🕯️IFS and Triggers

Everything IFS
Oct 28
1 min read

Triggers in IFS aren’t overreactions — they’re activations of parts who still believe the past is happening now. A sound, a word, a look — and suddenly the body remembers.

A protector may lash out to regain control.
A frightened part may freeze or flee before thinking.
An exile may flood the system with emotion, desperate to be seen.

IFS slows the spiral:

“Who in me just got triggered?”
“What are they seeing or feeling that others can’t?”

Instead of suppressing the reaction, Self steps in as anchor — curious, grounded, kind. The system begins to learn that intensity doesn’t mean danger; it means a part is asking for help.

In IFS, triggers become portals — openings that lead, gently, back to the places still waiting for care.

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