Internal Family Systems is a safe, gentle, and non-judgemental approach to exploring our internal world with curiosity.
IFS is a type of psychotherapy developed by Richard Schwartz. It was developed from Family System Therapy and is based on the idea that our mind is comprised of a family of sub-personalities or ‘parts’ each with its own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours but at our core is Self – our wise, non-judgemental and compassionate being. Our Self energy is wrapped around these child personalities though they are usually not aware of it until we introduce them to each other. Self has the ability to see the big picture, heal and lead our inner family.
In IFS theory there are 3 types or groups of our personality – protectors, firefighters and exiles.
Our protector managers protect us from potential pain and harm. They do this by controlling or avoiding certain situations and managing our behaviour.
Our firefighting parts try to distract us from emotional pain by engaging in addictive or compulsive behaviours like eating, using alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, watching streaming or any activity that quickly distracts you from how you feel.
Our exile parts are young, childlike parts that hold sad or traumatic memories and are often suppressed or hidden away by our managers to keep them safe.
The goal of Internal Family Systems therapy is to help you access your wise and compassionate Self, and the best part is that the more we access Self, the more control and power we have to live life from our wise, compassionate Self being freer from our controlling parts. Everyone can do this, no exceptions.
“Your ‘internal family’ is populated with a whole busload of inner children, and if you’re reasonably healthy, your [Self] is driving the bus, keeping the lovely, sometimes naughty, often unruly, scared, overprotective, and sometimes reckless, addicted, dissociative, sociopathic, or even suicidal parts from grabbing the wheel and hijacking the bus.” —Lissa Rankin, MD
Goals and Benefits of Counselling:
- My aim is to help you find, heal and integrate your individual parts to create greater harmony within your system.
- Learning about your own unique system builds self-awareness and helps you develop greater understanding of your own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
- Learning about your own parts gives you the power for emotional regulation, reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and and the inability to make great decisions because you understand yourself better and be who you want to be.
- Seeing yourself with self-compassion and self-acceptance you deserve will help you develop more loving and accepting relationship with yourself and then others in all areas of your life.
I can help you answer your own questions about why you have:
Complex trauma; Anxiety; Depression; Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Addictions such as eating disorders, alcohol, prescription or illicit drug dependencies, online streaming, sex or pornography addictions; relationship difficulties,
What I am offering is a unique, gentle and safe approach to healing and personal growth. When you understand yourself more clearly, you will live more deliberately with choice and control of your life.
