#55: Chris Burris - Healing with Others
From How Humans Work Podcast by Jef Szi
February 2, 2026 · 1h 1m · Season 5 · Episode 55
About this episode
Chris Burris discusses the importance of healing with others and the benefits of healing circles in addressing trauma.
Chris Burris is a Senior Lead IFS Trainer and a clinical consultant with decades of experience in mental health and group work. Chris is based in North Carolina and leads training for the IFS Institute and his Creating Healing Circles work worldwide. Last month, Chris joined Jef Szi for an in-depth conversation that illuminates the power, purpose, and benefits of healing with others. Along the way, we get to know the variety of influences and the backstory to Chris's group work, including a need to help his clients have real spaces to work on their social challenges, and Chris's interest in finding new models of authenticity that don't require being hijacked by reactive emotions. You can learn more about his work through his terrific how-to book, Creating Healing Circles . With tremendous kindness and boatloads of reference points, Chris helps us understand why healing circles are an essential tool for healing from traumas and for offsetting the hyper-individualism found in most personal-growth work. Chris teaches us that most traumas arise in relationships and are also healed through supportive, non-threatening contexts where participants can experience others as advocates and…
People in this episode
Host: Jef Szi
Guest: Chris Burris
Topics covered
- healing
- mental health
- group work
- Internal Family Systems
- trauma
- authenticity
Keywords
- healing circles
- mental health
- trauma
- group work
- authenticity
- Internal Family Systems
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: IFS Institute
Books & works: Creating Healing Circles
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