Unlocking the Self — IFS Approaches to Healing The Inner Child, Triggers & Addiction
Expert Series: Unlocking the Self — IFS Approaches to Healing The Inner Child, Triggers & Addiction with Dr. Richard Schwartz
This course explores the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, which understands the human mind as naturally multiple—made up of distinct parts and an inherent, undamaged core known as the Self.
Through this lens, inner conflict, emotional triggers, and addictive patterns are understood not as pathology, but as protective strategies rooted in past experience.
This expert series provides a detailed introduction to the IFS framework, including the core categories of internal parts:
Managers – proactive protectors that attempt to control the environment
Firefighters – reactive protectors that respond when emotional pain breaks through
Exiles – vulnerable, burdened parts shaped by past trauma
All parts are understood as trying to keep the system safe, even when their strategies become extreme or problematic due to being “frozen in time” by trauma.
Central to this work is the Self—characterized by calm, curiosity, compassion, and clarity—which naturally emerges when parts feel safe enough to relax. From this Self-led state, healing relationships with wounded parts can form, allowing unburdening, transformation, and internal harmony.
