Parts Work Therapy, Drawn from IFS

What Is Parts Work?

Most people know the feeling of being in two minds. Parts work takes this seriously: it treats the mind as made up of parts, each with its own feelings, beliefs and aims. Internal Family Systems, developed by Richard Schwartz, is a widely used parts approach. It describes protective parts that try to keep you safe, sometimes in ways that cause problems, and more vulnerable parts that carry old pain. IFS holds that everyone also has a calm, curious core, which it calls the Self.

Examples of Parts Work

• A part that drives you to work late every night, and another that feels exhausted and resentful.
• A harsh inner critic that, on closer look, is trying to protect you from rejection.
• A part that wants to leave a relationship, and a part that is afraid of being alone.

In session, you might be asked to notice one of these parts, describe it, and ask what it fears would happen if it stopped. The aim is to understand each part, not to get rid of any of them.

How It Is Used in Sessions

Parts work at Closing the Wound is drawn from IFS. It is used alongside narrative, somatic and CBT approaches, often when you feel stuck in an inner conflict or when old pain is close to the surface.

What the Evidence Shows

Research on IFS is at an early stage. In a trial with 79 people with rheumatoid arthritis, those who had IFS reported less pain and more self-compassion after nine months than an education group, and some of these gains held at one year (Shadick and colleagues, 2013). A pilot study of 17 adults with PTSD after childhood trauma found large drops in PTSD and depression symptoms after 16 IFS sessions, but it had no comparison group (Hodgdon and colleagues, 2022).

What Are the Criticisms of IFS?

• The research base is small, with few controlled trials and small samples.
• Some studies include the approach’s founder among their authors.
• Critics also note that some IFS ideas, such as the Self, are hard to test.

This is one reason parts work is used as one tool among several.