Internal Family Systems can serve the restorative work of psychotherapy without being conceptually confined to it. It is not merely a clinical intervention, but a full-continuum framework for understanding and navigating change.
FIRST IN A SERIES OF 5 ESSAYS:
There is an insidious, implicit violence in what I call the "Helper neo-archetype”: it requires that you set yourself on fire to keep others warm. It’s rooted in patriarchy, power, and the exploitation of empathy. It quietly hooks deeply caring humans into over functioning at their own expense, and then insists that if you ever stop, you are guilty of the most heinous professional sin: abandonment
We are told that our business arc should be a steady climb toward ease. It tracks that once you have proven your competence, the friction should dissipate. But this is the fundamental lie of the founder’s journey.
