On today's episode I chat with Jodie Benveniste, an IFS-trained psychologist and author. Through her personal healing journey using IFS she discovered how fiction writing and storytelling can be a powerful path to self-understanding and emotional healing.
Jodie and I talk about her debut novel, Never, Not Ever, a YA romance that integrates IFS therapy into the story. We explore how fiction can serve as a safe space for transformation, why romance novels tap into Self Energy, and how the creative process mirrors the IFS journey. This conversation is all about the power of stories—both the ones we tell ourselves and the ones we read. I think you’re going to love it!
Key Takeaways:
- “Parts all have stories, don’t they?” Jodie shares how working with her parts allowed her to embrace fiction writing and how characters in a novel are not so different from the inner characters we meet in IFS.
- How does storytelling create a safe container for healing?
- Story is a powerful adjunct to IFS therapy
- “I had a teen part who made me watch a rom-com 20 times!” -- How reconnecting with her younger parts helped shape her writing process.
- Teen fiction can support adult mental health, too!
- Why romance is the world’s most popular genre—and how it invites readers to expand their hearts and tap into Self Energy.
- What can we learn from the stories our parts tell us? Jodie and I reflect on how parts hold onto old narratives and how fiction can help us imagine new possibilities.
- How fiction can invite teens to learn about and explore mental health topics, destigmatizing therapy and showing how healing happens.
Favorite Quote:
"So, to me, the healing process is story-based, and it is imaginative. At the core of healing is a reimagining. And that’s what we can do with story." – Jodie Benveniste
About Jodie: Jodie Benveniste is an author and psychologist who writes heart-expanding young adult contemporary romance. She writes about love and friendships, family relationships, wellbeing, and mental health healing, introducing readers to their amazing inner world and its incredible depths. She’s been a psychologist in private practice, trusted parenting expert, organizational consultant, academic researcher, and Chair of the Board of an Independent School. But, at heart, she’s always been a writer. She now writes entertaining, unputdownable and heart-expanding fiction that has healing at its heart.
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Jeff Schrum co-produces The One Inside Podcast. He is a writer, counselor, and IFS Level 2 practitioner.
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The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast