Are you a trauma survivor? A trauma therapist can help trauma survivors heal by using a popular treatment for complex trauma. It is called Internal Family Systems or IFS. This approach uses evidence-based trauma therapy techniques. IFS views an individual’s mental system as made up of parts. These parts include wounded parts and painful emotions such as anger and shame. Often parts will try to control and protect the person from the pain of the wounded parts. The parts are often in conflict with each other and with one’s core Self, a concept that describes the confident, compassionate, whole person that is at the core of every individual.
The core self is characterized by what IFS calls the 8C’s: compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness. As opposed to many other models, IFS holds that everyone has access to these qualities at their core, and they don’t need to be created or built by the therapy. A major goal of IFS is for you to increase your ability to be Self-led.
IFS focuses on healing the wounded parts and restoring mental balance and harmony by changing the dynamics that create discord among the sub-personalities and the Self. This healing work is effective for childhood trauma survivors.
IFS was developed by psychologist Richard Schwartz. As a clinician working with trauma survivors, Swartz began to observe patterns in how people described their inner lives. What he heard repeatedly were descriptions of what people often called their “parts”—the conflicted parts that resided within them. He conceived the mind as having parts similar to family members interacting with one another. Exploring how these components functioned with one another is the foundation for IFS and the idea of the core Self.
IFS is especially helpful for those individuals who experienced trauma as a child. Childhood trauma survivors who engage in IFS treatment demonstrate significant reductions in the severity of PTSD symptoms, including; depression, dissociation, somatization, affect dysregulation, and disrupted self-perception.
Contact me for trauma therapy information and you can begin your healing journey.