What is the Connection Between IFS Parts Work Therapy and Neural Networks?

When I explain IFS (Internal Family Systems) Parts Work Therapy to clients, I emphasize that the "parts" in IFS are understood as metaphors for distinct, specialized neural networks in the brain (see links for my other IFS articles at the end of this article).

The Connection Between IFS and Neural Networks

IFS uses personalized, conversational language that most adults can understand, like "inner child", "protector parts" and "inner critic" as a way to make the these concepts accessible.

Neurobiological research shows that these "parts" are actually clusters of interconnected neurons that fire together during past experiences to form fixed behavioral, emotional and cognitive patterns.

What is the Connection Between IFS Parts Work Therapy and Neural Networks?

Parts Are Encapsulated Neural Networks:

• Implicit Memory Storage: When you experience trauma or chronic stress, your brain encodes the event into implicit memory (i.e., unconscious memory). The neural network formed during that event becomes localized and isolated.

The Connection Between IFS and Neural Networks

• Fixed Schemas: These isolated neural networks serve as mental maps or schemas. When triggered by a current event, the entire historical network fires simultaneously which causes you to feel, think and react in the same way as when this network was formed. In IFS, this is known as a part "blending" with you.

Neuroplasticity and Memory Reconsolidation

• Unlocking the Network: IFS Parts Work targets these specific neural networks by a process called memory reconsolidation. When you focus on a particular part with curiosity and compassion, you stimulate and open up that specific neural pathway. 

IFS Parts Work Therapy and Neuroplasticity

• Rewiring Through "Core Self Energy": By introducing "Core Self Energy" (a state of calm, curiosity, clarity and mindfulness associated with your precortex functioning), you can introduce new, positive emotional input into the activated network. According to neuroscientists, including Frank Anderson, MD, this targeted imagination and dual attention physically rewires the neural network, updates the old memory and stores it back in healthy, integrated state (see my article: Healing Unresolved Trauma and Neuroplasticity: The Mind Has a Powerful Innate Ability to Heal Itself).

Regulating Brain Regions

• Calming the Amygdala: IFS "protector parts" (like an inner critic or an anxious part) are driven by an hyperactive amygdala, which is the brain's threat-detection center. "Befriending" these parts tells your amygdala that the danger has passed, which down- regulates the fear response (see my article: Making Friends With Your Inner Critic as a way to understand the "befriending" process in IFS).

IFS Therapy: Calming the Amygdala

• Strengthening the Prefrontal Cortex: The "Core Self" of IFS represents a state of high neurological integration. Practicing IFS strengthens the connection between the prefrontal cortex (executive control) and the limbic system (emotions) allowing you to observe intense emotional reactivity without being completely overwhelmed by it.

Summary of Parallel Concepts

• IFS Concept: A "Part"
• Neurological Equivalent: A localized cluster of neurons forming an implicit memory network

• IFS Concept: A "Blended State"
• Neurological Equivalent: The automatic, involuntary firing of a trauma-encoded neural pathway

• IFS Concept: Core Self Energy (also referred to as "Self')
• Neurological Equivalent: Prefrontal cortex activation, high neurological activation and mindfulness.

• IFS Concept: "Unburdening"
• Neurological Equivalent: Neuroplastic reorganization and memory reconsolidation

Conclusion

IFS Parts Work Therapy uses a personalized language as a way to make the IFS concepts understandable to clients.

In this article I have addressed the neurological equivalents of IFS Parts Work Therapy as a way to show that IFS, which is a gentle evidence-based therapy for trauma, has neurological underpinnings for clients who are interested in the connection between IFS and science.

Get Help in IFS Therapy

If you have been struggling and traditional talk therapy hasn't helped you, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who is an IFS therapist.

A skilled IFS therapist can help you to work through psychological trauma so you can live a more fulfilling life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples),  Parts Work (IFS Therapy and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I have helped many individual adults and couples over the years.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Other IFS Articles:

IFS is a Gentle Evidence-Based Trauma Therapy 

How IFS Therapy and Ego States Therapy Help You to Understand Yourself. 

Discovering Your Core Self in IFS Parts Work Therapy 

How Are Emotions Processed in IFS Parts Work Therapy? 

How Can Parts Work Therapy Be Empowering?

What Are the Similarities and Differences Between IFS and Contemporary Psychodynamic Psychotherapy?

 

Anxiety Can Be a Signal That You Are Suppressing Deeper Emotions

Anxiety is a common mental state that everyone experiences at one time or another. 

Anxiety can either be an adaptive emotion or it can be an inhibitory emotion, which I'll explain in this article (see my article: What is the Difference Between Fear and Anxiety?).

Anxiety Can Signal Suppressed Emotions

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is characterized by physical and mental symptoms including (but are not limited to):

• Muscle tension
• Rapid heartbeat 
• Headaches
• Shortness of breath
• Digestive issues
• Lightheadedness
• Trouble sleeping
  
• Fatigue
• Nausea
• Trembling
• Twitching
• Excessive worry or a sense of impending danger
• Irritability
• Restlessness
• Avoidance of feared situations

When is Anxiety Adaptive?

Mild anxiety can be adaptive. 

For instance, mild anxiety can be adaptive before taking an exam, giving a presentation or preparing for a sporting event because it acts as a catalyst to help you to focus and prepare for these events to improve your performance.

When is Anxiety a Signal You Are Suppressing Deeper Emotions?

Anxiety can also act as a secondary emotion that let's you know you're suppressing core emotions, which are also known as deeper emotions or primary emotions (I'll use these terms interchangeably).

