Internal Family Systems Therapy is one of the fastest-growing approaches to psychotherapy. It has developed over the past twenty years into a way of understanding and treating human problems that is empowering, effective, and nonpathologizing. Internal Family Systems (IFS) involves helping people heal by listening inside themselves in a new way to different "parts" -- feelings or thoughts -- and, in the process, unburdening themselves of extreme beliefs, emotions, sensations, and urges that constrain their lives. As they unburden, people have more access to Self, our most precious human resource, and are better able to lead their lives from that centered, confident, compassionate place.

In this book, Richard Schwartz, the developer of the Internal Family Systems Model, introduces its basic concepts and methods in an engaging, understandable, and personal style. Therapists will find that the book deepens their appreciation of the IFS Model and helps their clients understand what they are experiencing in therapy. Also included are user-friendly exercises to facilitate learning.