Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
Understanding and nurturing the various parts within us can lead to profound healing, growth, and lasting positive change.
What is Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, is a cutting-edge therapeutic model that proposes our minds are comprised of multiple parts, each with its own beliefs, emotions, and desires. These parts often influence our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours and often contribute to the symptoms that bring us into counselling in the first place.
IFS invites us to bring curiosity and compassion towards the parts of us, rather than trying to get rid of them. When a relationship is formed with each of these parts, there is often space for parts to shift our of their stuck, rigid beliefs and symptoms. Healing can then be offered towards the parts stuck in experiences that caused the symptoms and beliefs to form in the first place.
How Does IFS Therapy Work?
In IFS Therapy, we spend time connecting with your parts and understand their unique roles. These parts often show up through body sensations, thoughts, feelings and images. As a connection is built with these parts, there is deeper understanding and compassion cultivated for why these parts feel and do what they do.
By building a relationship with these parts, we can gradually access the burdens that they are protecting and facilitate healing. For many these burdens look like shame, loneliness, fear and pain. Often the burdens that parts carry directly relate to symptoms that bring us into therapy in the first place.
A key healing component to IFS therapy is the idea of the "Self." Often this "Self" is experienced through feeling any of the following 8 qualities: calm, compassionate, curious, confident, clarity, courage, connectedness, and creative.
Many people share that when they access this state they no longer feel a desperate need to fix or change what's going on inside. They often notice feeling open-hearted towards their parts, even the parts that have been harsh and critical towards them. Through this the burdened parts can receive what they didn't get and needed back in the past, which results in profound healing.
When parts feel Self inside, they don't have to work as hard to react in their old ways. They typically feel more space to allow you to respond from a place of calm, compassion or curiosity.
Over time, your capacity to show up and be with your parts from this place of Self will grow, which means an improved capacity to be with difficult emotions, increased self awareness, and greater access to compassion for yourself and others in and outside of the therapy space.
What Can IFS Therapy Help With?
IFS Therapy is an evidence based, effective approach that can offer long-term relief from many symptoms.
It offers an effective way to work with...
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Trauma: IFS Therapy provides a safe space to process and integrate traumatic memories. It can be very helpful for individuals with complex trauma presentations.
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Anxiety and Depression: IFS addresses the underlying causes of anxiety and depression, supporting individuals in finding relief and a changed relationship to their anxiety and depressive symptoms.
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Relationship Issues: IFS Therapy can improve communication and understanding in relationships by exploring and resolving internal conflicts that may be affecting interactions with others.
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Self-Esteem and Self-Identity: Through IFS Therapy self-compassion grows, accessing increased love for yourself and others. Shame and deep-seated beliefs about oneself that were often adopted from childhood can be released, with more space to take in more affirming beliefs about oneself. In IFS, one learns how to access their inherent self-worth.
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Embodiment: Through getting to know parts that want to disconnect you from your body (dissociate) or distract, you can learn how to be more in touch with your body and what it is communicating to you. In IFS, parts are often looked at as being connected to sensations in the body.
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Chronic pain and Illness: IFS therapy offers an alternative way to look at chronic conditions by listening to the parts of ones system and what they are communicating about the reasons for the pain or illness. The IFS process can either improve ones relationship to their pain and illness or can actually relieve and heal symptoms related to the condition.
Experience IFS Therapy at Revive Counselling
Natalie and Jon are highly trained Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapists with a deep commitment to guiding individuals towards healing and growth. If you're interested in exploring IFS email info@revivecounselling.com to find out more information.