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EfficientlyEpic3 karma

Thanks for this!!

I'm very interested to hear from you: How can I explain IFS to a (Dutch) psyhologist or coach?

For example: what could be key words to help them understand how IFS complements other therapy/diagnosis/coaching trajectories? Or what sort of 'schools of thought' would they recognise?

For context: part of me fears that those professionals may feel uneasy if they don't understand it when I bring up IFS experiences or concepts, which I inevitably do.

EfficientlyEpic2 karma

Upvote on questions 1 & 2!

EfficientlyEpic1 karma

I sense uneasiness when I feel I don't understand what they want me to do.
Maybe it's best to share two examples:

Example 1: Coach uses slightly different model and I want to understand it

For example a coach I worked with in the past had a model of 1) 'pain', which seemed to me to be the initial bodily response to a trigger, surrounded by 2) a cloud of 'thoughts', which according to her were generated by 'the narrator'. She asked me to give a name to 'the narrator' which sounded to me like a very very simplified version of IFS, with one part instead of many. I tried to ask for clarification: did she mean the sort of underlying pain of an exile, or did she mean the reaction of the protector stepping in in response of the trigger, which could also be pain/anger/panic/strong emotions. My impression is that these questions were unexpected, and if I try to explain IFS, she maybe felt like losing control of the moment and of course they want to achieve something with this modality, so me going into analysis mode is not what she wanted.

I wouldn't want coaches/therapists to be intimidated of IFS, which actually helps me to understand what they want to teach me.

Again, I think it's very complementary.

Example 2: Coach uses visualisation exercise and I want to be carefull with it.

Another experience were this would be usefull is of another coach, who has an exercise to find a core phrase that describes the negative self-image that a person has created of themselves. We talked about something that happened in my youth, and then to imagine my younger self walking in the room, describing what my young self was doing, and speaking to my young self in terms this imaginary me of that age would understand. This of course reminded me of IFS. The first time I spoke it came out as advice. I acknowledged the advice part and the part that felt sad about me not approaching from self, and tried again, with a pleasant interaction.

I would have loved to be able to take a little bit more time, maybe just in my own head, to get a feel for some of the protectors popping up and to give them some acknowledgement, which from an IFS lense seems a very necessary thing to do this responsibly! But I (again) don't want to come across as not trusting the exercise or the person leading it.

EfficientlyEpic1 karma

I'd love to hear from you: have you heard of NLP and if so, does it relate to IFS in any way fron what you know?

EfficientlyEpic1 karma

Awesome!
I was thinking of: authors, scientific research groups, platforms/newsletters/assiociations where professionals share knowledge, commercial organisations and institutes can also do research... Maybe just sources or channels that you think are good to rely on to get new or deeper insights.
I'm very new to IFS (less than a year) so it's difficult to assess where insights are coming from.