The Alchemy of IFS and Shamanism

Internal Family Systems is a psychospiritual model of therapy that at its root is working on enabling you to connect with your essential Self, or as some might call it your higher-self, soul or witness within.

The belief and our experience of IFS is that no matter what has happened to you in your life, what traumas or difficulties you’ve encountered, your Self remains untarnished within. Around this Self is a whole family of Parts (sub-personalities) that have formed and grown as you have interacted with life. Many of us are familiar with an inner critic, a creative part and parts of ourselves that are fearful, sad and quick to anger. Many parts of us that we work with therapeutically can be divided into 2 groups - exiles (the wounded parts of us) and protectors.

IFS works on building relationships between our Self and the different parts of who we are. These parts are often stuck in the past and typically need to build a relationship of trust with us so that they can unburdening and heal, and when it comes to protectors - find new evolved jobs in our system.

In our view IFS is naturally transpersonal and shamanic - it acknowledges and works with the power of ritual for healing; ancestral / transgenerational components of trauma and healing; the importance of coming home to one’s Self, or soul retrieval; and the possibility for interaction with external energies and spirit guides. It also works in a non-ordinary states of consciousness to explore parts, spirits and beyond.

What does shamanism in its own right have to offer our healing path? -

To us a shamanism is based on the perception and belief that we live in an animistic world, where everything has a spirit, everything is made of the 5 essential elements (space, water, fire, earth & air), and everything follows the laws of nature - such as everything being in-motion, inter-connected and existing in a wider cycle of life. Working with ourselves, our inner psyche and systems of parts in a way that is intentionally connected to this wider web of life allows us to draw on great support, work in greater symbiosis, and return to the rhythms and cycles of nature.

We externalise the inner process work of IFS into external rituals that work with the energies of nature. There is great power in ritual and ceremony both for our own healing and that of the planet as a whole, the two of course being inextricably linked.