Parts Work Therapy
in the Denver Metro area & online throughout Colorado
Internal Family Systems provides a model for understanding our inner world as parts (picture the little emotion-characters in the movie Inside Out) in relation to a core Self. Through IFS-informed parts work, you can heal deep wounds, free your internal resources to move from coping to thriving, and cultivate a life lived out of vibrant Self-energy.
While parts work was standardized by Richard Schwartz when he established Internal Family Systems in the 1980s, the idea of “multiplicity of self,” of a core Self (or soul) around which other parts-of-self orbit (such as angry parts, wounded parts, self-critical parts, etc.) has been around for a long, long time. The concept of soul loss and soul retrieval, found in most shamanic traditions across the world, is evidence that humans have been aware of ourselves as spiritual entities that contain multitudes for about as long as we have existed.
I am not certified in Internal Family Systems through the IFS Institute. However, self-study, supervision, and a 21-hour IFS introductory course have enabled me to incorporate parts work into my therapy practice. It’s a powerful model for healing that blends well with attachment-based therapy and offers an elegant framework for understanding complex trauma, unhelpful coping mechanisms, and even family or cultural legacies (both healthy and harmful).
The central idea of IFS is that we possess a core Self full of vibrant, generative energy; before I even discovered IFS, I was already using the language of “your wisest, kindest self,” and now, I often refer to this inner being as the Wise, Kind Self. This Wise, Kind Self is endlessly compassionate and creative, offers us an ability to be calm, grounded, and clear-minded, and—like a skilled teacher or a good parent—can not only effectively organize the rest of our parts, but can heal the parts that carry wounds. My favorite concept from IFS is that the Wise, Kind Self can never be damaged, erased, or destroyed. No matter how much trauma we go through, no matter the deprivation or loss we’ve experienced, the Wise, Kind Self is our birthright. It’s in us, an intrinsic part of our humanity. We just have to learn how to access it.
Parts work therapy teaches you how to identify your various parts as they emerge—socially rewarded protective parts like the Inner Critic or the Perfectionist, socially condemned protective parts like addiction or suicidality, and exiled parts like a wounded Inner Child. The end goal, however, is not just to identify these parts, but to allow your Wise, Kind Self to be the loving leader they need, and to set them free from their unsatisfying (and usually unproductive) jobs. This opens up your internal system for more play, more connection, more rest, and more joy.
To learn more about parts work and the IFS model, I suggest checking out the book No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz. To read more about the Wise, Kind Self from an attachment perspective, you can check out this blog post:
