You don't have to live with emotional turmoil without intervention. Thanks to advances in mental health research, there are many kinds of therapy to help individuals and families with mental or behavioral concerns, including trauma, anxiety, burnout, and maladaptive coping mechanisms. One such therapy is Internal Family Systems. Susan Meinert Amore is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who practices integrative therapies including Internal Family Systems (IFS) online for those who live in Utah, Vermont, Florida, and South Carolina. Let’s take a look at what IFS is and who may find it helpful.
What Is IFS?
Dr. Richard Swartz, a family therapist, developed this technique as he noticed how people describe their inner lives in therapy. Inner lives seem to take on conflict and sub-personalities in the same person. It's as if the mind is made up of a family with these different parts making up characters that interact with and sometimes oppose one another. Some parts contain a certain trauma, while others repress that part and some prompt a person toward behaviors like substance abuse when trauma surfaces. IFS also posits that there is a core self that can moderate these factions and that the goal of therapy is to enable the core self to carry out its natural function by facilitating access to the troubled parts. When people are living with various phobias, trauma, anxiety, or depression, IFS therapy may be able to help. This therapeutic approach has also been used for people dealing with pain, such as those who have rheumatoid arthritis.
What Is Treatment Like?
This treatment involves talk therapy in which your therapist will help you find and understand your sub-personalities in your IFS system. You may need to keep a journal and practice mindfulness techniques like visualization. Your therapist will guide you to identify the parts that are troubling you. Be prepared to ask about what this part of your IFS family fears. Doing so can give you a greater insight into yourself and your motivation. During the talk therapy and visualization sessions, you'll be able to describe the troubled part and how you feel, ultimately accepting it for what it is and releasing the associated feelings.
When you need help exploring your inner self to heal ongoing mental or behavioral concerns, you need a trained and compassionate therapist you can trust. If you live in Utah, Vermont, Florida, or South Carolina, call Susan Meinert Amore's office at 866-844-7678 to learn more about her services and book an online session.