Internal family systems (IFS)

Internal family systems is nearly always called IFS. It starts from an idea most people find familiar once it’s said out loud: your mind isn’t one voice. Part of you wants to go to the party. Part of you would rather stay home. Part of you is already annoyed with both of them.

IFS treats that as normal rather than as a problem, and works with those parts directly. Its central claim is that no part of you is bad, including the ones whose behaviour is causing you trouble.

IFS was developed in the United States in the 1980s by Richard Schwartz, a family therapist. He noticed his clients describing their inner lives the way families behave. The “family” in the name is the one inside you, not the one you grew up in, although IFS spends plenty of time on that too.

How it works

IFS sorts parts into three rough jobs.

Protectors that keep things running. The planner, the perfectionist, the one who keeps you pleasant and useful. Their work is to make sure nothing painful gets near you.
Protectors that step in hard. When something painful breaks through anyway, something else takes over quickly: drinking, scrolling, bingeing, rage, going blank. These parts get judged the most and are doing the most desperate job.
The hurt parts being protected. Usually young, carrying shame, fear or grief from a long time ago. IFS calls them exiles, because the rest of the system works to keep them out of sight.

Behind all of them, IFS says, is something that isn’t a part. It’s the steady bit that’s still there when the parts step back, and it tends to arrive with curiosity rather than judgement. IFS calls it Self, and getting to it is most of the work.

The therapy has a direction. You get to know a protector rather than arguing with it. You ask what it’s afraid would happen if it stopped. When it trusts you enough to move aside, you meet what it’s been guarding. IFS calls the relief that follows unburdening.

What a session is like

Sessions are slower and more inward than most people expect, and there’s not much advice.

A therapist will ask what you notice when you talk about something difficult, and often where you feel it. Then a question that sounds odd the first time: how do you feel towards that part of you? If the answer is that you hate it, that’s useful information, because the hating is another part with its own reasons.

Plenty of people close their eyes. Some talk to a part out loud. Others just notice and report. None of it is required, and a decent therapist will follow whatever you can actually do.

The language takes some getting used to, and it’s fair to say so. If the parts framing feels silly or artificial, tell your therapist rather than going along with it.

IFS is usually open-ended. Some people do a handful of sessions on one stuck pattern; others work for a year or more.

Who it tends to suit

IFS often suits people who feel at war with themselves. Someone can describe exactly why the drinking or the lashing out or the shutting down happens, and still not be able to stop it. Treating that behaviour as a protector with a reason tends to go somewhere that trying harder doesn’t.

It also suits people who’ve done therapy that stayed on the surface, or that worked on symptoms while the harsh inner voice carried on unchanged. Self-criticism is the territory IFS is best known for.

It’s used a lot with trauma that happened over years rather than in one event, partly because it doesn’t ask you to tell the story in order. Complex trauma explains what that means and what tends to help.

Two honest cautions. If you already lose time, feel unreal, or experience parts of yourself as separate people, parts language can confuse things rather than settle them. The therapist’s experience matters much more than usual there. And if you want something brief and practical for one specific problem, this isn’t it.

What the evidence says

IFS gets oversold more than most therapies, so here it is plainly. The idea is popular, the reports from therapists are enthusiastic, and the research is thin.

There is one randomised trial of any size. It gave an IFS-based program to 79 people with rheumatoid arthritis, and found improvements in self-assessed pain and depressive symptoms, though not in the disease itself (Shadick and colleagues, 2013). A later study of IFS for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) followed 17 adults with no comparison group, and reported large improvements (Hodgdon and colleagues, 2021). Reviews since then describe the results as promising and say the large trials haven’t been done.

IFS is often described as Evidence-based Supported by good-quality research. On this site, each therapy page rates the research as strong, moderate, emerging or limited. More in the jargon decoder on the strength of a listing it received from a United States government registry in 2015. That registry was shut down in 2018, and the listing was based on the arthritis trial. It’s a weaker claim than it sounds.

None of this means IFS doesn’t work. It means nobody knows yet how well it works, or who it works for.

Getting it in Australia

IFS has grown quickly here over the last few years, and is still much easier to find in capital cities than outside them.

Who provides it. Psychologist Someone trained to assess mental health problems and treat them with therapy. It takes at least six years of study and supervised practice, and they're registered with Ahpra, the national regulator. Psychologists can't prescribe medication. More in the jargon decoder , Counsellor Someone trained to help people talk through and work on difficulties. The title isn't protected in Australia, so it's worth checking a counsellor's training and registration. Medicare doesn't give a rebate for counsellors. More in the jargon decoder , Psychotherapist Someone trained in therapy, often for longer-standing patterns. Like counsellor, the title isn't protected in Australia, and Medicare doesn't give a rebate for psychotherapists. More in the jargon decoder and social workers train in it on top of their main qualification. The training runs in levels, and the IFS Institute also certifies practitioners. Many therapists say they’re IFS-informed, which means they use the ideas without having done the full training. Ask which one you’d be getting.

What Medicare Australia's public health insurance scheme. For mental health, it gives rebates on sessions with psychologists and some other professionals, usually through a Mental Health Treatment Plan. More in the jargon decoder Rebate The amount Medicare pays back towards a session. It comes back to you after you've paid, so what you pay yourself is the fee minus the rebate. More in the jargon decoder . A Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP (general practitioner) For most people, where getting help starts. A GP can write a Mental Health Treatment Plan, prescribe medication and refer you on, and some are trained to deliver a small number of structured therapy sessions themselves. More in the jargon decoder gives you a Medicare rebate on up to ten sessions a calendar year with a psychologist, mental health social worker or Mental health occupational therapist An occupational therapist with a mental health endorsement. Their focus is on daily life, such as getting back to work, study and routine, alongside the therapy itself. More in the jargon decoder . It doesn’t cover counsellors or psychotherapists, and plenty of IFS practitioners sit in that group. IFS also isn’t named on Medicare’s list of approaches for Registered For psychologists, psychiatrists and occupational therapists, registration with Ahpra is required, and using the title without it is an offence. Counsellors and psychotherapists can register with their national associations, which is voluntary. More in the jargon decoder psychologists, so a psychologist using it will usually be working under a wider heading. Ask the practice whether the rebate applies.

Ten sessions is also short for an open-ended therapy. Worth asking early what happens after the rebated sessions run out.

Telehealth A session by video or phone instead of in person. Medicare gives the same rebate for a session by video as in person. More in the jargon decoder . The work is internal and verbal, so it translates to video better than most. That matters if you’re outside a capital city, where finding a trained practitioner locally is unlikely.

Schema therapy covers similar ground: long-standing patterns, the harsh inner voice, what got set up early. It does that in a much more structured way, and it has more evidence behind it. If the parts language doesn’t appeal, that’s the first place to look.

Psychodynamic therapy shares the interest in what’s happening outside your awareness. It works through the relationship with the therapist rather than through a map of parts.

As always, the person matters as much as the method. Why who you see matters more than what they do explains why. If you’re still working out whether you want therapy at all, what therapy actually is covers the basics, and would I benefit from therapy? helps you work out whether it’s worth a try.