Internal Family Systems

IFS is a form of individual psychotherapy that was developed in the 1980s by a psychotherapist called Richard Schwartz. Schwartz was familiar with systems psychology, which was widely used in family therapy, and which explored how the various personalities in a family got along with one another.

Positing that each individual person has several quite distinct subpersonalities, and drawing on his knowledge of systems theory, family therapy, and psychotherapy generally, Schwartz explored how to use systems psychology to better understand, and provide therapy to, the multiple subpersonalities that – he theorised – compose the individual human mind.

Over the years, IFS has become a significant form of psychotherapy, with a large and growing research base, and a steadily increasing number of training institutes around the world.

Today, thirty years after it was first developed, the IFS model is widely used by therapists in the United States and, increasingly, elsewhere too. It is a clinically proven therapeutic approach that has helped many people to live happier, more fulfilled lives, with positive repercussions for their personal and professional relationships.

Research has shown that IFS can make a real difference for people with various conditions and issues, including:

• Phobia
• Panic Disorders.
• Generalized Anxiety Disorders.
• Depression.
• Eating disorders.
• Trauma.
• Suicidal ideation.
• Personal Resilience.
• Self-esteem.
• Certain physical health complaints, including chronic pain, particularly when no physical origin for the pain can be detected, or when the level of pain appears excessive for any underlying physical condition.

If your subpersonalities/parts are not in a healthy relationship with each other, it is much more difficult for you to be in a healthy relationship with others, and it is also much more difficult for you to achieve a healthy level of self-esteem. You may have a part that keeps returning you to a place of shame or mistrust that relates to a dysfunction that entered your life many years ago. Inevitably, when you are not in a place of contentment and balance, you are less able to achieve healthy and rewarding relationships with the people in your life.

Conversely, as your self-understanding grows, in parallel with a move towards being led by your Self rather than your parts, you will become better able to communicate with the people in your life in a healthy and fulfilling way.

IFS assumes that every person has a core personality or true Self, and also that the mind is made up of various different personalities. These are known as “subpersonalities” or “parts” and they are considered to be a natural, healthy function of the human mind. The animated film Inside Out (Pixar, 2015) provides a simplified but broadly accurate vision of how this concept works in practice.

Each subpersonality has its own point of view, interests, and memories of the past. Each of them is intrinsically positive. Together, they form your Self. Absent trauma or stress, the various parts of the mind can interact with one another in a functional manner.

In a system that is healthy and in a state of balance, the Self is able to use the information it is provided by its network of parts to decide what to do, how to understand and interpret events, and how to respond to the world and the people in it.

It should be noted that while the concept of each mind having multiple parts has some superficial similarities to the definition of Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder), DID is a serious mental health condition whereby someone has two or more separate personalities known as alters, each of which controls their behaviour at various times, often leaving memory lacunae when they switch between alters. Conversely, having different “parts” or “subpersonalities” is just part of the healthy human mind. We are all naturally made that way.

But in response to trauma or stress, the distinct parts of the mind can cease communicating effectively and a psychological imbalance can arise, leading to mental illness or a lack of mental well-being. Often, these negative experiences are rooted in things that may have happened to you during your childhood, often trauma or an issue relating to attachment with your parent(s) or other primary caregivers. In consequence, you may have become stuck in a series of behavioural loops for many years.

Because most of your memories about how you have reacted to stressors in the past are not conscious or cognitive, nor are the ways in which you respond to them now. It’s a lot like muscle memory: because you have experienced and reacted to stimuli over and over again in the past, your subpersonalities have learned how to instinctively respond without even thinking. And you in turn may have learned to be resentful of those aspects of yourself that you experience as negative or self-limiting, especially when you are confronting challenges.

 You may have learned to think things like: “I wish I didn’t have that critical inner voice” or “If only there wasn’t a part of me that always wants to lash out when I feel thwarted.”  

But by understanding why these parts feel the way they do, and prompt you to react the way you do, you can accept them as they are. And by accepting them, you can also choose to respond differently, and to gradually return them to a healthier state of equilibrium with your other parts.

IFS seeks to create connections between these subpersonalities, and to restore a sense of balance to the mind.

According to this model there are several types of subpersonalities.

