At Neshima Healing, we use the Internal Family Systems (IFS) approach to therapy as a foundation for our different healing modalities.
What is Internal Family Systems (IFS)?
Instead of focusing on individual issues, Internal Family Systems therapy looks at the mind-body as a complete system running on a complex foundation of parts. Think of them as sub-personalities.
Each of your parts were either inherited or formed by some sort of event or trauma in your life. At the time, you may not have been equipped to cope. So, your system created a new “part.” One that was able to process and move on from the event in whatever way it could.
Sometimes, this manifests itself as a shyness or an underlying anxiety. Other times, it’s self-judgement, addiction, or something else you “wish was different.”
Internal Family Systems group therapy teaches us how to understand, coexist with, and (eventually) love each part. Then, as we get to know ourselves, we can get to know our Self.
“Without a doubt, I am now a more aware and mindful mom – more present and definitely happier!”
— Einat
What is a subpersonality?
First, let go of all your preconceived notions of what a subpersonality is. We all have many sub-personalities in us that want to be heard by a loving place … most of them carry baggage of pain that wants to be released
For example, within you might live an adolescent girl who is sad that her parents are ignoring her and wants to retaliate for attention. Or, perhaps it’s the 35-year-old who was harassed by a coworker.
These are the sub-personalities that helped create your parts – so it’s natural that they are forever linked to your idea of who you are. When we understand these personalities and unburden their pain and baggage. the body-mind system becomes lighter and have more access to our true Self.
“IFS therapy combines systems thinking with the view that mind is made up of relatively discrete subpersonalities each with its own viewpoint and qualities”¹
Let’s take a page out of the textbook here and look at the assumptions IFS makes as a style of therapy:
All-too-often, Western medicine tries to relieve the symptoms instead of understanding the root cause behind then. Internal Family Systems teaches us that it’s often our hidden and repressed parts that cause our bodies to rebel.
This phenomenon is also known as the mind-body connection. By connecting these two life forces, we can begin to live our lives the way they were meant to be lived.
6 examples of our different parts
Like a snowflake, no two people are alike. Our parts are all formed as a result of our unique lives. That said, there are many common ways that these parts manifest themselves in our daily lives. For example:
All of these common issues stem from a part that is begging to be heard. By using IFS, we will listen to them … together.