We all acknowledge that the human psyche is a complex structure. Our training as therapists may have included various ways to catalog the multiple conflicting impulses a person may experience. One emerging model is known as Internal Family Systems (IFS). This modality describes the idea of a "system of parts" which makes up one person's inner life. The mind is not monolithic! One way of conceptualizing this is to think of an ongoing conversation among the roles we play and the roles we've played in the past. Since we never completely drop this "cast of characters," it's essential to facilitate their working together to resolve past problems and prevent future ones.

Some patients may balk at the idea that they have many parts to their inner selves. They may fear the shattering effect of Multiple Personality Disorder or other kinds of major dissociation. But we can help them understand that it's not as scary as that. A basic principle in IFS is that there's a part of us (or an inner "voice) that procrastinates, for example, and another part that gets annoyed with the part that's procrastinating. IFS works with each part in separate conversation to understand the root motivation.

In a way, it's like doing mediation: We respectfully interview all the participants in a conversation, hear what each one values and wants to accomplish, then help them learn new ways of working together. In this way, inner conflict can be dissolved, and along with them, blocks to productivity and satisfaction with life.

Just as in mediation, we never intend to crush or get rid of a part - only to help each party transform in such a way that they can work in harmony. 

The "Self" in IFS

Leading the way is the person's central witness-consciousness. In IFS this is called the core identity or the Self (distinguished from other 'selves' or subpersonalities). Brian Murphy refers to the central, directing Self with this formula: "If all my parts step back, the "I" who remains is Self. " So just as in other forms of therapy, it's important to help develop a person's reliable access to this more spacious, harmonizing element of the personality.

(Ref: http://www.selfledsolutions.com/resources/aboutifs.html):

"This Self is naturally compassionate and curious about people, and especially about our own parts. The Self wants to connect with each part and get to know and understand it. The Self feels compassion for the pain of the exiles and also for the burdens that drive protectors to act the way they do. The Self is also able to stay calm and centered despite the sometimes intense emotions that parts may feel. Everyone has a Self, even though in some people it may not be very accessible because of the activity of their parts."
- Jay Earley

Generally, IFS practitioners use a three-part model to categorize a collection of inner subpersonalities. They may be Managers, Firefighters, or Exiles.

Managers:

In general, managers are interested in being productive and tend to engage proactively, putting plans and preventive strategies in place to make sure a dangerous situation never comes to pass. The well-known Inner Critic is one example of a blocking-type Manager. It gauges innocuous activities as dangerous and puts brakes on initiative, preferring the safety of hiding to the risk of being seen. An aggressive Manager may even start a fight so someone else doesn't strike first.  A common example is the Inner Critic; another version is the Pessimist.

Firefighters:  

These parts react against the perceived danger of a situation. They seem to show up suddenly as distractions, compulsions, addictions, and numbing or "checkout behaviors."  Procrastination, a classic example, may show up suddenly when we sit down to work on a daunting project.  When the Manager voice asks: Why are you staring blankly into the fridge when a work project is due in half an hour? We can ask the Procrastinator. Other Firefighter parts may exhibit as compulsive shopping, gambling, sex, sleeping, or other driven activities that carry our attention away from feeling the full force of the Exile's repressed emotion.

Exiles:

These are repressed, denied, or shadow parts that the Managers are trying to protect, the same ones that the Firefighters are trying to keep sealed away. Experiences of terror, rage, despair, worthlessness, orother extreme emotions can be too much for a young child to bear, and too frightening for a parent to allow expression. So the child's psyched packs those responses away or "Exiles" them. Later they show up as neuroses, blocks, and physical ailments. 

IFS invites these parts to speak and be heard and respected, and in return, they tend to soften or release completely. A client can experience a rush of energy and new capabilities of expression and productivity.

It doesn't take major trauma or serious mental illness for a person to dissociate in this way - in fact, it's pervasive in our culture for a child or an adult to be forcefully dissuaded from expressing a naturally arising feeling, and to have little or no guidance for navigating strong emotions. So we do the best we can, often at a very young age, and we "exile" these parts of ourselves. In IFS the Exile is contacted, given voice, and received with compassion. This process of re-integration, guided by a trustworthy therapist, can result in a tremendous release of energy and creativity into a refreshed state of vibrancy.

It's typical in IFS to have the patient give each part a name, so we have the sense that we're really talking to a distinct persona within the psyche. This way of externalizing behaviors or impulse patterns by personifying them can be immensely supportive to a patient who is at wits' end, one who thinks he is superior to the therapist (perhaps a Firefighter at work), or other common cases.

As in many other models, in IFS the therapist doesn't come up with answers for a client - the person's inner parts hold their own wisdom, and the therapist's job is partly to draw each voice forward, locate the client's Self as well, and facilitate the conversation among them toward more harmonious relationship.

The Therapist's Self

Richard Schwartz, creator of IFS, stresses the responsibility of the therapist to do his/her own inner work to maintain connection to that "Self".  He writes: "Being able to drop my guard, as well as my inner diagnoses, strategies, pushers, and motivators, I could enjoy being the person I am. Ironically, clients enjoy me more, and resist me less when I'm in this way, too - sensing my authenticity and lack of agenda. Clients come to love the Self-to-Self connection they feel when I'm really present." http://www.selfleadership.org/the-larger-self.html

Using IFS in Clinical Work

Professionals trained in IFS learn to assess a client's self-parts and their sequences related to the problem. They learn to identify polarizations and conflicts. They look for parallel dynamics between ways of relating to inner parts and outer family members. Like any therapy, IFS trained professionals learn how to introduce the model, how clients already perceive parts to help with accessing them either directly or indirectly.

There are specific nuances inherent in working with each of the three kinds of parts: 

1) the managers are often the most fearful; to work with them, it is necessary to value their roles and reassure them that their fears don't have to occur when there is a positive outcome in therapy. 

2) It's important to Identify dangerous firefighter parts and also to work with manager fears of working with firefighters. 

3) Exiles are usually young parts that have experienced trauma and often become separated from the rest of the parts to protect the inner system from feeling extreme trauma-related feelings. IFS has many ways of helping exiled parts learn to trust, receive support, and heal old wounds.

Please join Dr. Richard Schwartz and me for this month's webinar, Working with the "I" of Trauma, on March 31, from 9:00 to 10:30 am Pacific time. Go here to register. For those of you trained in Ego-State Therapy, this is a chance to learn how the methods and practices of IFS can enrich ego state work. For those of you trained in IFS, this will be an opportunity to expand and deepen your work with the fragmented self from a more hypnotic point of view.
 

Maggie

P.S.  Just a reminder that one of my friends and colleagues, Ellyn Bader, is offering a fantastic online training in couples therapy. There are only a few seats left for her Developmental Model Training. The benefits are: Getting more satisfied couples clients that will refer to you; becoming a specialist in your community on couples; reducing your own stress by getting timely consultation. The course is expensive but you can pay monthly and there's a money back guarantee. I highly recommend it! Please visit here to learn more and sign up!