Pondering Parts, an introduction
"For she had a great variety of selves to call upon, far more than we have been able to find room for, since a biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may have many thousand”- Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Hello and Welcome to my blog! Here I’ll be sharing lots of thoughts and ideas on my experiences and ponderings on Parts Work and Internal Family systems. My goal is to offer up examples, imagery, and explanations that help readers understand themselves more fully within a Parts Work lens.
In a modern sense, Parts Work and IFS are relatively new and exploratory fields in Psychotherapy, getting its start (in a Western Context) in the 1980’s via Dr. Richard Schwartz and from a Trauma-focused lens via Janina Fisher. But as you can see from the Virginia Woolf quote above, the concept of having multiple parts of ones own personality and psyche is nothing new.
I want to be clear right off the bat though: Parts Work and the idea that we have different parts within our ‘Internal Family System” is not the same as DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). Mapping out our system of Parts is an exploration of how, throughout our lives, we used the strategies of fight, flight, freeze, faun/submit or attach/cry to help protect ourselves or get our needs met. These techniques/goals are the underlying motivations for the types of Parts we explore in Parts Work/IFS. Those with a DID diagnosis may have parts and selves that are not, at their core, trauma responses or safety mechanisms, but distinct selves and personalities with a variety of goals, skills and worldviews. For a great take on the limitations of Parts Work for those with DID, from the perspective of someone with a formal diagnosis, check out this link:
For the rest of us, Parts Work can be an amazingly compassionate and logical framework for understanding ourselves and others.
Compassionate, because it is a framework that truly believes that there are, to quote Schwartz’s book title, No Bad Parts: this means that no matter how annoying, belittling, frustrating or shameful a part might be, Parts Work and IFS believes there is a very good reason for that part showing up, and that it’s ultimate goal is to protect you and try to meet your needs.
Logical, because Parts Work/IFS always believes that everything your system is doing makes a kind of sense, based on your past and current experiences. This framework believes that our systems naturally are oriented towards care and safety of the self, and avoiding things like pain, suffering, shame or rejection. This sometimes means we hurt or shame or reject ourselves before others can do so, which can be painful, but even then, it’s a strategy still meant to protect us from a hurt that our part feels may be much worse.
I truly believe in the power of Parts Work for deep healing, compassion and understanding, and I’m looking forward to exploring, describing and mapping out the ways that Parts Work truly WORKS! Stay posted for more blogs on this subject and thanks for being here!
