Internal Family Systems Notes

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)
Family as a System:
Imagine your family as a constellation, where each member is a star and their relationships
are the connections between them. IFS, inspired by systems theory, views families as
interconnected units where a problem in one part can impact the whole.
Differentiation & Regulation:

IFS builds on Freud's ideas about the unconscious, but with a twist. We all have parts –
protectors, managers, and exiles – that influence our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Therapy focuses on helping individuals differentiate from these parts and develop healthy
regulation skills.
Structural vs. Strategic Family Therapy:

Think of your family as a house. Structural therapy (developed in the 1940s) looks at the
house's structure – who interacts with whom, are there clear boundaries between
generations? Strategic therapy, like Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT), is more about getting
things fixed. Here, we focus on practical solutions, communication strategies, and even
techniques like "prescribing the symptom" to create a shift.
The Power of Emotions:

Unlike CBT's triangle (thoughts, behaviors, emotions), IFS and Attachment-Based Family
Therapy (ABFT) see emotions as central. ABFT emphasizes "rupture and repair" –
understanding that conflict is inevitable but healthy repair strengthens bonds. IFS therapists
help families connect with the underlying emotions driving behaviors.
Narrative Therapy & Co-Authoring the Story:

Narrative therapy helps families rewrite their stories. We externalize problems, separating
them from the family itself. Therapists guide families in co-authoring a new narrative, one
where they are not defined by their struggles but empowered to overcome them.
Systems theory
● Freud
● Differentiation individual is from the family
● Helping person regulate
● Salvador Munchkin
Structural Family Therapy

● Subsystems- two have their own unit going on
● Boundaries started in 1940s
Strategic-solution FOCUSSED - CFT and SFT

● Giving practical solutions
● Setting beneficial communication
Startegies
● Prescribing the symptom
● Enactment
CBT Triangle
Postmodern approaches
● Attachment based family therapy
○ Rupture and repair
○ There will always be fights
○ How do you put it back together
● Emotions focussed attachment
○ Fostering the emotional bond
○ Emotions as the driver for behaviour
○ If you can connect with the emotion
● Narrative therapy applications to family
○ Co Authoring
○ Externalising
Genogram is WIP- working document- keeps updating
David Abstains and White
Session 2:
1. Draw a self at the centre. 2. Think of all the words/ adjectives that have come to represent
you. 3. Write these words around your 'Self' at the centre
1. Do the parts like each other?

2. Which part overpowers?
3. Which part takes the lead
4. How old is each part?
5. Which one stays hidden?
6. Which one is taking charge right now?
7. Which one creates trouble?
8. Which one do you want to get rid of?
Richard Schwartz
● Refuted the existence of Monomind

● Many minds exist within us- an internal family
● We are different with different people, different people perceive differently
● Injury to the parts
Treatment goals
● Which parts are being protected
● Which are being protected
Infinite parts to ourselves
Manager, firefighter, exiles
● Exile - formed in younger age- to be protected- are vulnerable
● Manager - day-to-day tasks- develop coping mechanisms to protect exiles-process
oriented approach
● Firefighters- protectors- anything that slips manager’s attention- defensive, reactive,
loosing track of urges- temporary relief- trauma response
Helping parts trust each other

Helping access self
Bring self to the front and lead the parts
Self is understood as a core

It exists in a system- parts
Teacher-classroom-student analogy
THE LARGER SELF
Self energy
“We all know about those luminous moments of clarity and balance…which come briefly now
and again. However we get there, we suddenly encounter a feeling of inner plenitude and
open heartedness to the world that wasnt there the moment before. The incessant nasty
chatter inside our heads ceases, we have a sense of calm spaciousness, as if our minds and
hearts and souls had expanded and brightened. Sometimes, these evanescent experiences
come in a bright glow of peaceful certainty that everything in the universe is truly okay, and
that includes us – you and me individually – in all our poor struggling, imperfect humanity.”
● Calm
● Curiosity
● Clarity
● Connectedness
● Compassion
● Courage
● Confidence
● Creativity
● Patience
● Presence
● Perspective
● Persistence
● Playfulness

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Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Differentiation & Regulation:

Structural vs. Strategic Family Therapy:

The Power of Emotions:

Narrative Therapy & Co-Authoring the Story:

Structural Family Therapy

Strategic-solution FOCUSSED - CFT and SFT

Genogram is WIP- working document- keeps updating

David Abstains and White

1. Do the parts like each other?

● Refuted the existence of Monomind

Helping parts trust each other

Self is understood as a core

THE LARGER SELF

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