Richard Schwartz began his career as a systemic family therapist and an academic and has 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. Dr. Schwartz found that when the clients’ parts felt safe and were allowed to relax, they would spontaneously experience the qualities of confidence, openness, and compassion that he came to call the Self. He also found that when in that state of Self, clients would know how to heal their parts. Richard is a featured speaker for national professional organizations and has published many books and over fifty articles about IFS.

In this episode, Eric and Richard discuss his book, No Bad Parts:  Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

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Richard Schwartz and I Discuss Internal Family Systems and…

• His book, No Bad Parts:  Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
• Defining Internal Family Systems (IFS)
• Understanding that we all have multiple “parts” within us
• The parallels of family therapy work to internal family systems
• Identifying the “Self” among our different parts
• IFS work is trying to understand what burdens each of our parts is carrying
• How the Self can take an active leadership role over our parts
• The roles that our parts take on:  exiles, managers, firefighters 
• How our parts can transform into powerful allies to bring healing
• Four goals of IFS:  Transforming, Restoring Trust, Bringing Harmony, Becoming more Self
• The 8 C’s – Creativity, Compassion, Confidence, Clarity, Connectedness, Curiosity, Calm, Courageous
• Trailheads refers to thought patterns or impulses that lead to the part from where it’s emanating
• How IFS is a type of spiritual practice in learning to access more of your Self
• The problems with positive thinking in working with your parts

Richard Schwartz links:

Richard’s Website (IFS Institute)

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If you enjoyed this conversation with Richard Schwartz, check out these other episodes:

The Energy of Emotions with Ralph De La Rosa (2021)

The Mind as Your Teacher with Ralph De La Rosa (2018)

Understanding Emotions with Susan David

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