I find this to be true for a lot of people. Some really benefit from having an external therapist / coach / guide but many can do this work on their own and just reach out to a trained IFS professional when they get stuck.
I love this channel & have read Richard Swartz book on IFS & absolutely HAVE TOO to do it myself as I simply can’t afford therapy. In Canada its very expensive & I have a survival job & it’s impossible. But my mind races all the time & it never stops. I don’t have a inner critic - its more like s inner pshycopath - out to get me. Stuck in fight mode all my life - i try to work on myself -?Reading 12 steps meetings yoga meditation & IFS - love IFS Its going me hope
I have been practicing IFS on my own and it is life changing. I love the fact that I can have a conversation with my parts and be able to see where they are coming from. To be able to look at things from all angles really opens up my ability to step back and see what is actually happening and not what I feel is happening. I've had multiple parts become unburdened, one part wanted to write and all I can say is I am amazed at the writings/stories this part is able to create.
I’m 61 and have been in and out of therapy since childhood (about 50 years). IFS makes the most sense for creating realignment on internal conflicts for significant long term change.
I so resonate with your desire to empower people to do their own Self-healing through IFS. I have such a similar vision. I facilitate a weekly IFS Support Group and encourage people to do self-exploration or peer work. I, too, was able to read "Internal Family Systems Therapy: Second Edition" and do IFS work on myself immediately. It was so transformative, I began using it with my coaching clients and teaching everyone I could. I only found out later that I was not "supposed" to be able to use IFS on myself. Its so refreshing to hear someone else who believes this model can be used to create a Self to part relationship within a person - without a therapist.
I did start seeing an IFS Therapist and we had our first IFS Therapy appointment. I have been going down the RU-vid Rabbit hole with IFS and other Therapy methods and I do find this stuff fascinating. I am also in the 12 step program and what I always say to fellow travelers is that it is about experience and not about knowledge. That seams to be what I am hearing in these IFS videos but I still need to get my own experience with it.
Walking the dog you popped up after a sesamy street clip on buying a trumpet.... My take away: Forgiving my parts of doing their suffering protecting and hiding job. Accepting they are members of the team to lead my SELF. Reading and listening works. Patience is a 🗝️⚓🕊️. Keep up the good work ❤
Hey, glad to see you up loading again! I found. your channel some time ago when I was researching IFS therapy. I've been working with an IFS therapist for a few months now and it's been a life changing experience.
I do IFS on myself in the regular basis and that has make a huge difference on me. I don’t have an IFS train therapist but since I am able to do it on myself I feel very connected to my parts and I feel the connection is getting stronger every day.
Hey Conor! I've just discovered this channel of yours and I've been a long-time subscriber of your other channel with Brittany. I was so excited to find out you're an IFS practitioner and you have an entire channel and business dedicated to IFS. It all makes sense now how Brittany and you have been able to work on yourselves so deeply and effectively with all of those parts of you that needed healing. I'm consuming as many books and videos as I can on IFS, and I feel like it's the missing piece in my own healing journey and other people. Conor, you're doing such amazing work and I highly respect you. I would love to know if you have any experience with helping clients with IFS who suffer from complex conditions like post-concussion syndrome. This Christmas is the 25th anniversary of the one-punch attack (coward's punch) and I'm still trying to heal from all of my symptoms. I've always felt like a part of me was frozen in time, stuck in a never-ending loop of the impact of the punch and smashing my head on the concrete. That same night I was also involved in a car accident when a friend of mine was driving me to the hospital, he lost control of the car and smashed into a massive rock face. I was never the same again. The past 25 years has been a living nightmare for me. It feels like in a scene in a movie where a bomb goes off and the actor gets up feeling disorientated and confused with the high-pitched ringing in their ears. Mixed with a never-ending hangover and all sorts of out-of-sync feeling and other weird sensations in my head. I feel like my protectors got traumatised that evening and now there might be super protectors (symptoms) who protector my old protector parts. Either that or it's all actual physical injuries, but apart from my atlas being misaligned no other scan, test or specialist can find anything wrong with me.
Hi Michael - wow, that's quite an experience you've had. I absolutely love IFS and I use it in conjunction with other Nervous System work. I am a student of Irene Lyons and she teaches you how to work with your stuck survival energy in a body based way that I think pairs beautifully with IFS. Jenna Hamm of Felt Sense Psychotherapy is another great resource, teaching from IFS and NS / somatic based perspective. I hope that is helpful!
This is a brilliant video. I knew a little about this before hand and wanted to try it on myself. Your video helped me bring back memories from my childhood and helped me solve something I was struggling with, so quickly!!! Thank you
Great words, Connor. Thanks for this content. I’ve been adding videos inspired by IFS as well and it’s so fulfilling to share this with the world. Be well and keep it up!
Could you please explain the “phenomena” of pursuing/being attracted to an (unavailable) partner, in order to not feel alone (abandonment trauma) The self sabotage is awful What parts are in play here?
Hello, could you please give me some advice on this? I have been doing IFS therapy for a year and my therapist keeps telling me that it’s a part and not the self. She said self has no agenda. She said that ideally we live from self and not parts. I am finding myself losing agency in life because I feel like whenever I want anything - to get in shape, to start side work etc - that I now feel like it’s not truly “self” so I feel immobilized How do we do anything from self if we can’t ever have an agenda?
In the IFS videos I've been watching, people's parts have lots of ideas about life, and they're usually valued and heard and negotiated with, not forced into silence. I wonder if a different therapist could help? A year into therapy, and feeling so demotivated, doesn't sound right... I hope you're feeling better now.
Unfortunately it is no longer available! Too bad because it was one the longer interviews I have heard from Richard Schwartz. Maybe we can get him on this channel someday :)
Yes. I completed IFS training with official IFS Institute run by the creator of IFS, Richard Schwartz. Thanks for asking. You can also read more about my journey on my website internalfamilysystems.org
I personally don't *know* definitively but I recommend one over the other depending on the individuals needs and desires of focus. In general, coaching is going to be a blend of inner work and external action while therapy is going to be largely if not entirely inner work. A coaching professional will have expertise in areas a therapist will not have and vice-versa. Ultimately it is up to the client to decide what feels best to them, and it is also, in my opinion, for the professional to recommend what they perceive would be most appropriate for the client.
