Internal Family Systems (Plants)

Internal family systems (IFS) is a revolutionary evidence based approach to psychotherapy developed by Richard Schwartz in the early 1980s. Deservedly, it has been spiking in popularity due to it’s incredible effectiveness and beautiful cohesivity to what is also gaining in traction, medicinal psychedelic exploration. IFS identifies and addresses multiple sub-personalities or ‘parts’ within a person’s mind. Basically, the idea is that we are all, without exception, greatly toned down versions of the man from the movie Split. Now, you might not be throwing on dresses, kidnapping girls, and traumatizing victims inside some secret lair beneath the Philadelphia Zoo (hey, I’m not here to judge). But internally, on a subtle level within your mind, you have an entire inner family comprised of multiple personalities that are running the show. These parts all form to serve different roles and therefore have different characteristics, each with their own emotions, beliefs, desires, fears, and ways of doing things. Seemingly an absurd concept at first, after enough time working with it, you begin to realize that it is in alignment with the way things actually are. I hope you took the time to watch the short clip of Robert Greene describing his near-death stroke experience. These sorts of situations give us insight into the higher functions of our world. Amongst the Multiplicity (the title of another good IFS study movie), lies something eternal and timeless. All parts are accompanied and overseen by the core Self, our essential wholeness. The goal of IFS is to achieve harmony amongst all our parts by relieving them from their extreme emotions, beliefs, sensations and urges. The task is ultimately to facilitate a surrender to the core Self as the ‘one’ who takes the lead. The experience of the core self can be categorized by the 8 C’s; compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness (and furthermore the 5 P’s ; presence, patience, perspective, persistence, and playfulness.) These characteristics don’t necessarily paint the entirety of the Self experience, it’s a lot richer than that, but they can give a good indication as to when we are or are not in that space. When activated by parts, we will begin to separate from these attributes.

Is this inner family akin to the inner garden?

Within our mental ecosystem, each part can be seen as a distinct ‘species’ with its own necessities and patterns of behavior, contributing to the overall wholeness of the mind. Just as a botanist might nurture a garden, attending to the various needs of different plants, you can tend to the inner garden of the psyche, becoming familiar with your parts/plants.

There are three distinct types of parts within the IFS model.

1. Exiles
   These are parts of our personality that have been hurt in some way (usually in our childhood), and then got "stuck” in the past in a sort of “time-warp”. After experiencing trauma, these parts often become isolated from the rest of the system in an effort to protect the individual from feeling pain, terror, fear, and so on. They can become increasingly extreme and desperate in an effort to receive care, wanting to be heard and to tell their story. Can leave someone feeling fragile and vulnerable. Rage, dependency, shame, fear/terror, grief/loss, loneliness etc.
2. Managers
   Managers are the parts of us that handle day-to-day operations. Proactive protectors, they attempt to keep the individual in control of every situation and every relationship, in an effort to keep parts from having to feel any sort of hurt or rejection. This can show up in any number of ways, even combining parts through controlling, striving, caretaking, evaluating/judging, constant planning, self-criticism, terrorizing others etc.
3. Firefighters
   Firefighters are reactive parts, or groups of parts, which activate in response to exiles that are activated. They seek to control and ‘extinguish’ their overwhelming feelings. This can show up as drug or alcohol abuse, self mutilation(cutting), binge-eating, sex binges, pornography etc. Firefighters have the same goals as managers(keeping exiles at bay), but they have different methods of accomplishing that task.

More insights to come soon from

No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy: Awareness, Breath, Resonance, Movement and Touch in Practice

You Are the One You've Been Waiting For: Applying Internal Family Systems to Intimate Relationships

Internal Family Systems Therapy 2nd Edition