How IFS Therapy Can Help with Trauma & Stress | Dr. Richard Schwartz & Dr. Andrew Huberman

00:00:00.000 | I know of Freudian psychoanalysis. I know of any number of different branches of psychology

00:00:08.660 | that have a clinical slant to them. There's cognitive behavioral therapy. What are the

00:00:13.180 | core components of internal family systems? Yeah. So one basic assumption is that the

00:00:19.820 | mind isn't unitary, that actually we're all multiple personalities, not in the diagnostic

00:00:26.740 | sense. But we all have these, what I call parts, other systems call sub-personalities, ego states,

00:00:35.920 | things like that. And that it's the natural state of the mind to be that way, that we're born with

00:00:43.160 | them because they're all very valuable and have qualities and resources to help us survive and

00:00:51.400 | thrive. But trauma and what's called attachment injuries and the slings and arrows we suffer

00:01:01.640 | force these little naturally valuable parts into roles that can be destructive. Often they don't like

00:01:11.020 | it all. But because they're frozen often in time and during the trauma and they live as if it's still

00:01:18.120 | happening, they're in these protective roles that can be quite extreme and interfere in your life.

00:01:25.100 | And yeah, so I just stumbled onto the phenomena of 40, now I think it's 41 years ago. And it's been,

00:01:35.020 | you know, amazing ride. So at the time were you already practicing as a clinical psychologist?

00:01:40.860 | I actually have a PhD in Maryland family therapy. So I was part of the movement in family therapy away from

00:01:48.080 | intrapsychic work. There was a polarization and we thought we could reorganize families and heal all these

00:01:55.860 | symptoms just by doing that. We didn't have to muck around in the inner world. And I went to prove that.

00:02:01.740 | And this was about 1983, by getting a group of bulimic kids together and their families and

00:02:09.180 | tried to reorganize the families just the way the book said to and failed. The kids didn't realize

00:02:17.660 | they'd been cured and they kept binging and purging. So out of frustration, I began asking why? And they

00:02:24.140 | started talking this language of parts. And they would say some version of when something happens, bad happens

00:02:29.980 | in my life. It triggers this critic who's calling me all kinds of names inside. And that goes right to the heart of a

00:02:37.420 | part that feels empty and alone and worthless. And that's so distressing to feel that the binge part comes in and takes me out,

00:02:45.100 | takes me away from all that pain. But the critic comes in and attacks me for the binge. And then

00:02:52.860 | the criticism goes right to the heart of that worthless part. So to me, as a family therapist, this sounded

00:03:00.300 | like what I'd been studying in external families, these circular sequences of interaction. And so I just got

00:03:07.180 | curious and just started to explore. Are these different parts that exist within each and all of us,

00:03:14.940 | are they represented by a clear and distinct voice from the other? Or do people typically experience them

00:03:22.140 | as just the self, like my inner critic? You'll give us the other names and titles. Or is this happening

00:03:31.420 | typically below people's conscious awareness? Some of both. So most people are aware they're a critic and

00:03:39.420 | but other times you're not aware of these parts we call exiles that you've locked away because

00:03:46.540 | you didn't want to feel their feelings. They're stuck in these bad trauma scenes. And to survive in your life,

00:03:54.220 | you had to push them away. And so with those parts, a lot of people aren't really consciously aware of them

00:04:00.940 | until these protector parts give space and open the door to the exiles.