Internal Family Systems

Definition, IFS process, treatments, research, training, potential harms, IFS worksheets

Three sections follow:

1. Background Material that provides the context for the topic

2. Suggestions for Practice

3. A list of References

Feedback welcome!

Background Material

Definition

Internal Family Systems (IFS) views each person as having access to all the psychological and emotional capital they require to lead a fulfilling life rather than pathologising the individual (as many psychological models do). IFS seeks to empower and propel people toward wholeness and healing in all aspects of their life (Dempsey, 2022). 

IFS was developed by psychologist Richard Schwartz. In his work as a family therapist, Schwartz began to observe patterns in how people described their inner lives: “What I heard repeatedly were descriptions of what they often called their "parts"—the conflicted subpersonalities that resided within them,” Schwartz says. He began to conceive of the mind as a family, and the parts as family members interacting with one another. Exploring how these components functioned with one another was the foundation for IFS and the idea of the core Self (Psychology Today, 2022).

IFS is an emerging yet popular and widely used psychotherapeutic model.  Whilst IFS was initially developed for the treatment of eating disorders, the modality is now used for a wide range of clinical presentations including trauma, depression, addictions and substance use, and couples therapy.  IFS relies on four core principles:

1. The multiplicity of the mind, where the psyche or personality is not viewed as a stagnant and singular entity, but as a multifaceted collection of “parts” or aspects of the self, each with their own perspectives, desires, and roles.

2. There are no "bad" parts, and the goal of therapy is not to eliminate parts but instead to help them find their non-extreme roles.

3. Systems theory, a framework for understanding how interconnected parts form a whole, where changes in one part affect the entire system.

4. The “Self”: an inherent state of non-judgemental observance, curiosity, compassion, and clarity that exists within the individual (Buys, 2025; IFS Institute, 2025).

Differentiating IFS from other modalities is the principle of “all parts welcome”.  A client’s “symptoms” or behaviours that may be challenging, shameful, or viewed as maladaptive, are instead sought to be witnessed and understood.  They are seen as the internal system’s best attempt to survive and cope with distressing and overwhelming emotions and memories held within vulnerable parts.  Acceptance of these symptoms or behaviours, the “parts”, ultimately leads to their transformation to be cohesive within the systems as a whole (Buys, 2025; Hodgdon et al., 2022).

The goal of IFS therapy is to foster specific mental states during the therapy session that support engagement of the client’s compassionate Self and bring all parts together.  This fosters a safe internal environment that enhances processing of traumatic memories and promotes healing (Hodgson et al., 2022; IFS Institute, 2025).  IFS suggests that it is a person’s core Self that is who the person really is. The therapy process promotes healing, trust in the Self, and the coordination of C's and P's that make up the Self.

• C’s: confidence, calmness, creativity, clarity, curiosity, courage, compassion and connectedness

• P’s: presence, patience, perspective, persistence and playfulness (Blanchfield et al., 2024).

There are three main types of parts:

1.     The manager parts protect by managing situations through intense planning.  They do whatever they can to avoid something that might bring deep pain to the person; managers run a person’s everyday life.  They can do this in any number of ways or through a combination of parts, e.g. striving, controlling, evaluating, caretaking, terrorizing.

2.     Exiles are young parts that have trauma and often become isolated from the rest of the system in an effort to protect the individual from feeling the pain, terror, fear, and so on, of these parts. Exiles can become increasingly extreme and desperate in an effort to be cared for and tell their story.  They can leave the individual feeling fragile and vulnerable.

3.     The firefighter parts are protectors that react when exiles are activated. An example of this might look like being reminded of a painful memory and using a behavior like substance use to put out the “fire” of the pain.  Firefighters have the same goals as managers (to keep exiles away) but use different strategies (Blanchfield, 2025; IFS Institute, 2025; Sutton, 2022).

