Unburdening involves creating a safe space for parts to release burdens, resulting in freedom and openness.
Prioritizing which burdens to unburden first requires understanding protectors and readiness of parts involved.
Working with hiding parts requires delicacy, pacing, trust-building, and expressing gratitude.
Deep dives
Understanding Burdens and Unburdening
Burdens are extreme ideas or experiences that are carried by parts and govern their lives. They can be emotional, negative beliefs, impulsive desires, body sensations, or painful memories. Unburdening involves creating a safe and connected space where parts can release burdens that are not meant to be carried. Unburdening is a unique process for each part and often involves a sense of agency and choice for the part. The unburdening process can result in a sense of freedom and openness.
Navigating the Complexity of Multiple Burdens
When dealing with multiple burdens, it is important to prioritize which burdens to unburden first. This can be done by understanding the protectors and their concerns, as well as the readiness of the parts involved. Unburdening is not always a one-time process and may require multiple sessions to fully release burdens. It is crucial to establish a safe and connected relationship with each part and create an ongoing supportive environment to ensure successful unburdening.
Approaching Hiding Parts with Sensitivity and Trust
Hiding parts are often protectors that conceal other intense parts from the self's conscious awareness. Working with hiding parts requires delicacy, pacing, and developing trust. Building a felt sense of safety and protection is crucial in engaging hiding parts. Expressing gratitude for their help and understanding their fears can help establish a connection and encourage sharing of burdens. Patience and gentle persistence in developing the relationship with the hiding part will ultimately lead to successful unburdening.
Unburdening and the Five Primary Conditions for Secure Attachment
Unburdening is a process that involves shedding burdens carried by parts in our internal system. It is important to create a felt sense of safety, protection, being seen and understood, reassured and soothed, and feeling cherished in order to facilitate secure attachment to our innermost self during unburdening. The conditions for secure attachment, originally proposed by Braun and Elliot, are applicable to this process. The age and severity of burdens may vary, requiring different stages of unburdening. The unburdening process consolidates neural networks and assists protectors in adopting new roles.
Unattached Burdens and the Role of Therapy in Human Formation
Unattached burdens are burdens that are not personal or legacy-related, but are spiritual entities that attach themselves to individuals. This recognition in internal family systems (IFS) acknowledges the impact of spiritual realities on mental health. However, therapy should not attempt to address unattached burdens beyond natural-level explanations. The role of therapy is to support the client's innermost self as the primary therapist. It empowers individuals to do their own work and reinforces the neural rewiring that occurs during unburdening. Therapists, within ethical boundaries, can also play a secondary role in facilitating the unburdening process. The Resilient Catholics Community (RCC) provides structure and support outside of therapy, emphasizing human formation and the integration of multiple resources.
Join Catholic IFS therapists Marion Moreland, Jody Garneau, and Dr. Peter Malinoski for an in-depth discussion of unburdening, informed by Internal Family Systems and grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person. We explore three kinds of burdens -- personal burdens, legacy burdens, and unattached burdens (the IFS equivalent of demons), we provide examples from our own lives, we emphasize the importance of felt safety and protection for all parts, and we discuss the role of attachment theory in unburdening. In our Q&A with our live audience, we discuss how to approach "hiding parts" as well.
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