You are not broken. Your parts are trying to protect you.
Online IFS therapy across Colorado and California.
IFS is not just a therapy method. It’s a new relationship with your inner world.
Maybe you’ve been on a self-help or healing journey for years.
You’re not new to insight. You’ve read the books. You’ve tried therapy before. Maybe you’re still not sure what you were actually trying to change. You understand that you have some wounds from your past, but you feel frustrated that you can’t seem to do anything about that knowledge.
You understand… but it hasn’t actually changed how you feel inside.
Maybe most of all, you’re exhausted by your inner critic. You know the loudest criticism you hear is often coming from inside. You hear about self-compassion, but you don’t know what that actually feels like. You desperately want to be kinder and gentler with yourself, but honestly? That sounds like a bunch of therapy-wellness-mumbo-jumbo. The truth is you feel frustrated as crap with yourself because you’re not healing fast enough. You feel like you get stuck too much on things that “don’t matter” or are “small.” It feels like you’re putting on a performance when you try and be even a TINY BIT more patient with yourself.
What you call your inner critic may actually be a whole system of parts trying to help
Internal Family Systems, often called parts work, is a therapy approach based on a simple idea: we all have different parts of us.
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Parts can take on roles that helped keep you safe earlier in life, but can cause problems for you now. IFS radically (and I believe truthfully) pushes the idea that there are no bad parts, even the ones that are most destructive.
The clients I work with tend to identify with… The Perfectionist. The Overthinker. The “Don’t mess this up” part. The Exhausted part. Sound familiar? These types of parts tend to be passionate, rigid, unrelenting, and terrified of not doing what they’re doing. Trying to fight them off or make them go away only serves to create more pressure inside.
I’ll help you slow down and get to know your ‘internal system’ of parts so you can see that most learned their strategies early in life to help you cope, belong, or stay safe.
IFS helps you slow down and get curious about these parts instead of fighting them. Over time, you begin to understand what they’re protecting and what they need. This is part of what I mean when I talk about the slow way home.
I continue to do my own IFS therapy so I can stay aware of my own parts and show up fully for the work we do together. Also, I just love it.
At the center of this work is something IFS calls the Self — a steady, compassionate, grounded core within you. When your Self is leading, your anxious or perfectionistic parts don’t have to work so hard.
The goal isn’t to get rid of parts. (It’s actually not possible.)
It’s to create balance inside, so every part of you can relax into a healthier role.
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IFS is a deeply experiential approach. That means we won’t just talk about your anxiety — we’ll slow down and notice how it shows up in your body, your thoughts, and your impulses in real time.
We usually begin with whatever feels most present for you. Together, we get curious about it. If curiosity feels hard, you can borrow mine. That’s part of my role.
From there, the goal is to gently focus on one part at a time. Often this is an anxious or perfectionistic part, but sometimes something more vulnerable is waiting underneath. We move at a pace that feels steady and manageable. As trust builds, we begin to understand what these parts are protecting.
When the time is right, we help those more vulnerable parts release the beliefs and emotional burdens they’ve been carrying for years.
As that happens, your protective parts don’t have to work so hard. Productivity, perfectionism, or constant overthinking naturally soften — not because you forced them to, but because they no longer need to operate in extreme ways.
IFS helps you stop fighting yourself and start living from a steadier place within.
Is IFS the right fit for you?
IFS therapy can help you relate to yourself in a more compassionate, grounded way.
This approach might be a good fit if you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about your patterns but still feel stuck, or if you’re tired of trying to manage your anxiety and want something deeper. Instead of focusing on fixing or pushing things away, we slow down and get curious about what’s happening inside. Over time, this can help you feel more clear, more grounded, and more like yourself.
IFS can help you…
Identify the parts of you that are working overtime and understand what they need.
Build genuine compassion for yourself, including the parts you usually criticize.
Reduce self-criticism, rumination, and hypervigilance.
Release painful beliefs and emotional burdens rooted in earlier experiences.
Soften perfectionism and extreme productivity patterns.
Improve your relationships by responding instead of reacting.
Strengthen your connection to your steady, authentic core.
Trust yourself and your decisions with more clarity and confidence.
Experience more presence, awe, and aliveness in your daily life.
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
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That’s completely okay. You don’t need to “believe in parts” for this work to be helpful. Most people already talk about parts of themselves without realizing it… “a part of me wants to,” “a part of me is scared.” IFS simply gives language to something you likely already experience. We move slowly and let your experience guide us, not theory.
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I won’t force parts language or push you into anything that feels uncomfortable. Often, we start with whatever feels most present — anxiety, perfectionism, overwhelm — and gently explore from there. If parts language feels strange at first, that’s okay. We can ease into it together.
IFS and parts language are the framework I most often use to guide the work we do together, but you are never required to use the language like I do! And you can let me know if there’s something I’m doing that doesn’t feel good, and we can talk about it.
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No problem. In fact, I expect that with high-functioning anxiety.
Your analytical mind is likely a part of you that has worked very hard to keep you safe, successful, and in control. It’s welcome here. I have analytical parts too! It belongs just as much as your feelings do.
We don’t push thinking aside in this work. We simply get curious about it. Over time, you may notice that when your analytical part doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting, something steadier can come forward too.
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I get why you’d want to. When anxiety feels loud or overwhelming, it makes sense to want it gone.
But in IFS, we don’t try to eliminate parts of you. Anxious parts aren’t random or broken, they developed for a reason.
The goal isn’t to get rid of them. It’s to understand them.
When your anxious parts feel heard and supported, they don’t have to work so hard. They soften. They relax. They stop running the show.
Anxiety is usually a protective part, not a problem to erase. When you try to get rid of it, it often fights back harder. When you understand it, it changes.
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IFS is an evidence-based model that has been increasingly researched and used with anxiety, trauma, depression, and relationship issues. Richard Schwartz has been developing the model for over 40 years. More importantly, I’ve seen how powerful it can be in real life. When people stop fighting their anxiety and begin understanding it, change becomes sustainable rather than forced.
You can’t do this wrong. I repeat, you can’t do this wrong! I get that worry and it makes sense to me. Maybe you’ve tried so many things to feel better, and nothing has really worked. But you don’t have to fit into the IFS model, it molds to you.
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You can read No Bad Parts by Dr. Richard Schwartz, the founder of IFS. You can also explore introductory videos and resources through the IFS Institute website here:
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Comprehensive Internal Family Systems Therapy Course: A Step-by-Step Guide Through Clinical Applications of the IFS Model (Online Course) July 2020
Harmony Within: Embracing Transformation through IFS in October 2023 and again in May 2024
Level 1 trained from IFSI 2025
Parts, Self, & Connection: An IFS Retreat for Healing Your Relationships January 2026
IFS Consultation and Continuing Education through IFSI
Get in touch
There’s a different way to relate to what’s happening inside of you.
get to know the parts of yourself for a more fulfilling life.
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get to know the parts of yourself for a more fulfilling life. —