Personal practice

Is this a learning class
or a personal work and practice class?

This applies to all groups, but is particularly important to ‘classes’ where there is a ‘teaching’ goal.

This isn’t a class where you’ll learn IFS so that you can eventually practice.

This is a class where learning emerges from practice.

This is a personal practice class. Along the way, we’ll explore one specific IFS topic or technique, but the primary purpose of the class is to deepen your relationship with your own parts.

Through 15 years of IFS training and practice, I’ve come to believe that personal practice has to come before “learning” the model. We can only truly learn when our parts feel safe and ready.

Manager parts often create a tension between learning and personal work because they want to understand, organize, and get things “right.” They’re trying to protect us from the uncertainty and vulnerability that real inner work requires. But inner work is inherently unpredictable—it cannot be controlled.

With that in mind, I want to set clear expectations.

My focus in this class is on helping each of you develop your own personal IFS practice with yourself and your parts.

The topic or technique—the apparent focus of each class—simply provides a structure to work within, much like a tennis backboard gives you something to practice against.

Methods and teachings are tools that we hold lightly—in service of inner work.

The larger goal of these classes is to create a safe space where we can vulnerably engage with our parts, at whatever level feels safe and comfortable in the moment.

Within that larger goal, we’ll explore a particular topic or technique during each class—but the inner work comes first, and the learning emerges from that inner work.

The topics themselves are intentionally simple. There isn’t anything particularly complicated about the “learning.” The deeper learning comes through experience and practice.

Knowing this is a class for personal practice, we can hold the methods lightly.

There is no “right” way to use the conference table, create a mind map, or choose a puppet. There is no “right” way to use Magical Methods to imagine places your parts can live. There is no “right” way to put insights about polarizations or protector dynamics into practice.

What’s right is what works for you.

Along the way, you’ll discover which practices naturally fit your own system—and which don’t. My hope is that you’ll leave with a deeper relationship with your parts and a personal practice that evolves with your deepest truths as they unfold.