IFS-informed sessions

Duration of each session: 60 minutes 

Cost: 90 USD

Sessions are facilitated via Zoom.

Anastasia will send you a booking link for this session after you complete a consultation with her.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a psychotherapeutic modality created by an American therapist and academic, Richard C. Shwartz. 

IFS is based on the understanding that every person's psyche is multiple or has multiple parts. In other words, our psyche holds a variety of different perspectives within it, which are constantly influencing our lives in both positive and negative ways.  

When trauma occurs within the system, some parts get wounded and become completely isolated from the whole. This leads the inner system to create protective parts or strategies around those wounded parts (or inner children) to make sure that they never get triggered. Unfortunately, no matter how hard the protective parts work, the wounded parts will eventually get triggered, and a person's defence system will be further activated, resulting in emotional, mental and physical challenges. 

IFS sessions help the wounded parts of the psyche to release their burdens and create healthier strategies within the system that ensure a person's well-being across all dimensions of health. IFS sessions are very gentle, slow-paced, intuitive and healing. Nobody will tell you what to do or press you into doing something you do not want to do. An IFS skilled coach/practitioner simply guides you in the process of understanding your internal system. 

These sessions are based solely on the IFS model and are not conducted in the same way as Anastasia's typical coaching sessions. IFS sessions aim to help you deeply connect with your inner world and build a solid relationship with it.

IFS sessions can help you to:

• understand yourself more

• gain more clarity around your present life/health challenges

• cultivate self-compassion and self-love

• become more emotionally resilient

• improve your intuition

• connect to your inner power and resources

• release emotional blocks and trauma

• bring you back home to your SELF/connect with who you truly are

At the end of each session, Anastasia will give you instructions on what to do in between sessions. It is highly recommended for every client to do self-healing work outside of the sessions to achieve greater results.

Please note that IFS sessions offered by Anastasia are IFS-INFORMED sessions. This means that Anastasia has finished a professional foundational IFS-CIRCLE course which allows her to instill IFS-informed principles into her coaching work. Complex cases outside of Anastasia's scope of practice will be referred to more experienced IFS Level 1,2,3 practitioners. 

IFS-informed sessions with Anastasia are not psychological consultations, despite her background in Practical Psychology and trauma-trained care. Anastasia works with what arises within her clients in the here and now and focuses on her clients’ future health goals. IFS sessions do not require you to overshare, talk about your trauma in detail, or remember traumatic scenes in a way that may retraumatise you. If you have any further questions, you are always welcome to send Anastasia an email.

FAQ

1. I'm afraid to get re-traumatised. Can you explain why IFS/IFS-informed sessions do not cause re-tramatisation?

Yes, of course. First, it is important to clarify that trauma-trained coaching and counselling are two different approaches. A trauma-trained coach helps you gently connect with what requires your attention in the present moment to achieve your life/health goals. Counsellors, on the other hand, work actively with the past, helping you make sense of what happened and how those experiences have affected you.

It’s also important to note that many counsellors use talk therapy, which can be highly re-traumatizing for cPTSD survivors. Trauma-trained coaching does not involve constant discussion of past events because it is not talk therapy; instead, it focuses on establishing new neural pathways in your brain that support trauma healing.

IFS sessions focus on what arises in the moment and what is important for you right now. In IFS, you do not need to revisit your past trauma in the same way as in therapy. There is a significant difference between revisiting traumatic scenes when you are in a vulnerable, unsafe state versus when your SELF/Soul/Mature, untouchable part is present. IFS sessions are gentle and respectful toward your protective parts, and we never approach the wounded parts unless the protectors allow it.

2. Do I need to prepare anything for an IFS-informed session?

It depends on you and how you’d like to approach these sessions. You can purchase an IFS workbook by Dick Schwartz, which we can incorporate into our work together. You might also want to have coloured pencils or pens on hand for after-session work, to draw or document the parts you notice during the session. This can be a profoundly healing aspect of IFS. Some clients choose to share their drawings with me, and I absolutely love seeing them.

This is one beautiful drawing a client shared with me after one very profound session (sharing with their permission):

3. Does IFS work for everyone? 

Just like with everything else in life, some things feel good and work for you, while others don’t. Always trust your gut and how you feel. If, generally speaking, IFS sessions make you feel better, then keep doing them. If not, there may be a healing modality that suits you better. I would say that IFS sessions are for people who are self-explorers - those striving to understand themselves more deeply, improve their intuition, and pursue spiritual development.