Welcome to my world of trauma recovery! In my bog, you'll find valuable articles about trauma recovery, relationships, and leadership development. I'm so grateful that you've felt called to drop in and connect with me here.
Are you familiar with parts work? If your answer is “huh?”, then I’d love to enlighten you. Because you’ll be hearing a lot more about the parts work approach to trauma, grief and loss recovery now that you’re connected with me here.
To help you gain a better understanding, let’s define what ‘parts’ are….
Parts are sub-personalities that develop inside your mind over time.
As you develop, your parts develop and form a complex system of interactions among themselves.
Sometime these "parts" become burdened and/or wounded by a traumatic experience. Over time, these "parts" develop extreme strategies to ensure that the wound you experienced never comes into your awareness again. This in turn creates symptomatic behaviors and extreme suffering for you, the individual.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an evidence-based therapeutic treatment for trauma. The goal of IFS is to embody Self and heal so the injured “parts” of you can live fully liberated, confident, and curious, guided by compassion.
When you’re blended with protective parts in early trauma recovery, sometimes it can be reallllly difficult to access your Self- aka who you truly are at your core, without any trauma distortions.
Your protective parts have the ability to scare other parts in your internal system and when this happens….accessing Self energy becomes nearly impossible.
:: Survivors of complex trauma, grief and loss know this all too well: their internal world can become a very scary and chaotic place when their parts start to scare other parts in the system and loop through their sequencing ::
In recovery, the pathway to healing is always embodied Self-leadership.
When you are leading your internal system with Self energy, un-blended from your parts, you are embodying your true essence; this can feel like grounded confidence, inner calm, inner security, and clarity.
Actually- let’s talk about Self for a moment.
(Stay with me here. I know this may be new for some of you but I hope to break it down in a way that makes sense to you.)
You hear me talk about it all the time, but do you really understand what I mean when I bring up Self with a capital S?
Self is your mind, it’s contents, and the organization of those contents.
But from a recovery perspective, I’d like to say that Self is….your soul. It is YOU-who you are at your core-before the world got it’s hands on you.
If you’re a complex trauma, grief and/or loss survivor, that means your protective parts developed extreme strategies to help you feel safe in your environment.
:: We call these specific sub-personalities protective parts, because that's exactly what they are designed to do. ::
Their job is to protect anyone and anything from gaining access to your exiles, aka your most wounded part(s)…and I added a plural here because survivors of complex trauma have multiple wounded parts.
Access to exiles would mean complete annihilation in your internal system.
So it’s important to know- that recovery from complex trauma, grief and loss, from a parts work perspective, can literally feel like life or death when you’re breaking those internal cycles.
Your parts are internal entities that have 1 main job: to ensure your survival.
Their survival codes are the very things that are keeping you stuck in those looping cycles of trigger-based reactions and distortions.
In order to move from surviving to THRIVING in recovery, you must first learn how to mindfully separate from your parts and access Self energy so that you can eventually witness and unburden your wounded parts.
The goal is to form a new relationship with ALL of your parts, and in doing so, offer them a reprieve from their job.
When you embrace and incorporate a parts work framework for your recovery process, you’ll gain access to even deeper layers of healing.
I believe that IFS can help you access the deepest layers of your being so you can experience FULL liberation from living a lifetime inside a burdened internal system.
I know because I’ve experienced it myself, and as a complex trauma survivor, I can tell you that I’ve tried it all- from meds to talk therapy and everything in-between- and IFS parts work was the ONLY approach to recovery that taught me how to heal from the inside out.
It may not be the only approach for you, but for me, and for my clients, it is the most impactful, most transformative and most life-changing, soul-liberating framework for recovery that WE have had the pleasure of experiencing.
When you work with me in one of my private coaching containers, we will work together to identify, witness, relate to and heal ALL of your parts with a new perspective that will allow you to feel more joy, internal peace, and personal freedom.
I offer an evidence-based, gentle, and collaborative IFS approach to trauma recovery coaching that works.
If this sounds like something you’re up for, reach out to me and let’s set up your first call.
I am here to support you, and all of your parts, so you can truly thrive in life again.
You matter, you’re worth it, and you (and your parts) can heal from ANYTHING.
✶
In loving service,
-Monika
Comments +
IFS gave me my life back after my son died. It was more effective than any other therapies I've tried. Highly recommend!
I now have the confidence I always needed but lacked due to my childhood traumas. The model is brilliant. If you're thinking about trying it, go for it!
I now have the confidence I always needed but lacked due to my childhood traumas. The model is brilliant. If you're thinking about trying it, go for it!