Something I came across in my reading today and I appreciate the underlying idea (info taken from Wikipedia):

The Internal Family Systems Model (an approach to therapy by #RichardCSchwartz):

#IFS posits that the mind is made up of multiple parts, and underlying them is a person's core or true Self. Like members of a family, a person's inner parts can take on extreme roles or subpersonalities. Each part has its own perspective, interests, memories, and viewpoint.

A core tenet of IFS is that every part has a positive intent, even if its actions are counterproductive or cause dysfunction. There is no need to fight with, coerce, or eliminate parts; the IFS method promotes internal connection and harmony to bring the mind back into balance.

IFS therapy aims to heal wounded parts and restore mental balance. The first step is to access the core Self and then, from there, understand the different parts in order to heal them.

In the IFS model, there are three general types of parts:

1. *Exiles* represent psychological trauma, often from childhood, and they carry the pain and fear. Exiles may become isolated from the other parts and polarize the system. Managers and Firefighters try to protect a person's consciousness by preventing the Exiles' pain from coming to awareness.

2. *Managers* take on a preemptive, protective role. They influence the way a person interacts with the external world, protecting the person from harm and preventing painful or traumatic experiences from flooding the person's conscious awareness.

3. *Firefighters* emerge when Exiles break out and demand attention. They work to divert attention away from the Exile's hurt and shame, which leads to impulsive and/or inappropriate behaviors like overeating, drug use, and/or violence. They can also distract a person from pain by excessively focusing attention on more subtle activities such as overworking or overmedicating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Family_Systems_Model

#Psychology #Ideas #Philosophy #CurrentlyReading #MentalHealth