IFS Therapy
What Is Internal Family Systems Therapy?
Internal Family Systems—more commonly known as IFS—is a type of therapy that helps people build a relationship with all of the parts of themselves from a place of compassionate care and attention. While many traditional counseling techniques pathologize symptoms and seek to correct behaviors, IFS is founded on the revolutionary premise that nothing is wrong with us; rather, our adaptive strategies are no longer working.
By bearing witness to the amazing survival of our wounded parts, IFS allows us to access our inner healer and develop deep, genuine self-love.
The History And Effectiveness Of IFS
IFS was originally founded by the therapist Richard Schwartz in 1980 as a systems-based model that focused on how subpersonalities—or “parts”—were organized. After decades of positive outcomes among clients who used it in therapy, IFS became evidence-based in 2015. A year before, researcher and therapist Nancy Swell concluded in a study that IFS was effective in addressing a range of mental and emotional obstacles, including anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, post-traumatic stress, addiction, as well as physical conditions. ¹
In addition to being used in treatment for a wide range of physical and mental health issues, IFS has been shown to promote resilience and self-understanding. Any person from any background can benefit from the parts work involved in IFS because we are all made up of distinct parts, each worthy of our awareness and attention.
How Does IFS Work?
By virtue of growing up and encountering the natural ups and downs of life, we experience wounding, which forces our parts into extreme protective roles or exiles the parts holding the pain. Polarities can form between our protective parts as we’re pushed and pulled in opposing directions around certain issues. Internal Family Systems works by guiding us in learning about the sides of our inner selves that are in battle so that we can come to a peaceful resolution from within.
As we learn more about our parts and how they make up our psyche, we come to see that we are using specific behaviors, emotional strategies, thoughts, and beliefs to keep us safe. IFS allows us to acknowledge our young wounded parts and the coping mechanisms we used to protect them while upgrading the emotional, mental, and behavioral strategies for resolving our pain. As parts become unburdened by extreme roles, they reveal their true nature and deep wisdom within. The process of growth and healing through IFS gives access to empowerment and authenticity.
How The IFS Model Differs From Other Types Of Therapy
As a non-pathologizing model, IFS operates from a vehicle of love and self-care rather than one of force and change. From this perspective, IFS is a much gentler and more compassionate model than other behavioral therapies or counseling approaches that view emotional pain from a lens of a pathology that needs to be eradicated. IFS makes a seat at the table for all thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, building a collaborative relationship with and understanding of our internal experience before offering hope and possibilities for change.
Furthermore, IFS encourages lasting change. Because this approach traces emotional pain back to its source (often in childhood), it resolves the early, formative wounds and outdated belief systems perpetuating inner conflict and disconnection. While many counseling approaches address surface-level indicators of psychological conditions like anxiety and depression, IFS gets to the root of the issue, treating the cause rather than the symptom.
Lastly, IFS rewires the brain at the neurological level, paving the way for heightened emotional awareness and increased harmony between mind, body, and spirit. IFS is not just a therapy—for many, it’s a way of life.
My Approach To IFS Therapy
Though the Internal Family Systems model is relatively new to my practice as of 2020, I have been committed to ongoing training and certification since discovering the power of IFS. Richard Schwartz says that IFS works only as well as a therapist’s ability to build a partnership between Self and their parts, in order to build the capacity for Self-leadership. In their system, the healing power of IFS is directly correlated with the therapist’s capacity to guide from a self-led place. Self-leadership is contagious and seems to build capacity for Self-leadership by osmosis in those around us.
As a person deeply committed to my own growth, I meditate with my parts daily and do my personal growth work and IFS therapy working with my internal system daily and weekly. As a therapist, I’m extremely effective at holding a self-led orientation in my work with clients.
Because IFS addresses core wounds, I often incorporate it into therapy alongside other trauma-informed techniques. Specifically, Brainspotting and Somatic Psychotherapy can help differentiate the Self from its parts, thereby increasing visibility of each part and our innate capacity for healing. And because IFS is a systems approach, I can periodically involve other family members in counseling when appropriate.
My job as an IFS-informed therapist is to be what Schwartz calls a "hope merchant," offering hope to clients and their parts that they can overcome challenges and find their way to peace and self-love. Using IFS in therapy, I have helped people heal from a wide range of obstacles, including trauma, attachment wounding, mood disorders, addiction, performance issues, relationship conflict, parenting difficulties, low self-esteem, shame, critical thinking, physical symptoms, and limiting beliefs.
As Dick Schwartz says, there are no bad parts—there is so much wisdom in the strategies we’ve used to survive. But that wisdom can be updated with new strategies that will energize and enliven us. Through Internal Family Systems therapy, we are given an opportunity to become our best selves living our best lives.
Befriend Yourself—And All Your Parts—With Compassion
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy creates room for your most authentic Self to be the guiding center of your life. To find out more about my approach as an IFS therapist, contact me to schedule a free, 15-minute consultation.