IFS therapy has four goals:

1. To liberate parts from the roles they have been forced into, freeing them to be who they were designed to be.

2. To restore faith in the Self and in Self-leadership.

3. To re-harmonize the inner system.

4. To encourage the client to become increasingly Self-led in their interactions with the world (Sutton, 2022).

The IFS Process

IFS is talking therapy in which a person works with a therapist to identify and understand the specific sub-personalities or families that make up his or her internal mental system. Once parts are identified, the therapist will help the person acknowledge feelings about these suppressed emotions, learn how to release these feelings so he or she is freer to address the actual problem, and ultimately find more positive ways to manage conflicts on her or his own. The therapist may suggest certain tools to help the person do this, such as relaxation exercises, visualization, keeping a journal, and creating a chart that illustrates the relationship between Self and the different parts of the person. To do so, theraists can follow a six-step process:

1. Find: Identify the parts of a person’s mind and body that need attention.

2. Focus: Pay attention to the relevant part.

3. Flesh: Flesh it out by describing it and one’s experience of it.  What emotions are associated with it? Is it a particular colour? Does it represent the person at a particular age?

4. Feel: Explore how the person feels toward this part.  This gives the therapist an idea of how big or small of a role this part is playing in the person’s life.

5. BeFriend: Express curiosity about this part and accept its presence.

6. Fear: Ask what this part fears and what it would fear if you changed its role (Blanchfield, 2025; Psychology Today, 2022).

Learning to recognize and explore these parts can help patients shift how their parts function to create positive change.  The Self seeks to achieve three goals:

1.     Free the parts from their extreme roles

2.     Restore trust in the Self

3.     Coordinate and harmonize the Self and the parts, so they can work together as a team with the Self in charge (Psychology Today, 2022).

The Hart Centre (2025) describes the process slightly differently.  IFS sessions typically last between 60 and 90 minutes. During these sessions, clients are encouraged to engage in a process of self-exploration and dialogue with their parts. The therapy sessions are designed to help clients access their Self and facilitate healing and integration of their parts.

1. Identifying Parts: The therapist helps the client identify and get to know their parts, including their roles and functions.

2. Accessing the Self: The client is guided to access their Self, which is the core part of their being that can provide leadership and healing to their internal system.

3. Understanding Parts: Through dialogue and exploration, the client learns about the intentions and needs of their parts, often uncovering past experiences that have shaped these parts.

4. Healing Exiles: Exiles are parts that carry the burden of painful emotions and memories. The therapist helps the client to compassionately engage with these parts, potentially leading to healing and release of these burdens.

5. Harmonising the System: The client works to create a more balanced and harmonious internal system, where parts work together under the guidance of the Self.

IFS therapy focuses on enhancing ability to attend to difficult and distressing internal experiences mindfully and with self-compassion (i.e. from the Self), in order to increase capacity to successfully “be with” or tolerate and process traumatic material. A core goal of IFS is to foster specific mental states during the therapy session that support engagement of the client’s compassionate Self, which fosters a safe internal environment that enhances processing of traumatic memories and promotes healing, including curiosity, calm, clarity, connectedness, courage, creativity, and compassion.  Self-compassion has been associated with multiple indicators of well-being and lower levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and body shame.   IFS utilizes the inherent wisdom of the Self to address and rework cognitive distortions that are commonly associated with childhood traumatic experiences in a non-confrontational and non-shaming manner (Hodgdon et al., 2022).

Using IFS Therapy

IFS therapy can treat individuals, couples, and families.  IFS therapy can help with general life stressors like grief, relationship, and career issues, and improve resilience and self-esteem. It may also treat several mental health issues and conditions.

• Anxiety

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Major depressive disorder

• Bipolar disorder

• Dissociative identity disorder

• Eating disorder

• Substance use disorders

• Panic

• General functioning and wellbeing

• Pain

• PTSD (Blanchfield, 2025; Buys, 2025; Psychology Today, 2022).

Research

A recent scoping review of 27 studies (17 case studies, five quasi-experimental studies, three qualitative exploratory studies, and two randomised-controlled trials) found IFS is a promising therapeutic approach for chronic pain, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and developing self-compassion and self-forgiveness.  All studies demonstrated the effectiveness of IFS as a psychotherapeutic modality whether delivered independently or integrated with another modality. Additionally, the studies that evaluated client-acceptability found IFS to be a well-received modality with quality appraisal scores of moderate and high.  Results depict IFS as a versatile and accepted psychotherapeutic modality with promising effectiveness.  Overall IFS has strong qualitative backing and emerging quantitative evidence, positioning IFS as potentially demonstrating the usefulness of both research approaches – qualitative and quantitative – in proving the efficacy of an approach (Buys, 2025).

