Internal Family Systems (IFS) got developed in the 1990s by Ph.D. Richard Schwartz is a family therapist with the concept of an undamaged core self which is the center of who we are. The IFS behavioral therapy identifies and handles the sub-personalities within us. Trauma makes our personalities disintegrate into several parts, representing our feelings of sadness, hurt, anger and shame. The IFS PTSD Treatment Centers therapy successfully treats anxiety, depression, other forms of abuse, eating disorders, and more. The parts that develop within us help protect us from our traumatic experiences and the associated challenging emotions. Often, the parts come in direct conflict with each other and our core self, the confident, happy, and whole person, which is the center of us.
IFS targets all the wounded parts, equipping them with the voice and opportunity to fully express themselves on the past traumas and their role in protecting us. In the presence or support of a skilled Mental Health Retreat medical professional, a dialogue with the wounded parts gets created, allowing them to acknowledge and release their pain. The locked energy movement stuck within them gives us an easy and freedom-filled life. The treatment process enables us to shift back our trust to self-core, thereby making us live a happy and harmonious life. We get required to give room for the healing parts to get acknowledged to enable them to dissipate the negative energy and settle back into their role of supporting the self in decision making.
IFS Therapy has a three-part model that works effectively in acknowledging the damaged parts to achieve trauma healing. The parts include:
Exiles
The exiles are the young parts that have experienced traumas and have become isolated from the system. The isolation comes as a protective mechanism to prevent the damaged parts from affecting the center course and thereby damaging the whole body’s decision-making process. The broken parts get isolated to avoid you from feeling the pain, terror, fear, and more of the trauma therapy near me damage parts effects. The separation works effectively to retain the proper functioning of the parts that aren’t damaged, and the process of reclaiming the damaged parts gets achieved through the therapy. When exiled, the broken parts hold the potential to become extreme and desperate, seeking to get cared for and express themselves, thereby leaving you fragile and vulnerable.
Managers
Managers are the parts that coordinate the day-to-day activities of your life in an attempt to keep you in control of every situation and relationship. Additionally, the managers protect you from feelings of hurt or rejection, thereby preventing you from being fragile and vulnerable when exposed to traumatic events and experiences. The managers work in several ways to protect you from the dangerous trauma effects through control, evaluation, terrorizing, and more. This is a critical part of the IFS therapy session as it helps reclamation the damaged parts to the center core, making them not feel neglected and abandoned. The complete reclamation of the damaged parts to the center core makes you whole again with your judgment and decision-making process free from the traumatic experience effects.
Firefighters
A firefighter is a group of parts that get activated when the exiles show some action to control and extinguish their feelings. Exiles tend to negatively affect your decision-making process since the judgment entirely comes from the traumatic experience encountered. The Mental Health Retreats firefighters have the same goals as the manager, working to keep the exiles away; the only difference is that firefighters have different strategies from the managers. Some of the ways firefighters work include drug and alcohol use, self-mutilation or cutting, binge-eating, sex addiction, and more.
Conclusion
The exiles or hurt parts get cared for by the managers to prevent us from experiencing more pain from our past traumas. When the exiles get triggered, the firefighters step in to stop the pain pronto, which mostly is in unhealthy ways. The downside of firefighters is that they have the probability of manifesting into some of the most significant character defects, which include alcohol or drug addiction in a way to distract you from facing and experiencing the traumas again.