Self-energized
In the IFS model, is the Self separate from parts?
Early in the development of the IFS model, Dick’s clients reported experiencing a deeper sense of calm, clarity, and compassion when he helped them explore their internal systems. In a session, he asked one of his clients, “Which part is that?” they replied, “Oh, that’s not a part, that’s myself.” This led Dick to conclude that his client’s experience of calm, clarity, and compassion was possible thanks to a distinct internal entity that he began to refer to as the ‘Self.’
The Self came to be understood, not as a ‘part,’ but as the core essence of a person. The Self, Dick began to teach, is capable of taking a leading role in the internal system and providing compassion and understanding which enables parts to heal their burdens.
When practicing the IFS model, people often experience similar shifts within their internal systems. These shifts are attributed to having gained access to ‘Self-energy.’ The experience of these qualities is real. But crediting a Self for the experience is theoretical and may not be accurate.
Most of us have experienced these same qualities without using a process like IFS. Who hasn’t experienced compassion for a suffering friend, a sense of unattributed calm, or a ‘knowing’ that emerges in a moment of clarity? These are real experiences that we haven’t generated directly. We can, however create conditions that make these experiences more commonplace.
In the process of learning about and learning from parts of ourselves using the IFS model, we experience such qualities more frequently, and more consistently. When we understand ourselves at this deeper level, and when our parts begin to feel understood, we gain access to inner resources that manifest as qualities that include, but are not limited to the 8 Cs and the 5 Ps.
The Eight C’s are Compassion, Clarity, Confidence, Curiosity, Courage, Connection, Creativity, and Calm. The Five Ps are Playfulness, Persistence, Presence, Perspective, and Patience.
Accessing these resources expands our capacity and we become wiser and more loving.
The belief that there is a separate Self provides a framework to understand how and why any of this is possible. But this belief also creates a sense of an internal hierarchy and can provide your parts with ideas and agendas that can actually block access to the resources that make these qualities possible.
I believe that the term Self-energy comes from the idea that there is a separate Self. But the idea of Self-energy, regardless of what we call it, doesn’t require you to believe there is a distinct Self. Even without this theoretical framework, we know Self-energy exists because we have the experience of it.
The qualities that emerge from the qualities of Self-energy cannot be fabricated or manufactured. An attempt to generate these qualities is nothing more than a performance that lacks depth and authenticity. Attempts to reproduce the experience of these qualities are the efforts of encumbered parts. The authentic experience of these qualities can only happen in a state of presence.
What if the source of the Self-energy that manifests as these qualities lies as potential within each part?
What if we just dropped the idea of a separate Self and focused on cultivating an internal environment that gives us access to the resources that manifest as Self-energy?
The goal of the IFS model is to develop Self-leadership; to shift the internal experience from conflict and confusion to calm and clarity. Self-leadership develops gradually as our parts become Self-energized.
When our parts are no longer encumbered by the demands and maintenance of the unresolved past, they relax and gain access to resources within themselves that manifest as Self-energy. They become Self-energized. The IFS model makes this possible.