Potential harms

There are a substantial number of IFS related posts on social media but no evaluation of this content.  As a result, the general public is receiving unknown messages from content creators (many of whom are likely mental health providers) regarding IFS.  Some of this content, such as TikTok posts on “Internal Family Systems Techniques”, may be encouraging audiences to apply IFS without the supervision of a trained therapist.

Moreover, encouraging splitting of the self into parts for those who struggle with reality testing might be disorganizing.  A primary goal of treatment for dissociative disorders and complex trauma is a careful, phasic approach that encourages integration of dissociated parts and experiences. Encouraging conversation between parts and telling clients what to label parts of self (e.g., firefighter) without significant sensitivity to ways this could exacerbate splitting of self-states could be dangerous for some.  Clinicians using IFS who have not received sufficient training in trauma-informed care may be at particular risk of misusing IFS in ways that cause such harm.  This point is quite relevant as accreditation requirements for many graduate programs in psychotherapy do not include trauma-informed training.  In spite of this, many people are applying IFS techniques to meet the needs of their clients, particularly to treat for PTSD and dissociation (Brownstone et al., 2024).

Suggestions for Practice

Social workers wishing to use IFS therapy should engage in training and consider formal certification.  There are three levels of training to complete with the Level One program providing approximately 100 hours of training, many of those hours completed with a three-to-one student/staff ratio, ensuring a high level of expertise and fidelity to the model.  Because the majority of US-based training has gone online, there are opportunities for psychologists from other countries to access IFS training directly from the IFS Institute (Dempsey, 2022).

Information about training and certification is available through the IFS Institute at https://ifs-institute.com/.  Training is available in countries other than the USA.  In Australia and New Zealand it can be accessed through the IFS Australia and New Zealand Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ifsaus) and the Mind-Beyond Institute webpage (https://mindbeyond.com.au/).  In the United Kingdom IFS training can be accessed through https://internalfamilysystemstraining.co.uk/.

There are other resources available online to assist social workers who are using IFS.  These include worksheets and exercises (Sutton, 2022).

Worksheets

·       All parts Are Welcome  https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/All-Parts-Are-Welcome.pdf

·       Six Fs Internal Family Systems  https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/6Fs-Internal-Family-System.pdf

·       Understanding Our Relationship With a Part  https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Understanding-Our-Relationship-With-a-Part.pdf

·       Identifying Parts of Yourself Through Drawing  https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Identifying-Parts-of-Yourself-Through-Drawing.pdf

·       Identifying Managers and Firefighters Using IFS Therapy  https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Identifying-Managers-and-Firefighters-using-IFS-Therapy.pdf

·       What the Self Is an Isn’t in IFS Therapy  https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/What-the-Self-Is-and-Isnt-in-IFS-Therapy.pdf (Sutton, 2022).

Exercises

·       The Path Of Self – using visualisation to explore Self and Self-energy. 

·       Fire Drill – learning Self-leadership through practice and experience (Sutton, 2022).

References

Blanchfield, T. (2025). What to know about internal family systems (IFS) therapy.  https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-ifs-therapy-internal-family-systems-therapy-5195336

Brownstone, L., Hunsinker, M., & Greene, A. (2024). Internal family systems: Exploring its problematic popularity.  Psychotherapy, 59(3), 38-42.  http://www.societyforpsychotherapy.org/

Buys, M. E. (2025, July 30). Exploring the evidence for Internal Family Systems therapy: a scoping review of current research, gaps, and future directions, Clinical Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1080/13284207.2025.2533127  

Dempsey, S. (2022). Internal family systems therapy.  InPsych, 44(Winter).  https://psychology.org.au/for-members/publications/inpsych/2022/winter-2022/internal-family-systems-therapy#

Hodgdon, H. B., Anderson, F. G., Southwell, E., Hrubec, W., & Schwartz, R. (2022). Internal family systems (IFS) therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among survivors of multiple childhood trauma: A pilot effectiveness study.  Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 31(1), 22-43.  https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2021.2013375  

IFS Institute. (2025).  The Internal family systems model outline.  https://ifs-institute.com/resources/articles/internal-family-systems-model-outline

Psychology Today. (2022). Internal family systems therapy.  https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/therapy-types/internal-family-systems-therapy

Sutton, J. (2022). Internal family systems therapy: 8 worksheets and exercises.  https://positivepsychology.com/internal-family-systems-therapy/

The Hart Centre.  (2025).  Internal family systems (IFS). https://www.thehartcentre.com.au/modalities/internal-family-systems-ifs