Advertise on podcast: The One Inside: An Internal Family Systems (IFS) podcast

On this week's episode I'm excited to chat with Dr. Carol Shilliday, a clinical psychologist, IFS assistant trainer, and author of the new book Inside ADHD: An Internal Family Systems Workbook to Understand Your Parts and Emotionally Thrive. We discuss ADHD, shame, acceptance, and keeping a spare set of keys. Takeaways Is it brain wiring or parts? Yes. IFS lets us stay curious instead of picking one "Am I ADHD enough?" Not struggling as much as someone else doesn't mean you're not struggling The compensation and anxiety link Traits that come with ADHD get labeled as character flaws: lazy, too much, not enough Overachievers, perfectionists, and maskers often polarize with parts that burn out or give up Strategies don't stick until there's acceptance Healing the shame makes room for what works Low estrogen lowers dopamine, so hormones amplify ADHD for women Advice for partners and mixed neurotype relationships Opportunties to learn from Carol Join Carol in February 2027 for IFS and ADHD: Clarity and Healing, a two-day online workshop focused on working with ADHD clients in neuroaffirming ways.  Find Carol Website Book  About Carol Carol Shilliday, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist with over three decades of experience. She is an IFS assistant trainer, Level 3 certified IFS therapist, and IFS approved clinical consultant who specializes in working with adults with ADHD. She runs groups for IFS therapists and practitioners with ADHD and for those who want to lead their own IFS groups. She is the author of Inside ADHD: An Internal Family Systems Workbook to Understand Your Parts and Emotionally Thrive. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Eight years later, that's still at the heart of all we do. Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a writer, producer, and IFS Level 2 practitioner who helps therapists, coaches, and teachers shape and share their story. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

On this week's episode I'm excited to chat with Dr. Laura Patryas, a psychologist, author, spiritual teacher, and 2026 IFS Annual Conference presenter. We discuss non-duality, presence, wholeness, and Cabbage Patch dolls. Takeaways Honoring all of our parts while remembering the wholeness underneath them Every part has Self at its core. The burdens obscure it, but they don't change what's underneath Multiplicity and unity coexist--you can be a in part and be whole at the same time Tantra means to weave and to become whole--so does IFS Either-or thinking is often a burdened part, where Self offers perspective and choice My childhood Cabbage Patch doll burden is a lesson in non-duality Wholeness doesn't mean perfect Awakening is being present with whatever part is showing up right now Parts sometimes try to keep us safe from silence, stillness, and presence Presence is a birthright, and it's something you can practice and develop Three Fs: focus, flow, and feeling. It's a simple way to track how blended you are in any moment Therapeutic presence relies on something transpersonal Self leadership can be fierce and boundaried "You are loved. Every one of your parts is already loved." Here's a link to the Easing Back In meditation I mentioned. Find Laura Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn | Substack | Books About Laura Laura Patryas is a psychologist, author, and spiritual teacher whose work brings together Internal Family Systems, nonduality, and embodied spirituality. She is the author of Awaken to Love, exploring how we can reclaim our wholeness and awaken to the love that is already here.   Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the IFS Institute. This October, join the IFS Institute for the 2026 IFS Annual Conference, happening fully online October 15th and 16th. Over two days, you'll hear from over 45 voices from across the IFS community exploring the theme of Self in Relationship: From Inner Healing to Collective Repair. This year's workshops will cover topics from clinical practice and emerging research to Self-leadership, relationships, culture, and the challenges we're navigating in the world today. Because this year's conference is fully virtual, you can join the IFS community from wherever you are. Visit ifs-institute.com/conference to learn more and register. About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Eight years later, that's still at the heart of all we do. Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a writer, producer, and IFS Level 2 practitioner who helps therapists, coaches, and teachers shape and share their story. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

