

The All Parts Are Welcome exercise was created by Schwartz and his team to help the client welcome all parts of their self, using their attention and a few simple questions (Anderson et al., 2017). The following worksheets offer a range of tools for facilitating various aspects of this powerful and complex treatment to engage with and better understand the many parts of the self (modified from Anderson, Sweezy, & Schwartz, 2017 Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013 Schwartz, 2021): All Parts Are Welcome To those unfamiliar with IFS Therapy, the language and conversation style may seem unusual, involving talking directly to the different parts of the self (IFS Institute, n.d.). Therapy using the IFS model addresses and communicates with these parts, attempting to help the client find balance and harmony within their mind and elevate their self to the system’s leadership. The notion of parts is crucial to the IFS model. While there are many aspects to IFS as a theory and treatment model, the primary healing relationship “is between the client’s Self and her young, injured parts” (Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013, p. IFS Therapy helps clients form a deeply satisfying relationship with themselves and others, unburdening their trauma and accessing their self-energy (Herbine-Blank, n.d.). According to Herbine-Blank (n.d.), “once the individuals in a couple have more access to Self, transformation is natural,” and they can find the space and capacity to choose a response rather than simply react to it, even if the other cannot at the time.Įach partner is encouraged to bring compassion to their wounded inner parts and heal their past, gaining control over their present (Herbine-Blank, n.d.).Ħ Internal Family Systems Therapy Worksheets While IFS Therapy is a powerful approach for helping individuals, it can be equally successful with couples. To encourage the client to become increasingly self led in their interactions with the world.To restore faith in the self and in self-leadership.To liberate parts from the roles they have been forced into, freeing them to be who they were designed to be.IFS Therapy finds ways to help our ego relax, allowing those parts of our personality we have buried (exiles) to ascend, freeing memories, emotions, and beliefs associated with them (burdens) that were previously locked away (Schwartz, 2021). On the other hand, Schwartz’s IFS model argues that the ego comprises multiple parts trying to keep us safe. Therapies based on this model often require clients to “correct irrational beliefs or meditate them away” (Schwartz, 2021, p. Other theories relying on the single or mono-mind model may lead us to fear or dislike ourselves, believing “we only have one mind (full of primitive or sinful aspects) that we can’t control” (Schwartz, 2021, p. They do so in several ways, including unhealthy or unhelpful behavior, such as alcohol and drug abuse and eating disorders (Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013, p. Exiled by the managers, they can become increasingly extreme, ultimately overriding the managers to become who we are.įirefighters are another form of protection that “put out the emotional fire at any cost,” often starting backfires. Over time, they may push for perfectionism and even inflict harm in their pursuit of safety.Įxiles are the injured parts of us and have typically experienced trauma.

Managers are a protective group of parts that attempt to keep us organized and safe, running our day-to-day lives. They are clustered into the following three groups (Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013 IFS Institute, n.d.): 6), thinking involves parts “talking to each other and to you constantly about things you have to do or debating the best course of action, and so on.”Įach part has its own beliefs, feelings, and characteristics and a distinct role in the overall system. The idea that “the mind is not a singular entity or self, but is multiple, composed of parts” is at the core of Richard Schwartz’s internal family systems (IFS) model (Sweezy & Ziskind, 2013, p. 6 Internal Family Systems Therapy Worksheets.What Is Internal Family Systems Therapy?.
