Key Takeaways
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is a type of psychotherapy that views minds as having different parts. In Internal Family Systems psychology, these parts represent your different feelings, reactions, or ways to respond to a situation, and often are called “subpersonalities” or “families”, not as different people inside you. These different emotional experiences often create internal conflicts because some parts may feel hurt by criticism while other parts feel anger. This often makes people feel stuck about what to do next.
IFS therapy is designed to help individuals recognize these parts and helps you respond from your true Self, described as a wise, confident, and compassionate state of a person. So, they can handle their feelings and respond more thoughtfully to maintain a balanced internal state of mind.
Who Developed IFS and What Is Its Core Belief?
IFS therapy is an evidence-based clinical approach. It is focused on addressing, understanding, and balancing different “parts” (sub-personalities) of an inner system.
It is basically a type or an approach of psychotherapy, developed by an American psychotherapist and family therapist, Richard C. Schwartz. The main model of IFS is reviewing the mind as having different parts or sub-personalities and a Self. Each part consists of its own distinctive feelings, beliefs, desires, and viewpoints, based on past experiences. The central belief of IFS is that every part has a positive objective or useful quality. This means every “part” is good and healthy, even if it causes stress or distress, because it tries to protect you.
The goal of IFS therapy is to understand parts and connect with Self to achieve a balanced mental state, rather than fighting with them. This makes sure individuals manage internal conflict and respond to situations calmly and with compassion rather than being controlled by protective or wounded parts.
Key Internal Family Systems Roles
There are two main ideas in Internal Family Systems (IFS) that are described below:
1. What Are “Parts” in IFS?
Parts in IFS are mini-personalities that describe feelings with their own goals, desires, and beliefs. There are three types or roles of “parts” in Internal Family Systems, such as:
1.1. Managers (the protective parts)
Managers are protective sub-personalities. They help in decision-making, planning, setting boundaries, or structuring rules before any unpleasant situation occurs to ensure emotional control and safety. These proactive protector parts are inner bodyguards that work in the background around the clock to prevent situations that can trigger Exiles through ways including:
- Intellectualization
- Perfectionism
- People-pleasing
- Hyper-Vigilance
- Emotional Numbing
In simple terms, they hide exiles because such parts carry feelings (burden) associated with guilt and shame; managers avoid these to ensure you don’t lose the ability to function.
1.2. Firefighters (reaction parts)
Firefighters are specific parts that come in response to emotional overwhelm and pain. When exiles break defensive boundaries of managers, the firefighter parts activate. As a response, the job of these parts is to avoid emotional breakdown and withdrawal from distressing emotions immediately or shortly after they are triggered. For this, the firefighter uses high-urgency techniques to get emotional relief as soon as possible without taking long-term consequences into account. They way these reactive parts control emotional pain include:
- Compulsive scrolling or shopping
- Overreacting
- Gambling
- Self-harm
- Numbing part
1.3. Exiles (Wounded Parts)
Exiles are what managers push, and firefighters are responses to them. They are specific parts or sub-personalities that contain emotional pain (shame, guilt, fear) and negative beliefs (“I’m not good, etc). Exiles are unprocessed emotions associated with past experiences and may contain feelings, including:
- Shame
- Fear
- Loneliness
- Guilt
- Confusion
- Embarrassment
- Insecure
2. The “Self” in IFS
Self in IFS is what we are all born with. It is not something that can be developed like personality traits, but is a natural, true internal wellbeing (a person’s real version) defined by 8 C’s (qualities) and 5 P’s, including:
- Calm
- Curiosity
- Compassion
- Clarity
- Confidence
- Courage
- Creativity
- Connectedness
The 5 P’s of Self in the IFS family system include:
- Presence
- Patience
- Perspective
- Persistence
- Playfulness
The core Self is inherently compassionate, calm, and capable of acting as a loving inner leader. —Richard C. Schwartz
How Does Internal Family Systems Therapy Work?
IFS therapy is an emerging type of psychotherapy (talk therapy), but it works differently than traditional therapies like CBT and more. While other therapies focus on thoughts and cognitive understanding, IFS therapy aims to create a space and connect your inner parts with the sense of innate Self, and this happens in a sequence. So, the goal is not to fight and replace, but to differentiate and connect. Here’s how internal family systems therapy works:
1. Find Your Part
The first step of IFS therapy is “identify the part”. This means identifying which one of three inner parts of yourself, as defined by Richard C. Schwartz, is active based on your feelings (listen to every inner part).
2. Unblending (Creating Space)
After that, the next step is differentiating, or in IFS therapy, it is termed “Unblending”. The objective of this is to create a space or a gap between your inner parts and Self. People with unhelpful beliefs often blend with an inner part.
This means they start believing or judging themselves based on their feelings. This step creates that gap, helping you realize your emotions or feelings don’t represent your character or define who you are. Instead, it represents part of you or your sub-personality. This way, people learn to view emotion in a new way. For instance, instead of believing “I’m worthless or not valuable enough”, they shift towards “A part of me is experiencing low self-esteem.”
3. Befriending (The Connection)
The last stage is befriending. In simple terms, it’s a connection process. Instead of acting overwhelmingly on your feelings, you learn to find inner calmness by understanding or answering your emotions — categorized as three main inner parts (managers, firefighters, and the exiles) — with the 8 C’s (personal traits) of Self. This way, the burden (distressing feelings) these inner parts release decreases the intensity of the feeling.
What To Expect During An IFS Therapy Session?
Therapy sessions involve the patient and the provider discussing signs and experiences, and IFS therapy sessions are no different. During your session, you will meet with a psychiatrist, who will help you access and address your feelings. The psychiatrist works with you to identify your thoughts and feelings and guides you on how you can process and understand them more healthily. Over time, your psychiatrist helps you connect your parts with Self to build harmony.
During IFS treatment, a psychiatrist uses a specialized 6-step process to identify your specific parts that trigger discomfort and create a healthy, helpful change. These include:
- Find the part: Ask yourself what you are experiencing and how it feels
- Focus on it: Redirect your attention towards that specific part
- Flesh it out: Observe that part in-depth and find its characteristics
- Feel towards: Find how a part feels to you and what your reactions are
- Befriend the part: Know more about the part without any judgement
- Fear: Address the fear that specific part carries to release old burdens or trauma-related thoughts
What Can IFS Therapy Help With?
With internal family systems therapy, a specific population dealing with anxiety, depression, stress, trauma, or other mental health conditions may benefit. It can also be an effective therapeutic method for individuals who are experiencing stress or emotional dysregulation in different domains of life, such as academic, job, relationships, career selection, and more.
Moreover, IFS is also very effective for conditions like PTSD in numerous clinical trials. According to a pilot study involving 17 adults with multiple childhood traumas, there was a reduction in symptoms after 16 IFS therapy sessions, as they no longer met the official criteria within a period of one month. However, no quality evidence shows IFS effectiveness for schizophrenia.
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