IFS Resources From Around the Planet (more coming soon!)
Cultural & Collective Burdens
IFS recongizes the existence of and impact of deeply embeded, often unconcious beliefs, that we carry as individuals. These beliefs are not chosen consioulsy, but rather are absorbed from the environment we exist within - a family, a society, a culture. Yet these beliefs often have a profound impact on how we feel and make sense of our pain. Trauma, and the impact of trauma is often treatead as a probelm of the individual, however in IFS we do not lose sight of the social context that traumatic experiences arise within. Francis Weller talks about the impact of the collective belief in (burden of) indivudualism:
"I had this profound feeling of emptiness in my being, and this emptiness was personalized,
as if it was some character flaw, some defect in my own being. As I sat with many other
people in my practice, that thread of emptiness came up over and over and over again, to
the point where I had to begin to question whether it was my own personal flaw or whether
it was a wider systemic issue.
Then simultaneously, through studying traditional cultures and Indigenous cultures, I
began to look at how they raised people, the value of belonging, the central sense of your
necessity, that you were needed, that you were valued, the value of ancestors, the value of
ritual. All these practices kept a cohesiveness so that the psyche didn’t go into that place of
feeling empty. Where this emptiness comes from is our hyper-focus on individualism, which
began several hundred years ago at least with the Enlightenment.
This ideology of individualism breeds this feeling of emptiness."
--- Frances Weller, MFT
Dick Schwartz, PhD discusses cultural legacy burdens in his numerous writings. Among these burdens are racism, patriarchy, materialism, and individualism. In IFS therapy, these burdens are recongized when present and addressed as a pathway to healing.
In-person IFS Professional Consultation Group - For Therapists
Meets one Friday per month, January - April 2025, Co-led by Erin Andersen, LMFT and Tatra de la Rosa, LMFT.
Maximum of 6 people, meets in Santa Rosa from 1 pm - 3 pm. $600 registration for four meetings/8 hours total.
Please be familiar with basic IFS concepts and be using IFS to some degree with clients and within your own system.
To schedule a brief consultation to learn about if the group is a fit for you, please click here.
IFS Learning and Community
Parts & Self Online Magazine - All IFS, All The Time!
Addiction & Recovery
Path2Recovery - International Addiction Recovery, including free online support groups guided by IFS, mindfulness, body oriented healing and trauma recovery.