🕯️IFS and Transference

Transference in IFS isn’t projection gone wrong — it’s a map of unmet needs revealing themselves through relationship. It’s how exiles and protectors reach outward, hoping someone will finally respond differently this time.

• A child part may see a therapist or partner as the parent it longed for.

• A fearful part may distrust kindness, bracing for the familiar letdown.

• A caretaker part may overperform to avoid rejection.

  
  

IFS approaches transference not as distortion, but as dialogue.

• “Who in me is seeing this person through old eyes?”

• “What are they hoping or fearing will happen?”

  
  

When Self joins the moment, transference becomes sacred information — showing exactly where the system still aches for repair.

In IFS, transference isn’t a mistake to manage. It’s the heart revealing where love once left off, and where it’s ready to begin again.