Hello Portlanders interested in the IFS therapy model! Have you ever seen the Disney movie Inside Out? If so, you have a pretty good depiction of some of the key concepts behind IFS. In fact, Frank Anderson, MD, who trained with the IFS Founder Dick Schwartz, was consulted on that movie. Crazy, right?!? Just like the movie, IFS posits that we all have parts or subpersonalities holding emotions inside of us. IFS or the Internal Family Systems theory is a model of therapy that suggests every person has an internal world of different “parts” or perspectives. It’s a very gentle theory, because it suggests that none of our parts are bad. In fact, there’s a book that the founder of the model, Richard Schwartz wrote entitled, “No Bad Parts”. Just this concept alone can be freeing. You don’t have to shame yourself or be mad at yourself. Instead, you can seek to understand yourself through non-judgmental curiosity and this greater understanding often leads to greater self-compassion, reducing internal angst. Just think about that for a minute…if I were to step into your head and hear all of your thoughts, would they typically be anxious thoughts? Or thoughts that are shouting at each other? Would your internal world be chaotic and judgey? If so, how much would compassion and a new perspective of yourself and the world change your life?

Here’s how IFS therapy works practically speaking. Let’s say you have a part of you that is very critical of yourself. This part says things like, “I didn’t do well enough” or “If I don’t do that perfectly I’m going to fail”. If you start to notice this part with curiosity, and practice seeing it only as a part of you and not the only way you see yourself, you might start to realize this inner critic is only trying to help. Maybe you discover it’s trying to help you do better and it thinks if it doesn’t yell and scream at you and shame you then you’re going to make a mistake or get lazy. Understanding its intention can then help you understand if there are other ways to help it meet its goal without the harsh attitude. You may even recognize that this part is born from a place of never feeling like you were good enough in childhood with one of your parents. Awww-what a tough beginning! And wow, now that part of you feels understood and seen and heard and you actually want to help this hurting part and address the hurt so it doesn’t have to work so hard yelling at you to improve. You see what we did there?

Interested in finding out more about your internal world? Ready for some new insight into yourself and why you do what you do? Curious about how you could be less reactive and more at rest and peace inside? Then give me a call. I’ll help you down this road so you can respond to yourself differently using IFS therapy.