IFS, or Internal Family Systems, therapy is an approach to therapy that recognizes the complexity of our inner world. Rather than a singular self, IFS offers a way of thinking about our inner world by considering our various parts.

For instance, if you’re invited to go to a party on Friday night, when Friday rolls around if you’ve had a long week you might find that part of you wants to go to the party, part of you feels guilty about ditching your friends, and part of you really wants to stay home and relax in your PJs.

IFS would treat each of those three parts as wise, as holding various perspectives and wisdoms, and might be something to explore to learn more about your various needs, wants, patterns, and more.

Unlike some therapeutic approaches, IFS is highly collaborative and client-led. It invites curiosity, imagination, and finding ways to honor your experience.

Most importantly, it doesn’t just tend to the surface level experience we have (which can often be what happens with modalities like CBT). It slowly and safely can invite you to heal deep, old wounds and even intergenerational trauma.

Researchers and clinicians from a wide range of cultures (like Indigenous therapists from North America/Turtle Island) have found IFS integrates beautifully with their traditions, rituals, and beliefs. Trans, nonbinary, queer, disabled, and other multiply marginalized therapists have brought IFS into their work because it is so depathologizing and because it tends to both the individual and the community/relational.

If you want to learn more about IFS basics, we highly recommend Richard Schwartz’s book “No Bad Parts.” Dick Schwartz is the person who created the framework of IFS based of decades of care-filled therapy with clients in eating disorder recovery.

There’s a lot more to the model and we’ll cover that in future blog posts, but this at least gives you a jumping off point.

Trauma is at the root of so much of what we do as therapists. Hardly a person in this world is free from trauma simply because it is traumatizing to exist inside of diet culture, patriarchy, ableism, ageism, transphobia, classism, capitalism, and so much more.

IFS moves at the speed of trust with your most skeptical, protective, and reluctant parts. This is critical for actually making space to heal trauma. One of the biggest mistakes people make in their healing journey (and that new counsellors often make, too) is trying to get to healed way too quickly, pushing for change, ignoring parts that are asking to slow down.

Yes, sometimes healing can happen rapidly, but trust has to come first, and IFS really centers that in how we do the work.

Another reason our team uses IFS is because rather than the therapist asserting knowledge on the client, IFS puts the client’s wisdom and experiences in the very center. The therapist is there to help facilitate a safe enough space and to help guide the process with skill and care, but ultimately the client is the one finding answers and journeying within to make meaning.

Some modalities of mental health (like psychoanalysis) ask the therapist to interpret or make meaning for the client, but no therapist is neutral. We are all biased, we are all human, and we bring that to the work we do.

Instead, IFS supports the client to make meaning of their own life which means years down the road when they no longer have that therapist, they’re able to continue making meaning and doing inner work for themselves. The therapist is not a crutch that has to remain part of the client’s world in order for healing to continue.

Like so many things in this world, the answer is it depends. It depends on the client and if they really want to show up and do the work, even when it’s uncomfortable (but that’s ANY therapeutic modality). It depends on the therapist and their skill level (but again, that’s ANY therapist). It depends on the relationship between client and therapist (again, not IFS specific).

In other words, it works really well for some people. For others, it works well enough. And still for others, it’s not the right fit.

There is no panacea of therapy. No one approach that works for all people and all traumas and all situations. Some people may read Dick’s book and love the approach and insist that IFS is what they want for their therapy, and find it isn’t working so well for them. Other people (and we have seen this happen a number of times) are resistance to trying IFS – they think it’s weird and not what they expected therapy to be like, but they give it a try and find it works wonders.

We have seen IFS help a wide range of clients with a wide range of needs and diverse experiences. It’s part of why we continue using it in our work with so many of our clients.

What makes IFS even more potent, though, is a skilled therapist who has a range of tools in their toolbox so that they can tailor the counseling to each individual client’s needs and goals. IFS paired with somatic work or IFS and EMDR or IFS with some art therapy or somatic work with DBT… IFS has been shown to be as effective as other therapeutic modalities, so it’s less about whether it works and more about whether it works for you and your goals.

The best thing we can recommend is to keep an open mind and to work collaboratively with your therapist. Often a client’s needs change over time and so it makes sense to introduce other approaches or skills as that change takes place.

If you have specific questions about IFS, feel free to send us at email at letschat (at) tendandcultivate (dot) com or if you might want to give it a try, book a prospective client session (it’s free!) using the button in our navigation menu.