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This is a lovely short animated video about Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy by Bruce Hersey.

IFS was first developed by Dr, Richard (Dick) Schwartz over 30 years ago. Since then, it has grown into a powerfully transformative, evidence-based psychotherapy.

The IFS approach to healing believes that each person contains many parts. Each part interacts with your other parts just like members of a family. You also have a core Self, an internal leader who knows how to listen and heal wounded parts.

To help you understand how IFS works, it may help you to think about an orchestra. Your core Self is the conductor who has the job of listening to and leading all your different parts in harmony.

The Pixar movie Inside Out is an excellent example of how different parts work. The lead character is a young girl called Riley, The movie shows how her different parts and emotions such as joy, anger, fear, sadness and disgust compete with each other to get her attention. Each part wants to be in charge. Riley gradually to become more Self-led by learning how to listen to and respect all her different parts.

In addition to therapy with individuals IFS is also used in education, coaching, sports and peace negotiations.