#Mentalhealthmonday
This Monday we are going to be breaking down one of the therapies that we offer here at Wild Mountain Clinical Counselling called Internal Family Systems, otherwise known as IFS.
Fun fact – Pixar’s movie “Inside Out” is loosely based on IFS therapy developed by Richard Schwartz. He believed that the personality is made up of parts that all play valuable and healthy roles.
IFS therapy is used to tap into these different parts of self. The assumption is that there are no bad parts only parts forced into bad roles. When a client learns how to access self, they can then heal their wounded parts.
IFS therapy originally was developed to help people with eating disorders but it was since discovered that it can help with a range of mental health diagnoses as well as non-clinical issues. These range from anxiety to depression to suicidal ideation. IFS is also used for people struggling with issues related to self-esteem, anger, shame and more.
In order to offer IFS therapy a therapist must have additional post graduate training. This typically includes attending the IFS institute’s level 1 training, participating in consultation or supervision with other IFS therapists, and continuing education classes that focus on IFS.
