Internal Family Systems
“A part is not just a temporary emotional state or habitual thought pattern. Instead, it is a discrete and autonomous mental system that has an idiosyncratic range of emotion, style of expression, set of abilities, desires, and view of the world. In other words, it is as if we each contain a society of people, each of whom is at a different age and has different interests, talents, and temperaments." - Richard Schwartz
I have received many years of additional training in a therapeutic model called Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Richard Schwartz. IFS is a form of psychotherapy that is compassionate, inclusive, spiritual, powerfully healing and deeply respectful of our inner life.
A core concept of IFS includes multiplicity of the mind, meaning the mind consists of sub-personalities or "parts". This is easily understood as we consider the example of being asked to a movie with a friend and we respond with, "Well, a part of me wants to go, and another part of me wants to stay home." We naturally use parts language and speak for our parts without even noticing. As we develop, parts form a system of interactions among themselves, just like a family. Some parts like each other, and some parts don't. But from their own perspectives, they all have your best interest at heart. We discover this by turning our attention within and listening to them, not from a place of judgment, but from a place of curiosity and open-heartedness. If parts are in difficult positions that they don't like (feeling overwhelmed or not feeling good about themselves) we can help the inner system to reorganize by paying attention to them and helping them find different jobs, or roles. We are not trying to get rid of parts and there are no "bad" parts, we are simply helping them to find different ways of relating. Rapid change can occur as we work with our parts to understand the nature of relational burdens and help them release old ways of relating. When we change our internal system, we impact our external system and vice versa.
Another key component in IFS is "Self".... it is the core of intuitive wisdom within each of us. It is present in everyone and has been with us since birth. It is the aspect of ourselves that is free from ego. It's the place from which we can observe, experience and be with our parts and with other people in an easy, non-judgmental and relaxed way. It is the place which holds the qualities of Calmness, Curiosity, Compassion, Confidence, Clarity, Connectedness, Creativity and Courage. These qualities are seen in a natural leader, so a goal of IFS is to be in Self-energy, as much as possible. We are in Self-leadership when we listen, speak, and lead from the heart.