What Is Parts Work / IFS Therapy?
The duality within you isn’t a flaw. It’s the key to deep, lasting healing.
By Bethany Russell, MA, LPC
We’ve all felt it: one part of you wants to move forward, while another seems to hold you back. Maybe you crave deep connection, but another part fears getting too close. Perhaps you’re driven to succeed, but there’s an inner critic that says, “Not good enough.” You might be working through depression, untangling attachment patterns, healing from toxic or religious trauma, or facing a season of big decisions. This inner push and pull isn’t a personal failing. It’s the natural duality within all of us, and a profound source of wisdom.
This is the heart of parts work and Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. It’s an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach that sees you as a beautifully complex system of inner parts, all working hard (sometimes a little too hard) to keep you safe. At its core, this work is about reclaiming your self sovereignty: the freedom to live from your own wisdom, not just your wounds.
Why Insight Isn’t Enough
You may have tried traditional talk therapy. You can name your triggers, understand your past, and explain your patterns. But the same stuck feelings, self-sabotage, or anxious cycles keep returning. That’s because insight alone doesn’t shift what’s happening on a deeper, nervous system level.
IFS therapy goes beyond insight by helping you build real relationships with the different parts of your inner world. Healing becomes something you actually feel in your body, your mind, and your spirit—not just something you understand. This work is not just psychological, but deeply energetic and spiritual as well.
What Is Parts Work?
Parts work, most often known through Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, is an approach that recognizes you are not “one thing.” Inside each of us are many “parts”—like the perfectionist, the inner child, the critic, the protector, the achiever, the part that just wants to rest. Each part developed for a reason, usually to help you survive, succeed, or avoid pain.
In IFS therapy, we honor these parts instead of fighting them. We learn how to listen to what they need, understand their roles, and—over time—help them trust that healing and change are possible.
How Does IFS Therapy Work?
A typical IFS or parts work session is collaborative and gentle. Instead of analyzing or judging your thoughts, you’re guided to notice what’s happening inside with curiosity and compassion. You might identify a part of you that feels anxious in social settings, or one that gets angry when boundaries are crossed.
The goal isn’t to “get rid of” any part, but to help each one relax, transform, and ultimately work with you, not against you. Over time, you learn to access your Self: the calm, wise, grounded core of who you are. From this place, deep healing naturally unfolds.
Ritual & Unburdening:
A unique aspect of IFS is the practice of ritual unburdening. This means helping parts release beliefs, energies, or pain they’ve been carrying, sometimes for years or generations. This process can be deeply somatic, and may involve visualizations, gentle ceremony, or symbolic acts that honor the part and mark its freedom. Many clients experience this as a profound spiritual reset—allowing them to reclaim energy, intuition, and creativity that was once locked away.
Why Does Parts Work Go Deeper Than Traditional Therapy?
Trauma-Informed: IFS recognizes that the parts holding our pain, shame, or fear are often stuck in past wounds. By meeting them with compassion, healing can happen at the root, not just at the surface.
Somatic & Nervous System Aligned: Parts work isn’t just about talking. It’s about noticing sensations, emotions, and messages in your body. When all parts are welcomed, your nervous system shifts out of defense and into regulation, making real change possible.
Self-Leadership & Self Sovereignty: IFS teaches you to lead your inner system from your core Self—the calm, wise, compassionate center within you. This is the path to self sovereignty: the ability to trust your own inner guidance, make empowered choices, and live in alignment with your true values (not just old survival patterns).
Spiritually Rooted & Ritual-Based: Many clients experience IFS as a deeply spiritual process. By connecting with Self—your inner source of compassion and clarity—you open the door to wisdom, intuition, and even a sense of connection to something larger than yourself.
Ritual and Ceremony: Whether it’s a visualization, journaling, lighting a candle, or a guided meditation, ritual can support the unburdening process and anchor new patterns.
Connection to Intuition: IFS helps you access the quiet voice of intuition beneath your protectors’ noise. Over time, clients often report stronger intuitive hits, synchronicities, or a renewed sense of guidance.
Ancestral Patterns & Legacy Burdens: Sometimes, the pain your parts carry isn’t even yours. IFS recognizes “legacy burdens”—family, ancestral, or even collective wounds passed down through generations. Through ritual and inner work, these can be acknowledged, honored, and released.
Past Life Themes: For those open to it, parts work can also touch on themes or energies that feel bigger than this lifetime. These threads, whether seen as metaphor or memory, can be held with compassion and, when appropriate, gently released.
This work honors the full spectrum of your being: body, mind, heart, soul, spirit, and lineage.
Real-World Example
Imagine someone who keeps overworking, even as they burn out. Traditional therapy might explore “why,” but IFS gets curious: What part of you feels the need to keep pushing? Is there another part that feels exhausted, or maybe resentful?
Over time, these parts can communicate, shift roles, and allow the person to find balance, rest, and fulfillment—sometimes for the first time. For some, this process also awakens a deeper spiritual clarity, a sense of meaning, or a connection to inner guidance that had been lost.
Occasionally, a part may reveal a burden inherited from parents, ancestors, or even past life experiences, creating space for ritualized release and true freedom.
Who Benefits from IFS Therapy?
Anyone who feels “stuck,” even after years of self-work or talk therapy
People with anxiety, depression, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or inner conflict
Survivors of trauma seeking deep, body-based and soul-level healing
Those working through relational attachment patterns (anxious, avoidant, ambivalent)
Anyone healing from toxic relationships, unhealthy family dynamics, or religious trauma
High-achieving professionals who want to break old cycles and thrive
Anyone struggling with indecision—about life direction, relationships, career, or personal growth
Anyone longing to feel more at home within themselves, in mind, body, and spirit
Those on a spiritual path seeking to integrate intuition, energetic wisdom, ritual, or ancestral healing into their process
FAQs & Common Misconceptions
Does having “parts” mean I have multiple personalities?
Not at all. Everyone has parts—this is a normal, healthy aspect of being human. In IFS, “parts” simply refers to the different thoughts, feelings, beliefs, or inner voices we all experience, like the part of you that wants to rest and the part that feels guilty for doing so. It’s not the same as Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly called Multiple Personality Disorder). Parts work honors your wholeness by helping you build relationships with every part of yourself, so you can move through life with greater harmony and self-understanding.
Can IFS be done online?
Absolutely. Parts work and IFS therapy can be deeply effective via secure telehealth sessions.
Is IFS just for trauma?
IFS is powerful for trauma, but it’s also transformative for anyone seeking more inner peace, clarity, and authentic self-leadership.
Ready to Explore Parts Work?
If you’re curious about IFS therapy (parts work)—whether you’re in Colorado, California, Texas, or anywhere worldwide—I offer trauma-informed therapy and coaching online.. My approach blends evidence-based techniques with spiritual insight, intuition, somatic wisdom, ritual, ancestral healing, and holistic practices, all in service of your self sovereignty.
Learn more about my approach, read more articles, or reach out for a free consultation.
Your duality is welcome here.
-B