No bad parts : healing trauma and restoring wholeness with the internal family systems model

“An enormous gift—transformative, compassionate, and wise. These simple and brilliant teachings will open your mind and free your spirit and your heart.” JACK KORNFIELD, PHD author of A Path with Heart “Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, and the understanding that we all contain valuable parts that are forced into extreme roles to deal with pain and disappointment, has been one of the great advances in trauma therapy. Understanding the role they have played in our survival and being able to unburden the original traumas leads to self-compassion and inner harmony. The notion that all of our parts are welcome is truly revolutionary and opens up a path to self-acceptance and self-leadership. IFS is one of the cornerstones of effective and lasting trauma therapy.” BESSEL VAN DER KOLK, MD author of The Body Keeps the Score As I write this, we are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It has the potential to be the wake-up call we need so we don’t suffer worse ones down the road, but it remains to be seen whether our leaders will use this painful pause to listen to the suffering of the majority of our people and also learn to collaborate rather than compete with other countries. Can we change nationally and internationally in the ways my clients are often able to? Many spiritual traditions stress the importance of loving, or at least having compassion for, yourself. IFS tells you precisely how to do that. For example, Kristin Neff and Chris Germer have brought a large and wonderful movement to the public called Mindful Self-Compassion, based on some Buddhist practices that are quite compatible with IFS. IFS makes such practices a little more concrete by helping you extend care and nurturance to specific parts that are suffering or are former enemies, and you can notice how they react. A deprogramming tool for Mass Formation Psychosis?