Internal Family Systems

Recognize that what feels like a single self is actually a system of inner parts with distinct voices and concerns.

Bring attention inward and find where a part lives somatically — tightness, warmth, heaviness, a specific region.

Give the part a working name — the Worried One, the Critic — to begin differentiating it from Self.

Pick which part you want to work with in this session and set the focus.

Check the qualities of your relationship to the part — curious, frustrated, afraid? This reveals which other parts are blended.

Politely ask any blending parts for space, so Self can lead the conversation.

Ask the protector what it is afraid would happen if it stopped doing its job. Listen without arguing.

Let the part show you when it took on its role, what it has been carrying, what it wants you to know.

Express genuine appreciation for the protector's work and let it know you see what it has done for you.

Request that protectors let you meet the wounded younger part they have been guarding.

With Self-energy present, encounter the wounded part directly. Stay with what arises in the body.

Be present to what the exile carries — the pain, the belief, the moment it took on its load.

Help the part release its burden to an element — light, water, earth, fire, wind — and invite new qualities in.

Check in with all parts after unburdening. Notice the shifts in the system as a whole.

Track which parts show up day to day, what they need, how Self-energy is doing.