Internal Family Systems (IFS)
“IFS therapy is kind of magical.” ~Tim Ferris
Coming home to your wise inner world
You’ve lived long enough to know: Your reactions aren’t random. Your contradictions aren’t failures. Your “Why am I like this?” moments are actually intelligent survival strategies.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) gives language to what you already feel inside: You are made of many parts — and none of them are bad. As Walt Whitman once wrote: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
If you’ve ever felt torn between:
wanting connection vs. wanting to hide
longing to be creative vs. being terrified to be seen
craving rest vs. powering through like your body doesn’t matter
…you’ve already met your parts.
Some parts hide old wounds.
IFS calls these parts “protectors.” They learned their roles early — often in narcissistic family systems — and they’ve been working overtime ever since.
The part trying to please others so that you never have to feel the sting of rejection again? A protector.
The part trying to fix your parents so that your family doesn’t fall apart? A protector.
The part binging Netflix shows to avoid calling your mom? Also a protector.
All of these parts have good intentions. They are doing their best to keep you safe, even if their actions no longer align with your values.
But there is another presence inside of you. The quiet center. The original You.
IFS calls this Self — the spiritual core beneath the survival system. Richard Schwartz describes Self through the 8 C’s: calm, clarity, compassion, curiosity, confidence, courage, creativity, and connectedness.
You know this energy.
It’s that moment when you suddenly soften. When intuition becomes obvious. When your whole body exhales and you think, “Ah. There I am.”
“I saw that this Self that dialogues with all the egoic parts is my soul. Dwelling in this awareness allowed me have a direct, physically felt sense of god / love / spirit / compassion.” ~Alanis Morissette
Many people meet Self only in flashes. IFS helps you access it on purpose. This is how the healing actually happens.
Self doesn’t fight your parts — it befriends them. It listens without fear. It brings the exiled younger selves out of the dark corners where they’ve been carrying shame for decades.
A typical session is less “talk about it” and more an inner meet-and-greet with your parts, through guided visualization.
You might connect with an exile who learned “It isn’t safe to be myself” or “Love disappears when I’m vulnerable.”
When Self witnesses that moment with compassion, these inner children release the burdens they’ve been hauling since childhood. And the protectors can finally rest.
You will feel the shift somatically: More spaciousness… less gripping. More permission… less panic.
IFS helps highly sensitive people come home to themselves.
You stop calling yourself “too sensitive.”
You stop abandoning yourself to avoid disappointment.
You stop performing stability and start cultivating it from within.
IFS reconnects you with parts of you that are:
wildly creative
fiercely intuitive
spiritually attuned
deeply feeling
absolutely done with shrinking to survive.
