1.1 distinguishing parts work + IFS
::: a parts work series
This post contains:
👩🏽🏫 a short essay that teaches a distinction between parts work + IFS
🎙 a recording of me reading this essay
✍🏽 a self-guided workshop: journal prompts, creative exercise, and reflection for approaching the shallows and depths of parts work [below paywall at the end of this post]
Language shapes culture, and we live in an exciting time for words. For instance, post-lockdown, you may have noticed more people using the word ‘collective’. It makes sense this word would become more common during a global pandemic to reference shared human experience.
‘Parts work’ is another term emerging in the zeitgeist. And while I appreciate the accessibility of the term, I do make a distinction between ‘parts work’ and Internal Family Systems. And for the purpose of this teaching series, I’d like to offer my thoughts about the difference between the two.
I use the term ‘parts work’ to describe the normalization of the existence of parts, in other words, the normalization of the concept that we are a multiplicity1. ‘Parts work’ also refers to interacting with parts. Through parts work practice, we are able to notice and sit with parts, maybe even to converse and build relationships with them.
Internal Family Systems is a healing modality that guides us deeper with parts. It utilizes parts work practice to open pathways that heal trauma, shed limiting beliefs, and integrate wise reparenting from Self. IFS and depth healing approaches like it, work with neuroplasticity to restore harmony to the psyche and re-pattern the mind.
Some may use these terms ‘parts work’ and IFS interchangeably. Of course, we’ll see how shared meaning is made over time. For our purposes, I offer ‘parts work’ as the understanding of the psyche as made up of parts while the IFS modality is the depth healing that accompanies that understanding. Parts work is the shallow end of the pool where we notice the inner landscape and observe our multiplicity. IFS is deep water diving where we can unburden unhelpful roles and beliefs, restore parts to their natural state, and bring balance to the inner world.
Pause here for a moment and notice if there is an internal judge around that’s measuring the importance of IFS over parts work or vice versa. Notice if there is skepticism. Notice if there’s a part who believes there is gold star to earn in this practice. Say hi to them.
For a long time, I believed that reaching down to the depth layers of trauma healing was the goal of this work. And while I do believe that healing trauma and the nervous system is intrinsically connected to the healing of the planet2 and our well being as humans living through a very challenging phase of human history, I also know that depth healing is not everyone’s path. Acknowledging parts isn’t everyone’s path. This series is here to educate and offer accessible tools to curious seekers, not to convince. To each, their own.
However, should we continue on a cultural trend that normalizes parts, I am very curious about the impact of a "parts" worldview on our culture, relationships, and ecosystems. Will we evolve to hold more complexity with and for one another? Will we develop ways of being more comfortable with the in between? Only time will tell.
🌀
📝 Free Resource: Exploring Your Shape (PDF) - a one-pager from Resonance Institute with guided questions for understanding more about your multiplicity, identity, and how we are shaped.
Listen to me read this essay:
Self-Guided Workshop
💌 Everything in this self-guided workshop is an invitation. You are the expert of your own experience. Move towards what resonates. Leave what doesn’t.