Emma Coyne wrote over a hundred poems inspired by her IFS training and her own therapy. She sent them to people who told her they recognized themselves in many of them. That "me too" response encouraged her to share them with the world in her new book, but not before working with all of her parts to make sure everyone was on board. She is a clinical psychologist and Level 3 IFS therapist based in Nottinghamshire, UK. She has spent 17 years working with people living with kidney failure, transplantation, and end of life care. Emma also writes a Substack on IFS and neurodiversity.  In this episode: How treating a kidney transplant as a new part can change someone's relationship with it Transplant patients often name their kidneys. You won't believe the most common name. Why the CBT she tried didn't fit, and what drew her to IFS instead The puppy dog part behind her IFS and Neurodiversity Substack What readers told her to cut before the book went out Getting every part's permission to publish How poetry carries parts through image, rhythm, and fragment, not just words "The stories belong to me, but the feelings belong to all of us" What her 10-year-old self wanted to be, and what's already waiting in her drafts Emma reads five poems in this episode for us, which is such a treat. As she reads she becomes the parts themselves. Make sure to catch the bonus reading over on Substack. About Emma: Dr. Emma Coyne is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with 22 years in the NHS, working in adult mental and physical health. She specializes in long term health conditions, neurodivergence, and developmental disabilities, and is particularly interested in working with the body in therapy. She is a Level 3 IFS therapist, trained yoga teacher, and holds Chartered status with the British Psychological Society. She is based in Nottinghamshire, UK. Find Emma on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok Mentioned in this episode Poems for My Parts: An IFS Therapy Journey by Emma Coyne  Emma's Substack on IFS and Neurodiversity New Audio Guide: For The One Waiting Free Bonus: Emma reads "The Chocoholic" on The One Inside Substack. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Parts Companion. Parts Companion is a therapy companion tool for IFS clients and practitioners that supports the work you do with your parts between sessions. Add a part, and Parts Companion guides you through a series of questions, then creates a parts map, images of your parts, a summary of what you shared, and a personalized audio meditation to connect with each part. Many features are free. Use code THEONEINSIDE for 50% off your first month of a paid plan at partscompanion.org. About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Eight years later, that's still at the heart of all we do. Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, an IFS Level 2 practitioner who helps therapists, coaches, and solopreneurs build content strategy and step curiously into visibility. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

Episode Description This week I welcome Nancy Sowell to the podcast to kick off Season 8. She spearheaded the intervention program behind the landmark study with medical patients that helped establish IFS as a promising treatment, and she wrote a book about what IFS has to offer our physical health. This one also feels like a full circle moment. Nancy was my lead trainer when The One Inside was just getting started. In this episode we talk about how chronic stress, childhood adversity, perfectionism, and burdened parts affect our physical health, and what IFS can offer. Takeaways Parentification, taking on adult roles or becoming an emotional support for parents in childhood, shows up again and again in the trauma histories of people with autoimmune disease Our health is influenced by our genome and our exposome - the collection of everything we've been exposed to throughout our lives, from gestation forward Chronic internal stress from parts carrying burdens, like "I'm not good enough," has a measurable effect on the body Nancy realized her body had been her guide all along, she just hadn't been tuning in Admitting you're wrong is a relief to your protectors. It's worth considering what it costs them to keep you from doing it Parts that don't want to connect to the body often have very good reasons. Start there About Nancy Nancy Sowell, LICSW, is a Senior Trainer for the IFS Institute and a Harvard Medical School Teaching Associate. She spearheaded the intervention program behind the landmark study with medical patients that helped establish IFS as a promising treatment. She has spent her career exploring how chronic stress, trauma, and unmet emotional needs--especially during childhood--affect our physical health throughout our lives, and what IFS offers for deep, sustainable well-being. Her new book, IFS Health Therapy, co-authored with Martha Sweezy and Richard Schwartz, is available now.  Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by the IFS Institute. This October, join the IFS Institute for the 2026 IFS Annual Conference, happening fully online October 15th and 16th. Over two days, you'll hear from over 45 voices from across the IFS community exploring the theme of Self in Relationship: From Inner Healing to Collective Repair.  This year's workshops will cover topics from clinical practice and emerging research to Self-leadership, relationships, culture, and the challenges we're navigating in the world today. Because this year's conference is fully virtual, you can join the IFS community from wherever you are. Early Bird pricing is available through September 30th. Visit ifs-institute.com/conference to learn more and register.  About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Eight years later, that's still at the heart of all we do. Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner, coach, and creativity consultant. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

