Introduction to Internal Family Systems Paperback – March 7, 2023

This is an excellent, accessible, and powerful overview of the fundamental ideas in IFS. I am a practicing psychiatrist, and have found IFS to be a terrific way of working with people. IFS addresses people as complex, social beings, and appreciates their complexity. But at the same time, it avoids the guild-language jargon of conventional psychobabble. Dynamically trained therapists will find in IFS a congenial way of using their knowledge in a much more accessible form for their patients. Also, IFS is fundamentally optimistic about the capacity for humans to live fulfilled, happy lives. Strongly recommended!

I purchased this book after researching a bit on IFS and noticing that it is a required reading for the trainings offered by the IFS institute if you want to become certified or official. This book is an easy read and maintained my attention. I especially appreciated the multitude of metaphors, examples, and quotations to help the reader understand each topic in question. I believe that this book is primarily geared towards letting client's of therapists using the IFS model/intervention understand the process and purpose, and not necessarily how to use the model; which is what I was expecting in addition to some explanation of the origin and terminology. That may have been a fault of my own, but it is OK because I still found this book to be useful. I am eager to learn more about this model and how it can be applied to therapy.IFS generally reminds me a lot of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), but it uses different terms. I expect that I will use more ACT in my work setting and use this as an intervention to achieve distancing the "Self" from thoughts.

A deep look at what really drives us to protect , surmount and navigate the shoals of the soul. Wisdom.

This book rocked my world. The articulate and thorough description of the human inner life is remarkable. I am filled with hope and self-compassion as I sit with this deeper understanding of my inner world and how it shapes my current life. I feel like I have an essential new roadmap for finding my way to a more balanced and freer life.

I think the author spends a little too much time repeating in creative ways the importance of having compassion for our parts, a lot less exploring of some of the scientific evidence behind some of the rather bold claims presented or clarifying the more thorny topics.For instance, Schwartz brought up the interwoven relationship between the body and mind by suggesting that for some people, “firefighters use the body. Sudden pains or illnesses can be effective distractions. Firefighters can amplify physical pain or disease that already exists, lower resistance to viruses or bacteria, or push physiological buttons that trigger genetic conditions.” Most readers, I would argue, would have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated at the very least a brief mention of the studies and body of work that allowed the author to state these findings so matter of factly.Another example that is at the forefront of my mind is the lack of detail in the discussion about the self imitating part, and being able to recognize it. The author himself mentioned when he narrowly caught one of his clients not being in his Self, through a “hollow compliance, protective distance, and slight condescension” in his tone and words. It would have been so much more informative for the reader to have concrete understanding of what exactly led the author to come to this conclusion about his client.Albeit, he does note how he himself detect the self imitating part in myself which is to “check to see how open [his] heart is or to notice if [he has] an agenda while [he interacts] with someone.” I do have trouble with subjective measures such as “openness of the heart”, but that is unfortunately not something the author can help me with, however I think most would have appreciated a more in depth discussion of this agenda-less being: how can one be in Self while interacting with a part with the objective of healing, since the presence of this objective itself by definition would lend to the leading part to be categorized as a self imitating part.

I recommend this book for everyone who emabrks on a Journey to find the truth, no books or method helped me restore my hope and have much clarity like IFS.

This book is a quick info dump on IFS. I enjoyed it, and it filled in some gaps in my knowledge from learning from uncoordinated sources like YouTube. for a step by step, experiential look at IFS, I liked No Bad Parts.

Quick read but so much great information! The language in the book is not just clinicians but for anyone who wants to learn more about Internal Family Systems