Parts Work views inner conflict as a collection of maladaptive responses shaped by experience. We will approach each part of you with curiosity and care, supporting integration, self-respect, and self-trust.
Rather than trying to push these parts away, we will acknowledge how they show up in your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, aware that they served the purpose you needed from them at the time of their origin. We’ll process these experiences, attune to the ongoing fears of repeated terrible events, and provide the adaptive-to-today resources so that these parts can grow up with you, allowing you freedom to engage more confidently in your adult life. As you heal you’ll notice my promptings get quieter and less frequent, evidence that your inner guidance and understanding has grown.
Over time, as we map, name, and understand the roles and needs of your internal parts, you begin to feel supported by an inner team working together for your greater good: criticism softens into validation, tension becomes an invitation for practicing self-respect and understanding, and resilience grows both within you and in your relationships with others.
Parts Work Training and Professional Development
Parts Work was introduced to me right away through supervision when working at a Juvenile Detention Center as a way of showing compassion and withholding judgment of the behaviors that led to their imprisonment, and the behaviors they continued while in the center. The framework offered hope and gentleness when being tough seemed like the only answer. Simultaneously, working with adults who endured Hurricane Katrina, I quickly learned that we often behave the age we were at the time of the unprocessed tragedy. Again, Parts Work inspired respect and possibility.
I discovered “The Adult Chair Model” and appreciated how simple Michelle Chalfaunt makes a complex concept. Nearly each of my somatic and EMDR trainings integrates qualities of Parts Work. I do use the phrase Parts Work rather than IFS, because Parts Work predates IFS and there is flexibility in the language, mapping, and attuning within that happens through different Parts Work models. I choose the model or frame that naturally aligns best with the client sitting in front me: their world, their language, their mapping.
What to Expect in Parts Work Sessions
In Parts Work sessions, we’ll explore different parts of yourself with curiosity and compassion, noticing how they show up in your body, thoughts, and emotions. Together, we will identify the roles they’ve taken on and the rules they’ve learned to follow. I’ll guide you in understanding and listening to these parts without judgment, supporting emotional flexibility, self-trust, and integration.
Some of the ways we will achieve this in our sessions are:
- DNMS (Developmental Needs Meeting Strategy) utilizes EMDR to work directly with dissociative parts through direct conversation.
- Inner Relational Focusing deepens your understanding of the present moment experience through body scans, identifying parts and their needs, and how it is to meet your Parts’ needs in the moment-to-moment unfolding.
- The Adult Chair is a simplified model incorporating guided meditations that attune to Child, Adolescent, and Adult parts with the intention of living out most of our days from our Adult Chair.
- Internal Family Systems (IFS) frames our internal self as being made up of the Core Self and different types of parts: Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles. Our mission is to help these parts release their burdens so that you can live more from your Core Self, experiencing a calmer life filled with confidence, curiosity, centeredness, creativity, courage, compassion, and connection.
Each session is a safe space to dialogue with your parts, practice integration, and cultivate awareness. My goal through these sessions is for you to feel more grounded, balanced, and at peace within yourself, creating a stronger foundation for your relationships and personal growth.
What Parts Work Is Great For:
My work is guided by the belief that therapy should meet you where you are. Rather than relying on a single approach, I adapt and blend different methods to support your goals and what you are navigating in the moment. These are the types of sessions we may use this approach in:
Frequently Asked Questions
Starting therapy often begins with a massive sigh, an exhaustion of looking for help, for relief, for change. I welcome your curiosities and hope that you will begin to find answers to your unsettled questions on the pages of my website.
Here are answers to the most common questions I am asked about working with Upward Roots. For any additional questions, please reach out so I can support your next step of growth.
Posts about Parts Work
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When Being the “Responsible Child” Shows Up as Anxiety
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When Being the “Responsible Child” Shows Up as Depression
How Responsibility Became a Way to Stay Connected Many people who grew up as the “responsible child” learned early that paying close attention to others