Brian Jaudon is back on the podcast to help us wrap up Season 7. We talk about soul alignment, what it means to organize your life around your divine essence, and what happens when a chapter closes and something new wants to emerge.  Takeaways The question Brian has asked clients for 30 years: what has your life been organized around, and what would you like to reorganize it around? Invitation is a spiritual state. Have you invited what you want into your consciousness, your body, and your whole being? Soul misalignment shows up as a felt sense, and the body knows when something is off Once you've experienced a state of consciousness, you have access to it Live into what is and what wants to be, not what was or what should be Anything not aligned with your divine essence will surface to be examined, released, or renegotiated Brian's medicine journey revelation: we get to exist on this planet without being of service; we can choose how we want to show up and share our gifts with the world Relationship first, task second About Brian Brian Jaudon is a sacred witness to the divine unfolding of one's life. After 30 years as a coach, including his early role as a pioneer in the integration of IFS and coaching, Brian is embracing a new path and calling that is more vibrational and spiritual in nature. For the first time in his professional life, he is inviting individuals and couples to work with him in person at his home (Turtle Ridge) in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina. Brian's new website is www.divinebecoming.love Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Therapy Training Boston. Therapy Training Boston offers live, in-person, and online workshops, plus consultation for therapists and other helping professionals, designed to support you as a whole person while satisfying your CE requirements. All of their offerings are taught with an eye toward context, power, and relational justice, and draw on the family systems theories and best practices that shaped the IFS model. They also offer an Intensive Certificate Program in Couples and Family Therapy to help you build confidence and capacity in community. About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Eight years later, that's still at the heart of all we do. Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Listen to episodes and watch select clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner, coach, and creativity consultant.   Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

On today's episode we welcome Bob Falconer back to the podcast. Bob is an IFS teacher, consultant, and author who has devoted decades to trauma healing and the study of mind and spirit. He co-authored Many Minds, One Self with Dick Schwartz and wrote The Others Within Us. His memoir, Self Unbroken, is out now. It's hard to pick a favorite "Bob" episode, but this one might be my favorite so far. We talk about his daily practice of dialoguing with Spirit, the sewer path to wisdom, what skeptical parts need, and the monk who changed everything for him Takeaways Self may be less like a particle and more like a field.  The high road to wisdom is lined with people waving shiny objects. Bob suggests trudging through the sewer instead. Skeptical parts don't need to be shut down, they need to be invited in. Not knowing is the beginning of knowledge  When a spirit dialogue starts making you feel superior to others, it's your clue the signal has been hijacked Understanding a past life isn't what heals it. Witnessing and unburdening the emotional charge is what changes things Use your client's language instead of imposing yours Here's a link to The One Inside Audio Guides I mentioned in the intro. About Robert Falconer: For the early decades of his career, Bob focused on work with men who had histories of major sexual and physical abuse as Bob had. He used various forms of parts work (Ego State Therapy, Gestalt, and Pia Mellody's work among others) but some 16 years ago he discovered Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) and is now focused exclusively on IFS, which he finds to be the most respectful and powerful modality.  His own recovery is the deep basis for all his work. Bob has taught IFS extensively and internationally online and has led classes and trainings in Pakistan, China, South Korea, Mexico, Poland , Spain, Canada, the UK, and for the Fort Belknap reservation. He has also been on the staff of over 20 of the official IFS institute trainings. Bob has been actively involved with psychedelics since 1967 and continues to view them as a powerful pathway. He is the author of six books related to IFS, spirituality and inner healing: Many Minds, One Self (2017), co-authored with Richard C. Schwartz, founder of IFS; The Others Within Us (2023); When Going Through Hell… Keep Going (2024); Opening the Inner World (2025), co-authored with two experts on Emanuel Swedenborg; Spirit (2025), a compilation drawn from journals of his daily dialogues with Spirit, and Self Unbroken a memoir of the beginnings of his recovery from childhood sexual abuse (2026). Now at in his late seventies, Bob mostly teaches and leads supervision classes, only occasionally seeing individuals, often with their therapist. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com The Others Within Us: A four-day online experiential workshop with Bob Falconer, March 2027. Learn more and register at Souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

