Internal Family Systems Therapy is a method of therapy developed by Richard Schwartz which assumes each individual person has multiple part-selves, comprising an inner system of parts which must function cooperatively in order for the person to smoothly adapt to their ongoing growth and development as a healthy person.
Developmental distress, attachment disruptions, traumatic stress and other factors will cause parts to become rigidly fixated in roles and functions designed to remedy problems arising from these sources. These are healthy adaptations to disturbance at the time of the adaptation, but later interfere with adaptive functioning, and can cause internal conflict with other parts of the personality.
IFS helps the person to identfy such parts and
acquire a deeper appreciation of their purpose, origin and roles in the
inner system or Internal Family. It enables the person to gain
cooperation of parts and retrieve parts stuck in past traumatic
circumstances to be relieved of outdated duties and be free to become
creative, enjoyable and productive elements of a growing adaptive
personality.
There are many similarities of this approach to Ego State Therapy which
has been developed by John and Helen Watkins. This method recognizes
the multiplicity of personality in the normal person and incorporates
hypnotherapy in the resolution of traumatic stress and conflictual
relations among ego states within the self.
Internal
Family Systems Therapy is unique in that it recognizes the role of the
Self, a deeper identity beyond parts which exists in everyone and has
profound capabilities of healing through compassion, appreciation, and
presence. Additionally, IFS views the workings of the internal system
as a self-organizing system and applies systems theory in enabling the
person to become Self-led toward internal balance and harmony.
I have had training in both Ego State Therapy and IFS, and use
these modalities in the context of psychotherapy in combination with
other methods.
