What is Internal Family Systems?

• Card 1

  Internal Family Systems (IFS), developed by Dr Richard Schwartz, starts from a radical idea: you are not one single mind. You are a system of parts — inner voices, feelings and roles that each carry a job. Underneath them all is Self: calm, curious, compassionate, and never damaged, no matter what happened to you. IFS isn't about getting rid of parts. It's about getting to know them.

• Card 2

• Card 3

  Some ideas people find helpful

  • Every part has a job, and that job began as protection
  • Parts are not symptoms to remove — they are responses that made sense
  • Self is not a part; it is what remains when parts step back
  • Nothing inside you is an enemy, even the patterns you dislike most

  IFS is one way of understanding an inner world. If a different language fits you better, that is completely fine.

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