Internal Family Systems
Discover my favorite IFS therapy resources to deepen your understanding and mastery of this therapeutic model. Get introduced to the model with podcasts and IFS meditations, or go deeper with books and self-guided IFS tools.
Video introductions to IFS therapy
I selected a few short videos that provide the best introduction to the Internal Family System Therapy model.
Start here: the multiple mind and IFS therapy
How IFS is different from other approaches in psychology
Understanding our inner critic with IFS
What does an IFS therapy session look like ?
IFS guided meditations
Guided meditations are a great way to get to experience IFS. IFS therapy is essentially a self-exploration and self-discovery journey guided by the practitioner. As such we can get a glimpse of what it feels like and the kind of shift in perspective it can bring using guided meditation used alone.
Classic Internal Family Systems meditations
You can find audio versions of these meditations and others on the Insight Timer application (where I also offer my own guided meditations).
Discovering the Self and our parts: the path meditation
Understanding why someone triggers us: the “fire drill” IFS meditation
Looking for more meditations?
Explore the IFS meditations page for a broader selection of guided practices on a variety of topics.
Internal Family Systems Therapy podcasts
Here is my selection of Podcast episodes on the Internal Family System Therapy model featuring its creator, Dick Schwartz:
The Tim Ferris Show, where Richard Schwartz introduces the model and demonstrate the work on Tim.
Getting Curious with JVN, Dick Schwartz is interviewed by Jonathan Van Ness and presents the discovery of the model.
Conversations with Alanis Morisette, introduces IFS therapy, focusing on intense parts within ourselves, and trauma.
The ReRooted podcast Francesca Maximé, a conversation about legacy burdens in IFS therapy and the relevance of the model to implicit racism, and social and environmental activism.
If you wish to dive deeper, I suggest podcasts specialized in IFS where a range of practitioners discuss the use of IFS therapy for specific issues and topics. Explore IFS Talks or The One Inside.
Are you seeking to heal and change with IFS?
I guide clients in a healing exploration of their inner world with gentleness and reverence, honoring their history, and values. Let me guide you as you navigate challenges, grow awareness and ease, and embark on a path of transformative growth.
Internal Family Systems Therapy books
I selected a few of the best IFS therapy books below, from the most practical to the more advanced.
The best IFS practical book
by Jay Early
This is the best book if you would like to work on your own. It explains the model clearly and offer step by step guidance on how to work with your own inner system using IFS.
Best introductory book to Internal Family Systems Therapy
by Richard Schwartz
The best general book on the Internal Family Systems model to better understand the model. It is written by the creator of the model, Dick Schwartz. Recently published, it makes the model accessible to all and helps us understand how IFS can give us a new perspective on our mind, our ego and our inner life in general and it can help us heal. You can read the foreword by Alanis Morissette here.
IFS book to go deeper
Internal Family Systems Therapy: Second Edition
by Richard Schwartz & Martha Sweezy
This is the current reference IFS book by Dick Schwartz targeted to professionals. It can, however, be fruitfully explored by anyone interested in the history, the theory, or the inner workings of the Internal Family Systems model.
IFS in practice: videos of IFS therapy sessions
I selected a few demonstration videos of IFS sample sessions to help give an idea of how the work might unfold. In IFS therapy, most of the work happens inward however, so these only offer a partial view of what a session is like for the client. If you are interested to experience IFS therapy for yourself and see the inner changes IFS can bring, consider trying out a mini IFS session.
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A very short sample session
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A full length IFS therapy session in a typical online setting
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An IFS couple therapy session
This session is presented as a short film, but it is very close to a real session.
Do you know of IFS therapy resources which you think should be included? Please get in touch.
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