This episode didn't go as planned, and I'm grateful it didn't. I invited Liz Brenner on the podcast to talk about the Family Process article on the family systems roots of IFS she co-authored with Dick Schwartz and Carol Becker in 2023. Instead, we found ourselves talking about grief. A month before we recorded, my dad died unexpectedly. Liz lost her partner, Dan, in 2018, just six weeks after his cancer diagnosis. We both came into the conversation still processing our losses, and grief was the conversation we needed to have.  Takeaways Grief can break you, and it can also heal you. Both can be true at once A felt connection to someone who has died can be a real and ongoing relationship When the spiritual dimension of Self gets left out, the Self-to-part relationship can feel smaller than it actually is Constraint release, an idea from family systems therapy, asks what pattern isn't working rather than what's broken Meaning-making is an often-overlooked stage of grief A part that's afraid of losing connection to someone you love can be asked to step back (Liz learned that during a session with Dick Schwartz) Family systems theory shaped IFS more than we realize We'll have Liz back on to finish the conversation about the family systems article.  About Liz Brenner Liz Brenner, LICSW, is the director of Therapy Training Boston, the continuing legacy of the Family Institute of Cambridge. She is the primary instructor of their Intensive Certification Program in Couples and Family Therapy and co-author, with Richard Schwartz and Carol Becker, of the 2023 Family Process article on the development of the IFS model (email Liz for access to the article). Follow Therapy Training Boston on Facebook or Instagram. Links: Therapy Training Boston Courses and Workshops Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

My guest on today's episode is Achara Tarfa. She is a certified IFS practitioner, co-founder of the Global Trauma Institute, and director of the PATH program. We talk about finding IFS, what trauma coaching offers that therapy often doesn't, and why she and her co-founders built GTI to create the spaces they needed but couldn't find. Takeaways IFS gave Achara language for her own anger for the first time When the people you turn to for help fail you, the harm compounds. Achara experienced this firsthand and it shaped everything she built Trauma coaching isn't replacing therapy. It's reaching people the system has missed Healing isn't just individual. It's about dismantling the systems, cultural, institutional, hierarchical, that created the harm  PATH meetings use IFS to address addiction and its underlying trauma together AA teaches you how to survive; PATH teaches you how to live. If you're in protection mode, there's no room to feel. That's not a flaw, it's survival Catch my extended interview with Achara and our Audio Guides meditations over on Substack.  About Achara Achara Tarfa is a certified IFS practitioner, co-founder of the Global Trauma Institute, and director of the PATH program. Connect with her on Substack and Instagram. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

I didn't know frozen shoulder was a perimenopause symptom. Neither did Melissa Monahan, this week's podcast guest, and she's a therapist living through it herself. This week Melissa joins me on the podcast to talk about the mental health side of perimenopause and menopause, and what IFS can offer women going through it. She's an IFS Level 2 therapist and host of Mindfully Meni, a podcast and Substack for women in this chapter of life -- and the people who love them. In this episode we talk about the changes happening in our inner worlds during this transition, and how IFS can help us make sense of and befriend parts whose burdens we may be noticing for the first time.  Takeaways Perimenopause is as much an identity transition as a physical one.  As estrogen drops, the manager parts lose their primary tool. Anger, anxiety, and old wounds may surface. Parts that were managed and exiled for years may now need additional care and compassion I share about my angry part around hot flashes, and what happened when I got curious instead of contemptuous.  Anger in women going through this transition is often the first time they've allowed themselves to feel it.  The polarization between shrinking completely and blowing everything up is a parts pattern, not a personality flaw.  Melissa went to PT for weeks for a frozen shoulder that kept getting worse. A surgeon finally told her it was common in women her age. Nobody had connected it to perimenopause. That's the gap she's trying to close. Community is not optional. It is medicine. Be sure to check out my extended interview with Melissa over on The One Inside on Substack   About Melissa Melissa Monahan is a licensed mental health counselor and IFS Level 2 therapist specializing in perimenopause and menopause. She integrates IFS, EMDR, and Brainspotting to support women through the hormonal and emotional dimensions of this transition, with a focus on the mental health conversation perimenopause deserves. She hosts Mindfully Meni, a podcast and Substack community for women in this chapter and for the people who love them. Melissa also offers clinical consultation for therapists working with this population and is building resources for clinicians.  Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Therapy Training Boston. Therapy Training Boston offers live, in-person, and online workshops, plus consultation for therapists and other helping professionals, designed to support you as a whole person while satisfying your CE requirements. All of their offerings are taught with an eye toward context, power, and relational justice, and draw on the family systems theories and best practices that shaped the IFS model. They also offer an Intensive Certificate Program in Couples and Family Therapy to help you build confidence and capacity in community.  About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

