Therapy is a meeting of two systems: yours and your clients.
When you sit in the therapist chair, your whole system is with you. Your protectors, your wounds, and your unburdened parts are right there with your Self energy.
You might feel unhealed parts stirring inside you - an exile peeking out in recognition when your client works with a similar burden, an over-achieving protector striving to be the best therapist, or a fire-fighter coming out in full force when it senses a part in your client reminiscent of your past hurts.
Unburdened parts can show up too. These parts have wisdom and insights to share, things they may see in the client and in you that can help you better serve your client.
When I first started practicing Internal Family Systems, I worked to keep my parts out of the therapy room. My belief - a pretty common one in the IFS community - was that the presence of my parts in a session was a trailhead for me, pointing to something that needed healing in my own system. I didn’t take the time to consider what the part was telling me about my client, the wisdom within the reaction.
Now I take a broader perspective. Inspired by Joanne Twombly’s Fire Drill practice for working with parts in the therapist’s system, I take my time to listen to what my parts have to share, seeing them as valuable companions in my work. That’s the perspective I bring to consultation.
What Happens in Consultation
You might feel stuck with a client. Things are not progressing and you don’t know why. Or you’re noticing strong reactions in your system - feeling frustrated, disconnected, hesitant, or aligned with your client’s hopeless parts.
You might be struggling with a specific issue that comes up with multiple clients, clients who struggle with insight work, strong narrating or explaining parts, aggressive parts, or hopeless parts.
I offer both single session and on-going consultation to help you move forward again.
Single session consultation is exactly what it sounds like - a single consult to support you with a particular client or issue. We explore what’s happening in your system, listening to what your parts want you to hear about the client and yourself.
My role as a consultant is to guide that process. We start with a mapping of the parts that are showing up with something to share. I invite in curiosity and spacious holding for your parts so you can hear what they want you to hear.
Sometimes in our listening, we find a trailhead for you to explore in your own therapy. Sometimes there isn’t anything bigger than needs addressing. Either way, you’ll find that your parts have a lot of wisdom to share, and when they feel heard, they’re able to relax back and let your Self energy lead your sessions.
It’s a beautiful and enlightening process, rich with wisdom and insight.
If you’d like more support, we can meet on a regular basis for on-going consultation. This allows time for more discussion of the application of IFS, learning and role-playing, and in-depth work with your own system. Frequency of sessions is set by your needs (and my availability!).
If you have questions about working with me or want to get started, get in touch.