Every part has a reason.

IFS was developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz in the 1980s from his work with clients who spontaneously described their inner experience in terms of distinct parts with different personalities, fears, and goals. IFS formalizes this into a clinical model: the mind is naturally multiple, and that multiplicity is healthy rather than pathological.

The model identifies three broad categories. Managers are proactive protective parts that control daily functioning — the inner critic, the perfectionist, the over-achiever. Firefighters are reactive parts that activate when pain breaks through: substance use, dissociation, and impulsive behavior often originate here. Exiles carry the burden of past pain, shame, or trauma that protective parts work to contain. Beneath all of these is the Self: the calm, curious, compassionate core capable of leading when given the conditions to do so.

An IFS session begins with an invitation to slow down and turn attention inward. Rather than narrating external events, the work involves making direct contact with internal parts as they're present right now — through an emotion, a physical sensation, an image, or a recurring thought. When a part is identified, I guide you to approach it with curiosity rather than judgment: what it's trying to do, what it fears would happen if it stopped, and what it's carrying from the past.

The goal is not to eliminate parts or override their influence. It's to establish a relationship between the Self and the parts, so they no longer need to operate from fear. IFS calls the release of a part's historical burden unburdening, and it's distinct from insight: the change happens at the level of the part's felt experience, not only cognitively.

IFS is indicated for complex trauma, depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, and the perfectionism and self-criticism underlying burnout and high-functioning exhaustion. Research has documented reductions in depression and PTSD symptoms and improvements in self-compassion following IFS treatment. In 2015, IFS was added to SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices.

Substance use is a specific and common IFS presentation: firefighter parts that use alcohol or other substances to suppress exile pain respond well to a parts-informed approach rather than a purely behavioral one. The LCADC training I hold makes this intersection particularly nuanced to address.

I use IFS because it provides the most coherent map I've found for understanding why people don't simply change when they understand what needs to change. Understanding is almost never the problem. The problem is that other parts of the system are organized around different priorities and won't stand down on the basis of insight alone. IFS gives me a language and a method for working directly with those parts.

I integrate IFS with Somatic Experiencing, which addresses the physical dimension of parts work alongside the relational and psychological. Parts carry their burden not only as beliefs and fears but as physiological patterns in the body. When IFS identifies a part and SE helps it release what it holds somatically, the change tends to be more complete than either approach alone produces.

Alchemy Psychotherapy is a private-pay, out-of-network practice. A reduced fee is available in limited circumstances based on financial need and current caseload. I do not bill insurance directly, but I provide a Superbill on the first of each month for clients with out-of-network mental health benefits, and HSA and FSA cards are accepted. Under the No Surprises Act, you have the right to a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges before treatment begins.