IFS vs a “phase-oriented” traditional approach.
In the book titled: Transcending Trauma, author Frank Anderson writes:
“IFS teaches that healing is connected to helping burdened parts release or unload traumatic feelings and experiences they’ve been forced to carry, allowing them to return to their pre-burdened existence. This is different from the phase-oriented treatment method of processing, reviewing, and reappraising traumatic memories to integrate the experience into an adaptive representation of the self.”
The difference between an IFS unburdening parts approach and a traditional “phase-oriented” method.
In Transcending Trauma, Frank Anderson highlights a fundamental shift from traditional, cognitive-based trauma work to an experiential, internal approach. The core difference lies in how the trauma is accessed (parts vs. memory) and how it is resolved (unburdening vs. processing).
See: The 3 Essential Steps of Trauma Healing | Frank Anderson on IFS and Unburdening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfUGNT3E5WY
Here is an explanation of the differences between the Internal Family Systems (IFS) unburdening approach and traditional phase-oriented treatment
1. Traditional “Phase-Oriented” Approach
Traditional treatments (such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or STAIR/EMDR protocols) often follow a 3-phase model: 1) Safety/Stabilization, 2) Processing/Recollecting Memories, 3) Integration.
National Institutes of Health (.gov)
Focus on the Memory: This method often requires reviewing, talking about, and reappraising the specific, chronological traumatic event.
Cognitive Integration: The goal is to process the memory so it no longer causes intense emotional reactions, integrating it into a new, adaptive narrative of the self.
Symptom Management: The first phase often focuses on managing or reducing symptoms (e.g., stopping self-harm or reducing anxiety) before addressing the trauma.
Top-Down Approach: Often relies on the conscious, adult mind to re-evaluate past events.
Phase-Oriented
IFS “Unburdening Parts” Approach
IFS relates to trauma by addressing the internal system, which is divided into “parts” (Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles).
Focus on the Parts:
Rather than talking about the trauma, the client works with the parts of the psyche that are currently carrying the trauma (the “Exiles”).
Unburdening (Release):
Healing is not about changing the memory; it is about helping the parts “unload” or release the extreme feelings (shame, fear, terror) they have been holding.
Welcoming Protectors:
Instead of bypassing or managing protective parts (like addictions or avoidance), IFS starts by building trust with them to get permission to heal the wounded parts.
Restoring the Self: The goal is to return these parts to their pre-trauma, undamaged state, allowing them to function in a healthy way within the system.
Why They Differ (According to Anderson)
Avoiding Re-traumatization:
Traditional processing can sometimes feel overwhelming or re-traumatizing if done too fast. IFS ensures safety by working with protective parts first.
Body-Based: IFS often involves releasing physical sensations (somatic) stored in the parts, rather than just cognitive, verbal review.
Trauma as “Stuck” Time: In IFS, parts are viewed as being frozen in the past. Unburdening allows them to leave the past and live in the present.
In essence, phase-oriented treatment processes the event, while IFS heals the part that is still living in the event.
| Feature | Phase-Oriented | IFS Approach |
|---|---|---|
|
Focus |
Memory processing & narrative |
Releasing emotional loads from parts |
|
View of Symptoms |
Pathological, to be managed/reduced |
Protective, to be understood/respected |
|
Method |
Cognitive restructuring, exposure |
Compassionate connection, witnessing |
|
Revisiting Trauma |
Direct retelling/reprocessing |
Indirect, safely mediated by “Self” |
|
Goal |
Symptom reduction & cognitive restructuring |
Reclaiming “Self-leadership” & wholeness |
In short, while traditional therapy aims to change how a client thinks about a past event, IFS aims to change how a client feels in the present by releasing the trapped energy of that event, notes Frank Anderson in Transcending Trauma.
LINK
Human history is littered with maladaptive “rituals” intended to solve legacy burdens. The video above reveals how ancient rituals continue to plague modern governments. Les Wexner and his religious, mythological beliefs about what he named the: “dybbuk” or “dabaq”, manifesting as an obsessive, dominating part of his life, a malicious and clinging spirit with a supposed ability to adhere or cling to a human being.
TG-IFS: Greatful we now have IFS to bring that dark mythology into a calm, courageous IFS conversation, that leads us beyond trauma and into connection and clarity.
Professor Jiang explains how mind control techniques originated in ancient Egypt. Priests developed these techniques to control the Pharaoh, and they became embedded into Egyptian mythology. Today, these ancient mind control techniques are still used.
For those of you who can’t believe that politicians (left AND right), celebrities and billionaires could all collude together to do heinous things in secret… this is exactly how it is possible and how they succeed with it. ~ Sarah Campbell
…:: “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives.
I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that.
That’s what’s insane about it. ~John Lennon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLaLvALHmEU
..::” It is no measure of health… to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick (egoic) society.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
..::”The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the seed of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is already dead. ~Albert Einstein
..::”Refusing humility traps you in delusion.
People will convince themselves they are fighting you…
…while being blind to the fact that it was never actually about you—
—it has actually been a one-sided beef with their Creator all along.
This is why we say, “Don’t kill the messenger ♡
Poetess gina näuman • جینا نعمان @entertheunseen
” Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of people who are oppressing them.
Assata_ShakurWe Think We Listen, but that might be a thought!
https://empathymatters.org/now/active-listening-carl-rogers/
Understanding this could greatly reduce human suffering.
“The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the seed of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is already dead. ~Albert Einstein
”Refusing humility traps you in delusion.♡ Love Albert Einstein … Only a comic book bible would suggest a cultish behavior to genoc~~ everyone else, but some special chosen ones?~ OMG
Imagine living on the only known planet in the infinite universe, where the mortified rich get richer by indoctrinating the people to follow an ancient dogma, repeating an ancient doctrine of sacrifice, projected onto innocent children, again and again, the rich get richer, and the children inherit a brutal indoctrination instead of Living Sacred Life. https://empathymatters.org/armageddon/
Secret History: How Evil Triumphs:
