Sublime

The difference here is that the Self says no to impulsive parts firmly but from a place of love and patience, in just the same way an ideal parent would. Additionally, in IFS, when parts do take over, we don’t shame them. Instead, we get curious and use the part’s impulse as a trailhead to find what is driving it that needs to be healed.

IFS “eight Cs”: creativity, courage, curiosity, a sense of connection, compassion, clarity, calm, confidence.

“Normally, I’d leave here in a fog, not sure I’d gotten anything out of the session. Now, I leave here feeling like there’s something I can do—something practical that will help me.” For the first time in my short career, I felt able to instill hope in my patients.

Some discoveries I made about parts: •Even the most destructive parts have protective intentions. •Parts are often frozen in past traumas when their extreme roles were needed. •When they trust it’s safe to step out of their roles, they are highly valuable to the system.

[I]t can make sense to think there exists, inside your brain, a society of different minds. Like members of a family, the different minds can work together to help each other, each still having its own mental experiences that the others never know about.”

Self-accountability, self-knowledge, self-control, and self-confidence

to embrace. The deeper I went into Dick’s IFS work, the more his words and teaching rang liberatingly true. That each part, however harrowing its acting-out, however hidden, confusing, or painful, had the best of intentions and held helpful messages for me. Without fail, each part, whether an exile, manager, or protector, had profoundly kind and wi

“Medicines treat depression,” my therapist said to me. “I treat depressives.”