IFS vs Traditional Talk Therapy: Why Parts Work Goes Deeper
Tired of talk therapy that helps you understand your patterns—but not change them? In this post, Bethany Russell, MA, LPC, breaks down how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy goes beyond coping strategies to heal the parts of you that traditional therapy often overlooks. Learn why your anxious, people-pleasing, or shutdown responses aren’t flaws—they’re protectors. And discover why working with your internal system creates lasting transformation.

There are two versions of you. There's the you that knows you're safe, worthy, and capable of healthy relationships—calm, grounded, and wise. Then there's the you that panics when your partner doesn't text back, abandons yourself to keep others happy, or shuts down the moment conflict arises. Traditional therapy treats both versions like they're the same person. IFS knows better. Your trauma responses aren't character flaws—they're protective parts trying to keep you safe. Here's why parts work changes everything for trauma survivors...

I've been thinking about this pattern I keep seeing with my clients.

They've built incredible things. Successful businesses, impressive careers, the kind of life that looks amazing from the outside. And they come to me saying some version of the same thing:

"I should be happy. I have everything I thought I wanted. But I feel... empty."

The part that gets me is how guilty they feel about it. Like they're ungrateful or broken for not feeling fulfilled by their success.

But here's what I've learned: achievement doesn't automatically heal your inner world.

Talk therapy gives you insight—but ritual creates embodied transformation. In this post, trauma therapist and coach Bethany Russell, LPC, shares why healing through ritual is essential for trauma survivors, sensitive souls, and anyone seeking to move beyond just understanding their patterns. Discover how integrating parts work, nervous system regulation, and sacred ceremony creates deep, lasting change where traditional therapy alone can’t reach.

Self-sovereignty gets hijacked in six core ways: blended parts, survival-mode nervous systems, attachment wounds, ancestral trauma, emotional outsourcing, and soul-level patterns. This guide explores how these hijackers show up—and how to reclaim your power through IFS, somatic healing, and spiritual integration.

Self-sovereign: The lived capacity to lead from your authentic Self, even when trauma, emotional triggers, inherited burdens, or relational patterns arise. To be self-sovereign is to sit in the driver’s seat of your inner world—where your choices, boundaries, and responses are directed not by wounded parts or fear, but by clarity, compassion, and conscious intent. By Bethany Russell, LPC.