Over 30 years ago, Dr. Richard Schwartz began listening more deeply to his clients when they talked about “parts” of themselves, first thinking they had more serious problems than he initially thought, then realizing he also had “parts.”
Over the years working with individuals and couples I became increasingly curious about IFS. Five or so years ago I took a seminar on IFS presented by Dr. Frank Anderson. I began applying what I learned and found the IFS to be more than helpful. Feedback from individuals and couples encouraged me to pursue formal training by the IFS Institute and I am now Level One and Level Two trained.
As I completed trainings in IFS and basically turned into an IFS/Imago therapist, my individual clients enthusiastically reported that their experiences with IFS became life-changing. My couples clients benefited by deep diving into their emotional reactivity and learning how to unblend from their reactive parts so they could speak for their parts rather than from them, thereby maintaining connection when navigating differences.
IFS work correlates with work on emotional regulation and brain science as per Dr. Porges’s Polyvagal theory (to learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlhFrBoEnxU) and the work of interpersonal neurobiologist Dr. Dan Siegel (https://drdansiegel.com/) .
IFS helps individuals heal from emotional injuries and big T/little t trauma. IFS and its couples protocol, Intimacy From the Inside Out, IFIO, greatly helps couples co-regulate their emotions when dealing with reactivity.
Dr. Schwartz gives a brief 7-minute introductory explanation of IFS here:
To learn more, you may like to listen to an interview of Dr. Schwartz on Sounds True:
A 17 minutes introductory video by Dr. Richard Schwartz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym8o762U7uc
Dr. Tori Olds has a series on IFS here: https://www.youtube.com/@DrToriOlds. Her introductory video may be helpful.
A podcast with an interview of Dr. Richard Schwartz: https://resources.soundstrue.com/podcast/no-bad-parts/
An introductory book by Dr. Richards Schwartz: amazon.com/No-Bad-Parts-Restoring-Wholeness/