🕯️Understanding Therapist Parts in IFS

Even those who guide others inward have their own protectors — the therapist parts. These are the inner figures that step forward during sessions to stay competent, caring, or in control. They often hold deep responsibility for keeping everyone safe.

A therapist part might speak with warmth but secretly fear failing the client. Another might overwork to “get it right.” Some are perfectionists; some are rescuers; some dissociate behind a mask of calm. All of them mean well. They’re trying to protect both the client and the system within the practitioner.

In IFS, we don’t shame these parts. We meet them like any others — with curiosity. A practitioner can pause mid-session, sense the subtle tightening in the chest, and ask inwardly, “Who’s here right now? What are you afraid would happen if you didn’t take over?”

Often these parts fear being useless, or that harm will happen if they rest. But when they begin to trust the Self of the therapist — that spacious awareness beyond technique — they soften. Sessions become less about performing therapy and more about genuine presence.

A therapist led by Self doesn’t push healing; they invite it. They don’t carry the client’s pain alone; they accompany it. When therapist parts relax, the whole field — practitioner and client — becomes safer, clearer, and more alive.