Information about the Internal Family Systems Model and Approach to Supervision and Consulting.

I base my Supervisory approach on the FP8 model of IFS supervision and Consultation delveloped by Liz Martins and Emma Redfern. 

The FP8 model incorporates/takes into account:

the clients system; the therapists system; the supervisors system; the therapeutic relationship ; the supervisory relationship and the wider system.

In practice this means Welcoming All Parts; Bringing curiosity to intentions and fears; Prioritising relationships within and between the diffferent systems and relationships (named above in italics) and repairing whre necessary.

Working collaboratively; Contracting and seeking permission. Working actively with difference; power and bias. Slowing down; inviting internal connection; modelling.

Holding and offering hope and healing. Working in the best service of clients. (This is not an exhaustive list).. 

The FP8 model of supervision and consulting is a specific model developed from Internal Family Systems Therapy by Liz Martins and Emma Redfern.

Please note that my work as a supervisor and consultant is not limited to those working from an IFS perspective with their clients. It is simply the approach/model that I choose to use to underpins my work as a supervisor. I am also flexible and integrative in my approach according to the needs of whom I am working with and the model of therapy that I am supervising. I am able to supervise therapists who are trained in and using CBT; EMDR; IFS; Humanisitc Integrative Psychological Therapy; Transpersonal Perspectives in Psychological Therapy; DBT informed therapy and Lifespan Integration Therapy. 

I have explained IFS therapy below as it is the main therapy model that underpins my supervisory model. This underpinning is in addition to the expertise gained through working through my own experiences of trauma; working as a psychological therapist for over 32 years with survivors of trauma and supervising therapists; other health professionals and volunteers working with survivors of trauma.  

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS)

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) was founded by Richard Schwartz in the early 1990's. (Schwarz, R. (n.d.).

It is based on the premise that we are all made up of different parts.

The model divides parts into categories

Exiles

These are usually young parts who have experienced trauma/criticism/neglect/abandonment/physical; sexual and/or emotional violation etc. These parts can become isolated from the rest of the parts in an effort to protect the person. They do this by holding all the feelings and emotions such as terror and helplessness from the original trauma.

Managers

These parts tend to run the day-to-day life of the person. They attempt to keep control of situations and relationships in order to try to protect the individual from feeling hurt again. 

Firefighters

These parts react when managers 'fail,’ and exiles are activated, and they attempt to numb or control the feelings of the exiles. This can involve overeating; using drugs; self-harming; being extremely self-critical etc. 

 

Example

An example of the above in action might be within a person who has experienced lots of criticism as a child and has grown up with a core belief that  they are not good enough. They may have buried the pain deep within an exiled part. (Not necessarily consciously).  They may have developed a manager part who checks everything over and over again in their work and also tends to overwork in order to protect themselves from criticism and as a way to feel better about themselves. It may be that one day they are tired and make a mistake and this gets picked up by their boss. Because their ‘manager’ part has seemingly failed; the person may begin to experience the pain of the exiled part which is the part who is holding all the past experiences of criticism. They may begin to feel extremely low and bad about themselves and not really know why. (they won’t necessarily link it to the exiled part who is holding the past pain). Another part of them may even beat themselves up for feeling so awful and criticise themselves; telling themselves it is not such a big deal; saying things to themselves such as 'Why can’t I handle it?' 'I am clearly weak and pathetic; people handle far worse.' But another part is struggling to hold what has happened in perspective; and fear that they will now lose their job; and think that they might as well hand their notice in now. The person may then go home and drink too much or overeat as a way of numbing from the feelings or be highly self-critical or self-harm as a way of punishing themselves. They may decide they will give in their notice; or pick a fight with their spouse. These reactions are all firefighter parts who are attempting to numb or control or protect from the pain of the original trauma of being criticised that is being held by the younger exiled part. The aim of IFS therapy would be to help the person to connect with their self-energy (please see below about self-energy) and to unburden from the past experience so that they are able to be free from the pain of this original event which enables the other parts to let go of their protective strategies and to utilise their energy in a different way.    

IFS is not about getting rid of parts; it is about helping them to unburden and to express who they were originally born to be. 

IFS is not about getting rid of parts; it is about helping them to unburden and to express who they were originally born to be. 

Self-Energy

Self is the place where we can observe our other parts. Self is not a part. It is the essence of who we are. It holds the qualities of Calmness; Curiosity; Connectedness; Confidence; Creativity; Courage and Clarity.

The IFS model holds that we all have self-energy without exception and that it is something that we were all born with. It can get obscured by difficult experiences. In IFS the therapist encourages self to part communication. The self in the persons system can be gradually trusted as the non-judgemental unconditionally loving parent to the individuals system.

The system can begin to learn to trust self to take care of things so that each part can work together with each other and become who they were truly born to be.  Self-energy can be a bit like the sun that becomes obscured by clouds or sometimes completely eclipsed.

The system can become 'hijacked' or blended with parts to such an extent that a person can struggle to find or connect with; or even know or believe they have self-energy. When an individual has experienced a lot of trauma it can be difficult for that person to connect with self-energy, or they can struggle a lot to trust their self-energy. In these cases, it is sometimes necessary for the therapist to temporarily take the role of self-energy during the therapy sessions until the person is able to begin to discover their own self energy.  

In Internal Family systems no parts are viewed as bad. The model helps a person to get to know each part and to find out why and when it has developed and what its role in the persons system is. It will usually be attempting to protect the person and often is protecting one of the exiles who is holding enormous pain and burden from a traumatic experience.  Once work has been done with the protector parts and agreement is given by the whole system the exile can be worked with, and trauma can be processed and unburdened.