Understanding (and Healing) Anxious Attachment with IFS
If you frequently find yourself wondering, "do I have anxious attachment?," you are likely familiar with the "gut punch" of fearing abandonment or the desperate need for constant reassurance. For many, the roots of these feelings run deep, as childhood trauma causes anxious attachment when early caregiving is inconsistent, unpredictable, or cold. While traditional therapy looks for a "secure base" in others, Internal Family Systems for anxious attachment offers a shift, teaching you to become your own primary attachment figure through your core Self.
How to deal with your Inner Critic with IFS
Your inner critic might be harsh, but it's not the enemy. Discover how IFS therapy offers a compassionate approach to working with self-criticism by understanding the protective parts within you.
What is the “Self” in Internal Family Systems?
In Internal Family Systems therapy, the Self isn't just another word for your personality or ego. The Self is your core essence, an innate source of wisdom, compassion, and clarity that exists within everyone. Learn why this innate source of wisdom and compassion within you is the key to lasting emotional healing, and how IFS therapy helps you access this powerful inner resource.
Can You Do IFS Therapy by Yourself? A Guide to Self-Led Parts Work
You've been reading about Internal Family Systems therapy. You understand the basics (that your mind is naturally divided into parts, each with its own perspective and protective role). But you're wondering: Can I just do this on my own? It's one of the most common questions I hear as an IFS therapist, and the answer isn't a simple yes or no. The truth is more nuanced and more empowering than you might think.
Why you feel torn between two choices and how IFS therapy helps
Many people feel torn between two choices. You may lean toward one option, then pull back and question yourself. This kind of inner conflict can create tension and worry. Internal Family Systems therapy offers a gentle way to understand these moments. It helps you notice the different parts of you that want different things and shows how they each try to protect you. When you slow down and listen to these parts, the pressure eases and clarity grows.
“Parts Work” Isn’t New. It is Ancient.
IFS didn't invent parts work. It gave us an elegant, accessible map for terrain that philosophers, psychologists, and healers have been exploring for thousands of years. Understanding this lineage changes everything about how you might approach IFS therapy and your own inner world.
Understanding and Healing Shame Through IFS Therapy
What if shame wasn’t a flaw, but a part trying to protect us from rejection and exposure. Through the Internal Family Systems (IFS), we can begin to see shame not as the enemy, but as a misunderstood guardian that longs to be seen and relieved of its burden.
Mapping Your Parts in IFS: How To Get Started
We all have inner parts: critics, protectors, dreamers, and younger selves. Mapping your parts through Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy helps you see how they interact, reduce inner conflict, and bring more compassion to your daily life.
Healing Limerence: How Internal Family Systems Can Help
Limerence is more than a crush. Limerence is an intense, often overwhelming state of obsessive longing that can disrupt daily life. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy offers a gentle way to understand the parts of you caught in the cycle of fantasy, shame, and longing. By meeting these inner parts with compassion, IFS helps ease the grip of limerence and brings you back to clarity and balance.
How IFS Helps Heal Trauma
IFS therapy helps you heal trauma not by forcing it to surface, but by building trust with the parts of you that carry pain, and the ones that protect it.
When Your Inner Critic Sounds Like the Voice of Reason
Your inner critic often sounds helpful, but it’s usually just scared. IFS therapy helps you meet it with compassion, not shame, so it can finally rest.
How IFS Therapy Can Help You Stop Self-Sabotaging
Self-sabotage isn't about weakness. It's often a protective part trying to shield you from pain. IFS therapy helps you meet that part with compassion.
How Do I Explain IFS to My Partner?
Whether you’ve started IFS therapy or are just drawn to the idea, it can feel hard to explain. This guide offers gentle, non-jargony ways to talk about it with someone you love.