Self-Therapy : A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Wholeness Using IFS, A Cutting-Edge Psychotherapy, 3rd Edition

In beginning a session, you access a number of protectors and then choose one to focus on, called the target part. You inhabit Self and get to know this protector, finding out its positive intent for you. You establish a trusting relationship with the protector and understand what it is trying to protect you from. This sets the stage for further wo

See if any parts need to say anything before you stop. You don’t want them to feel cut off when the session ends. This also gives you a chance to discover what might be unfinished.

Compensation for Pain. Some protectors want to get something to compensate for an exile’s pain.

We welcome all our parts with curiosity and compassion. We seek to understand each one and appreciate its efforts to help us, without losing sight of the ways it is causing problems. We develop a relationship of caring and trust with each part, and then take steps to heal it so it can function in a healthy way.

Allow a visual image of the part to arise. This will give you the sense of it as a separate entity.

What are you feeling toward the part?

You have three options for going about this: 1. Start with a trailhead (see explanation below). Notice all the parts related to the trailhead and then choose one. 2. Start with a part you already know about and access it. 3. Access all the parts activated at the current moment and then choose one to focus on.

You are flooded with the part’s emotions to such a degree that you aren’t grounded.

Go inside and make contact with the part experientially through your emotions, images, body sensations, and internal voices. There are a variety of internal channels for accessing a part: Feelings. You feel the emotion, attitude, or desire that characterizes the part, which gives you a felt sense of it. Body Sensations. You sense the bodily experie

In this case, ask it, “What are you afraid would happen if you made space me?” Most likely the part is afraid that in creating the space, it will give you the opportunity to push it away or ignore it.