Listen to this episode from The Rich Roll Podcast on Spotify. How do we become more integrated and healed humans? Answering these questions is the life’s work of today’s guest Dr. Richard Schwartz, a psychotherapist who created a very interesting and effective therapeutic modality called Internal Family Systems (or IFS). IFS is premised on the idea that every person has different “parts” within them, each with its own unique characteristics and functions, separate from one’s true or core Self. Furthermore, emotional healing and greater well-being can be experienced by bringing these various parts into harmony with each other—integrating them, if you will—in a process many have found transformative. Dr. Schwartz has been practicing and teaching IFS for decades and has authored several books on the subject, including, You Are The One You’ve Been Waiting For and No Bad Parts. This episode covers many fascinating topics, including the fundamentals of IFS and how it works, Dr. Schwartz’s ‘many parts’ multiplicity of mind model, how to deal with our inner critic, how IFS operates to address addiction, trauma, and depression, and more. This episode culminates in Dr. Schwartz illustrating his process by taking me (albeit a bit reluctantly) through a fairly intense psychological exercise I hope you find informative. Dr. Schwartz’s work is deeply fascinating, and this conversation has stuck with me. My hope is that this exchange inspires you to do the internal work required to live a more integrated and purpose-driven life. Show notes + MORE Watch on Youtube Newsletter Sign-Up Today’s Sponsors: Seed: seed.com/richroll Whoop: http://www.whoop.com/ Timeline Nutrition: timelinenutrition.com/richroll BetterHelp: BetterHelp.com/richroll Plant Power Meal Planner: https://meals.richroll.com SriMu: http://srimu.com/rrp Peace + Plants, Rich
- Basic concepts behind IFS - nature of mind to have different parts and all parts are valuable. Immutable self and then other roles exist - Different than inner child work in the sense that you’re addressing the protectors too whereas before just addressing the inner child ignores the other pieces and can create internal conflict - Everyone has different parts to them created by different experiences, typically as a protective mechanism when we were too young to protect ourselves - Something in the past typically forces these parts of us into extreme roles and these become current thought patterns - Most of these parts are young but still running our lives to protect us and are trying to help us in their own way - Self in this framework relates to what is called no self in Buddhism, but framed in a way where when you open space for the different parts, self is the thing that remains is a presence that knows how to heal these parts and is the presence there - Critical voice is a side of us that wants to protect a more vulnerable younger side (keeps you small so you don’t shine and get hurt or to work harder and do better to protect from failure ) and the concept is to change the relationship with oneself and these parts; a lot of times another part of ourselves that hates the critic ends up coming up in a form of anger and it’s two sides fighting similar to in a family 4 parts of ourself - self, managers, firefighters, exiles - Exile - Sensitive parts that gets hurt the most and takes on burdens (shame, terror, emotional pain) & we lock these parts away since we live in a culture that promotes emotional toughness - Firefighters - come out when we’re threatened in any way and turns into binges since it helps us disassociate and this typically is associated with addiction - Manager - gets everyone in line to function in society - In the addiction world, current methodology is to have managers sit over exiles and firefighters, but this method pushes one to appreciate the firefighter for protecting us, heal what it’s protecting, and then firefighters take on a different role; the alternative is avoiding these triggers completely (dry drunk) - Interesting concept as I use nicotine to do more work and be more productive and this happens due to anxiety that I am not doing enough and from a love being conditional on success belief and the consistent criticism that I wasn’t good enough or lazy. Taking this framework, the anxiety piece is the exile and potentially healing the relationship with this side will take away the need for nicotine while working - Depression - exile is hurt and the protector is trying to flatten or numb you while the critic trying to get you to take action; fixing this includes internal conversation around showing the protectors that you can manage the pain - Anecdote - had a exile around not being good enough that carried his shame developed from father’s criticism and then a critic to keep helping them achieve and the relationship developed into to letting that exile be unburdened and using the critical side as a discerner of where to spend time - 1:35 - live example of IFS work being done, worth listening to see how to do it; topic is around conditional love and the need to be successful (very relatable)
in 2 hours you’ll learn all about how IFS works and differs from traditional psychoanalysis and inner child work