IFS Therapist in Los Angeles
What is IFS Therapy?
Internal Family Systems, or IFS, is a type of therapy that takes a bottom-up approach, meaning it focuses on addressing what is occurring in the body and nervous system as the primary driver for healing and change. IFS is also commonly known as "parts work", or sometimes "inner child work". IFS theorizes that in every person there are "parts" that are created in response to trauma or life experiences, and a "Self" that is capable of mediating between the parts and offering healing and corrective experiences. A part is often associated with a particular emotion, physical sensation, and/or image, and most people have both protective parts and more vulnerable, wounded parts. This might look like a part of us that begins to check out or dissociate during conflict with a partner, evidenced by numbness and a spacey feeling, and we may uncover that this part is actually protecting a younger part of us that felt completely overwhelmed and shameful when our parents became angry at us as a child. Alternatively, our parts may feel in conflict with each other at times; we might be holding onto both anger and grief at the same time and struggling to reconcile the two.
In IFS therapy, I begin by helping clients to identify, or map, their parts, as well as begin to connect with their sense of Self. We work on understanding individual parts and how they came into being, and we also build relationships between parts and Self. This might look like helping that younger part of us who is holding onto shame understand that now we are an adult with more advanced interpersonal and emotion regulation skills, and allowing Self (us now) to offer this younger part the comfort it needs. This is how healing occurs in IFS, and we continue to build confidence in Self so you can implement a lot of this healing work on your own over time.
My name is Gabby Collins, LCSW and I am an IFS therapist based in-person in Los Angeles and virtually throughout California. I have been formally trained in IFS Level 1 through the IFS Institute. I provide IFS therapy to tweens, teens, and adults with all kinds of presenting concerns, though I do have a particular passion for IFS as a primary treatment modality for eating disorders. I'd love to learn more about you and see if IFS therapy might be right for you!
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Get in touch for a free 15 minute consultation so we can see if we might be a good therapeutic match.