Integritus Prime

In this second post about Internal Family Systems – a form of therapy – I want to explore the 8 qualities of the Self. In my first post, I looked at the groups of parts of the mind and how they influence our day to day lives, our vulnerabilities and our addictions. To recap, Internal Family Systems, was founded by Dr. Richard C. Schwartz in the 1980s and is also known as parts work. Parts work is predicated on the concept that the mind naturally has various sub-personalities or parts that function simultaneously. The purpose of IFS is to help people recognize and work with their parts to heal. IFS also includes the concept of the core Self, who is calm, curious, and observing the parts when space is created in therapy.

Dr. Schwartz has identified the 5Ps and 8Cs of Observing Self energy, which help us navigate our inner world. The 5Ps are:

1. Patience: this includes being calm and showing understanding even when our parts are resisting healing or change. It means accepting the natural flow of healing.
2. Presence: this means being fully mindful and present, giving our attention to the part of ourselves that we are working with, and aiming to fully connect in an open way with our parts.
3. Persistence: this means facing and overcoming barriers with the steady belief that transformation and growth can and will happen.
4. Perspective: this allows us to take different viewpoints, and see how our parts interact, the roles they play, and how we can use this knowledge to navigate our healing process.
5. Playfulness: this is a sense of creativity and joy, bringing lightness to the process and softening into areas where we have been stuck or rigid. Being playful means we can be safe to change.

Dr. Schwartz goes on to explain the 8Cs of the Self, which are:

1. Connectedness – the ability to feel part of a team or community with our defenses lowered. To be safe in connection with others.
2. Creativity – a flow state, where we can produce amazing results through immersive activity.
3. Courage – the bravery it takes to overcome challenges, threats and be accountable for our actions.
4. Confidence – the ability to handle situations that come up and to apply our progress to past trauma and mistakes we make as we heal.
5. Curiosity – to explore without judgment, and learn with a child-like wonder.
6. Calm – the ability to be serene and respond to triggers mindfully.
7. Clarity – being able to see things as they are and remain untriggered, un-influenced by beliefs, and objective.
8. Compassion – bringing care without the traumatic urge to fix or caretake, for self and others.

Together, these inherent qualities of the Self provide a powerful framework to self-asses. Take time to ask yourself how you are doing for each of these 13 dimensions, and see which areas you need to spend more time healing.

Internal Family Systems  provides 13 characteristics of the observing Self. Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash