When IFS Meets ACT -Unlocking the Psyche: The U-Model's IFS & ACT Integration
Dr. Rivka Graham-Edery
www.rivkaedery.com Email: redery@rivkaedery.com
Credit: Dr. Richard Schwartz, IFS Founder
Dr. Steven Hayes, ACT Founder
Internal Family Systems Institute (IFSI)
Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS)
This guide offers mental health therapists a practical framework for integrating Internal Family Systems (IFS) with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). By blending these two powerful modalities, therapists can cultivate a deeper understanding of their client's inner worlds and facilitate more profound, lasting transformation.
What is IFS?
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a therapeutic approach that views the psyche as composed of various "parts," or sub-personalities, each with its unique perspective, emotions, and motivations. IFS emphasizes compassion, curiosity, and acceptance towards these parts, recognizing that even the most problematic behaviors stem from well-intentioned protective mechanisms.
What is ACT?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes accepting difficult thoughts and feelings, committing to personal values, and acting toward those values. ACT aims to help individuals develop psychological flexibility, adapt to changing circumstances, and make choices consistent with their values, even when facing difficult thoughts and emotions.
Why Integrate IFS and ACT?
IFS and ACT complement each other in several ways. IFS provides a nuanced understanding of the client's inner world, while ACT offers practical tools for managing difficult emotions and acting toward values. Integrating these two approaches can lead to a more holistic and effective therapeutic experience.
Benefits of Integration:
- Unlock Deeper Understanding: IFS offers a nuanced perspective on human experience, recognizing that our inner world comprises various "parts." Integrating IFS with ACT allows therapists to move beyond diagnostic labels and explore the complex internal system contributing to a client's struggles.
- Foster Collaborative Healing: This integrated approach invites clients to participate actively in their healing journey. By engaging with their "parts" with curiosity and compassion, clients develop greater self-awareness and agency.
- Tailor Interventions with Precision: Therapists can draw from ACT and IFS techniques to design interventions that target specific part dynamics, disrupt maladaptive patterns, and cultivate inner harmony.
- Embrace Flexibility and Responsiveness: This framework encourages therapists to remain adaptable and responsive to the evolving needs of the client's internal system, recognizing that change is an ongoing process.
Adapting the ACT Process with an IFS Lens
The U-Model consists of five stages:
- Contacting Parts (IFS) / Connecting with Values (ACT): Identify the client's "parts" and their roles in the presenting issue. Map the relationships between parts, noting how they interact and influence each other. Assess how these parts hinder or help clients move towards their values (ACT) and internal harmony (IFS).
- Unburdening Parts (IFS) / Creative Hopelessness (ACT): Explore the origins and functions of different parts. Understand how these parts developed and how they contribute to the client's current struggles. Clarify the relationships between parts, particularly those maintaining maladaptive patterns. Help clients recognize the futility of their current control strategies and open them to new possibilities.
- Befriending Parts (IFS) / Acceptance & Defusion (ACT): Collaborate with parts to establish goals and target maintaining factors. Prioritize work on parts and processes the client is willing to address. Focus on interventions that promote lasting change within the client's internal system. Encourage acceptance of difficult thoughts and emotions without judgment, recognizing them as a natural part of human experience. Develop the ability to observe thoughts and feelings without getting caught up.
- Embracing Parts (IFS) / Committed Action (ACT): Select ACT and IFS techniques that resonate with the client's internal system. Target specific part dynamics to disrupt unhelpful patterns and create space for new ways of being. Utilize techniques like defusion, acceptance, unblending, and parts dialogue to facilitate change. Support clients in acting towards their values, even in the presence of difficult thoughts and emotions.
- Unblending (IFS): This IFS technique involves separating the client's "Self" from their "parts," allowing them to observe their parts with greater objectivity and compassion. For example, a client might learn to differentiate between their core Self and a part experiencing anxiety.
- Parts Dialogue (IFS): This IFS technique involves facilitating communication between different parts, allowing for greater understanding and cooperation within the internal system. For example, a client might engage in a dialogue between a part that wants to isolate and a part that wants to connect with others.
