IFS Therapy
Parts work therapy explained: an introduction to your "parts"
Parts work offers a compassionate way to explore your inner world, build self-understanding, and strengthen the relationship you have with yourself.
Lauren Cohen, July 21, 2026
You already talk about yourself in parts. Part of me wants to take the job. Part of me wants to stay. A part of me knew this would happen. That language is not sloppy. It is accurate.
What a part actually is
A part is a distinct pattern of feeling, thought, and impulse that shows up reliably. The perfectionist who rewrites the email four times. The one who goes quiet in conflict. The one who reaches for the phone at midnight rather than sit with the day.
Every one of them took on a role for a reason, usually protection. The critic often formed to get ahead of someone else's criticism. The pleaser learned that agreement kept the peace.
Why fighting a part rarely works
Most self-improvement advice is a plan to eliminate a part of you. Stop procrastinating. Stop worrying. Be more disciplined. It works for a week, and then the part comes back with more force, because nothing addressed what it was worried about.
Parts work takes the opposite approach. We turn toward the part, ask what it is afraid would happen if it stopped, and listen to the answer.
What a session looks like
We slow things down. You notice where the feeling sits in the body, how old it seems, what it wants you to know. I stay active throughout, guiding the exploration and reflecting back what I notice.
Over time the relationship changes. The part is no longer running the show, and it is no longer being suppressed. It has a place, and you have more room to choose.