You are not one thing.
You never were.
IFS works alongside every part of you, including the ones you've been fighting. It is one of the most compassionate and effective approaches to lasting change.
Part of you wants to change.
Another part won't let you.
You can see exactly what you're doing and understand why. Talking it through hasn't changed it. The same thing keeps happening anyway.
That's parts at work.
- The same arguments keep repeating, even after you promised yourself they wouldn't
- You know what you want, yet acting on it feels out of reach
- A critical voice won't quieten, no matter how much you achieve
- Connection feels thin, with yourself and with the people closest to you
- You manage well outwardly while feeling far from it underneath
- Holding yourself together takes constant energy, and it is wearing you down
A map of your inner world.
Internal Family Systems is a therapeutic model developed by Richard Schwartz in the 1980s. At its core is a simple and radical idea: the mind is naturally multiple, and that multiplicity is healthy.
If the model is new to you, this plain-language explainer covers what Internal Family Systems is before you go deeper here.
Every one of us has parts. Some protect us, often by working hard in ways that eventually cost us. Others carry the weight of old wounds, the beliefs we formed in difficult moments about who we are and what we deserve. Underneath all of it is something IFS calls the Self, a steady and compassionate centre that can lead once the parts trust it enough to step back.
The work is getting there.
Self
Grounded and compassionate. The Self doesn't get overwhelmed. It leads, and IFS helps you recover access to it.
Protectors
Parts that manage your world so the painful stuff stays buried. They're often the source of patterns you can't seem to break.
Exiles
The parts carrying old hurt and shame. Protectors work hard to keep them hidden. Healing them is often the heart of the work.
How sessions actually work.
IFS doesn't ask you to perform wellness or arrive at answers. The sessions create conditions for something more gradual. The parts of you that have been managing or shutting things down slowly get a different experience.
Getting to know a part
Rather than trying to overcome a difficult part, we get curious about it. What is it trying to do for you, and what is it afraid would happen if it stopped?
Building trust
Parts shift when they feel met, by you, from a calm and steady place. Understanding alone rarely moves them. That takes time, and it tends to be the part of the work people didn't expect to matter most.
Unburdening
When a part feels safe enough, it can release what it's been carrying, the old beliefs and strategies it developed long ago and never updated. That's where lasting change tends to happen.
What clients often notice.
People often come to IFS feeling at war with themselves. The work reaches past symptom relief toward something harder to name, a sense of coming home to yourself.
Less internal conflict
The parts of you that have been fighting each other gradually find a different way to coexist.
Greater self-compassion
Understanding why your parts developed makes it easier to meet them with warmth, which is where change tends to start.
Breaking old patterns
Patterns that felt fixed often shift once the part driving them feels understood.
More present in relationships
When you're not managing your parts, you become genuinely available to the people around you.
"IFS helped me understand the parts of myself that were running the show without my permission."
I came to IFS through my own experience of high-conflict transition. One part of me was bracing for the next blow while another just wanted it all to stop. Each of them was trying to protect me. Learning to work alongside them changed how I functioned under pressure.
I've written more about one of those parts in the part that holds back your anger.
That's what I bring to this work.
In-person IFS sessions in Melbourne
I see clients in Thornbury and Elsternwick. Both practices are accessible from across the metropolitan area. If you're not in Melbourne, or if in-person sessions aren't practical right now, I also offer online sessions across Australia and internationally.
My background spans IFS training, Somatic Experiencing (SEP), executive coaching, and an INSEAD Executive Master in Change. Sessions can integrate approaches when that serves you. IFS and SE work well together, particularly when the body's response is part of what we're working with.
The first step is a free 30-minute chemistry call to explore whether we're a good fit.
Go deeper on the ideas here.
Frequently asked questions
Questions about IFS therapy
Internal Family Systems is a therapeutic model that works with the different parts of your personality instead of treating the mind as one unified thing. Each part has its own role and its own way of trying to help. The work involves getting to know these parts, understanding what they carry, and helping them trust that you can lead from a calmer, steadier place, which IFS calls the Self.
Sessions are conversational, and you won't be asked to relive difficult experiences before you're ready. The pace is slow by design, because the nervous system settles through relationship and safety rather than speed.
Parts are the different inner perspectives we all carry. One might drive you hard at work while another criticises from the sidelines. A third can pull you to withdraw when closeness feels risky. IFS sees every part as having a positive intention, even when its strategy ends up causing difficulty.
Some parts are protectors that manage daily life so painful material stays out of reach. Others are more vulnerable and carry old hurt. The work is to understand what a part is doing for you and help it relax. For a fuller picture, here is how parts work.
The Self is the calm, compassionate core that exists in everyone, beneath the parts. In IFS the Self sits beneath the parts rather than among them. It is who you are when the parts relax and step back.
The aim of the work is to help the Self lead, so the inner system feels safe enough to settle and parts no longer have to carry their burdens alone.
Most talk therapy works through insight, understanding why you do what you do. IFS goes further by working directly with the parts of you that generate the behaviour. Many people who have had years of talk therapy find that IFS reaches places talking about their patterns could not.
It also relies less on the therapist interpreting your experience. In IFS you build a direct relationship with your own parts, so the change tends to hold, because it comes from inside your own system.
People bring a wide range of things to IFS work: anxiety, low mood, the after-effects of trauma, harsh self-criticism, relationship strain, and patterns that stay stuck despite real self-awareness. It's also used in coaching and leadership development to understand the parts that drive behaviour under pressure.
Many people come when they understand their patterns intellectually but haven't yet been able to shift them.
No. IFS works well for trauma, and you don't need a trauma history to benefit. Many people come because of persistent self-criticism, emotional reactivity, or relationship patterns that have no obvious traumatic origin.
It's just as relevant for high-functioning people who feel internally divided, with parts that push hard at work while other parts feel depleted.
There's no fixed timeline. Some people notice significant shifts within a few months. Others work over a longer period, particularly with deeper or more complex patterns.
I usually work with people for a minimum of six months. Change can come quickly, and a durable version of it still needs enough cycles of the learning loop for new patterns to settle. Meaningful change needs room to breathe.
Yes. My practice integrates IFS with Somatic Experiencing, so we can work with both the psychological structure of your parts and the body responses that come with them. For many people this combination reaches further than either approach on its own.
If you're also seeing another therapist or working with a coach, IFS can run alongside that.
The IFS model is often called therapy. I work in an IFS-informed way as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and coach, rather than as a registered psychologist.
This work sits alongside medical or psychological care and doesn't replace it. If you're dealing with a mental health condition or significant distress, working with a registered health professional is wise, and IFS-informed work can complement that care.
Yes. I offer in-person IFS sessions in Thornbury in the inner north and Elsternwick in the inner south, both accessible from across the metropolitan area.
Online sessions are available for clients across Australia and internationally. Many people begin online and move to in-person over time, and both formats work well for IFS.
The best way to find out is a free 30-minute chemistry call. We'll talk about what you're working with, I'll explain how I work, and we'll both get a sense of whether it fits. There's no commitment.
IFS tends to suit people who are curious about their inner world and willing to slow down. If that resonates, it's worth a conversation.
Ready to meet your parts?
The first step is a free 30-minute call to see if this approach is right for you. No commitment, no pressure.
Book a free call