- Unblending (IFS): This IFS technique involves separating the client's "Self" from their "parts," allowing them to observe their parts with greater objectivity and compassion. For example, a client might learn to differentiate between their core Self and a part experiencing anxiety.
- Recycling (IFS & ACT): An Ongoing Process: Reassess and adjust interventions based on the evolving needs of the client's system. Remain adaptable and willing to revisit any step in the process as needed. This stage involves continuously monitoring the client's progress and adjusting as needed. It's a recognition that therapy is not a linear process and that setbacks and challenges are to be expected. The therapist remains flexible and responsive, revisiting earlier stages of the U-Model as required to address emerging issues or challenges.
- Example: If a client experiences a significant life stressor that triggers previously unburdened parts, the therapist might revisit the "Contacting Parts" and "Unburdening Parts" stages to address these newly activated parts. Similarly, suppose a client struggles to take committed action toward their values. In that case, the therapist might revisit the "Befriending Parts" stage to explore any internal conflicts or fears hindering progress.
How the U-Model Targets Change
The U-Model targets change by integrating the core principles of IFS and ACT, creating a synergistic approach that addresses both the internal and external aspects of the client's experience.
IFS Processes of Change:
- Self-leadership: IFS aims to help clients access their "Self," a core of inner wisdom and compassion, and differentiate it from their "parts." This allows the Self to lead the internal system, fostering greater internal harmony and self-acceptance.
- Parts transformation: By understanding the origins and functions of parts, clients can develop compassion for them and help them release their protective roles. This allows parts to transform and find new, more adaptive ways of functioning.
ACT Processes of Change:
- Acceptance: ACT encourages accepting difficult thoughts and emotions, reducing their impact and freeing up energy to pursue valued goals.
- Defusion: ACT helps clients develop distance from their thoughts, recognizing them as mental events rather than absolute truths. This reduces the power of unhelpful thoughts to dictate behavior.
- Committed Action: ACT emphasizes acting towards values, even in the presence of complex thoughts and emotions. This helps clients build a life that is rich and meaningful despite challenges.
Why and How the U-Model Works:
The U-Model integrates these change processes by helping clients understand their internal system through the lens of IFS. Then, it utilizes ACT techniques to manage difficult emotions, develop self-compassion, and act towards values. This combined approach addresses internal and external barriers to change, leading to more profound and lasting transformation.
Case Study
A client presented with social anxiety, particularly in professional settings. Using the U-Model, the therapist first helped the client identify the "parts" involved in their anxiety, including a "Worrier" part that anticipated criticism and a "Perfectionist" part that feared making mistakes. Through unburdening, they discovered these parts developed in response to childhood experiences of being bullied and having their achievements minimized. Befriending these parts involved acknowledging their protective intentions and offering compassion. The therapist then used ACT techniques like defusion and acceptance to help the client manage their anxiety in the present moment. Finally, the client engaged in committed action by setting small, achievable goals for social interaction in professional settings, gradually building their confidence and reducing their anxiety.
The U Model: A Visual Guide
(Imagine a U-shaped flowchart with arrows indicating the cyclical progression through the stages. Each stage of the U-Model would be represented within the flowchart, visually demonstrating the integration of IFS and ACT principles.)
- Understand the sequential yet cyclical nature of integrating IFS and ACT.
- Apply IFS principles within each stage of the ACT process.
- Remain flexible and responsive to the client's evolving internal system.’
Integrating IFS and ACT: A Path to Profound Transformation
By combining the strengths of IFS and ACT, therapists can facilitate profound and lasting transformation for their clients. This collaborative, process-based approach, guided by the flowchart's clear structure, allows for a deeper understanding of inner conflicts, promotes self-compassion, and empowers clients to live more fulfilling lives aligned with their values.
If this was helpful to you, please email me: at redery@rivkaedery.com
Dr. Rivka A. Graham-Edery, Psy.D., M.S.W., L.C.SW
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