On today's episode I welcome Jessica Tomich Sorci to the podcast. She's a therapist, perinatal mental health specialist, and creator of the Mom Parts Method. She's spent 15 years working with moms and noticed the same parts showing up, so she began naming them, then created a methodology and a new book. Her Mom Parts Method is a five-step IFS-based process specifically for mothers. It starts with a meditation to connect with a triggering experience, then moves through naming which parts showed up, speaking truths on their behalf, noticing underlying shame or grief, and identifying what those parts actually need. She identified 29 mom parts that kept appearing across 15 years of practice--things like anger, resentment, anxiety, destroyer, blame--and named them so moms could recognize themselves without feeling alone in it. Her Mom Parts cards are a physical tool to support the process. Takeaways The parts that make us such attuned mothers are the same parts that make it hard to let go as kids grow Grief is a through line in motherhood, from the 12-month clothes replacing the 6-month ones all the way to high school graduation. We don't talk about it enough. The good mom/bad mom flip is parts thinking, not Self. It's black and white, and it's exhausting. Motherhood is as much your developmental journey as your child's. You have every right to grow, struggle, fail, and try again too Twenty percent of moms are diagnosed with a perinatal mood or anxiety disorder. Jessica's take: that's a cultural failure rate "I've never heard anyone say they're screwed up because their mom took such good care of herself" Team Kid and Team What About Mom are both in your system. Both are trying to help. Catch my extended interview with Jessica over on Substack. And while you're there, be sure to try one of our new Audio Guides meditations. About Jessica Jessica Tomich Sorci, LMFT is a Level 3 Certified Internal Family Systems Therapist, Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional, and creator of the groundbreaking Mothercentered approach. She developed the innovative Mom Parts Method—a revolutionary application of IFS to motherhood that helps moms transform guilt, anxiety, and anger into self-compassion and confidence. Jessica's book When Good Moms Feel Bad: An Empowering Guide for Transforming Guilt, Anxiety and Anger into Compassion, Confidence and Connectedness presents her paradigm-shifting vision that reframes maternal mental health struggles not as disorders, but as natural responses to the profound transformation of matrescence, in a world that provides insufficient support. Through her training programs, she empowers therapists to understand mothers through a non-pathologizing lens that normalizes the full spectrum of maternal experience while accessing every mom's own Inner Mom wisdom. Connect with Jessica at momparts.com She is also a singer-songwriter, and you can listen to her music here. Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

Today I welcome Dr. Audrey Davidheiser back to the podcast. Her latest book, Grieving Wholeheartedly: Bringing Healing for Every Part of Your Soul, is an IFS guide to loss that views grief as a collection of parts, each carrying something specific, each needing to be met.   Audrey is a licensed psychologist, certified IFS therapist, and founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center, where she specializes in trauma and religious trauma. She's also someone who lost her father suddenly seven years ago and rebuilt her practice and her inner life from the ground up. Takeaways Grief doesn't disappear. Avoided, it piles up. You can negotiate with parts about how much grief feels manageable Every grief is different, and every system responds differently to the same loss Legacy burdens shape how we grieve Faith can support grief or be used to bypass it Parts that yearn for a person who's gone can be met by Self Avoiding grief work is felt as another abandonment for our parts The Book Grieving Wholeheartedly: Bringing Healing for Every Part of Your Soul  Find Audrey Instagram & Facebook: @DrAudreyD, Substack and website  About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

I'm excited to welcome Jenna Riemersma back on the podcast for the third time to talk about her new book. She's a certified IFS therapist, bestselling author, and someone committed to making IFS accessible to everyone. Her new book, Move Toward: A Simplified IFS Therapy Tool to Welcome All Parts of You, gives you a simple way to work with parts in the real world, in real time. In This Episode The three-step Move Toward tool: Notice, Know, Need How Self Energy can transform a room of people What Self-led action looks like when you're in a toxic relationship or a power-down position Parts-led activism vs. Self-led activism Why moving against our own parts, and other people's parts, makes suffering worse IFS and addiction: why fighting parts never works long term "Every burdened part I take care of inside of me is no longer creating impact in the world around me." -- Jenna Riemersma Takeaways Move Toward is not the same as anything goes.  Unblending changes your energy even when nothing on the outside changes. People feel it Self-led action includes courage, clarity, and the ability to see danger clearly, not just softness and compassion Parts-led activism burns you out and widens division. Self-led activism keeps your humanity intact People in marginalized or power-down positions need safe spaces to fully express their parts before deciding how to engage The Book Move Toward by Jenna Riemersma | jennariemersma.com  About Jenna  Jenna Riemersma is a Certified IFS therapist and IFS Clinical Consultant who specializes in making parts work accessible. She's the best-selling author of several IFS books including Altogether You, IFS Integration, and her newly-released book, Move Toward.  Free resources, worksheets, and guided meditations available on her website and Insight Timer Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

