survivor healing, and restorative justice. She trains professionals across the country on restorative justice, addiction, clinical supervision, sexual offending, therapy boundaries, and mandatory reporting and is the author of The Resilient Therapist (Bloomsbury, 2026) and Supporting Clients of Sexual Trauma (PESI, 2026). Learn more at https://www.ensopllc.com/

Morgen Villegas, LCSW, LAC, ACS, is a therapist, consultant, EMDRIA Consultant, and author of Shadows to Light. Through her practice, Vida Idílica Therapy & Consulting, she specializes in helping women heal from trauma, attachment wounds, emotional neglect, and the lasting effects of overfunctioning and caregiving. Morgen also provides consultation to EMDR therapists seeking greater confidence and nuance in working with complex trauma. You can reach Morgen at https://www.vida-idilica.com

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The Art of Being a Therapist
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