While we can start by identifying what we feel and need, sometimes is it more complicated than that. We can all identify with a part of me want this, and a part of me wants that. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a treatment modality and a way to understand and differentiate between your authentic “Self” and parts of yourself, and how the Self and parts of you interact. These terms are defined in IFS. The Self is often defined as a source of acceptance, curiousity and compassion, and while parts of you have good intentions and are protective, they may be operating based on fears, and can be depleting. If it is okay to focus on a part that you want to work on, here are a sample of questions that can be explored:
Identify a protective part.
- What does this part want you to know?
- How is it trying to help?
- Do you know what it is afraid of?
Identify the Self.
- How do you feel about this part? How do you respond to it? (This defines additional parts that may need help, and helps you separate them from the Self).
- The Self helps conflicting parts understand and appreciate each other, and ask the part what is needed from the Self.
- For the spiritual, the part or Self can consult God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, especially in the following section.
Meet the needs of the protected part.
- The Self can witness the feelings, sensations and beliefs of a part that had hurtful or traumatic experiences.
- When this is complete, the Self can meet what the part needed, and help this part can leave the scene, and let go of burdensome false beliefs through mental imagery, enactments, and symbolic actions.
- Parts are invited to change, take on new qualities, and have new roles to play.
