A relatively new type of treatment you may consider trying if you suffer from anxiety, ADHD or experience other persistent emotional struggles: Internal Family Systems or IFS.

IFS is a treatment created by Dr. Richard Schwartz. According to the website of Dr. Schwartz “IFS views a person as containing an ecology of relatively discrete minds, each of which has valuable qualities and each of which is designed to — and wants to — play a valuable role within. These parts are forced out of their valuable roles, however, by life experiences that can reorganize the system in unhealthy ways.”

A helpful characteristic of IFS is that it is a self-driven process driven by the client. As we have said in previous videos: you need to be proactive when it comes to your mental health. You need to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to recovery. That’s what Internal Family Systems allows.

But you may be wondering: how can learning about this treatment help you?

In a podcast episode with Neil Sattin, Dr. Schwartz explained that the key towards healing is to build a Self to parts relationship in which your parts can begin to sense that there is a Self present. As protective parts begin to be acknowledged by the Self, they are able to begin to trust more and step to the side which allows the Self to be even more present. A key question to ask in order to build the Self-to-part relationship is: How do you feel towards this part? The more self-led we are, the more healing can happen because we will be able to connect to the knowing that we actually do know how to take care of exiled parts.

The bottom line is that by understanding that we have these different influencers of our daily life, we can learn to recognize them and ultimately make decisions about what to do about them, whether to release them or give them other things to do.

The information about this treatment likely sounds very abstract the first time you hear it but it may be a treatment you wish to try or learn more about. For more information you can visit Dr. Schwartz’s website or seek out a professional with expertise in this area. In most jurisdictions you can find a list of providers from an association or other entities such as Psychology Today that list information about members. These options will allow you to locate a professional whose practice includes IFS.

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