• Exiles are subpersonalities that might have formed in childhood and that often represent the traumas that you have experienced. They can become isolated from other parts of the personality, leading to imbalances and distress. Consequently, the other subpersonalities can try to quash the exiles.
• Managers are protective subpersonalities that try to prevent harm or damage from trauma from impacting on your conscious awareness. They influence how you interact with the world around you.
• Other protective subpersonalities, known as firefighters, try to move attention away from negative feelings. This can lead to damaging behaviours such as substance abuse, lashing out, or working obsessively. For example, a firefighter might manifest as a crucial voice (“Why are you always so stupid?”) or as an urge to engage in addictive or other dysfunctional behaviours.

While protectors often lead to damaging behaviours, their intention is typically to pre-empt hurt to you from the beliefs and feelings held by exiles, or to repress feelings that will be experienced as hurtful.

Dysfunction enters this scene when your protective parts – the managers and the firefighters – respond to emotional triggers in extreme ways that are intended to keep you safe, but that misfire, and can cause you to remain stuck in a loop of damaging emotional reactions and behaviours.

By understanding yourself in this way, you can see that the problematic behaviours you are worried about – for example, alcohol abuse, low self-esteem or excessive anger – do not define you. They are just one facet of you. Part of who you are, and not the whole picture.

Working with a suitably qualified therapist, you can learn how to develop a positive relationship between your core Self and each subpersonality, and also how to understand each subpersonality. You may be asked to envision each of these parts as a distinct personality and to engage in open dialogue with them. In the process, you will come to understand them better and can work together with them to give them a healthier, more productive role in your system. You will gradually stop “hating” those parts of yourself that you may have scapegoated for all your problems, and to understand instead why those parts feel and behave the way they do.

IFS assumes that we are all inherently capable of self-healing. By helping you to access the parts of your mind that have been hurt,  and the subpersonalities that have developed schema to manage them, you can access healing. Incrementally, your need for therapy will decline, as your self-understanding and ability to heal yourself grow.

The term “unburdening” is used to describe what happens in IFS as you start to heal. Gradually, you will explore the extreme beliefs and emotions that were acquired by distinct parts of your mind in response to trauma.

By relieving your subpersonalities of the burdens they carry, they can revert to their naturally healthy states, and you can allow yourself to be led by your essential Self. Now, when you experience difficult emotions – as we all must do on our journey through life – you also know that a part of you is in distress, and that with time, it will calm down.

IFS rests on the assumption that there is an essential Self. This refers to a particular state of consciousness in which mental health and mental wellbeing issues can be successfully addressed. When you are in a state of good mental health, you are experiencing all or some of the “8 Cs”:

• Compassion.
• Curiosty.
• Calm.
• Clarity.
• Courage.
• Connectedness.
• Confidence.
• Creativity.

And you are also experiencing all or some of the “5 ps”:

• Playfulness.
• Patience.
• Presence.
• Perspective.
• Persistance.

When you are in Self mode, you feel both physically and mentally well. You can think more clearly, and in a peaceful, satisfying way. Your body and face muscles are relaxed. You are able to access your own inner energy.

As you develop an ever-more positive, healthy relationship between your Self and your various subpersonalities, you will gradually experience healing. Increasingly, you will be led by your Self and not by the parts that having been working hard to keep you safe, albeit often with methods that have become dysfunctional over time.

If you have a condition that might benefit from treatment with IFS and are looking for a suitably qualified therapist, either in the UK or online, please get in touch with the Private Therapy Clinic on Whatsapp message at: +447511116565 email, chat bot or book online to arrange an appointment.

Deacon, Sharon A.; Davis, Jonathan C. (March 2001). “Internal Family Systems Theory: A Technical Integration,” Journal of Systemic Therapies. 20 (1): 45–58.

Schwartz, Richard C. (2013), “Moving From Acceptance Toward Transformation with Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS),” Journal of Clinical Psychology 69, no. 8: 805-816.

Schwartz, Richard C. (1999). “The Internal Family Systems Model”. In Rowan, John; Cooper, Mick (eds.). The Plural Self: Multiplicity in Everyday Life, London; Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 238–253.

Schwartz, Richard C.; Schwartz, Mark F.; Galperin, Lori (2009). “Internal Family Systems Therapy”. In Courtois, Christine A.; Ford, Julian D. (eds.). Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders: an Evidence-Based Guide, New York: Guilford Press. pp. 353–370.

Schwartz, Richard C.; Sparks, Flint (2015). “The Internal Family Systems Model in Trauma Treatment: Parallels with Mahayana Buddhist Theory and Practice”. In Follette, Victoria M.; Briere, John; Rozelle, Deborah; Hopper, James W.; Rome, David I. eds.). Mindfulness-oriented Interventions for Trauma: Integrating Contemplative Practices. New York: Guilford Press. pp. 125–139