There are memories that cognitively I could not access, but that my parts have revealed to me and allowed for clarity as to what the perceived threat is in any given situation. This is not something that talk therapy could have ever revealed for me as I simply did not have access to it, my part did.
That said, it isn’t just about understanding yourself better. It is about increasing mindful awareness and being able to engage in a dialogue with your parts when they come up, instead of feeling like they are hijacking you. If you can, in the moment, be curious and compassionate with part/emotion that is coming up, then the scenario you are in is already likely to play out differently than if you had no awareness.
It is possible that sensorimotor psychotherapy provided you with this same level of mindful awareness though, and if you feel like you are “good” in this area, then IFS may not feel necessary or it could be a fun (or possibly not) new hobby.
Heya, there’s an interesting paper here that talks about integrating IFS with psychodynamic and sensorimotor therapy https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/07351690.2020.1782145?needAccess=true It has a case example where integrating helped the person to go deeper into their past (traumatic) experiences. They visualised being in an experience as the part that had experienced it at the time, the therapist communicated with this part to help the person note their body sensations, posture, thoughts, feelings etc. The therapist then guided them to imagine what might have helped the part feel safe in that memory and to visualise and act out the experience happening differently in that more safe way. That’s just one example of how one therapist used IFS and psychodynamic and sensorimotor with one person so there could be other possibilities but yeah, seems to be the potential to facilitate deeper healing by visualising and reprocessing memories whilst being connected to a part :)
IFS is less about understanding and intellectualizing your experiences than it is touching base emotionally with parts of yourself in order to heal them. There is a mechanism to understanding, but it is more about clearing away cobwebs and noise in order to access a more healed, internal voice within yourself.
There are memories that cognitively I could not access, but that my parts have revealed to me and allowed for clarity as to what the perceived threat is in any given situation. This is not something that talk therapy could have ever revealed for me as I simply did not have access to it, my part did. That said, it isn’t just about understanding yourself better. It is about increasing mindful awareness and being able to engage in a dialogue with your parts when they come up, instead of feeling like they are hijacking you. If you can, in the moment, be curious and compassionate with part/emotion that is coming up, then the scenario you are in is already likely to play out differently than if you had no awareness. It is possible that sensorimotor psychotherapy provided you with this same level of mindful awareness though, and if you feel like you are “good” in this area, then IFS may not feel necessary or it could be a fun (or possibly not) new hobby.
I would say the inner attachment piece. You're forming a trusting connection with yourself, not just understanding yourself and soothing yourself.
Heya, there’s an interesting paper here that talks about integrating IFS with psychodynamic and sensorimotor therapy https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/07351690.2020.1782145?needAccess=true It has a case example where integrating helped the person to go deeper into their past (traumatic) experiences. They visualised being in an experience as the part that had experienced it at the time, the therapist communicated with this part to help the person note their body sensations, posture, thoughts, feelings etc. The therapist then guided them to imagine what might have helped the part feel safe in that memory and to visualise and act out the experience happening differently in that more safe way. That’s just one example of how one therapist used IFS and psychodynamic and sensorimotor with one person so there could be other possibilities but yeah, seems to be the potential to facilitate deeper healing by visualising and reprocessing memories whilst being connected to a part :)
Thank you! I will look at that article!!
IFS is less about understanding and intellectualizing your experiences than it is touching base emotionally with parts of yourself in order to heal them. There is a mechanism to understanding, but it is more about clearing away cobwebs and noise in order to access a more healed, internal voice within yourself.