Internal Family Systems is a holistic approach to therapy that honors the natural multiplicity within each of us. It is based on the understanding that there are no bad parts, only parts that have taken on roles to help you survive and protect what feels vulnerable. Through this work, you learn to access your inner Self, a calm, compassionate, and confident presence that brings harmony and healing to every part of you and your relationships.
Most therapy asks you to manage a feeling or change a behavior. IFS asks who inside you is carrying it, and why.
The parts of you that criticize, numb, rush, please, or shut down are not flaws to be corrected. They are protectors who took on their roles at a time when those roles helped. Met with curiosity instead of judgment, they tend to soften, because they are finally being asked rather than overruled.
Rachel Forbes, LCSW, describes the work as compassionate, present, and attuned accompaniment through whatever may step forward in your inner world. What makes IFS distinct is its agenda-free style when getting to know parts of you who need, and have always needed, attention.
IFS sessions tend to move slowly and inward. Rather than analyzing a problem from the outside, you are invited to notice what is happening in your body and mind as you talk, and to turn toward a specific part with curiosity.
Early on that often means a grounding exercise followed by gently making contact with one part, done lightly so as not to overwhelm your system. Over time, the work is less about resolving a topic and more about building a relationship with the parts of you that have been carrying something alone.
You are always welcome to ask questions about the work or about your therapist, and to take your time deciding whether it fits. This is meant to be free from pressure.
You deserve an honest picture rather than a confident one.
In 2015, IFS was listed on SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, which rated it effective for improving general functioning and well-being, and promising for reducing depression, anxiety, and physical health symptoms. That listing followed a randomized controlled trial published in the Journal of Rheumatology in 2013, in which 79 patients with rheumatoid arthritis received either an IFS-based intervention or education over 36 weeks. The IFS group showed improved physical functioning, reduced depressive symptoms, and greater self-compassion (Shadick et al., Journal of Rheumatology, 2013).
Since then, a pilot study of 16 IFS sessions for post-traumatic stress found most participants no longer met diagnostic criteria at one-month follow-up (Hodgdon et al., 2021), and researchers at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, published the first randomized controlled trial of PARTS, a 16-week group program derived from IFS.
The honest caveat: this evidence base is emerging, not settled. It is smaller than the research behind cognitive behavioral therapy or EMDR, and the IFS Institute states plainly that larger, fully-powered trials are still needed for each clinical indication. The SAMHSA registry that listed IFS has since been discontinued. We offer IFS because of what we see in the room and because the early research is genuinely promising, not because the question is closed.
Our therapists work with clients located anywhere in Connecticut. Sessions are virtual, with limited in-person availability in Madison, CT. Most clients begin weekly, and you and your therapist will decide together what rhythm supports your capacity. Many of our therapists accept Medicaid/Husky, Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Cigna, and coverage varies by therapist.
