What is Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy?
A compassionate, evidence-based approach to healing | Online from Perth and across Australia.
Overview of IFS
What is IFS?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a compassionate, evidence-informed therapeutic approach that helps you better understand and work with the different “parts” of your inner experience. These parts can include emotions, beliefs, protective patterns, and learned responses that each play a role in how you think, feel, and act.
Developed by Dr Richard Schwartz in the 1980s, IFS views these parts not as problems, but as understandable responses to your life experiences. Through therapy, you learn to connect with these parts from your core Self—a grounded state characterised by qualities such as calmness, curiosity, compassion, and clarity.
Working from this Self-led place can support emotional healing, reduce internal conflict, and foster greater balance, resilience, and psychological well-being.
Understanding Your Inner System
In Internal Family Systems (IFS), the mind is understood as a collection of “parts,” each holding its own feelings, perspectives, and roles. These parts develop to help you navigate life, and even when their strategies feel unhelpful, they are ultimately trying to protect you in some way. IFS supports you in getting to know these parts with curiosity and compassion.
The Self: Your Core of Calm and Compassion
IFS describes the Self as the grounded centre of who you are. From this place—characterised by qualities such as calmness, curiosity, and compassion—you can relate to your parts with understanding and care. When the Self leads, there is more balance and harmony within your inner world.
Protector parts work hard to shield you from discomfort or emotional pain. They may take the form of perfectionism, self-criticism, overthinking, or avoidance. Although their strategies can sometimes feel restrictive, their underlying intention is to keep you safe. Therapy can help you understand these protectors and relate to them in a supportive and respectful way.
Protectors: Parts That Keep You Safe
Exiles: Wounded Parts That Carry Pain
Exiles are often younger or more vulnerable parts that hold emotions or memories from past experiences. These parts may feel hurt, scared, ashamed, or alone. In IFS therapy, you are supported to reconnect with these parts at a pace that feels safe, offering them compassion and helping them unburden what they have been carrying.
How IFS Works
IFS therapy is a collaborative and gently paced process. While the approach has a clear framework, it unfolds in an organic way that follows your experience and readiness. Here’s an outline of what the process may involve:
With your therapist’s support, you begin to notice and get to know your parts. This often includes paying attention to your inner experience—such as emotions, thoughts, impulses, physical sensations, or patterns that feel conflicting or overwhelming. This process helps you understand the roles your parts have taken on and how they have been trying to support you.
Step 1: Identifying Your Parts
Step 2: Connecting with Your Self
IFS places importance on accessing your Self—the grounded, compassionate core of who you are. Your therapist will help you cultivate a felt sense of this calm and curious state. From here, you can relate to your parts with greater understanding and care, setting the foundation for healing relationships within your inner system.
As therapy progresses, you and your therapist explore your protective parts with respect and patience. These protectors often need acknowledgment and reassurance before they feel comfortable allowing access to more vulnerable, exiled parts. At a pace that feels right for you, the process may include helping exiled parts release burdens they have carried—such as painful emotions or limiting beliefs. Many people describe experiencing a greater sense of inner ease, coherence, and resilience as this work unfolds.
Step 3: Working with Protectors and Exiles
Who Might Find IFS Useful?
IFS-informed therapy may be suitable if you are wanting a compassionate, parts-based way of understanding your inner experiences.
People often consider IFS when they are:
noticing recurring emotional patterns or inner conflicts.
wanting to explore the roots of difficulties such as anxiety, low mood, or the effects of past experiences.
seeking a gentle, non-pathologising approach to personal understanding and growth.
"Many people find that IFS provides a respectful framework for exploring how different parts of themselves respond to distress. If you’re curious about whether this approach might fit your needs, we can discuss your goals and preferences in an initial consultation"
What Does the Research Say?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is showing promising results as an evidence-based approach for a range of mental health concerns. While more research is still emerging, early studies indicate that IFS can help reduce symptoms and support improvements in overall well-being. Research to date suggests that IFS may be helpful for:
Trauma and PTSD: A 2021 pilot study found IFS reduced symptoms of PTSD and depression in adults with multiple childhood trauma (Hodgson, H.B. et al., 2021). A 2024 study also found that online, group-based IFS treatment for adults with childhood trauma and intimate partner violence significantly decreased anxiety, depression, suicide risk, and emotional dysregulation, while increasing self-compassion (Comeau, A. et. al, 2024).
Internet Addiction: A 2023 study reported that an IFS-informed intervention led to significant reductions in symptoms of internet addiction (Mehrad S.M. et. al, 2023).
Depression and Anxiety: IFS has shown early promise in improving symptoms by addressing underlying emotional wounds and internal dynamics ( Haddock, et al, 2016) .
Chronic Pain: A 2013 proof-of-concept study found that IFS-based interventions improved physical functioning and reduced pain in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (Shadick et al, 2013).
Recognition: IFS was included on the National Registry for Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) during the time the registry was active. (IFS Foundation, 2015).
While therapy outcomes vary from person to person, these emerging findings suggest that IFS may offer a meaningful and effective pathway to healing for many individuals.
Learn More
Want to learn about IFS ? Watch this Huberman Lab conversation from March 2025 where Dr. Richard Schwartz, founder of IFS, explains how IFS works and it may further help to work out if it matches what you might be looking for in therapy.
Ready to start IFS therapy?
Book a consultation today. We are based in Perth and offer online sessions across Australia.
References
Comeau, A., Smith, L. J., Smith, L., Soumerai Rea, H., Ward, M. C., Creedon, T. B., Sweezy, M., Rosenberg, L. G., & Schuman-Olivier, Z. (2024). Online group-based internal family systems treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: Feasibility and acceptability of the program for alleviating and resolving trauma and stress.Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 16(Suppl 3), S636–S640. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0001688
Haddock SA, Weiler LM, Trump LJ, Henry KL. The Efficacy of Internal Family Systems Therapy in the Treatment of Depression Among Female College Students: A Pilot Study. J Marital Fam Ther. 2017 Jan;43(1):131-144. doi: 10.1111/jmft.12184. Epub 2016 Aug 8. PMID: 27500908.
Hodgdon, H. B., Anderson, F. G., Southwell, E., Hrubec, W., & Schwartz, R. (2021). Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among Survivors of Multiple Childhood Trauma: A Pilot Effectiveness Study. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 31(1), 22–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926771.2021.2013375
Mehrad Sadr, M., Borjali, A., Eskandari, H., & Delavar, A. (2023). Design and validation of a therapy program based on the internal family systems model and its efficacy on internet addiction. Journal of Psychological Science, 22(121), 19-35. https://psychologicalscience.ir/article-1-1867-fa.html
Shadick, N. A., Sowell, N. F., Frits, M. L., Hoffman, S. M., Hartz, S. A., Booth, F. D., Sweezy, M., Rogers, P. R., Dubin, R. L., Atkinson, J. C., Friedman, A. L., Augusto, F., Iannaccone, C. K., Fossel, A. H., Quinn, G., Cui, J., Losina, E., & Schwartz, R. C. (2013). A randomized controlled trial of an internal family systems-based psychotherapeutic intervention on outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis: A proof-of-concept study. The Journal of Rheumatology, 40(11), 1831-1841. https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.121465