What Is Internal Family Systems?

Internal Family Systems is a therapeutic, psycho-spiritual model for radical liberation and healing. This is an evidence-based form of psychotherapy that conceives every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner parts lead by a core Self. IFS believes the mind is naturally multiple and that is a good thing. Just like members of a family, inner parts are forced from their valuable states into extreme roles within us. These roles are often brought on by traumatic experiences, especially when we are younger (both big “T” and little “t” traumas). These many parts hold memories that reside in the somatic body and nervous system and often those parts are stuck on a different timeline from the past that need to be “updated”. Our parts have agendas, motives and intentions to keep us safe, even if sometimes they are misguided or outdated. With this understanding, we see all of our parts as benevolent entities that were designed at one point in our lives to help us and protect us. Over the years, these parts can get stuck in their ways, harden, or get further exiled out of the inner family. The invitation through IFS is to go in and meet these various parts of us and help relieve them from their duties–release them from having to play the roles they think they need to play in order to keep us safe. We can “unburden” them from these roles and allow them to fall back into their most precious states or allocate them new roles that are helpful rather than harmful. We can ultimately rearrange our entire inner world using this methodology. We can ACTUALLY release what we’re holding that no longer serves us and give up old patterns and limiting belief systems for good.

How can we do that?

That’s where Self comes in. Self is in everyone. It can’t be damaged. It knows how to heal. It is our innate connection to source and has endless capacity to hold space and bring healing to all of our parts, as well as parts of others. Self lies just below the surface of our parts and can be brought out much easier with interoception and mindfulness practice. However, it will surface any time we can get the inner parts to allow spaciousness. It spontaneously emerges when there is space for it to show up. And the more we cultivate this spaciousness, the easier it is for us to access Self energy in our day to day lives to navigate the little things that trigger our parts. When we teach our parts there is an internal caregiver, we teach them where they can go when they are feeling overwhelmed, upset, or fearful. We teach them that with Self, they are safe. They can feel the sense of safety they were never able to experience, which was often what contributed to the creation of their existence initially. We can reteach our parts how to feel safe in the inner world, which then gives them a sense of safety when they are met with the unknowns and discomforts of the outer world. IFS creates inner and outer connectedness by helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their parts.