Today I welcome to the podcast Drs. Risa Adams, Robin Beardsley, and Elizabeth Parsons. They are family physicians turned psychotherapists who came together during the pandemic to write, find community, and speak for their parts. What they found in that process and wrote about in their new book, It Doesn't Have To Be This Way: A Physician's Guide To Radical Self Care (by three physicians who've been there), is something most caregivers, doctors, healthcare workers, therapists, parents, partners, anyone who finds their worth in being needed, will recognize. In This Episode The parts that helped you survive by taking care of everyone else Why fear and shame rarely get spoken out loud in medicine, or anywhere caregiving happens What finally broke each of them, and what helped Writing as a way to let parts be witnessed for the first time Why belonging and helping got tangled together so early Takeaways Helper parts learned that helping was the price of belonging The parts that make you good at caring for others are often the same parts driving burnout Burnout is a signal that the strategy has run out of space Being witnessed by people who get it can reach parts that have never been spoken out loud The culture around caregiving, in medicine and elsewhere, rewards the helper and punishes the one who needs This episode is for anyone who has ever made themselves smaller so there would be room to help. Links: Book: It Doesn't Have to Be This Way: A Physician's Guide to Radical Self-Care IFS Canadian Community Conference: A two-day online gathering for professionals using Internal Family Systems in their work, and for those exploring how IFS may support their professional practice. June 5-6, 2026, online. About the guests: Risa Adams, MD, CCFP, is a family physician with a focused practice in perinatal mental health and complex PTSD. She is a Certified IFS Therapist, Approved Clinical Consultant and Trainer with the IFS Institute. Through her own travels with mental health she has come to appreciate the complexity of being a human while being a physician, with a special interest in intergenerational trauma. Risa lives in Elora, Ontario, with her partner and two children, and hopes to help bring IFS to doctors, patients and her own communities. Robin Beardsley, MD, FCFP, a Family Physician with over 35 years' experience of comprehensive family medicine practice and psychotherapy with a focus on care for the caregiver. She is a certified IFS-I Therapist, approved Clinical Consultant, with extensive training in the Satir Model and is a trained teacher of Mindful Self Compassion. She also works with learners, as a faculty member of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and teaches Self Compassion for Health Care Communities. These experiences of working with and healing from empathic distress in medical communities with IFS and Self-Compassion, along with her own journey of being a caregiver, personally and professionally, has given her a greater understanding of the complexity and multiplicity of our systems. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario with her husband and adult children nearby.   Elizabeth Parsons, MD, FCFP, has been a physician for over 25 years, practicing psychotherapy since 2007. She is a Certified IFS therapist and an Approved Clinical Consultant with the IFS Institute. In addition to IFS, Elizabeth is trained in trauma therapy and has been facilitating psychotherapy groups since 2010. Her interest in physician well being goes back to residency, when she surveyed medical residents on their coping strategies. She has been closely involved with the Medical Psychotherapy Association Canada since 2007, launching a self-care retreat for physicians that has run annually since 2012. Elizabeth lives in Ottawa, Ontario, with her husband and 3 children. About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

