Working with Protectors in Daily Life
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Interested? Click below to schedule a quick call to get your questions answered & see if it's the right fit!
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Do you find yourself stuck between wanting to be productive and wanting to avoid, distract, or escape?
This class explores a common internal dynamic: the polarization between manager parts that want focus, discipline, and progress, and firefighter parts that seek relief, play, or shutdown.
When these parts are in conflict, the result is often procrastination, scattered attention, or cycles of overwork followed by collapse.
In this workshop, you'll learn how to work directly with these protectors rather than pushing through or trying to override them.
We'll focus on helping parts communicate, understand each other's roles, and negotiate agreements that actually work.
This is not about forcing productivity; it's about creating internal cooperation.
The goal is simple:
More done with less internal friction
More permission to play, without guilt
This class is practical, experiential, and immediately applicable to daily life.
Click here to schedule a free chat to see if this group is for you.
I invite you to consider this group!
If you want to learn more, sign up for a free Zoom call with me, or watch one of my YouTube interviews to get a better sense of me as a person!
Introductions
Going inside / Journaling
We will begin as all IFS gatherings do, by going inside to connect to ourselves and center. Feel free to journal.
Sharing
A spacious check-in
Teaching and Q & A about the class topic
20 minute IFS Session Demonstration
Heartfelt feedback after the demo
Time to practice with your own parts
Sharing
Time to share any insights you want to share
Closing
After that, we'll close with a word or phrase we're taking with us.
Does any of this sound familiar?
"I enjoy parts work with my practitioner / coach / therapist, but then I don't tend to check in with them between sessions."
"I want to be able to connect more deeply with my parts but my protectors won't let me."
"I just don't feel like journaling."
"I want to learn from someone who has experience working directly with their parts on their own. I don't want to just read about the IFS steps from a book."
"I'd like to connect with other like-minded people who also see IFS as a way of life, not merely something theoretical they're learning to use with clients."
If you resonate with any of these statements, then this drop-in group is ideal for you!
Imagine having a 23-year expert in IFS support you in developing your OWN relationship to your parts.
Learn from a 23-year IFS Expert. Melissa Sandfort has been an IFS Certified Practitioner since 2010, with over 2,350 hours of IFS training, 1,000+ hours of in-person training with Richard Schwartz, and over 8,000 hours of her own personal IFS work.
Read Melissa's Full BioThere are no refunds. If you must miss a class, you can transfer your registration to a future class!
I have done everything I can to provide an affordable class full of value. I put my heart into all my classes. It actually breaks my heart when people want a refund, and I can't put so much love and care into my classes and then be heartbroken when people ask for refunds. Therefore, I have a no-refund policy for all my classes!
This keeps my heart and my parts safe, so that I can be vulnerable and excited about offering what I offer.
If a refund policy is important to you, I am the wrong teacher for you! I give everything I can, and in return I ask that you honor me by thinking before buying a course so that it is the right match for you.
Thanks for understanding!
Clarity about our purpose:
To deepen our capacity to do IFS and to develop our Self-leadership as human beings.
Privacy and Confidentiality:
These classes require a private, confidential space. A private room in your home or office. Or a private conference room in a library or your car parked in a quiet space. This is for the safety of all participants, as we can not open and focus inside if we are distracted by external environments.
If you join the Zoom from a public place, like a cafe, store or park, you will be asked to leave the group.
Zoom Video On:
Being able to see everyone in the group enhances safety, so plan to have your video on during most of the class, which is not recorded. Turning video off during personal practice time is fine.
Choice:
You are free to censor what you disclose. No is a complete sentence. Choose to share ONLY what you feel comfortable with.
Confidentiality:
All material everyone shares should not be shared with people who are not members of this group, even if you don't use their name. You'd be surprised how far stories can travel.
Speak up for Safety:
If you are having difficulty with something that's triggered you, PLEASE speak for your parts, either directly in the group or as soon as you can afterwards. Please LISTEN to your parts when they tell you what they need in order to feel safe. Safety is our number one value. When you speak for your safety needs, you speak for the safety needs of the whole group.
Speaking for parts, not from parts:
To the extent that you can, speaking for parts, not from them, will help us maintain safety when sharing in the group.
Embodying parts:
During coaching demos, in distinction to other times during the group, feel free to speak FROM parts and to experiment with embodying them. The difference between blending and embodying is: when you are blended, you are in a part and you don't know you are in a part. When you embody a part, you are in a part and YOU and the part BOTH know you are 'being' the part.
No Coercion:
"Thank you, for letting me, be myself!" In this group, there is "no crosstalk." This means when one person shares, no one judges, gives advice, or reacts against what they shared.
Feedback:
Share how you are inspired or how you resonate with others. DO NOT share judgement, advice, or criticism. If you criticize others in the class, I reserve the right to determine that you may not be the right fit for my classes. Thank you for understanding.
Timeliness:
We commit to start and end on time. We start on time; this increases safety and strengthens the container.
Support and responsibility:
Ultimately, the only person who can keep you fully safe in a group is you. I want to do everything I can to make this group a safe space to learn, to go inside, and to share, in whatever ways feel right for you — but you are responsible for listening to the sometimes difficult-to-hear voices who tell you what they REALLY need to be safe.
You are not crazy if you get triggered, it's ULTRA NORMAL in IFS work. So take care of yourself, and possibly give yourself extra support on days when you do IFS!
Thank you for your commitment to this safety agreement!
Schedule a free Zoom conversation to make sure this class is the right fit.
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