Parts of You: An Introduction to Internal Family Systems
Written by Autumn Horn, MS, ATR-P, LPC-IT
“Just as our bodies know how to heal physical injuries, it seems that we all possess an innate wisdom for healing ourselves emotionally.”
-Richard C. Schwartz, Introduction to Internal Family Systems, 2023, p. 5
As a therapist and growing person myself, you and I have the tools we need to improve our well-being. Sometimes all we need is support, guidance, and encouragement. The Internal Family Systems (IFS) theory is a nonjudgmental, open, and multidimensional theory that was created by Richard Schwartz. Schwartz theorizes that each one of us is made up of an internal family that consists of a Self and parts. Schwartz created IFS in the 1980s because he began to realize there was an internal battle happening in his clients (Schwartz, 1995).
Think of your own immediate family: there’s your mother, father, and siblings. You have a relationship with each member of the family, and each person has their own role within the family system. This same idea is what IFS is all about. However, instead of it being relationships with people, you have many different relationships with parts inside your mind that make up their own inner family. Schwartz says, “we have ongoing, complex relationships with many different inner voices, thought patterns, and emotions that are similar to relationships we have with other people” (Schwartz, 2023, p. 5). Parts consist of a collection of personalities, each with their own ages, experiences, memories, and temperaments at various points in one's life.
Our Inner World
is made up of the Self, exiles, and protectors. The Self is our core consciousness, where we feel creative, joyful, peaceful, spiritual, and connected.
Ideally, we want to operate from the Self. However, due to pain, shame, and other dangers, our protectors—also known as managers and firefighters—take over, overshadowing the Self’s leadership. This shift happens because protectors lose trust in the Self’s ability to handle these challenges (Schwartz, 2023).
Exiles are childlike, vulnerable parts that hold intense emotions and memories related to trauma. For example, a child who is repeatedly told that crying is weak may suppress their natural emotional response, exiling their sadness. These exiled parts carry the burden of trauma and are pushed away because their emotions are no longer welcome. The memories, emotions, and sensations associated with the trauma are stored with the exiled part, making it feel isolated and burdened (Schwartz, 2023).
Protectors work to keep exiles from expressing their painful memories and feelings and present as “managers” and/or “firefighters”. Managers handle day-to-day functioning by keeping exiles isolated through control. One example of a manager is an inner critic who uses negative self-talk to prevent mistakes, aiming to protect us from further pain or failure.
Firefighters, on the other hand, act impulsively to keep exiles away, often without considering the consequences. An example of a firefighter is lashing out in anger, which might look like yelling or saying hurtful things when in an argument with someone you care about. Firefighters aim to quickly extinguish the emotional pain, even if their methods are drastic (Schwartz, 2023). As Schwartz (2021) says, there are no bad parts, just bad roles.
Through therapy and self-compassion, we can transform the roles of our inner parts, allowing the Self to be more present and leading to overall well-being.
"Inner Critic Manager" by Autumn Horn
I believe that art plays an important role in how we can explore our internal worlds. IFS theory can “bring hope to the hopeless,” while art therapy can bring meaning through imagery and externalization to the inner family inside (Schwartz, 2021, p. 21).
Art therapy is innately creative, embraces metaphor, often explores unconscious thought, and brings about meaning-making from imagery.
Art therapy easily aligns with IFS because of its reliance on internal dialogue, metaphors, communication, and connections. An example of art therapy using IFS may be creating what your inner critic manager looks like. Personally, when I think of my own inner critic part, I think of a looming, dark shape that is trying to make me feel smaller (see photo). By using art-making and creativity to explore a part, the part is provided with safety and distance from challenging emotions and thoughts that may arise in the art-making process. Art therapy through art-making provides a less threatening approach to the exploration of the Self and parts inside compared to traditional talk therapies (Rubin, 2010). Art allows us to explore our internal worlds in a safe, nonverbal manner while also providing the space to develop meaning and explore insights about our parts.
I Invite You
to begin to notice the conversations in your mind and what they might be saying to you. The first step is noticing that there may be different parts interacting inside, and you may begin to understand that you too have an internal family! I encourage you to start writing down or making art about what you may hear from your parts. Schwartz constantly reminds us to listen to our parts with curiosity and compassion; you may never know what your parts may be asking from you.
The goal of IFS is to release our parts, exiles, managers, and firefighters, from their bad roles and build trust with the Self.
Through establishing trust with the Self and our parts in more effective roles, the inner family can experience a sense of harmony, balance, and wholeness. Internally, this allows the parts to get along and decrease conflicts between one another, while externally, our parts are allowed to express themselves more freely and engage more positively with the outside world (Schwartz, 2023).
Throughout the next few newsletters I plan to explore and go more into depth about exiles, protectors, and the Self. My hope is that we can learn together about how we can examine our inner families and begin to bring harmony to the system through connection and exploration.
~Autumn Horn, MS, ATR-P, LPC-IT
References:
Rubin, J. (2010). Introduction to art therapy : sources & resources (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203893968
Schwartz, R. C. (2021). No bad parts: Healing trauma and restoring wholeness with the internal system. Sounds True.
Schwartz, R. C. (2023). Introduction to internal family systems (2nd ed.). Sounds True.
Schwartz, R. C. (1995). Internal family systems therapy. The Guilford Press.
Image Sources:
https://pasterski.com/2018/10/internal-family-systems-meet-your-inner-family/
Schwartz, R. C. (2023). Introduction to internal family systems (2nd ed.). Sounds True.
You and Your Grieving Parts: Internal Family Systems — Dr. Laura L. Walsh (drlauralwalsh.com)