Internal Family Therapy's Development And a Different Concept of Parts: Not a Sign of Pathology, but a Natural Part of the Human Psyche

In this interview, Dick discusses how his work with families lead to him learning from clients about their parts. He discusses how his clients talked about their parts, and at first he and his client tried to argue against that part and try to get rid of it or for it to not be doing what it was doing. When this wasn’t working, he and his clients began to have compassion for those parts, and learn about what they needed, and how they were trying to protect the client. He explained he conceptualizes parts as natural and universal, rather than something only born out of trauma and being indicative of pathology. He explained how he conceptualizes a Self, which is the part that is the leader, essential, wise part, and how other parts exist from the beginning of our lives, but sometimes, just like in families, they take on roles to protect the system. He talked about how these parts reminded him of children in the families who he worked with that were trying to help the family system by taking on roles. Using this conceptualization, he worked with the parts as children in the family who were trying to stabilize the system, and instead helping the Self to connect with these parts, and relieve them of their need to try to protect. He explained that the goal of IFS is not to integrate, as that would suggest that the goal is to not have the parts, but more for the parts to feel safe, and coexist in a healthy system, just like a healthy family. During the interview, Dick demonstrates the technique of unblending with Keith, the interviewer, and uses this demonstration to further explain the aspects of IFS including the Protectors, the FireFighters, and the Exiled Parts. He discusses working with complex trauma with IFS, using IFS with couples and families, and his next chapter in his career, making IFS more accessible to the public through books or apps or other ways that people in the public can use it, not just only in therapy. Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D., is the founder of The IFS Institute, originally named The Center for Self Leadership. He began his career as a systemic family therapist and an academic. Grounded in systems thinking, Dr. Schwartz developed Internal Family Systems (IFS) in response to clients’ descriptions of various parts within themselves. He focused on the relationships among these parts and noticed that there were systemic patterns to the way they were organized across clients. He also found that when the clients’ parts felt safe and were allowed to relax, the clients would experience spontaneously the qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion that Dr. Schwartz came to call the Self. He found that when in that state of Self, clients would know how to heal their parts. A featured speaker for national professional organizations, Dr. Schwartz has published many books and over fifty articles about IFS.