Today I welcome Irina Diyankova back to the podcast. Her last episode,  Is It Trauma or Neurodivergence?  was one of our most popular.  This time we explore what happens when "going inside" during an IFS session becomes hard for clients. She finds this is especially true with neurodivergent and C-PTSD clients.  Irina shares why externalization can be so helpful in these cases. Instead of relying only on what's happening internally, bringing things outside, like mapping, speaking out loud, connecting visually or relationally, really help. We also talk about how IFS isn't a cookie-cutter model. We all respond differently, and part of the work is noticing what helps you stay engaged and attuned to a particular client's system. One of my favorite segments was hearing her talk about building community inside with part-to-part relationships. This is where we help parts notice each other, listen, and begin to relate differently. These part-to-part connections are just as important in the healing process as Self-to-part. We also talk about slowing things down in session, and how that's a small-but-critical opportunity for healing. Saying, "what you just said is important," or "tell me more about that." For many people, that kind of attention wasn't there growing up. It can feel unfamiliar, and also really supportive. Later in the conversation, Irina shares about her experience with cancer, being in remission, and what it's been like to be with her system in the process. She talks about holding different parts at the same time, and relating to cancer not as something to fight, but something to understand. Don't miss my short extended interview with Irina over on Substack, where she shares what's giving her hope lately.  Takeaways from this episode: • Externalizing can make parts work more accessible when staying inside feels hard • IFS isn't one-size-fits-all; adjust based on what you need • Slowing down and naming something as important can help people feel seen • "Community inside" means parts noticing and relating to each other • When Self isn't available, part-to-part connection still helps • Orienting parts to the present can reduce overwhelm • What helps you stay engaged when going inside feels hard? Links: Medium article: Dancing With Cancer Using IFS with Complex Trauma Clients workshop About Irina Diyankova Irina Diyankova, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, certified IFS therapist, Approved IFS Clinical Consultant, and a Co-Lead Trainer. She has private practice in Knoxville, TN, USA where she specializes in working with complex trauma in adults and adolescents and intersection of trauma and neurodifferences. Irina also maintains consultation practice where she offers individual and group consultation to the IFS therapists and those who are in the process of learning IFS. Being born and raised in Russia, Irina has a special interest in applying IFS across cultures, as well as working with cultural dynamics and burdens. Irina has completed all three levels of IFS training. SHe has also conducted multiple IFS workshops and consultation groups in the US and Russia. She is very passionate and excited about IFS Model and loves sharing it with other therapists and human services professionals. In her leisure time she loves practicing yoga, hiking, traveling, reading and writing.  You can learn more about her work at dr-irina.com Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Therapy Training Boston. Therapy Training Boston offers live, in-person, and online workshops, plus consultation for therapists and other helping professionals, designed to support you as a whole person while satisfying your CE requirements. All of their offerings are taught with an eye toward context, power, and relational justice, and draw on the family systems theories and best practices that shaped the IFS model. They also offer an Intensive Certificate Program in Couples and Family Therapy to help you build confidence and capacity in community.  About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.

On today's episode, I talk with Joanna Curry-Sartori, founder of the Self-Leadership Collaborative and author of The Self-Led Educator. We explore this idea of how to bring IFS into everyday life, to invite more Self Energy into our conversations and interactions.  Joanna teaches us her PAUSE model, a five-step process to help you slow things down and notice what's happening inside before you respond. Sometimes it's in moments where you can feel yourself starting to react, or a conversation begins to shift. Instead of pushing through, you pause, get curious about your parts, and then return to the interaction. In This Episode We Talk About: • How to bring IFS into everyday moments • PAUSE as a way to slow down and notice what's happening inside • Using IFS in relationships, parenting, and classrooms • How to stay with your parts instead of reacting • What do you notice in yourself right before you react? • What can change when you turn inward first About Joanna Curry-Sartori Joanna Curry-Sartori, LMFT, is the Founder and President of the Self-Leadership Collaborative. She leads work focused on bringing Internal Family Systems into everyday life—at home, at work, in schools, and in communities. With over twenty years of experience working with young people, educators, parents, and community leaders, her work centers on helping people access and live from Self leadership together. Joanna is the author of The Self-Led Educator: An IFS Guide to Create Calm, Compassionate, and Confident Learning Communities. Learn more at www.selfleadershipcollaborative.com Episode Sponsor This episode is sponsored by Souliology. Souliology offers retreats and immersive learning experiences for IFS professionals, many led by IFS Senior Lead Trainers and eligible for continuing education credits. Their programs support deep professional and personal growth, offering space to step away from the demands of daily life so you can return to your practice more present and resourced for the clients you serve. Souliology: Where growth meets depth. Learn more at souliology.com About The One Inside I started this podcast to help spread IFS out into the world and make the model more accessible to everyone. Seven years later, that's still at the heart of all we do.  Join The One Inside Substack community for bonus conversations, extended interviews, meditations, and more. Find Self-Led merch at The One Inside store. Listen to episodes and watch clips on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram @ifstammy or on Facebook at The One Inside with Tammy Sollenberger. I co-create The One Inside with Jeff Schrum, a Level 2 IFS practitioner and coach. Resources New to IFS? My book, The One Inside: Thirty Days to Your Authentic Self, is a great place to start. Want a free meditation? Sign up for my email list and get "Get to Know a Should Part" right away. Sponsorship Want to sponsor an episode of The One Inside? Email Tammy.