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Now significantly revised with over 70% new material, this is the authoritative presentation of Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, which is taught and practiced around the world.
IFS reveals how the subpersonalities or “parts” of each individual’s psyche relate to each other like members of a family, and how–just as in a family–polarization among parts can lead to emotional suffering. IFS originator Richard Schwartz and master clinician Martha Sweezy explain core concepts and provide practical guidelines for implementing IFS with clients who are struggling with trauma, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, and other behavioral problems. They also address strategies for treating families and couples. IFS therapy is listed in SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.
New to This Edition
- Extensively revised to reflect 25 years of conceptual refinement, expansion of IFS techniques, and a growing evidence base.
- Chapters on the Self, the body and physical illness, the role of the therapist, specific clinical strategies, and couple therapy.
- Enhanced clinical utility, with significantly more “how-to” details, case examples, and sample dialogues.
- Quick-reference boxes summarizing key points, and end-of-chapter summaries.
An Excerpt From IFS Therapy Second Edition:
Following are a few essentials of the IFS perspective:
1. Systems thinking encourages us to be ecologically sensitive.
- Resistance is the (often correct) response of protective parts to a potential threat (the therapist) to the system.
- Protectors deserve to be understood, appreciated, and comforted before the client tries to approach vulnerable parts.
- The job of protectors is to ensure that a proposed therapy will not make matters worse. This is their duty. They are more knowledgeable than the therapist about the delicate ecology of the client’s inner system and the possible negative consequences of going too fast.
- Protectors have a right to vet the therapist for competence and safety before letting her enter the inner system. To be worthy of a protector’s trust, we must lead from the Self. The onus of proof is on the therapist.
2. Extreme protectors usually will not change until the system is less vulnerable. Consequently, we do not pressure protectors to change, even ones who are involved in destructive symptoms. Instead, we suggest that they can be liberated from their protective roles if they allow the client’s Self to help, and we invite them to consider what role they would prefer after the exiled part no longer needs protection. Then we ask them to per- mit the client’s Self to heal the part they protect. Finally, we ask if they are ready to move into new, preferred roles.
3. Restoring trust in the Self is the quickest route to improved leader- ship and inner harmony. Therefore, rather than having the therapist help the client’s parts directly, we usually aim for the client’s Self to interact with the parts and report to the therapist. There are times, nevertheless, when it is most expeditious and valuable for the therapist to talk directly to parts. This process is called direct access, and we describe it later. The primary role of the therapist is to guide, coach, and be a companion to the client’s Self as he explores the mindscape. Secondarily, the therapist provides corrective relational experiences. As clients continue to notice and be with their parts, between as well as in sessions, they come to appreciate that they are healing themselves.
4. We invite clients to notice that parts have “blended” with the Self, or we help parts notice that the Self will be available when they separate or “step back.” To achieve our aim of keeping the client’s Self differentiated from their parts, we incorporate the family systems focus on boundaries and differentiation. When the Self is present, parts feel safe. By the same token, the IFS therapist continually scans inside herself for blended parts and asks them to separate so she can return to Self-leadership.
5. Protectors fear one another, which keeps them in extreme positions. Each part believes that relaxing will allow a polarized part to take over, with catastrophic consequences. Therefore, in IFS we continually notice and attend to polarizations. Just like family therapists, we work with conflicted inner family members, inviting them to face each other and talk about how they can get along better. The difference is that, whenever possible, the client’s Self moderates these inner dialogues, aiming to ensure that parts are respectful and able to listen to each other. Once the Self is moderating and polarized parts finally make contact and realize they share a goal (the client’s safety), long-standing polarizations often melt away promptly.
6. In general, the essential perspective of IFS orients therapists to be respectful and nonpathologizing. We all have parts, and parts, like people, are talented and resourceful but constrained by the traumatic events that generated extreme emotions and beliefs (burdens). As with external family members, parts are burdened and driven to extremes by early neglect, abandonment, violence, or sexual assault; and they are constrained by their systemic roles, which protectors often hate but deem necessary. Phenomena such as “internalization” and “introjection” are viewed in IFS as burdens that can be released rather than as qualities of a part. Consequently, rather than assuming the client has some kind of disorder or deficit, IFS therapists are always asking about the network of internal relationships in which parts are embedded and the extreme beliefs parts may carry.
7. We can move fluidly between system levels in IFS, which is why this approach has become a full-range psychotherapy that applies to all system levels. Therefore, as we search for constraints and the best portal for intervention, IFS therapists can include the client’s network of external relationships. For example, we could start with a spouse’s inner world, then focus on the couples’ relationship, and then go back to the spouse’s inner world. In this way, IFS therapists use the same concepts and techniques at every system level and do not have to put on new hats as they move from individual to couple or family therapy. This book devotes five chapters to IFS families, couples, and other external systems.
8. Finally, systems thinkers believe that living organisms have the capacity to self-heal. This is most visible when our bodies bring various intricate healing strategies to bear on physical injury, but it is also true for emotional injury. When we help clients access their Selves, we are activating the client’s innate ability to heal. When we trust the psyche’s innate resources, we are grateful for the opportunity to assist, and we spend much of our professional lives in awe.
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We are indeed the sum of our parts, and, for over 25 years, Schwartz has been acquainting us with the exiles, managers, and firefighters battling within our psyches. In the second edition of this seminal book, Schwartz and Sweezy provide a more extensive overview of IFS therapy. New chapters address individual and systemic work with each component of the internal family system, as well as research attesting to the model’s effectiveness. This is an invaluable resource for both beginning and experienced practitioners who seek self-integration for their clients–and themselves.
Since this book was originally published, the thoroughly innovative principles and practices of IFS therapy have been studied, applied, and advanced by thousands of psychotherapists. The second edition is extensively revised and updated–effective clinical strategies are illustrated with engaging therapist–client dialogues; cutting-edge research reveals the promise of IFS for conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder; and IFS concepts are applied at and between multiple levels, from the individual to the whole society. Psychotherapists at any stage of their careers will find stimulating concepts and carefully designed tools that will enrich their thinking and improve their practices.
The outstanding second edition of this classic book presents the preeminent research-supported, integrative family systems approach to working with individuals as well as their couple and family relationships in their larger cultural contexts. The book is beautifully written, the theory is sophisticated and nuanced, and the clinical vignettes demonstrate the details of putting IFS into practice. IFS therapy dovetails wonderfully with the emerging emphasis on body-based psychotherapies, mindfulness practices, and the role of spirituality in mental health and well-being. This book should be read by all therapists–not just those who align with family systems–and should be a core text for graduate programs in all forms of psychotherapy. I will use it in my graduate courses!
In this updated second edition, Schwartz candidly shares how his work with clients has helped him expand his original thoughts regarding IFS and embrace a more client-led process. Schwartz and Sweezy define the concepts of IFS well, and the book is easy to read. I appreciate the addition of updated IFS research and the way the authors promote healing beyond the individual and family by extending IFS concepts to communities. Master’s- and doctoral-level students may further their ability to address self-of-the-therapist issues by reflecting on how their ‘parts’ interact with the ‘parts’ of clients, thus promoting better therapy outcomes.
This book illustrates how the parts who populate our clients’ inner worlds are trying to manage an underlying threat that others may not see. The only credible offer of help is one that can resolve this threat. IFS guides us to offer deep understanding and meaningful assistance to clients who long to transform but are stuck in extreme, destructive roles.