No Bad Parts - Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with Internal Family Systems by Richard Schwartz

Sometimes in life you come across a methodology or theory that makes sense in every way possible - as a clinician and as a client. For me IFS is that theory. Internal Family Systems was developed by Family Systems Psychotherapist Richard Schwartz some decades ago. It was his work with family therapy that lead him to realise that within each of us are a multitude of parts that have their own identities and hierachy, their own roles and functions. Parts are developed due to trauma and attachment injuries and these parts can maladapt depending on the stress level they have experienced over a lifetime, leading to behaviour that comes from good intention, but end up potentially being damaging. Importantly these parts are in an ecosystem, they work together, often very unconsciously, to keep the Self safe.

No Bad Parts is a beautiful treatise by the founder of the theory on how parts theory developed, and how it can be a radical intervention to support trauma release. It is practical as well as being narrative, giving the reader a chance to experience an entry into parts work, as well as seeing how it is used in a therapy session with exercises to play along with. This is a consumer book, designed to break down this methodology for everyone to enjoy rather than a therapist playbook. The caveat of course is that to do big trauma work it is helpful to have a therapist to safely hold space and guide, but that IFS parts work can be done on a daily level just by recognising the struggles of parts, unburdening them and reparenting with kindness and self-compassion.

In iFS there are three main categories of parts. Important to constantly restate that parts are always coming from a place of safety and good intention, even though that may not be apparent from the outside. These categories are Managers/Protectors; Firefighters and Exiles. All of these work to prevent the Self experiencing any kind of pain or suffering. Myriad strategies are employed to do this, from practical and profound to profane. Managers are the practical proactive ones, they are there to keep business as usual of life rolling along, and manage our general state of being. In a healthy way they are our executive function and their job is to manage the human unit.

The proactive protector part can tip into being a less executive function and more maladaptive depending on how much hurt and pain they are trying to stop from surfacing. An example of this could be that a healthy manager values learning and hard work, a maladaptive strategy may be tipping into overwork and compulsive education, and underpinning that will be a wound being protected that comes from being devalued as a child and feeling not good enough and overcompensating via the intellect. This might be a part im a little familiar with LOL.

When the managers are not managing well and proactively, they may move into firefighter mode. Firefighters are reactive, a hurt feeling has been allowed to come through and boom, they have to shut it down at any cost. The difference between firefighters and managers/protectors is that firefighters don’t have any care for consequence. So a manager part might have a glass of wine to relax at the end of a day, a firefighter part might drink two bottles of wine to eclipse an experience that has brought up old wounds, and in doing so detonate relationships, drive a car and get arrested , miss work etc. Firefighters have one job which is to stop the pain, and if the pain breaks through for long enough, a firefighter’s strategy may become protective. Using the previous example binge drinking to numb pain might become a daily proactive drinking strategy rather than a reactive one.

So who are these parts protecting? The third part category is Exiles - these are usually young parts and could be described as inner children or the young parts of our identities that have been damaged or hurt developmentally. Developmental, epigenetic and collective cultural trauma sits here, and once these wounds have occurred, the managers/protectors evolve to adapt behaviour and stop the pain so the child can feel safe in their situation.

The wounding of the child being separated from their true nature of self, as Gabor Mate would say their authentic identity as a survivial mechanism remains however and sits beneath the surface, lodged in the nervous system, wanting to be resolved. Exiles are often in pain because they are so unseen, unheard and unknown. Let’s imagine a child has a strong identity as trans or genderqueer in a family unit that is not open to this and actively discourages, shames and threatens that identity. Survival will trump authenticity so the child will adapt to performing gender norms to stay safe in the family while having to exile their own Self. Years, sometimes decades of adaptation means rediscovering the Self is a slow and often painful process of working through the shame and hurt and self-hatred. They need gentle, loving, compassionate care in therapy, and to get to the exiles, the protectors have to be worked with first to get permission to move deeper in the internal family system to what is hidden beneath.

You may have noticed mention of the Self, with its differentiating capital S. The Self in IFS is our central core Self, it is the essence of who we are. The Self in therapy, is what we want to have driving our behaviour, life and identity from a place of grounded confidence, and it is the Self, especially in developmental trauma, that is obscured by the presence of protector parts. The Self is seen as an eternal undamageable aspect of identity, and not a part as such. When trauma occurs, the Self is not damaged but is also not able to protect, and Dick Schwartz argues can disappear to avoid damage. Hence why the Self is obscured and we try to resurface in therapy, it is often in conflict with protector parts who feel that the Self hasn’t been there when the shit has gone down and why should they trust it now?

Parts are messy, and fun, and emotional, and complex, and lippy, and irrational, and, well, all of the things humans are. When we are blended with out parts, they feel like us. When we unblend and can create a little space for observation and discernment, we can see them, with compassion, as reactions to felt experiences and only one version of a whole that is who we are when we come from a regulated whole Self.

IFS because of its length of time in therapy, and the generosity of Schwartz as its originator to have collaborated extensively with therapists across his career to evolve and adapt the parts work, has a longitude of evidence-based research to confirm its efficacy. I love it because it holds that precious place of being an evidence-based modality in psychotherapy that has at its core a spiritual element - the Self is our core identity, but could also be seen as Atman in Buddhism, as creator in God-centred religion, as our internal guides, our intuition, Source energy, or any one of the many ways that which is ineffable and bigger than us is described in all traditions.

Schwartz himself was an avowed scientist when he came to this work, but after many thousands of clients having uncovered in themselves this larger Self, and countless experiences with Parts and their wisdom that could not be necessarily explained, but undoubtedly existed, he fully concluded that the multidimensionality of our humanity has a core spiritual element that is undeniable, even if it is inexplicable at times. Importantly, the work doesn’t rely on belief. However you come to it, you experience what you experience and you can determine your own meaning from it. The practice is the process, and as a therapist, our job is to hold safe space and prompt your Parts to reveal their needs and release their burdens while helping you integrate.

I use IFS extensively with my clients, but also use it as my preferred mode of therapy along with other somatics like breathwork and personal work like meditation and journaling, all of which harmonise beautifully with IFS, and keep in doing the work while i’m supporting others. This book is recommended reading for all my clients to continue the psychoeducation and empowerment for their own healing and emergence of their magnificent Selves.