No Bad Parts

No Bad Parts is an introduction to a type of therapy called Internal Family Systems. Its creator, Dick Schwartz, believes that we have many sub-minds within us that are constantly interacting with the world and with each other. In mental health treatment, he says we are missing the mark if we do not engage with all parts of our clients. We have three categories of parts: exiles, managers and fire fighters. Exiles are our youngest, most sensitive parts. You may have heard about our inner child. Managers protect the exiles and often present as very controlling—your inner critic. Fire fighters respond after an exile has been triggered by distracting us until the emotion is more manageable—think substance abuse, creating drama. The goal of IFS is to restore trust in Self or to become Self-led. In order to achieve that goal, we have to reharmonize the inner system.

This type of therapy is not my style, so it was challenging to read about it and consider how I might implement it with my clients. I see two ways that I might use it in my practice. First I can see that each of our roles might be a part. Roles are who you are in a relationship with other people—daughter, sister, teammate. Each of those roles has goals of its own and sometimes we might find ourselves in conflict with another role. Have you ever noticed that you speak to your parents in a more child-like way? What about the differences in how you relate to your boss and your friends?

The other way I would use these parts is to externalize a symptom. I love the Netflix show, Big Mouth. It’s an adult cartoon about adolescents. When the characters experience anxiety or depression, a new character comes on screen—Anxiety Mosquito or Depression Kitty. Sometimes it helps clients who are experiencing overwhelming feelings to name the feeling so that it can be outside of themselves. For example, Anxiety Mosquito is telling me that I will fail at the test. In externalizing, we can work with it more objectively.