“Parts” Work
Unlocking confidance and rebuilding emotional control, equalling better boundaries. This will involve getting you to understand yourself from the foundations upwards
Starting with Internal Family Systems (IFS) work, which involves getting to understand yourself. By yourself, I mean understanding the “Parts” of you that make you, you. I.F.S. work is a therapeutic process of identifying, understanding, and interacting with the multiple sub-personalities or "parts" within oneself, which are viewed as having unique roles, emotions, and motivations. The goal of parts work is to cultivate a relationship between these parts and the core "Self"—a natural state of calm, curiosity, and compassion—to help parts release past burdens, heal from trauma, and transform into healthier, cooperative roles, ultimately leading to inner harmony and healing. The process involves;
Meet Your Parts (I.F.S.):
Your Managers -Plan and Prevent
Your Firefighters - React when things go wrong.
Your Exiles - Past wounded parts of you.
Your managers and firefighters are protectors, and they work hard to protect you from pain, whether it is physical or emotional. Breaking emotional trauma cycles is changing pain. So when you better understand your protectors, you can better control your decision-making. This allows you to accept the pain that comes with breaking habits and self-sabotaging patterns.
Understand conscious and unconscious thinking
This involves identifying parts, understanding their positive and negative intentions, and fostering a relationship between the “Self” and these parts to unburden them.
Control instincts and emotions
Instincts are innate, inherited, and automatic behaviours directed toward survival goals (e.g., flight or fight response), while emotions are internal, conscious, and often learned feelings that signal changes in mood (e.g., fear or Joy). Instincts provide the action, whereas emotions provide the feeling and motivation. To control instincts and emotions, we must first work out which instincts are fighting each other and which emotion shows as the outcome. Once we have worked this out, we can then get to grips with secondary gain and self-sabotaging patterns.
“Secondary gains are, as I describe, a special type of self-sabotage pattern. They can be quite a big obstacle to process. Secondary gains are sections of your mind that are conscious motivators that reward you in emotional or physical ways for holding onto your problems and blocks.”
Link hormones and neurotransmitters
Your emotions, instincts and mental states act as a "conductor," triggering the brain to release specific neurochemicals (e.g., endorphins, serotonin) or signals to glands to release hormones (e.g., cortisol, adrenaline). Trading can be very stressful, and when you are stressed, your body undergoes an immediate, automatic, and complex "fight-or-flight" chemical reaction designed to prepare you to face or flee from danger. This response is driven by the nervous system and the endocrine system, triggering the release of key hormones and neurotransmitters, including adrenaline (epinephrine), noradrenaline (norepinephrine), and cortisol. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, acts on the brain to manage acute stress by boosting alertness and energy, but high levels can damage brain structure and function. It shrinks the hippocampus (memory centre), reduces prefrontal cortex function (impairing decision-making), and increases amygdala activity, which can intensify anxiety and fear. Creating all sorts of mixed emotions about how we really think and act.
Total session time: 75 minutes
£75 per session
(I offer lower rates for individuals on low income, please email me for further information)
Payment for any consultation or session work must be made up to 48 hours prior to the session starting.