When "internal family systems" therapy goes wrong...

[joeylittle]

But IFS takes it way further then that.

Not sure why you're picking a fight w/this one...IFS (as this thread pretty clearly points out) is something that is more often than not, adapted by the therapists that use it.

IFS, ACT, DBT, even EMDR - all exist in multiple forms. There's what one might call their "original" or "classic" mode, using a protocol or progression that was codified and practiced by the person who developed it; and, there's the whole spectrum of ways in which therapists have adapted these therapies.

Whether they've adapted them well or poorly - whether they are helping or harming someone - that's an interesting thing to discuss...and this is a discussion forum, so there ya go.

 

[EveHarrington]

Could you send/link me some of the stuff they use in your country? The IFS fad is strong where I live and it doesn't work for me.



Uh. IFS would say that "Bambi" is only trying to protect you and that you need to accept and comfort her in order for her to "trust" you to lead.

I understand how naming and externalising 'bad parts' helps. But IFS takes it way further then that.

Please go and read the dozens of posts/replies I’ve made about IFS over the years and not judge me based on what I said in this thread.....when likely triggered as fawn is my most difficult part, a part I am deeply struggling with yet again.

I’m not quite sure why there is so much focus on why I have named my fawn part “Bambi”....? It’s just a part of who I am. I name EVERYTHING. Stuffed animals. The dozens+++ of animals I’ve owned over my lifetime. It’s my child part that gives everything a cutesy name. Even other inanimate objects.

I’ve been through IFS therapy in the past. All parts had to be named in one way or another. This is just my method.

 

[Ronin]

Good examples right in-thread why IFS is problematic.

You'll get therapists who encourage any dramatic behavior mislabeled and going festive.

While therapists that get actual parts, anywhere on DID continuum *and not* but actual parts, are a survival mechanism, are scarce.