Internal Family Systems is a research-backed, evidence-based therapy modality that centers around the healing work that can be done within. If interested, you can read through our recent article explaining How IFS Therapy Works & How it Helps. In this article, we will be sharing more about our therapy approach here at Attuned Therapy + Wellness, how we integrate IFS therapy into our therapy office in Kincardine, Ontario, and what to expect when using IFS therapy as a tool in your healing journey.

How Internal Family Systems Helps Us As Therapists

We as therapists are highly attuned, meaning that we are focused on our clients and what is happening in their systems. In order to be attuned, it is necessary first to become fully attuned to our own parts. While therapy may seem simple enough – you sit down and listen, sometimes reflect back, and offer occasional guiding questions – there actually is a lot more to the process. In a way, being fully present as a psychotherapist can been described as coming home every single time we sit down with another client and their parts. If we have allowed space to heal our parts and offer compassionate witnessing towards the wounds we have had to carry, it is quite simple to just be with anything that comes forward in session work.

If, however, we are not able to understand our system and are perhaps blocking or avoiding painful experiences we have been through, these parts may end up coming forward in therapy and impede the therapeutic journey for our clients. Though this of course is unintentional and not a part of what we offer to our clients, it is part of being human in it’s simplest terms. We cannot help but be triggered when familiar patterns or stories are shared. We are unable to help this because we are all the same – we all have similar parts, and we all are living in a world where parts are often not welcome and need to control. In a way, therapy is bidirectional – if a therapist is open and compassionate towards themselves, it is likely that they will have no problem offering the same towards their clients.

Our therapy team is centered upon Internal Family Systems as a guiding philosophy. This means that we as therapists take full accountability for our own healing journey so that we can ensure that our clients are cared for in a compassionate, open and present way. “Attuned” is our name for a reason – we stay fully attuned to our clients, making sure that they are getting the most out of their therapy sessions and feel safe and at ease while also working through their healing journey.

Internal Family Systems Therapy in Kincardine – What We Provide

We as therapists are providing a safe, attuned space for clients to understand themselves and their loved ones better. Through the IFS lens, we are able to support our clients to feel more at ease sharing difficult memories or lived experiences, while at the same time acknowledging the hardships that occurred. A lot of our therapy centres on creating safe spaces to be vulnerable, and to understand that being in relationship with others is meant to feel empowering and foster a sense of connectedness.

In general, our therapy approach is grounded in attachment theory, understanding that how we were parented growing up impacts how safe we feel with others. Sometimes, our parents struggled to provide safety and attunement due to financial hardship, abuse, stress, or general overwhelm. When we grow up without more grounded, present awareness, we take on roles in the family system and develop different ways to cope and manage our day-to-day-lives. These coping mechanisms limit the ability of our nervous system to be flexible, often leading to tension, illness and heightened emotions. By understanding this process, we are allowing our nervous systems to become more at ease and capable of shifting out of flight/flight and even freeze.

Internal Family Systems Therapy Can Support Trauma Healing

Our brains are meant to be supported by the body, and when the body is not a part of decision-making, the brain often ends up overwhelmed and stressed, unable to make decisions from a heart-centred place. This can often lead to people becoming sick and unable to hear their own intuitive guidance. In addition, stressful life events severely impedes the relational healing that is necessary to move out of sick states of being. In order to feel better after traumatic events, we must process in a safe container, supporting our parts to feel fully seen and understood. It can be hard to find an attuned therapeutic relationship that provides enough relational attunement to release past traumatic experiences.

That is why Internal Family Systems therapy in Kincardine is such a big part of our therapy approach. We are here to support clients to learn about themselves, repair from past traumatic experiences, and to reconnect to intuitive guidance within that clients have within. IFS therapy can help clients build more awareness about different parts that make up who they have become, allowing more space for a self-led life that feels aligned. When we lead with our heart, we often don’t feel as overwhelmed, stressed, and uncertain. We can rest knowing that the answers are within. No more scouring the internet. No more checking and rechecking. Just simple insight and aligned responses.

This is the main reason why I moved from offering medical-models of care. I believe that these are important, but I also know that they limit the client’s ability to make informed, intuitive choices. I also have seen the cascade of events that can happen when well-meaning doctors and nurses perform procedures without first checking in with both their internal systems and their clients. When decision-making is based upon fear, we cannot hear our intuition, and if fear is what we go with, we never get what we actually seek. Therapy brings this fear to light, understanding and accepting it, and then creating space from it. If we are able to step aside from the fear that many of us have carried our entire lives, we can see that life isn’t meant to be as hard as we are told. Therapy is meant to be for everyone, every single one of us. We are meant to be able to sit with our parts and allow space. We are meant to be at ease inside, trusting our intuition and allowing space for our own thoughts to choose our path. That is the purpose of therapy here, to ensure everyone has access to their brains and their bodies.

Interested in Learning More About IFS and Therapy?

Are you interested in Internal Family Systems therapy in Kincardine or virtually across Ontario? Please feel free to send us an email: hello@attunedtherapy.ca or book a quick meeting with one of our therapists. We are here to support you no matter the challenges you are having. If you are interested in becoming a therapist on our team in Ontario, Canada, please email admin@attunedtherapy.ca, and someone on our team will get back to you when we can. Thanks very much for being here and we are happy to have you become part of our online community.