Have you ever had an experience where you’re trying to make a decision and say to a friend, ‘part of me thinks I should do this, and another part of me thinks I should do that?’ These experiences are so common! We contain multitudes. And that is one of the fundamental assumptions of IFS—that each of us is not just a singular “I” or “me,” but instead we’re like a bunch of pixels that come together to make up the whole picture of who we are. It’s very normal to contain many aspects, or parts, of who we are.

If you’ve ever seen the movie Inside Out, that’s a great example of what I’m talking about. There’s an angry part, a sad part, a disgusted part...and each part has its own perspective, feelings, memories, goals, and motivations. Conflict between parts (e.g., an “over-achiever and a “slacker”) yields what we perceive as symptoms, and IFS is a way to reduce that conflict and bring greater balance and harmony to the system.