Parts

 by Marty L. Cooper, PhD, MFT

June 2025 – Internal Family Systems and Depression

This month’s article should be the last in the run about Internal Family Systems (IFS), as it is intended to tie all the previous articles together in relationship to depression, which of course is why we’re all here. Specifically, I’m discussing how my basic point that losses of things that are too important to our survival (mental, emotional, or literal) cannot be normally grieved, and thus invite depression. Or simply: depression is a defense against grief when a loss is too important to let go of.

I hope you find this, and all the IFS writing, useful. May your late Spring be giving you an abundance of flowers and only an appropriate number of challenges.

(If you need an IFS refresher, the previous articles are here: the core parts: Protectors, Exiles, Self; and the developmental parts: the Infant/Divine Child, the Child, the Teen, the Young Adult, and the Adult. And for the deep dive into IFS: No Bad Parts [the lay introduction] and Internal Family Systems Therapy [the clinical manual].)

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in Inner Child / Internal Family Systems / Parts
 by Marty L. Cooper, PhD, MFT

April 2025 – Internal Family Systems: The Child Part

This month is the second to last installment in the recent series of articles on IFS; next month will be the roundup and the direct relating of it all to depression. Specifically, I’m rounding out the Parts with a discussion of the Child (distinct from the infant/toddler), which more than others is the Part who plays. It’s also a part that is commonly shut down, either during its time as a child because the environment could not tolerate its aliveness, or during adolescence or early young adulthood, when the Child is seen as an obstruction to the serious business at hand. I hope you find it helpful in further locating who’s who in your own psyche.

(If you need an IFS refresher, the previous articles are here: the core parts: Protectors, Exiles, Self, and the developmental parts: the Infant/Divine Child, the Teen, the Young Adult, and the Adult. And for the deep dive into IFS: No Bad Parts (the lay introduction) and Internal Family Systems Therapy (the clinical manual).)

I hope your spring is starting out well, and the childlike exuberance of new growth is finding its way into your life.

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in Inner Child / Internal Family Systems / Parts
 by Marty L. Cooper, PhD, MFT

March 2025 – Internal Family Systems: The Teenage Part

Continuing on with the series on the Parts of the psyche seen through the lens of Internal Family Systems Theory, here is the entry on the Teenager. The Teen is routinely misunderstood, if not maligned, by adults and parents, who themselves have not come to terms with who and what the teenager is in themselves. This rejection leads to the teenager’s dynamic self turning chaotic, because it is left with no other option for self-expression. This is not to say that the Teen’s nature, and the teenager stage of development, doesn’t encode an unstable relationship between order and chaos, belonging and autonomy. It does, as Dan Siegel (Brainstorm) makes clear. But whether there is a relatively elegant maturing through this stage, and an integration of the Teen Part in later years, depends a lot on how accepting parents are (externally and internally).

Regarding IFS and depression, there are some of these IFS articles which poke at it, but in a few months I will do a summary of “depressed parts” to bring it all together.

May your Springs be coming with some relief from Winter’s severity, and reminding your various parts about the inevitable relatedness of dark and light.

(If you need an IFS refresher, the previous articles are here: Protectors, Exiles, the Infant/Divine Child, the Young Adult, the Adult, the Self, and World Events. And for the deep dive into IFS’s progenitor, Dick Schwartz: No Bad Parts, and the clinical manual, Internal Family Systems Therapy)

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in Internal Family Systems / Parts / Teenager
 by Marty L. Cooper, PhD, MFT

February 2025 – Internal Family Systems: The Adult Part

Apparently I’ve gotten very inspired by Internal Family Systems Theory, because I’m writing again on it here, in this case on the nature of the “Adult” part. I wrote last month about the Young Adult, distinguishing it from the Adult, but did not detail what I meant by that Part. So read on for that clarification, and as ever, I welcome feedback if you are moved to send it.

(If you need a refresher, the previous articles are here: Protectors, Exiles, the Self, the Young Adult, the Divine Child, and World Events. And for the deep dive: No Bad Parts, and the clinical manual, Internal Family Systems Therapy, both by Richard Schwartz.)

May your February be cozy and not bleak, may you see the subtle shades of grey rather than the lack of color, and may you be finding community, support and courage in these chaotic times.

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in Internal Family Systems / Parts / Subpersonalities / Young Adult