Join us Thursday, October 26th here!
I am so excited to have my friend and mentor, Dick Schwartz PhD, creator of the Internal Family Systems (IFS) method, on Reality Reimagined. Together we explored societal legacy burdens, in particular, male domination, and its effect both men and women, humanity, and the planet. How did they come to be? How to heal? And a vision of the world healed and whole.
Dr. Schwartz explained how the IFS framework sees each person as having multiple internal “parts,” some of which may carry burdens of trauma from societal oppression. By working with and healing these parts, we can free ourselves from the grip of internalized patriarchal conditioning.
We can, then, better understand how patriarchy has caused immense harm—not only to women, who have been subjugated and marginalized, but also to men, who have been taught to suppress their emotional selves and adopt harmful ideas of masculinity. As these burdens are unburdened and healed, we can embrace more balanced and empowered ways of living.
We explored how patriarchy has maintained its dominance over time, but also a vision of the future. Using the metaphor of a bird with two wings—one male, one female—patriarchy has long kept one wing (the feminine) weak, limiting humanity's ability to “fly” to its full potential. However, in a future where both wings are strong and equal, humanity will be able to soar to new heights.
This vision calls for the empowerment of all genders, allowing each person to express their full range of human potential without being confined by outdated societal structures. When both the masculine and feminine energies are honored and balanced, humanity can move beyond the traumas of patriarchy and build a more just and compassionate world where the dignity of all is honored.
Join us to be enlightened and inspired.
Dick Schwartz began his career as a family therapist and an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief and in asking patients why, he learned that they were plagued by what they called “parts.” These patients became his teachers as they described how their parts formed networks of inner relationship that resembled the families he had been working with. He also found that as they focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, confidence and compassion. He called that inner essence the Self and was amazed to find it even in severely diagnosed and traumatized patients. From these explorations the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model was born in the early 1980s.
IFS is now evidence-based and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families, and more recently, corporations and classrooms.
Dick lives with his wife Jeanne near Chicago, close to his three daughters and his growing number of grandchildren.
Connect with Dick here:
- Twitter: @ifs_model
- Instagram: @internalfamilysystems
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternalFamilySystems/
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/internalfamilysystems/
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