Internal Family Systems Introduction

hey everybody recently i've been researching and practicing some ideas and strategies from a therapy called internal family systems or ifs for short it's an evidence-based trauma-informed therapy developed by medical educators and psychiatrists at harvard while i'm not an expert or authority on ifs we will be using it on a more regular basis and i wanted to outline how i see ifs helping us in our work together i think the best place to begin with is what ifs calls our self it's the center of who we are it's available from birth and remains undamaged as a resource for us to live from the characteristics of our self are calm compassionate curious connected confident clarity courageous and creative when we're able to notice and respond to life from this centered place ifs refers to this as self leadership while our self is always available and our preferred place of leadership it becomes impacted by the many traumas that we all face when trauma happens it threatens the integrity of our self these traumas feel so terrible that we vow to never remember or re-experience them again we actively drive them away from our minds and push down anything that might trigger these memories ifs refers to these parts of us that we leave behind as exiles during these traumatic events everything about that moment is trapped in time this includes our body reactions emotions actions and urges and what we believe about ourselves and even though we have vowed to never remember them these exiles continue to call to us to return to them release their burdens and bring them into the present moment with us as traumas multiply and magnify self gets too overwhelmed to manage this on our own in order to manage our complicated lives and keep our trauma experiences pushed down we begin to recruit and develop parts to help protect us there are two types of parts to protect us managers and firefighters managers help us to hold back our traumas from emerging as well as deal with our current life firefighters distract us in extreme ways if our managers get tired or something unexpected happens that triggers our trauma over time these parts just like exiles have their own distinct neurobiological wiring that includes body sensations emotions actions and beliefs managers usually keep our mind and body continually busy in some kind of way sometimes this looks like labels that are seen as positive sometimes they are the very thing that brings us to therapy the ifs approach assumes that all of our parts have a protective and positive intention for us even the ones we want to get rid of i prefer to think of these parts as functionally dysfunctional firefighters are the reactive parts that usually show up in extreme ways to distract us if our exiles suddenly get triggered often this takes the form of some kind of addiction whether it's substance abuse food sex pornography or just about anything else you can think of this can also look like anger or rage or it can be something completely opposite and look like shut down or numbing which many of our addictions actually help us to facilitate one of the most complicated firefighters is a dissociative protector dissociative protectors can override almost everything else when it comes to returning to and releasing our exiles in spite of the inconvenience and embarrassment that comes with dissociation i truly believe that it is a gift that led to survival for many clients with a history of abuse often dissociative protectors will cloud the mind take us out of time and awareness interrupt our ability to hear what's happening around us make us sleepy even when we've had plenty of rest or numb out our body this kind of shutdown is the ultimate trump card when it comes to processing and releasing trauma understanding appreciating and befriending dissociation is likely the only way this part will consider allowing us to have access to the traumas it has so faithfully guarded this may be one of the most challenging and promising aspects of ifs for survivors working towards releasing their exiles putting all of this together ourself with our exiles managers and firefighters gives us a picture that looks something like this the goal in ifs is to begin to understand and work with our protectors when we understand and appreciate the roles we can begin to learn more about what they are protecting and how they got this role protector parts are usually pretty worn out if they could see a way to transform their role and still keep us protected they will begin to show us ways to get to the heart of releasing and unburdening our exiles so here are some of the main principles to remember our true self is always available to carry us through life it's just been clouded over by lots of trauma and protective parts we need to learn to be more aware of this and begin to be more intentional about living from our true self our parts are always functioning to protect us at some point in time they surfaced as a functional response to a dysfunctional situation their ultimate goal is our safety the negative effects that may surface as a result of their part in our lives are usually not considered understanding befriending and working with our protector parts is what ultimately leads to trauma resolution trying to go around these parts will only lead to confusion and frustration in ifs we need to get to know our parts this leads to the biggest difference between ifs and other forms of therapy in ifs we don't just talk about our parts we talk directly to our parts while this can sometimes be a little awkward initially the information that we gain is worth it especially in the areas where we have been stuck that's probably plenty of background for us to begin applying some of these ideas to the trauma-informed framework we've already been using please be sure to ask as many questions as you need to feel more comfortable with this approach thanks a bunch for listening

Channel: Kenny Dennis

Views: 71,140

Keywords:

Id: jQLtdIsLjLI

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021