#492: Richard Schwartz — IFS, Psychedelic Experiences Without Drugs, and Finding Inner Peace for Our Many Parts

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Jan 14, 2021

Richard Schwartz, a leading expert in psychotherapy and creator of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, discusses the transformative power of understanding our inner parts. He shares techniques for addressing trauma through self-compassion and guided visualization. Emphasizing the importance of befriending our emotional voices, Schwartz highlights how IFS can empower personal growth and healing. Additionally, he explores the integration of IFS with psychedelic experiences, paving new paths for emotional balance and insight.

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ANECDOTE

Roxanne's Story

Richard Schwartz helped a bulimic patient, Roxanne, who also cut herself.
After failed attempts to stop her cutting, he shifted to curiosity, which led to a breakthrough.

INSIGHT

Parts Have Positive Intentions

The IFS model views seemingly negative parts as having positive intentions.
These parts, like inner children, adopt protective roles due to trauma.

INSIGHT

IFS Part Types

IFS identifies "exiles," "managers," and "firefighters" as inner parts.
"Self" is a core essence of calm, curiosity, and compassion present in everyone.

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Getting Things Done

David Allen

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen. The book provides a detailed methodology for managing tasks, projects, and information, emphasizing the importance of capturing all tasks and ideas, clarifying their meaning, organizing them into actionable lists, reviewing the system regularly, and engaging in the tasks. The GTD method is designed to reduce stress and increase productivity by externalizing tasks and using a trusted system to manage them. The book is divided into three parts, covering the overview of the system, its implementation, and the deeper benefits of integrating GTD into one's work and life[2][3][5].

The Body Keeps the Score

Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk

In this book, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma reshapes both the body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores various treatments, including neurofeedback, meditation, sports, drama, and yoga, which activate the brain’s natural neuroplasticity to aid in recovery. The book emphasizes the power of relationships in both causing and healing trauma and offers hope through descriptions of novel approaches to treatment. It is based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists in the field[1][2][5].

The 4-Hour Body

An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman

Tim Ferriss

In 'The 4-Hour Body,' Tim Ferriss shares the results of over a decade of self-experimentation and research, involving hundreds of elite athletes, dozens of MDs, and thousands of hours of personal testing. The book covers more than 50 topics, including how to lose weight quickly, gain muscle without steroids, sleep less and perform better, and improve sexual health. Ferriss emphasizes the importance of finding the smallest changes that produce the biggest results, making it accessible for readers to achieve significant improvements in their physical health and performance.

Self-therapy

Jay Earley

Radical acceptance

Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha

Tara Brach

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach offers a transformative practice to help readers overcome habitual feelings of deficiency and better relate to their experiences and emotions. The book emphasizes two key pillars: observing one's experience clearly and responding with compassion. Through personal stories, case histories from her clinical psychology practice, and guided meditations, Brach provides practical guidance on mindfulness, compassion, and acceptance. The book helps readers stop being at war with themselves and live fully in every moment, addressing issues such as self-judgments, conflicts, addictions, and perfectionism. It also clarifies that Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence or passivity but rather empowers genuine change and healing[1][3][5].

Internal Family Systems Therapy

supervision and consultation

Emma Redfern

This book delves into the application of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy within the context of supervision and consultation. It provides a comprehensive framework for supervisors and consultants to effectively guide and support therapists in their use of IFS. The book explores various aspects of IFS supervision, including parts work, self-leadership, and the therapeutic relationship, offering practical strategies and techniques for addressing common challenges. It emphasizes the importance of creating a safe and supportive environment for supervisees to explore their own experiences and develop their skills in IFS. The book also highlights the unique contributions of IFS to supervision, such as the focus on parts and the emphasis on self-compassion. It is a valuable resource for both experienced and novice IFS supervisors and consultants.

You are the one you've been waiting for

Richard Schwartz

In "You Are the One You've Been Waiting For," Richard Schwartz applies the principles of Internal Family Systems (IFS) to the complexities of intimate relationships. He explores how unresolved inner conflicts and unmet needs from childhood can manifest in relationship patterns. The book emphasizes self-compassion and self-leadership as crucial for creating healthy connections. Schwartz provides practical tools and techniques for understanding and healing relational wounds, fostering deeper intimacy and connection. It offers a transformative approach to understanding and improving relationships.

Introduction to Internal Family Systems

Second Edition

Richard C. Schwartz

This book introduces the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, which views the human psyche as composed of multiple 'parts' that interact like members of a family. Dr. Schwartz shares evidence, case studies, and self-care tools to help readers understand and heal their inner parts, leading to greater self-integration and harmony. The IFS approach emphasizes treating all parts with respect and empathy to unburden them from extreme beliefs and emotions.

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Richard Schwartz is on the faculty of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

He began his career as a family therapist and an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief. In asking patients why, he learned that they were plagued by what they called “parts.” These patients became his teachers as they described how their parts formed networks of inner relationships that resembled the families he had been working with. He also found that as they focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, confidence, and compassion. He called that inner essence the Self and was amazed to find it even in severely diagnosed and traumatized patients. From these explorations, the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was born in the early 1980s.

IFS is now evidence-based and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families, and—more recently—corporations and classrooms.

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Disclaimer from Richard Schwartz: There is an on-going debate in the culture regarding the validity of recovered memories. While there is considerable evidence that recovered memories of abuse can be real, in some cases they are not. If such memories come to you, it is important to not act on them without corroborating evidence.

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