Internal Family Systems (IFS)Informed Therapy for Women Online in New York & Florida
You know what it feels like to be at war with yourself.
To make progress toward the things you want most, and then pull yourself back. To understand exactly why you do the thing that makes you cringe as soon as it happens—and yet you do it anyway.
Part of you wants to set the boundary. Another part can't bear the thought of the fallout. Part of you is exhausted and needs to rest. Another part says you haven't earned it yet. Part of you knows you've done enough. Another part is already making a list of everything you haven't.
That's not a character flaw. That's what it looks like when different parts of you are at odds with each other. When this happens, it’s all but impossible to lead from that place of calm, confidence, and clarity, that core Self that all of us have—but stays buried when our parts are running the show.
When your Self leads your internal system instead of protective parts running the show, real healing happens.
Your story doesn’t have to be extreme to be worth healing
Many of the parts we carry didn't form in response to a single traumatic event. They formed gradually—in classrooms where you learned that mistakes weren't okay, in families where love felt conditional and your emotions were ignored or shamed, in relationships where you slowly learned to make yourself smaller to fit someone else’s ideals.
Parts don't measure suffering before they show up. They just respond to what felt threatening at the time. And they keep doing their job long after the threat has passed.
If you find yourself dismissing your own experience because it didn't seem “bad enough” for therapy, that's worth paying attention to. A part of you learned that your pain needed to be justified before it deserved care, or that your response to something harmful wasn’t valid.
If you’ve ever been told you’re “too dramatic”, “too emotional”, or told to “just get over it”, IFS will finally give a voice to those parts of you that have been silenced for so long.
What is Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy?
Internal Family Systems recognizes that we all have different parts within us. When you've experienced trauma or difficult life circumstances, some parts take on more extreme roles to protect you. The problem is that these protective strategies often cause more pain than they prevent.
Developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz in the 1980s, IFS helps you understand the relationships between your various parts and access your core Self. This compassionate, confident essence of who you are knows how to heal.
As an IFS-informed therapist, I integrate partswork into EMDR therapy to help you understand the different parts of yourself that hold pain, shame, or protective patterns. By blending this understanding of your unique inner world into EMDR’s focus on resolving specific trauma memories, you experience a richer, more personalized approach to trauma healing.
IFS helps with:
Understanding your inner conflicts
Healing wounded parts carrying shame or pain
Reducing anxiety from parts that worry constantly
Managing perfectionism and harsh self-criticism
Processing trauma in a gentle, non-retraumatizing way
Building self-compassion and internal harmony
This approach is particularly effective if you:
Feel stuck in patterns you can see clearly but can’t seem to change
Have a relentless inner critic that insight alone hasn’t quieted
Experience intense internal conflict around decisions, relationships, or your own needs
Carry shame or self-blame that feels bigger than it should
Grew up in an environment that never quite felt safe or stable
Have found traditional talk therapy helpful but incomplete.
You’ve probably spent a long time trying to manage your inner world—pushing through, ignoring the parts that slow you down, telling yourself to just get it together. IFS offers something different: a way to actually get to know those parts, understand why they're there, and build a relationship with yourself that doesn't require constant management.
This is where the real change lives.
I approach EMDR reprocessing through an IFS-informed lens. While EMDR remains the primary modality, approaching it through an IFS-informed lens allows a more nuanced approach to healing.
Ready to find out if this approach is right for you?
Request a free consultation and let’s talk.
