How IFS Works- Founder Dick Schwartz Therapizes Emma

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Internal family systems Founder Richard Schwartz does an IFS therapy session with Emma McAdam, we work with her inner critic and Self in IFS Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership In this conversation, Emma McAdam interviews Dick Schwartz, the creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS), a therapeutic approach that emphasizes understanding the mind as composed of multiple parts. Schwartz explains how these parts can be influenced by trauma and how IFS helps individuals connect with their true Self to facilitate healing. The discussion covers the roles of different parts, the impact of trauma, and practical applications of IFS in daily life. Schwartz also shares insights on how individuals can access their Self without a therapist and the importance of addressing legacy burdens that may affect one's mental health. The conversation concludes with a focus on the goals of IFS therapy and the transformative potential of this approach. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell FREE Mental Health Resources: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/free-resources Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a Nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist.
0:07.0	And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing, but usually kind of complicated topics of therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily life.
0:18.8	If you find today's episode as helpful to you,
0:21.0	please pass it on to someone else who could benefit from it as well. Each podcast episode
0:24.8	comes from a corresponding video you can find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel.
0:29.2	Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may be
0:33.7	receiving from a therapist or other health professionals. Now please enjoy the episode.
0:38.8	Holy cow, today I got an incredible opportunity to interview Dick Schwartz. He's the creator of
0:44.1	internal family systems. And I just, I don't even want to say too much because he did some
0:50.2	IFS for me. And it was really cool. So, IFS is internal family systems. It's a therapy
0:58.2	modality that can be really helpful with anxiety, depression, trauma. I mean, there's studies
1:01.9	showing it's helpful with rheumatoid arthritis. It's this really powerful, but at the same time,
1:08.7	easy to understand an accessible therapy approach.
1:13.0	And I just, I can't believe Dick Schwartz agreed to meet with me, but he did.
1:17.3	So here's the interview. It's so good.
1:27.2	All right. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for taking out some time out of your day to be here.
1:32.3	Really appreciate it.
1:33.3	I'm excited about it, I really like what you're trying to do and I want to contribute, so I'm glad to do it.
1:39.3	I'm sure you could do a better job than I at explaining IFS in a big picture way, but simply for my audience, perhaps for people who haven't, aren't very familiar with it.
1:51.8	Yeah. So it's a shift in the way we understand the mind. So basic idea is that we're all multiple personalities in a sense not we have that disorder,
2:01.8	but we all have what I call parts and that we're born that way.
2:05.8	It's the nature of the mind to be multiple, to have these little inner beings talk to us all day
	...

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