When young people have experienced trauma, especially multiple forms of trauma, it damages the way they see and understand themselves. They often develop feelings of self-blame, self-loathing, and shame. These feelings can make trauma symptoms more severe: research has shown that shame moderates the association between aspects of interpersonal trauma, such as emotional abuse or isolation, and the severity of PTSD symptoms.
This means that addressing negative self-concepts, such as shame and self-blame, plays an important role in recovery from trauma. While therapies like cognitive-behavioural therapy (which focus on changing thinking and behaviour patterns) may be helpful for some individuals, others may find that it invalidates or overlooks their emotional experiences. Instead, therapies that teach mindfulness, self-compassion, and self-acceptance may be more effective.
What Is Internal Family Systems Therapy and How Does It Work?
Internal family systems therapy is a type of psychotherapy that centres around self-compassion, self-acceptance, and mindfulness. It conceives of each person -or mind – as being made up of multiple parts. These inner parts are all important, but experiences like trauma can push them into more extreme, and sometimes harmful, roles. This can pull a person away from their authentic self and cause additional emotional distress.
IFS therapy assumes that everyone has an authentic self and inner parts. However, in survivors of trauma, these parts become disorganised, unable to support each other or work together. IFS aims to restore the leadership of the authentic self, guiding the other parts through a fulfilling, meaningful life.
The Self, Vulnerable Parts, and Protective Parts
IFS describes three types of essence within a person: the self, vulnerable parts, and protective parts. Briefly, these can be understood as follows.
- The self, our intuitive centre that has an inherent capacity for healing
- Vulnerable parts that hold painful or overwhelming emotions or memories
- Protective parts that try to distract from, cope with, or survive these distressing states
Protective Parts and Mental Health Symptoms
IFS conceptualises mental health symptoms as the consequence of protective parts that have started to act in unhelpful ways. Trauma symptoms, such as hypervigilance, dissociation, and avoidance, are attempts of the protective parts to cope with and manage the distressing experiences of the vulnerable parts.
However, without the leadership of the self, the protective parts are acting in ways that also harm the person, causing additional distress and difficulties in everyday life.
Healing with the Authentic Self
IFS therapy helps survivors of trauma attend to and address distressing and traumatic experiences that may keep resurfacing or lead to other mental health symptoms when suppressed. Empowering the compassionate, authentic self creates a safe internal environment where healing and processing of trauma can begin. Within this space, protective parts can move into less extreme, helpful roles, such as productive problem-solving rather than destructive overthinking.
How Does Internal Family Systems Therapy Foster Self-Compassion and Healing In Young People?
IFS therapy supports young people to approach their emotions and experiences with compassion. It helps them to accept these different inner parts, rather than judging them or feeling ashamed. People who have experienced trauma often experience shame or self-blame that may contribute to trauma and other mental health symptoms. For these young people, fostering self-compassion can be a powerful tool for change.
IFS also encourages mindful observation of the mind and awareness of bodily sensations. These skills can help young people tolerate distressing emotions without turning to harmful coping mechanisms.
IFS Therapy for Parents and Families
Internal family systems therapy can also support families to develop new ways of relating that nurture a young person’s recovery. Parents of young people who have experienced trauma often encounter situations that lie outside of the skills they have developed or naturally hold. Crisis moments can push them away from their parenting role, causing feelings of frustration, hopelessness, or inadequacy.
IFS therapists may work with parents to move into a compassionate, supportive parenting role. Parents can identify the parts of themselves that hold distressing emotions and engage in unhelpful parenting behaviours. By empowering their authentic self, they can work to build relationships based on the acceptance of differences, allowance of sadness and pain, and the transformative connection of self-to-self energy.
The Wave Clinic: Residential Mental Health Spaces for Young People
The Wave Clinic provides residential and outpatient mental health support for young people and their families. We take a whole-person approach to mental health care, emphasising the role of past and present experiences and social relations in shaping how a young person thinks, feels, and acts today.
Our residential programs are held in our treatment space, located just outside Kuala Lumpur. Combining exceptional clinical care with education, experiences, and internship opportunities, we support young people to grow in self-confidence, develop life skills, and foster self-compassion as they recover from mental health issues.
Within these programs, we invite families for a week of residential family therapy, combining therapeutic modalities with collective experiences and the creation of new memories. We support families in developing new ways of interacting and transforming dynamics within the family system.
We also offer short-term parenting and family intensives where parents can develop the skills they need to support a young person’s recovery. Combining the lessons of months of outpatient care into a few days, parenting intensives help parents understand why particular family dynamics have developed and build practical strategies to move back into their parenting role.
If you’d like to enquire about any of our programs, contact us today.
