IFS Therapy

[Raptorsin7]

Does anyone have any experience with IFS therapy? 

I'm looking to get into therapy and I want to take some time and find a therapy style that I think will be most effective. I've heard good things about IFS, but i'm curious to hear about other modes that have worked for other people.

 

[tuckerwphotography]

IFS is excellent, especially for those whose ego development is Pluralist (Green) and above. Parts work really begins to come online around high Orange / Achiever stage. 

A book that includes IFS style parts work as well as other more nature-based modalities is Wild Mind by Bill Plotkin: http://www.wildmindbook.com

[FlyingLotus]

Teal Swan has a good video on Parts Works. 

IFS is awesome.  It's a very thorough version of Parts Work.  Check out Jay Earley's books.  I made a post about it here:

 

[Matt23]

Love it.  

Such a good tool in the ol' toolkit.  

Has helped me a lot in quickly transforming and understanding feelings and parts of myself I've lost awareness of.

[Raptorsin7]

4 hours ago, FlyingLotus said:

Teal Swan has a good video on Parts Works. 

IFS is awesome.  It's a very thorough version of Parts Work.  Check out Jay Earley's books.  I made a post about it here:

 

Do you have any insight about finding a therapist who deals with this kind of stuff specifically?

Do you think you can effectively do IFS solo?

I'll check real swans video thanks a lot.

 

[FlyingLotus]

     There are therapists who do zoom sessions.  

     https://personal-growth-programs.com/individual/

     https://everettconsidine.com/witnessed-ifs-sessions/

     Everett Considine has recorded IFS sessions you can listen to to get a sense of how sessions go.  I think Derek Scott on youtube does zoom sessions too.  Parts work is a big field, so I'm sure there are other therapists who do a version of it if you prefer to see someone in person.   

     You can definitely do it solo.  It's better to learn the fundamentals on your own so that if you do sessions you can squeeze more juice out of them.   

     There's an IFS Workbook that has more detailed exercises that you can get along with various IFS books, like Self-Therapy and Freedom from Your Inner Critic. 

[Raptorsin7]

56 minutes ago, FlyingLotus said:

     There are therapists who do zoom sessions.  

     https://personal-growth-programs.com/individual/

     https://everettconsidine.com/witnessed-ifs-sessions/

     Everett Considine has recorded IFS sessions you can listen to to get a sense of how sessions go.  I think Derek Scott on youtube does zoom sessions too.  Parts work is a big field, so I'm sure there are other therapists who do a version of it if you prefer to see someone in person.   

     You can definitely do it solo.  It's better to learn the fundamentals on your own so that if you do sessions you can squeeze more juice out of them.   

     There's an IFS Workbook that has more detailed exercises that you can get along with various IFS books, like Self-Therapy and Freedom from Your Inner Critic. 

Wow thank you very much.

Do you have personal experience with IFS? And do you have thoughts on other kinds of effective therapies.

I think I saw in another of your posts that parts work, works better for people who are emotionally open. The thing is I'm very emotionally closed off and narrow so I want to take that into account 

[peanutspathtotruth]

59 minutes ago, FlyingLotus said:

There's an IFS Workbook that has more detailed exercises that you can get along with various IFS books, like Self-Therapy and Freedom from Your Inner Critic. 

Was eye balling IFS for a long time, you made me pull the trigger, just got Self-Therapy and the Work book on kindle. Gonna start today. Thank you for the recommendation! I always thought the only book for this is the one by Dr Schwartz. 

How do you recommend going about this? Reading the one, then working with the other? Or simultaneously? 

[Matt23]

7 hours ago, FlyingLotus said:

    You can definitely do it solo. 

Agreed.

Though... for me at least, I found working with a therapist wayyy more effective.  I felt I could get deeper, faster, and with a lot less effort.  Doing it alone felt like a sludge and really grindy.  

I'd suggest like reading up on it, but also doing it with a therapist first so you can get the hang of it from someone who knows what they're doing.  Just like driving a car: having a pro show you how to do it first might save you lots of time and effort.  

Though, you might find doing it solo is better and that you discover something new you would have never discovered with a therapist.  

