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

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...

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 fir...

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 Subs...

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...

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 specializ...

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...

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 be...

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...

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 res...

On today's episode I welcome Nitsan Joy Gordon, a dance movement therapist, IFS practitioner, and peacebuilder who lives in Israel. Nitsan shares about growing up in Israel, living near the border, and what it's like to live in a place where war and trauma have been part of daily life for generations. She also tells the story of how Internal Family Systems changed her own life. A powerful experien...

On today's episode I welcome psychotherapist and author Meg Josephson to the podcast. Her book Are You Mad at Me? names something so many of us feel but rarely say out loud: Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me? Meg and I talk about the fawn response, people-pleasing, and the parts of us that learned early on to stay ahead of conflict. We explore how "being nice" can disconnect us from ours...

In today's episode, I welcome my friend Marcella Cox back to the podcast. Marcella is a certified IFS therapist, approved consultant, and somatic IFS assistant trainer. She's also a certified Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) and Rest and Restore provider, and the lead author of the new guidelines for integrating IFS with these listening therapies. We talk about: The basics of polyvagal theory How our...

On today's episode I chat with Keith and Courtney, cohosts of the podcast Tripping Over Love . Keith is licensed therapist and a Level 3 IFS Consultant, and Courtney is journalist and podcaster. They joined me to share their beautiful, messy love story . We dive into the courage it takes to start over, the "trauma" of the dating apps, and how they've used Internal Family Systems (IFS) and psychede...

On today's episode I welcome my friend David Stern to the podcast . This conversation feels so perfect right now. It's full of the kind of hope we all need . David has this beautiful way of seeing the spiritual dimension in everything we do . David calls us to remember our "Pure Soul" —the part of us that is already peaceful and cannot be destroyed . He talks about parts as "angels in disguise," t...

In this episode, I'm joined by my friend Daphne Fatter for a timely and honest conversation about what so many of us are navigating right now, as therapists, as parents, and as humans living in a polarized and chaotic time. We talk about nervous system overwhelm, numb and checked-out parts, news consumption, activism, community connection, and how to stay grounded when things feel "too much." We a...

Today I welcome David Polidi, Bruce Hersey, and Joanne Twombly on the podcast to talk about their new book, IFS-Informed EMDR: Creative and Collaborative Appraoches. We talk about why this book is needed, what it took to bring together more than 20 contributors, and why integrating these models can create more options, more flexibility, and more hope for clients.  We talk about: Bringing together...

Today's episode is a little different, in a really wonderful way. I sit down with Dick Schwartz and Jeanne Catanzaro, President and Vice President of the IFS Institute, and partners in both leadership and life. This isn't a traditional interview; it's more like listening in on friends and colleagues talking about the things they care about, the serious, the personal, and the very human. I've been...

We all feel numb sometimes. Our numbing parts protect us from stress, pain, and overwhelm. But what happens when numbness lingers? As we kick off The One Inside 's seventh season, Jeff and I share what we've learned about working with numbing parts. We led a workshop at the recent 2025 IFS Annual Conference called  Why Check In When You Can Check Out: A Self-Led Approach to Numbing Parts. In this...

In this episode I chat with Joe Bielling, a Level 3 IFS practitioner, licensed therapist, and co-author of From Broken to Badass . We talk about what happens when coping, adapting, and belonging slowly pull us away from ourselves, and how to find your way back. Joe shares parts of his personal story, including a period he describes as a mental breakdown and spiritual awakening, and how IFS helped...

In this episode I talk with Anna Christine "AC" Seiple about slowing down, embodiment, and what it means to listen to our bodies and our parts.  AC is a licensed counselor and the author of  The Sacred Art of Slowing Down . She lives in St. Andrews, Scotland, where she's working on her PhD exploring the intersection of ancient contemplative practices and modern mindfulness.  She shares why she fel...

This week I talk with IFS therapist and teacher, Kendhal Hart, about the real-world practice of IFS, how she integrates it with EMDR, and her view of IFS as a neurodivergent clinician. Kendhal is the author of Treating Trauma with EMDR and IFS , a new book that offers clinicians a practical and compassionate guide to integrating the two models. She shares openly about her recent autism diagnosis a...

In this episode I talk with Ronda Bonfanti , an IFS client, memoirist, and self-described "IFS cheerleader," who reached out to me earlier this year to share her beautiful memoir, Talk to the Trees: From CPTSD to Loving Me . Ronda has been on a healing journey for more than 25 years. She's done "all the therapies," read over 250 self-help books, and spent years trying to understand why she felt so...

In this episode, I talk with Max Littman , an IFS therapist, consultant, and writer. Max's new book,  Internal Family Systems Therapy for Gay and Queer Men: A Companion for After Coming Out , launched the morning we recorded this conversation. His work centers on attachment, attunement, cultural burdens, and the relational impact of trauma — especially for gay and queer men who are still healing t...

In this episode, I talk with  Dr. Angele Close , a clinical psychologist, motherhood coach, and certified mindfulness meditation teacher. Her work weaves together Internal Family Systems, mindfulness, and matrescence to help mothers reconnect with themselves and embrace the process of becoming. She opens up about her own season of disconnection in early motherhood and how discovering IFS helped he...

In this episode, I chat with Caitlan Siegenthaler , a Level 2 IFS licensed therapist and podcast host who specializes in IFS and Human Design. What I love about Caitlan's work is how she treats both frameworks as paths home to Self. She shares how Human Design entered her life and how she integrates it with IFS to help clients befriend their parts. She recently led a Human Design reading session w...