Internal Family Systems -Informed EMDR Therapy
Deeply address issues stemming from childhood, complex trauma, and relationships - including your relationship with yourself - with IFS-Informed EMDR Therapy.
Are you struggling under the weight of your past?
Embark on a self-discovery journey to break free from childhood trauma, attachment wounds, or toxic relationship experiences.
“Is what happened to me really trauma?” Sometimes, the experience we go through is clearly what we’d easily identify as trauma - a life-threatening accident, abuse or assault, for example. Trauma can take on subtler forms, too. Any pattern of experience that was invalidating, frightening, or hurtful - a narcissistic parent, a parent struggling with alcohol, inconsistent parenting, bullying, a toxic partner, as some examples - can cast a shadow over every aspect of your life. Unresolved childhood, attachment, or relationship issues can affect your self-esteem, your ability to connect with others, and sometimes your sense of identity. Even if the pain might be pushed down and buried below the surface, its impact in real life is very much there.
If you’ve previously tried various therapies and solutions, searching for calm and peace of mind, you may have found that traditional therapies often fall short, focusing on surface-level symptoms instead of addressing the underlying causes.
IFS therapy dives deep below what’s at the surface, guiding you towards healing that feels profound and change that lasts.
What is Internal Family Systems Therapy?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic approach that drills down deep to yield profound transformation. Central to the IFS approach is the idea that within each of us resides a “family” of sub-personalities, or “parts”. Some of these parts carry the pain of your trauma, while others serve to protect you from feeling that pain. IFS work leads to uncovering, connecting with, and healing these parts, ultimately releasing and healing from childhood, attachment, or relationship trauma. In this way, and unlike other traditional therapies, IFS focuses on the complexity of your internal world. IFS therapy helps to shed deeply held pain, and in doing so, allows your authentic self to emerge.
How does IFS work?
We'll get started by discovering and identifying the different parts within you. Some parts might carry pain, fear, or trauma, while others act as protectors, shielding you from feeling overwhelmed. This process of getting acquainted with your unique internal world is crucial for your healing journey.
We'll next work on building a healthy relationship with your parts. Instead of rejecting or ignoring them, I'll help you approach them with compassion and curiosity. This creates a dialogue that allows these parts to express themselves. This conversation between parts, in which we uncover their stories, fears, and needs, is a profound process that often brings very personal insights and emotional release.
As you build a trusting relationship with your parts and provide the support they need, you’ll begin to experience a shift in your internal dynamics, and healing will start to unfold. The parts holding the pain can gradually release their burdens, and the protectors can loosen their stance and become more flexible, allowing for true integration and transformation.
The lasting change that comes from this type of therapeutic work is often realized as a sense of empowerment, ease, improved relationships, self-esteem, and an overall sense of well-being.
What would integrating an IFS-informed approach with EMDR look like?
When tough childhood experiences, attachment dynamics, or complex or relationship trauma are part of the picture, an IFS-informed approach supports healing and strengthening of the psyche that’s needed to be able to handle processing difficult experiences and trauma. As such, much IFS work takes place before and in preparation for processing any trauma.
Wounded parts that carry the pain that needs to be processed may be difficult to access initially, and protected by other parts that perceive any attempts to change anything - including facing and processing old trauma - as potentially threatening and in need of resisting. IFS work will address this in initial parts of treatment. Uncovering and establishing a strong authentic self as an empowered leader in the personality structure, capable and drawn to making intentional healthy choices, may be needed to propel the healing process forward.
When ready for EMDR processing, integration of an IFS-informed approach continues as part of the process, rewriting roles for parts to play that are healthy and adaptive.
Can IFS-informed EMDR therapy be done online?
Yes. As with stand-alone EMDR, many people really like doing IFS from the safety and comfort of their home, since they can have supportive and objects, people, or pets nearby. Online IFS-informed EMDR therapy works just as well as in-person IFS-informed EMDR therapy.
How do I know if IFS-informed EMDR therapy would be a good fit for me?
IFS-informed EMDR will be a good fit for you if you are someone who is experiencing difficulty with your relationship with yourself. So, for example, if you know you have a strong self-critic, or if you find that you are often trying to protect yourself from feelings, conflict, pain, or vulnerability, IFS-informed EMDR would be a good choice of an integrated approach for you.
IFS-informed EMDR is also appropriate when you struggle in your relationships with others. If you have trust issues, have trouble showing up as your authentic self in relationships, you’re a consistent people-pleaser, have trouble prioritizing your needs versus those of others, or have trouble committing or connecting in more than superficial ways, you’d probably be a good candidate for this integrative approach.
IFS-informed EMDR therapy would be a good fit for individuals with complex trauma (C-PTSD), attachment trauma, and relational trauma.