Internal Family Systems: A Collaborative Guest Blog

In a world that is still evolving to recover emotionally, professional development for the specialists on the front line is vital. This week, our therapeutic team received training from Elise Parsons a Certified Internal Family Systems Practitioner (IFS).

“IFS is a practice that holds human goodness and positive intention at its heart, recognising that we all share the same Universal Self in our core. A Self that is revealed more to us as we heal from the trauma that our parts have been carrying.” – Elise Parsons

IFS therapy has been shown to be effective for treating a variety of conditions and their symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, as well as improving general wellbeing. The approach places emphasis on supporting the relationship between your ‘self’ and the many parts that make up your self.

Identifying parts can help an individual in a challenging situation by preventing the feeling of overwhelm – if it is just a part of ‘self’ that is experiencing an emotional response, then that can be managed on a micro scale. For example, in practice, a therapist may ask an individual who has described feeling anxious, “where they are feeling the anxiety in their body/’self’. In their stomach, or in their chest?” Once the part has been identified, control of self and our emotional responses can be more manageable.

Why IFS

At a time when so many of us have experienced trauma* as a result of the pandemic, IFS encourages individuals to explore their inner world, to understand their emotional responses and to develop healthy and positive behaviours and skills to embrace and enjoy situations that they previously found challenging.

A core principle of IFS is that every part has a positive intention and value, even the parts that are causing emotional responses, feelings and behaviours that we’d like to change – anxiety, rage, panic, and suicidal desperation being some of these.

IFS is hailed by trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk as a treatment method that “all clinicians should know.” It’s an approach to personal therapy that is popular because it breaks down complex human experiences into digestible parts that can be addressed in a systematic way.

*Trauma - an event or experience rather than a physical illness. Most individuals who endure traumatic experiences are able to recover and do not sustain longstanding impact, but there are some that are in need of specialist support to break the cycle.