IFS therapy may not be best for a person experiencing delusions, says McLendon. They may not be able to be honest about the different parts of themself and likely won’t benefit. Additionally, this type of therapy may not be best for someone who is living with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like mental health conditions, she adds. This type of therapy is also not the best fit for someone with dementia, notes Dr. Vechakul.
You post interesting articles. I have heard of this before, but didnt read much. I would love to try this therapy. I do not really see why we would be less honest about our different parts. I think this is something I am using on myself, sort of.
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I have some experience with Internal Family Systems Therapy. I can see how it might not be appropriate for someone struggling with psychosis.
What it basically comes down to is the idea that everyone is made up of multiple parts. When these parts are overburdened, the whole system becomes stressed. The point of the therapy is to bring parts back into harmony with each other so the system can be healed. You’re supposed to do this by identifying, dialoging with, and getting all parts to trust and recognize the authority of the Self.
An example of a part could be something like an approval seeking child, a grumpy man, a fundamental Baptist, a happy pig… The idea is that each of your parts developed within you during the course of your life and that they all have different roles to play within your psyche. Traumatized people have a lot of “exile parts” who the “protector parts” try to keep away from the rest in order to maintain the system.
My guess is that it might be counterproductive for a person with schizophrenia to talk about the many people who live inside of them, particularly when they struggle with certain other disturbances of thought. It may be able to be adapted for use in treatment for people with schizophrenia, kind of like how CBT was, but I haven’t read up on studies or anything.
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It is like playing DID with yourself. I got a book about it a decade ago.
I started reading it and I felt with my history of disscociative episodes that lasted weeks that I would be encouraging further dissociations, so stopped.
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