Internal Family Systems Therapy in Baltimore, MD
What is Internal Family Systems (IFS)?
You may have heard some buzz lately about a therapy called Internal Family Systems, or IFS. Or, maybe this is your first time stumbling upon it. Either way, here is a short breakdown:
“A part of me is so anxious and starts to spiral, and another tries to fight it and get it to stop.”
“I can’t help but just explode sometimes, it seems like another part takes over my body for a minute.”
“I wish I could stop binging, but I don’t know how. The part that binges numbs me out and I lose control.”
“A part of me wants to get better, but another part thinks I never will.”
We are all a myriad of parts.
Sometimes they’re conflicting, sometimes they work as a team.
With trauma, our parts get stuck. Frozen in the age when the traumatic experience happened, holding onto the pain, not always realizing that was years in the past.
Other parts make sure they’re not activated by ensuring we stay on top of things. They can get critical of ourselves, perfectionistic, seeking control.
Another group of parts jumps in when we are feeling activated. These parts try to stop the pain by any means necessary, using all the tools in their playbook to do so.
The parts are doing the best they can.
They think they are helping you and are trying so hard. But they are spinning in circles, exhausted, and sometimes actually hurt us instead of help.
IFS helps you to get to know these parts, befriend them, and learn about them. In IFS, there are no bad parts — they all are trying to protect you. When we learn about why they do their jobs from a place of curiosity and compassion, the parts can transform into the healthy protectors they want to be.
All while getting in touch with and honoring your own inner wisdom, helping you to become more you.
Additional Resources:
IFS Institute’s Webpage, with videos, articles, books, and links for more information.
No Bad Parts book by the creator of IFS, Richard Schwartz (I highly recommend this! It is written for the general audience, so you don’t have to be a therapist to read this.)
We Can Do Hard Things podcast, episodes 295 and 296. Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle interview Richard Schwartz. Learn what IFS is from this conversation and hear him give mini-IFS sessions to all three!
