Somatic IFS

Have you ever had that experience where a part of you feels one way but another part of you feels the opposite? Like when you’re offered a new job, and a part of you gets super excited and is ready to take on the challenge, but another part of you is terrified and filled with imposter syndrome. 

This is where the therapeutic modality of IFS or internal family systems comes in! 

Internal family systems is an evidenced-based, transformative and empowering therapeutic model. This model conceptualizes every human as a system, so instead of having one mind and one personality, our minds are naturally multiple and our personality is made up of sub-personalities or parts of self. 

These parts of self are what make up our inner experience which is influenced by the experiences we are having in the outside world. We’ve all had our share of stressful, difficult and traumatic experiences and our parts of self feel the impact of those life events. Some parts of us end up getting extremely hurt while other parts instinctively take on extreme roles to try and protect us from getting hurt again. Over time, when our parts have had to stay in these extreme, protective roles things don’t feel so good…we start exhibiting symptoms i.e. anxiety, depression, overthinking, lack of purpose, substance abuse, burnout, chronic shoulder and jaw tension, insomnia, lack of confidence, etc.  

IFS helps people heal, grow and expand by coaching people to access their core self. Your core self is who you are deep down - it’s your truest, most authentic self or your inner wisdom. When accessed, your core self is powerful – it can heal the wounded parts of you and it can help your protective parts out of those extreme roles they had to take on in order to make it through. When your parts can let go of their extreme roles they integrate and the inner system works in harmony - you feel more confident, clear, calm and compassionate.

Somatic IFS blends principles of somatic therapy (body-based therapy)--like movement, touch, and breathwork--with the traditional tools of the Internal Family Systems to create deep LASTING change. It’s one thing to understand why we do what we do but it’s a whole other thing to really embody the changes we are wanting for ourselves. Real lasting change requires the body to be involved. We all have had those experiences where we know why we are triggered but our body is still reacting - this is why the body must be involved in healing and growth. 

Check out the video below if you’d like to hear a little more on IFS from founder Dr. Richard Schwartz!