In 2019 at the IFS conference in Denver where I taught a workshop with Dick Schwartz about using IFS for treatment of medical conditions, I saw a keynote presentation by Hailan Guo, MD, PhD, who was described to me as “The Oprah of China.” She’s a medical doctor...
When I first learned about the idea of “spiritual bypassing,” it was shattering to my parts. I felt busted, lost, ashamed, scared, embarrassed, and deflated. Here I thought I was an advanced spiritual being, capable of loving even the most intolerable asshats on...
By Lissa Rankin, MD, with IFS founder Dick Schwartz & IFS Institute CEO Katie Nelson IFS has grown so much so quickly, and more people than ever have heard about it and are interested in practicing it, which is great. IFS has been a game changer for my healing...
In You Are The One You’ve Been Waiting For (& You Still Need Others), Part 1, I hopefully made the case for why it’s a set up for failure when we expect our intimate loved ones to take responsibility for being the primary caregiver of nurturing comfort,...
After my divorce from the father of my now 18-year old daughter, I hoped to find a relationship with someone who was willing to go the distance with me. I’d met people who claimed to be up for personal or spiritual growth, but when the rubber met the road and we...
Back in 2005, when I was still practicing medicine as an OB/GYN in San Diego and I was pregnant with my now almost 18-year-old daughter, I was miserable at work, morally injured, grieving the impending death of my father, and thinking about ending my life. The...
For those of you who are familiar with the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, you know that the main goal of the IFS practice is to become intimate with all of your protector parts (the ones that either try to keep you safe or the ones that act out when you feel...
Ruthless Lessons Part 1 Some of us relate to others through the eyes of young, innocent parts with a naïve, idealized, optimistic tendency to see the best in others, give them the benefit of the doubt, assume good intentions of others, and extend a great deal of...