Internal Family Systems
In the movie Inside Out, our emotions are characters living in our head and they can take over the control panel. With IFS, the belief is that we do all have different parts of ourselves, and sometimes those parts do take over the controls.
"When people listen deeply inside, they encounter a host of different feelings, fantasies, thoughts, impulses, and sensations that comprise the background noise of our everyday experience of being in the world. When people remain focused on and ask questions of one of those inner experiences, they find that it is more than merely a transient thought or emotion. Within each of us is a complex family of subpersonalities, which I call parts."
- Richard Schwarts, Founder of IFS
We all have different hats we wear in life. Some of my hats include step-mother, daughter, wife, big sister, therapist, and best friend. And each of these roles require me to be slightly different. With IFS we explore these hats in a deeper way. Other parts of me may include Child, Adult, Giver, and Taker. Some of these parts I like better about myself than others and they allow me to move through the world in a different way. On the other hand, these parts are often in conflict with each other. It is this inner conflict that creates distress.
With IFS we will explore the conflict to nurture internal understanding. You will become intimate with all the parts of yourself and understand how they all work together to make us unique and able to function.