IFS Talks

In this fifth visit to IFS Talks, Einat Bronstein joins Aníbal Henriques and Lexi Rothman to explore what Self is and how we can help clients access it. Einat shares how her understanding of Self has grown more spiritual over the years, and why IFS is, for her, a psycho-spiritual model. She explains why she rarely uses the word “Self” with clients, because talking about Self can wake up thinking parts. She offers a simple image: “don’t worry about the sun, just focus on your relationship with the clouds.”
In this episode:
How Einat’s understanding of Self has changed over 30 years of practice
Three ways Self shows up: as qualities, as leadership (the conductor and the musicians) and as energy or spaciousness
More qualities of Self beyond the 8 C’s: choice, perspective, capacity for complexity, tenderness, reverence and awe
Noticing “self-like” parts, and why quick answers often come from parts
Why we don’t need to go looking for the client’s Self: just be with the parts
The narrow corridor: why a small opening of Self is enough to begin
Direct access as embodiment, and the therapist’s Self as something contagious that makes the room safe
Why Self doesn’t always look calm and can come as a surge of energy
How curiosity grows into a real relationship with parts
A grandson’s yellow tractor, and shared humanity in groups in conflict
Trusting Self in exile work, and learning to hold light in hard times
About Einat Bronstein
Einat Bronstein, MSW, has more than 30 years of clinical experience with individuals, couples, families and groups. She learned IFS directly from Dick Schwartz in the early days of the model. She is a Senior International Lead Trainer with the IFS Institute, leading Level 1, 2 and 3 trainings around the world, and co-founder and co-director of the Israeli Institute for IFS. She recently received the IFS Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Part of our series on Self, with Dick Schwartz, Cece Sykes, Einat Bronstein and, coming soon, Paul Neustadt.
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We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom:
Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems, a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community.
This book was created from a desire to honor those voices and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person.
It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves.
Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads.
We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey.
Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

In this episode, we sit with Cece Sykes, LCSW, a leadi trainer at the IFS Institute with over forty years of clinical experience in trauma and addiction recovery, to explore one of the most distinctive and challenging aspects of the IFS model: how therapists actually help clients find their way to Self.

Among the topics we explore in this conversation:
What we mean when we talk about "accessing Self," and how someone might recognize that experience for themselves
Ways to access Self beyond unblending, including tools clients can use on their own
How to introduce the concept of Self without turning it into another standard to fall short of
Why Self doesn't have to look the same in everyone, and how to avoid mistaking an unusual presentation of Self for a part
Distinguishing genuine Self-energy from a protector that's very good at appearing calm, compassionate, or wise

Working with protectors whose fear of more Self-access makes complete sense given someone's history
What to do when a client says, "I don't think I have a Self"
How the wish to access Self can itself become a source of pressure, and what to do about it
The small, early signs that more Self-energy is becoming available, even amid distress
Whether Self is fixed and undamaged from birth, or whether the capacity for it can be built and strengthened over the course of treatment

What working with addiction and shame has taught Cece about helping people meet difficult parts with curiosity instead of judgment
How the therapist's own access to Self shapes the work, and what happens when a helping part quietly takes the driver's seat
Practices for therapists to use in the moment when their own parts get activated with a client
Holding inner work alongside the outer realities of safety, relationships, and circumstance
Adapting the language of Self across different cultural and spiritual frameworks

Bringing a little more Self into the ordinary, activating moments of daily life, conflict with a partner, a triggering child or colleague
Cece's own reflections on what she is still learning about this work

Whether you're new to IFS or a seasoned practitioner, this conversation offers both conceptual clarity and practical, in-the-room guidance for one of the model's most essential and elusive skills.
We hope you can enjoy it!

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We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community.
This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person.
It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

In this episode of IFS Talks, Nancy Sowell, Martha Sweezy, and IFS founder Richard Schwartz join us to explore their new book, IFS Health Therapy: Treating Trauma-Related Physical Illness & Toxic Stress.

Together, we discuss the relationship between chronic stress, trauma, internal parts, and physical health; working compassionately with pain, dissociation, shame, suppressed emotions, and protectors that resist healthier habits; and howIFS can complement, rather than replace, medical care.
The conversation offers clinicians a thoughtful, non-pathologizing approach to supporting mind-body healing.

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We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community.
This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person.
It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

In this special episode of IFS Talks, we welcome Richard C. Schwartz, Martha Sweezy, David Lovas, and Sunny Strasburg, authors of Psychedelic Medicine and Internal Family Systems Therapy: A Clinical Skills Manual.
Together, we explore why IFS and psychedelic-assisted therapy can be naturally complementary, and why the medicine itself is only one part of the therapeutic process. Our guests discuss the importance of preparation, respect for protectors, internal consent, careful pacing, therapeutic presence, clinical safety, and ethical practice.
The conversation examines how therapists can distinguish Self-energy from altered or dissociative states, decide when to intervene during challenging experiences, and respond to fear, overwhelm, shutdown, and protector backlash. We also consider sensitive questions concerning touch, boundaries, therapist readiness, personal experience with psychedelic medicines, and the assessment of clients for whom this work may not yet be safe.
Finally, we turn to integration: how IFS can help people make sense of psychedelic experiences, reconnect with every part of their system, and translate insight into meaningful and sustainable change.
We believe this is a thoughtful and clinically grounded conversation about the possibilities of bringing IFS and psychedelic medicine together, without losing sight of humility, consent, safety, and respect for the client’s inner healing intelligence.
This episode is intended for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice or encourage the use of psychedelic substances outside appropriately qualified, ethical, and legal settings.
We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community. This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person. It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

We are excited to celebrate the launch of IFS Collected Wisdom: Conversations with Experienced Voices in Internal Family Systems a book that brings together voices, reflections, and lived experience from across the IFS community. This book was created from a desire to honor those voices, and to acknowledge that wisdom in IFS doesn’t live in one place or one person. It lives in relationship, in experience, and in the field as it evolves. Thank you for being a listener, for being part of this community, and for continuing to explore what becomes possible when Self leads. We hope that IFS Collected Wisdom can become a companion in your IFS journey. Here is a link to the IFS Collected Wisdom book contents.

The Role of Uncertainty in Mental Health with Sarah Bergenfeld and Martha Sweezy
In this episode, we welcome two leading voices in Internal Family Systems therapy for a conversation that bridges neuroscience, sensory experience, and healing. Sarah Bergenfield is a certified Level 3 IFS practitioner, writer, and educator specializing in autistic individuals and couples. Autistic herself, Sarah weaves together IFS, polyvagal theory, predictive processing, and sensory science in her clinical and consultation work. She teaches internationally for clinicians working with neurodiverse clients, and her work reframes autism not as a deficit, but as a condition of sensory surplus. Martha Sweezy is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, program consultant and supervisor at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Cambridge Health Alliance, and a psychotherapist in private practice in Northampton, Massachusetts. She teaches IFS nationally and internationally and has authored and co-edited numerous books on the model, including Internal Family Systems Therapy, Second Edition (with Richard Schwartz), Intimacy from the Inside Out (with Toni Herbine-Blank), and Internal Family Systems Therapy for Shame and Guilt.
Together, Sarah and Martha are co-authors of Wired to Feel: Autism as a Condition of Sensory Surplus.
In this episode, we explore the role of uncertainty in mental health: how it can quietly drive distress and shame, and how IFS offers a path toward resolution. While the conversation has special relevance for autistic systems, the insights apply across all neurologies.