Traumatic experiences have a significant impact on you, making you live in fear and anxiety over things that happened in the past. Seeking the proper assistance helps you to handle the emotions and behavior that come with the traumatic experience enabling you to overcome the challenges. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a proven behavioral therapy that deals with the parts within us that determine how we respond to trauma. IFS Therapy has gotten used to successfully treat various issues that, include depression, anxiety, and PTSD, among other issues. There are several parts and sub-parts which could develop within you as a result of the traumatic experience you encounter, and they include:
Exiles
Exiles are the small parts of the body that have gotten exposed to the trauma that pushes them to get isolated from the entire system. The parts get isolated in an attempt to protect you from feeling fear, pain, and terror, among other negative emotions on the parts. The Internal Family Systems exiles might become desperate to get cared for and express themselves by telling their story, making them feel vulnerable and fragile.
Managers
Managers are the body parts that run your daily life routines and emotions, and they are one of the parts that get affected by traumatic experiences. When exposed to a traumatic occurrence, the managers try to keep you in control of the situation and relationship to protect your parts from the feeling of hurt and rejection. Internal Family Systems Therapy managers achieve their results through various parts, including evaluation, caretaking, and striving. The managers care for the exiles and prevent them from having extreme pain from their past experiences, thereby keeping you in control throughout the process. Managers come in handy to prevent you from getting into negative behavior to keep you away from the pain, thereby enabling you to get over the traumatic events positively. Mental health retreat near me therapists work closely with you through various techniques and processes to help you heal from the traumatic experiences.
Firefighters
Firefighters are a set of parts that get to action whenever the exiles get activated, and their main aim is to control and prevent the feeling of hurt. The firefighters achieve their objective in several ways, including drug and alcohol use, sex addiction, and binge eating, all of which help you to push away the hurt and pain. The Intensive Therapy firefighter strategies differ from those of the managers even though they have the same objective of keeping the exiles away. The firefighter’s ways of mitigating the pain aren’t considered healthy. When not well addressed, the firefighters can potentially put you in a worse situation than the traumatic experience exposed you to.
Conclusion
Traumatic experiences significantly affect your life, affecting various parts differently. The exiles, managers, and firefighters all work to prevent you from feeling the pain of the traumatic experience. Working with a therapist helps you to stay in control while addressing the various traumatic emotions and behavior in a manner that doesn’t lead to self-destruction.