Internal Family Systems
A Journey Toward Inner Harmony and Wholeness
Discovering the Sacred Landscape Within
In the quiet moments between thoughts, when you pause to truly listen, you might notice something profound—you are not one singular voice, but rather a symphony of parts, each carrying their own stories, wisdom, and wounds. This recognition isn't a sign of fragmentation; it's an invitation to deeper understanding. Through Internal Family Systems therapy, I guide emotionally curious souls like you through the transformative process of meeting, understanding, and ultimately harmonizing these inner voices into an integrated whole.
Understanding Your Internal Family System
Internal Family Systems, or IFS, offers a lens through which to view your inner world. Rather than pathologizing the contradictions and conflicts you feel within, this approach honors the complexity of your psyche as a natural, even beautiful, aspect of being human. Each part of you—whether it's the anxious protector who keeps you safe, the creative dreamer who yearns for expression, or the wounded child who still carries old pain—has emerged for a reason, serving a purpose in your life's unfolding story.
In my online practice, I create a sanctuary where these parts can emerge, be witnessed, and ultimately find their rightful place within your internal system. This isn't about fixing what's broken; it's about recognizing that nothing within you is truly broken—only disconnected, misunderstood, or carrying burdens that were never yours to bear.
The Poetry of Parts Work
Working with your parts is like learning a new language—the language of your inner landscape. Each part speaks in its own dialect: some whisper through bodily sensations, others roar through emotional waves, and still others communicate through creative impulses or repetitive thought patterns. My role is to help you become fluent in these varied forms of expression, creating bridges of understanding where there once were walls.
For the artists, intuitives, and sensitive souls I work with—those in their twenties, thirties, and forties who have already begun their healing journey—IFS offers something particularly precious. It provides a framework that honors both the mystical and the practical, the creative and the analytical, allowing all aspects of your being to coexist without hierarchy or judgment
How Internal Family Systems Unfolds in Our Work Together
The Sacred Beginning: Meeting Your Parts
Our journey begins with curiosity rather than correction. During our initial sessions, after we've completed the intake process over our first three appointments, we'll gently explore the landscape of your internal world. You might discover the perfectionist part that drives you toward impossible standards, protecting you from the vulnerability of being seen as imperfect. Or perhaps you'll meet the rebellious part that sabotages your best intentions, trying to preserve your autonomy in ways that no longer serve you.
Each part, no matter how challenging its behavior might seem, emerged as a protector, trying to keep you safe in the only way it knew how. Through gentle inquiry and compassionate witnessing, we'll begin to understand the positive intention behind each part's actions.
Cultivating Self-Energy: Your Inner Healer
At the core of IFS lies a profound truth: beneath all your parts exists what we call the Self—your essential nature that remains untouched by trauma, unburdened by fear, and infinitely capable of healing. This Self embodies qualities like curiosity, compassion, clarity, creativity, courage, confidence, calm, and connection. It's not something you need to develop or earn; it's already within you, waiting to emerge as you create space between yourself and your parts.
In our sessions, I'll guide you in accessing this Self-energy, helping you become the compassionate leader of your internal system rather than being hijacked by reactive parts. This shift from being blended with your parts to being in relationship with them is where true transformation begins.
The Dance of Unburdening
As trust develops between your Self and your parts, we'll move into deeper waters—the process of unburdening. Many parts carry extreme beliefs or emotions that don't truly belong to them. These burdens were often absorbed from family systems, cultural conditioning, or traumatic experiences. Through the IFS unburdening process, conducted with reverence and care, these parts can release what was never theirs to carry, returning to their natural, valuable roles within your system.
Integration with Creative Expression
What makes my approach unique is the weaving together of IFS with expressive arts and depth-oriented practices. Between our sessions, I'll offer you parts therapy prompts designed to deepen your relationship with your internal world. These might include:
Journaling dialogues between your Self and various parts
Creating artistic representations of your parts through drawing, collage, or movement
Exploring the mythology and archetypes that resonate with different aspects of your system
Using Emotional Freedom Technique to help regulate activated parts
Developing rituals that honor the transformation occurring within
These practices aren't merely exercises; they're invitations to engage with your healing in embodied, creative ways that honor your artistic nature and emotional depth.
Navigating Life Transitions Through Parts Work
Life transitions—whether chosen or unexpected—often activate our entire internal system. Parts that have been dormant may suddenly emerge, while familiar parts might behave in unfamiliar ways. If you're experiencing that sense of languishing in adulthood, feeling stuck between who you were and who you're becoming, IFS offers a compass for navigation.
Together, we'll explore how different parts respond to change, identifying which ones are trying to keep you safe by maintaining the status quo and which ones are ready to leap into new possibilities. This understanding allows you to move through transitions with greater grace, honoring both the parts that grieve what's ending and those that celebrate what's beginning.
Your Healing Journey Awaits
If you're reading this and feeling a resonance—a stirring of recognition or curiosity—trust that feeling. It might be a part of you that's ready for this deeper work, or perhaps it's your Self, recognizing a path toward greater wholeness. My online practice serves clients throughout Sonoma County, the North Bay Area, Seattle, Washington State, and New York State who are ready for this profound journey of integration.
Working together weekly at a scheduled recurring time, we'll create a consistent container for your transformation. This isn't crisis intervention or quick-fix therapy; it's a deliberate, sacred process of coming home to yourself. The journey requires courage, certainly, but also curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to meet all parts of yourself with compassion.
Begin Your Journey Toward Integration
Internal Family Systems therapy offers more than symptom relief—though it certainly helps with anxiety, depression, and trauma. It provides a pathway to becoming who you truly are, integrating all aspects of yourself into a harmonious whole. If you've been searching for an approach that honors your complexity, creativity, and depth, that sees your sensitivity as a strength rather than something to overcome, you've found it.
I invite you to reach out to schedule a consultation where we can explore whether this work feels right for you. Together, we'll discuss what kind of support you're seeking, what you've already done to care for yourself, and what you hope to discover through our work together. You'll get a felt sense of what it's like to be in session with me, and we'll determine if we're a good match for this transformative journey.
Your parts are not problems to be solved but aspects of your wholeness waiting to be welcomed home. Through Internal Family Systems therapy, woven with creative expression and depth work, you can discover the profound peace that comes from inner harmony—not through forcing agreement among your parts, but through understanding, compassion, and integration.
The path toward your integrated self begins with a single step: reaching out. Contact me today to learn more about pricing, scheduling, and how we can begin this work together.
