*CORE SELF*

Connected

Calm

Compassionate

Curious

Courageous

Confident

*CORE SELF* Connected Calm Compassionate Curious Courageous Confident

Internal Family Systems

  • All parts are welcome. Parts are sub-personalities or aspects of our personality that interact internally in sequences and styles that are similar to the ways that people interact.

    There are no ‘bad’ parts, only parts stuck in bad roles. Parts have a positive intention for you, and will use a variety of strategies to gain influence within the internal system, but sometimes their effects can be counterproductive or dysfunctional.

    The goal of therapy is to help them find their non-extreme role.

  • This is a non-pathologizing approach. Unlike other forms of psychotherapy, IFS doesn’t start from a diagnosis of mental illness or “something is wrong with you. ”We know that your system is simply responding to its experience in the best way it knows.

    Parts develop a complex system of interactions among themselves- polarizations develop as parts try to gain influence within the system. Parts which have lost trust in the leadership of the Self will “blend” with or take over the Self. Parts which become extreme are carrying “burdens”- energies which are not inherent in the function of the part and don’t belief to the nature of the part, such as extreme beliefs, emotions or fantasies.

    We just need to help unburden and rebalance the different parts of you so that the qualities of Self-leadership can come through more clearly.

  • You are the expert in terms of your own experience, so the IFS practitioner doesn’t assume the authority role in the relationship. We trust your judgment and we listen carefully so that you’re able to guide the direction and pace of the process. A big part of my role is to hold space for Self-leadership (yours and my own) to support the process.

    Any concerns or doubts you may have are invited in and explored – because that’s an important part of you that needs to be seen and heard. We never try to argue with, coerce or discredit a part; the IFS process is patient, highly empathic and collaborative. This means that it’s safe to work with quite extreme parts without overwhelming them or other parts of your system.

  • MANAGERS: Preventative protectors parts that run day to day life, attempts to keep individual in control of situations & relationships in an effort to protect against pain of exiles.

    FIREFIGHTERS: reactive protector parts that do whatever it takes, no matter how extreme to suppress overwhelming emotions-exiles, in an effort to control and extinguish painful feelings.

    EXILES: Younger parts that hold pain/wounds/burdens from the past; they are frozen in time, & stuck with the emotion that arose in that moment.

  • Operating from Self: core or center of the person, your experience will be characterized by 8 “C’s”

    Calm, Connected, Compassionate, Confident, Clear, Courageous, Creative, Curious

    Spirit-led Self: people who are Christians also have the Holy Spirit, which is a guide within the core self as they "abide." The spirit led self enables them to produce spiritual fruit even in the dry seasons.