I guess there's pros and cons.

But i lean towards finding someone who you like and doing sessions with them till you get the jang of it and see what's possible with it.  Then when you do it on your own, you'll have a reference experience and maybe won't get disgruntled as easy.

[Raptorsin7]

@Matt23 Good point

[FlyingLotus]

12 hours ago, Matt23 said:

Though... for me at least, I found working with a therapist wayyy more effective.  I felt I could get deeper, faster, and with a lot less effort.  Doing it alone felt like a sludge and really grindy.  

I hadn't thought about this before, but I'm very comfortable with my emotions and relaxing into them without resistance.  Being present with my different parts never felt super grindy, if anything they wouldn't stop talking .  So if you're reading the book and feeling a lot of resistance, you should probably do a zoom session, or at least listen to some recordings of other people's zoom sessions.  I'd learn the fundamentals of how IFS works first though.

 

19 hours ago, peanutspathtotruth said:

Was eye balling IFS for a long time, you made me pull the trigger, just got Self-Therapy and the Work book on kindle. Gonna start today. Thank you for the recommendation! I always thought the only book for this is the one by Dr Schwartz. 

How do you recommend going about this? Reading the one, then working with the other? Or simultaneously? 

Yay!  IFS is great.  Earley's books are a lot more practical then Schwartz's, even though Schwartz originated IFS. 

I'd read both at the same time.  Do the exercises at the end of the chapter of the main book, then use the workbook for exercises that apply to what you're working on.  The examples of other people's IFS work can be very useful too. 

[peanutspathtotruth]

1 hour ago, FlyingLotus said:

Yay!  IFS is great.  Earley's books are a lot more practical then Schwartz's, even though Schwartz originated IFS. 

I'd read both at the same time.  Do the exercises at the end of the chapter of the main book, then use the workbook for exercises that apply to what you're working on.  The examples of other people's IFS work can be very useful too. 

Thank you, will do. I started working on with the main book yesterday and it already flooded me with quite a few insights. Great stuff. 

[FlyingLotus]

Ismael wrote a good post on Teal Swan's version of Parts Work.  

 

15 hours ago, peanutspathtotruth said:

Thank you, will do. I started working on with the main book yesterday and it already flooded me with quite a few insights. Great stuff. 

  ?  If you combine it with psychedelics to release emotions it's even more of a game changer.  You don't necessarily have to do the work on psychedelics (although you can), but ? in general release a lot of old feelings that need to get out.  

       There are also meditations you can do to help you connect to your various parts.  I think some are included in the book.  

Edited September 14, 2021 by FlyingLotus

[Raptorsin7]

@FlyingLotus How did you combine psychidelics with parts work?

[FlyingLotus]

Parts Work helps clear up your trauma, psyche and emotional baggage so that you're ready for psychedelics to show you ultimate reality.  Leo talks about it there ↑. 

[Raptorsin7]

Interesting thanks.

[peanutspathtotruth]

8 hours ago, FlyingLotus said:

? in general release a lot of old feelings that need to get out.  

That was the first thing I thought about when getting into the book. I have quite a bit of psychedelic experience under my belt now and especially last year there were some sessions... Felt like 20 years of therapy in 8 hours. I saw so many hurt aspects of me coming out of their cages and I just showered them with cosmic love, understanding and curiosity. This truly changed my life multiple times. 

And I haven't tripped in quite a while, so my plan is: working through both books -> acid session. 

[FlyingLotus]

On 9/15/2021 at 1:38 AM, peanutspathtotruth said:

Felt like 20 years of therapy in 8 hours. I saw so many hurt aspects of me coming out of their cages and I just showered them with cosmic love, understanding and curiosity. This truly changed my life multiple times.

That sounds great!  I've just dipped my toe in the ? waters.  But, I have way more experience at every other aspect of personal development.   

On 9/15/2021 at 1:38 AM, peanutspathtotruth said:

And I haven't tripped in quite a while, so my plan is: working through both books -> acid session.

Sounds like a great plan.  It's amazing what emotions ? can bring up, especially after you do all that psychic archaeology on yourself.