Working with Parts: Internal Family Systems
Before beginning treatment, it is important to start conceptualizing the client’s internal working system of parts and to explore the client's understanding of the concept of multiplicity, delivering psychoeducation as required.
Multiplicity from the Internal Family Systems Lens
Internal family systems is an evidence-based psychotherapy technique which is a non-pathologizing modality that posits that multiplicity is the norm, and our personality is made up of different parts or personas that become active depending on environmental context. Most of these parts are rooted in younger versions of ourselves yet still have a strong influence on how we act in the world.
In the framework, Self is the term for a person’s deepest truest essence, and internal family systems provides a framework wherein the client’s own Self-to-part relationship forms internal secure attachment bonds, supporting healing. Psychedelic experiences may help to facilitate awareness of multiplicity (parts). Therefore, this model elegantly supports the integration of psychedelic experiences.
In this framework, protector parts of the personality are known as managers or firefighters. These protector parts are formed in response to early adversity, and they exist to keep exile parts out of conscious awareness. While protectors believe they are performing an important role, typically their strategies have outgrown their utility, and instead create problems for the whole. When protectors are ‘running the show’ they are ‘blended,’ and a person has little or no access to Self-energy. Practitioners should strive to have consistent reliable access to Self-energy when working with clients.
Learn More
To learn more on the role of internal family systems and psychedelic assisted therapy, watch this podcast by Dr. Robert Grant.
Four Befriending Questions
The intention of internal family systems is for health professionals to assist clients to befriend these parts of themselves, to learn how different parts of themselves function as a system, and to ‘unblend’ or differentiate from protector parts to access greater Self energy by respecting their roles and being compassionate and curious about their purpose, fears, beliefs, and more.
Identify Fears
"Ask this distressed part what [they’re] worried about if you....."
Identify Deeper Fears
Ask [them] what [they’re] worried will happen next if [they] worry (repeat exact answer to question 1 above) really does come true?
Continue Digging
Continue digging until a core fear is reached: "Ask [them]: if those worries that {repeat the answers to 1 and 2 above) what [are they] worried will happen next?"
Acknowledge
Acknowledge the fear by mirroring it back to [them], and identify an associated unmet need. Ask the part: "What [do they] need from you right here, right now to not be so afraid of _____?". "Right here, right now is the operative phrase; the need must be small and concrete enough to be met by the client with the health professional's support in the present moment.
Adapted from Fisher, 2016, p. 272.
Learn More
Somatic Internal Family Systems is a branch of the Internal Family Systems therapeutic model. This model explicitly emphasizes embodiment through the intersecting processes awareness, breath, resonance, movement, and touch (McConnell, n.d.). To learn more about Somatic Internal Family Systems, read Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy by McConnell.
Reflection
Make a mental list of five different parts or personas that you experience depending on the context or environment.
References
Fisher, J. (2016). Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors. Routledge. McConnell, S. (n.d.). About Somatic IFS. EmbodiedSelf.net. https://www.embodiedself.net/about-somatic-ifs