Internal Family Systems Therapy
“Attachment to Self is the cornerstone of all healing”
Internal Family Systems, and other body-based trauma informed models, like Presence Psychotherapy offer a process-oriented approach that provides exquisite attention to understanding a persons protective system and helping it feel understood.
IFS is a transformative tool that conceives every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner parts lead by a core Self. We believe the mind is naturally multiple and that is a good thing. Just like members of a family, inner parts are forced from their valuable states into extreme roles within us. Self is in everyone. It can’t be damaged. It knows how to heal.
IFS® is frequently used as an evidence-based psychotherapy, helping people heal by accessing and healing their protective and wounded inner parts. IFS® creates inner and outer connectedness by helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their parts.
But IFS® is much more than a non-pathologizing evidence-based psychotherapy to be used in a clinical setting. It is also a way of understanding personal and intimate relationships and stepping into life with the 8 Cs: confidence, calm, compassion, courage, creativity, clarity, curiosity, and connectedness. Professionals from many different backgrounds such as, but not limited to, legal mediation, school administration, life coaches and religious leaders may utilize IFS® to inform and guide their work. Our growing list of educational programs aims to serve not only therapists but the wider public and other professions.
The mission of IFS Institute is to bring more Self leadership to the world
“When all visible lights are extinguished one finds the light of the self.”