Internal Family Systems

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‘The treatment method all clinicians should know.’ (Prof Bessel van der Kolk)

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Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a radical new way of doing psychotherapy.  It was pioneered in the USA by Dr Richard Schwartz and is becoming increasingly popular among therapists throughout the world.  It is a cutting-edge approach which specialises in working in the borderland between mind and body. 

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IFS has an established legacy of effectiveness in treating depression, anxiety, and pretty much most of the  psychological & emotional issues which comes into the consulting room.  It is a treatment par excellence for working with trauma.  Moreover, it is certified as an ‘evidence-based therapy’ in the USA, and its approach is both gentle and respectful.  

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The underlying assumption

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The underlying assumption is that, contrary to what many of us may think, no person is a single, integrated human being.  The truth is that we all have many different ‘parts’. And just like in any family, the ‘parts’ don’t all see eye-to-eye. So the name ‘Internal Family Systems’ is a little bit misleading. It doesn’t relate to the outer family, but to the internal family of ‘parts’.  

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Don’t worry, the fact that we all have different ‘parts’ doesn’t mean we suffer from the illness known as Multiple Personality Disorder.  Multiplicity of ‘parts’ is in fact a normal, healthy human experience!  It gives us our richness. But it’s also the source of so many of our difficulties. So many of our ‘parts’ are in internal conflict, and try to pull us in different directions. And that’s why we end up with problems and stucknesses which prevent us from living life to the full, and achieving our maximum potential.

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This way of thinking isn’t so strange as it sounds.  The truth is that we all know about ‘parts’ when we find ourselves in everyday speech saying things like:-

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•  ‘One part of me wants to do more exercise.  But another part of me always finds something else more important to do.’

• ‘One part of me is capable of doing some very good work.  But I have another part that is a terrible procrastinator.’

• ‘One part of me is strong and confident.  But another part is like an internal voice which tells me thst I’m useless (or stupid, or unloveable, etc….).’ 

 

Finding and meeting the ‘parts’​

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The primary focus in IFS is on enabling the client (no matter what the age) to find and meet the ‘parts’ (or ‘sub-personalities’) which underlie their problems and bedevil their attempts to solve them by more conventional methods. Yes, this isn’t just for adults;  teenagers and children can do this too!  For younger children, using puppets to speak from the different ‘parts’ can be very helpful.

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Surprisingly the ‘parts’ turn out to  have their own personalities, their own beliefs, and their own individual ways of looking at the world. A ‘part’s’ idea as to what’s good for us is often quite different from our own. Guided by the therapist, nearly everyone (young or old) finds that they can access these ‘parts’ with ease. 

Some people experience the ‘parts’ as feelings in the body, others get them as images.  And once the initial connection with a ‘part’ has been made, the next step is to build up a relationship with it.  “There’s me, and I’m talking to one of my ‘parts’, and I’m finding out why it does what it does to me.”

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All ‘parts’ are welcome!

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One of IFS’s most important insights is that all of our ‘parts’, even those that are actually sabotaging or hindering our best intentions, genuinely believe that they are working towards helping us in our lives. The problem is that the individual ‘parts’ don’t have the full picture and therefore misunderstand what’s truly good for us and what isn’t. However knowing that a ‘part’ wants to work for our good and benefit is what gives us the hope and opportunity to bring about chang

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One of IFS’s most important principles is: “All ‘Parts’ Are Welcome!” By this we recognise that we don’t get ‘parts’ to change by fighting them, only by getting to know them and understanding where they are coming from. If all goes well, we can eventually get the problematic parts to see things in a different way and so healing and transformation can occur.