Core emotions include:

• Sadness
• Fear
• Joy
• Anger
• Surprise
• Disgust

When is Anxiety an Inhibitory Emotion?

When you experience anxiety as a secondary emotion, the anxiety is a signal that you are suppressing (or inhibiting) core emotions. 

Learning to suppress emotions often occurs early in life. 

As a child, you might have learned that emotions are "dangerous". 

This usually occurs when a  parent, who is uncomfortable with certain emotions, either ignores, punishes or lets you know in some other way that these emotions are unsafe.

Learning to Suppress Emotions as a Child

For instance, let's say you cried as a child because you were afraid of going to school. If your  parent was uncomfortable with your crying and didn't know how to handle your emotions, your parent might have said, "Stop being a drama queen" or "Big girls don't cry" or "You look ugly when you cry" (see my article: What is Childhood Emotional Neglect?).

If you had enough of these experiences as a child, you learn that it's unsafe to experience certain emotions because your parent isn't going to comfort you or, worse still, your parent will ignore, punish or criticize you. So, rather than experiencing the unbearable vulnerability of being alone with uncomfortable emotions, you learn to suppress these emotions.

When emotions are suppressed, the suppression creates trapped emotional energy which forces the body to keep the nervous system in a chronic state of fight-or-flight. This results in sustained spikes of cortisol or adrenaline which can create the anxiety-related symptoms mentioned above (racing heart, muscle tension and so on).

How Can You Address Suppressed Core Emotions?

If you notice you're feeling anxious and it's not a mild anxiety that is adaptive, you can pause, get curious, tune into your body and ask yourself, "What am I feeling underneath this anxiety?"

Using Somatic Awareness to Tune Into Your Body

For instance, if you tune into your body and notice that underneath your anxiety you're feeling sadness, you can reduce the anxiety in your body by allowing yourself to feel the sadness (see my article: The Mind-Body Connection and Somatic Awareness).

At that point, maybe you allow yourself to cry to release some of the sadness or maybe you write in a journal to express your sadness. 

You might also talk to a trusted friend so you don't feel alone with your sadness and you can  receive validation that your experience is normal and your friend has had similar experiences.

Other emotions that suppress core emotions are shame and guilt.

Getting Help in Therapy

If you find it difficult to tune into your body and detect the emotions you are suppressing, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who practices Experiential Therapy.

A psychotherapist who practices Experiential Therapy can help you to develop the necessary somatic awareness to deal with suppressed emotions and the underlying issues.

Experiential therapies are especially helpful in overcoming anxiety and trauma (see my article: Why is Experiential Therapy More Effective Than Traditional Talk Therapy?).

Experiential therapies include:

• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

• Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

• Somatic Experiencing (SE)

• Parts Work Therapy (IFS or Ego State Therapy)

Getting Help in Therapy

Rather than struggling on your own, seek help in therapy so you can calm your nervous system, deal with the underlying issues you have been suppressing and live a more fulfilling life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

As an Experiential Therapist, I have over 25 years of experience helping individual adults and couples.

To find out about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles:

Self Help Tips For Coping With Anxiety

Getting Help For Anxiety in Therapy 

What Does Processing Your Emotions Mean?

How to Cope With News Anxiety 

Overcoming Adult Separation Anxiety

What is the Connection Between Anxiety and Depression? 

How Does Somatic Experiencing (SE) Process Emotions?

In my recent articles I've been exploring how the different types of Experiential Therapies, like AEDP, Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy) and EMDR process emotions.

Processing Emotions with Somatic Experiencing

In the current article I'm focusing on how Somatic Experiencing, also known as SE, processes emotions (see my article: Somatic Experiencing: A Mind-Body Oriented Therapy).

Somatic Experiencing was developed by Peter Levine in the 1970s. Like many other types of Experiential Therapies, SE was developed to address the limitations of traditional psychotherapy (see my article: Why is Experiential Therapy More Effective Than Traditional Psychotherapy to Resolve Trauma?).

How Does Somatic Experiencing Process Emotions?

Somatic Experiencing processes emotions by focusing on bodily sensations (see my article: The Mind-Body Connection: What is Somatic Awareness?)).

Processing Emotions with Somatic Experiencing

Like other types of Experiential Therapy, Somatic Experiencing is a "bottom up" rather than a "top down" approach (see my article: What is the Difference Between a "Top Down" and "Bottom Up" Approach to Trauma Therapy?)

Clients are guided by their SE therapist to safely notice, feel and release tension related to trauma. This allows the nervous system to complete the interrupted stress response related to the trauma. These releases are often subtle.

What Are the Key Processes in SE to Process Emotions?

The key processes in SE include:

• A "Bottom Up" Approach: As mentioned above, instead of analyzing emotions, which is the usual way in traditional talk therapy, SE focuses on physical sensations to access and resolve underlying emotional experiences. These physical sensations might include tightness, warmth or pressure (to name a few).

Somatic Experiencing and Resourcing

• Resourcing: Prior to processing traumatic emotions, the client learns to develop a felt sense of calm and safety that can be accessed during times of activation related to processing the trauma (see my article: Developing Internal Resources and Coping Skills).

• Titration: Titration involves breaking down overwhelming traumatic memories into manageable pieces to avoid retraumatization during processing.

• Pendulation: Pendulation is shifting back and forth from a state of calm and safety to a state of discomfort related to the unresolved trauma.  This allows the nervous system to process traumatic emotions without being overwhelmed (see my article: Coping With Emotional Distress By Using the SE Technique of Pendulation).

• Discharging: As trapped energy related to the trauma is released, the client might experience physical sensations (e.g., heat). These sensations are often subtle.

Conclusion

Somatic Experiencing allows clients to process traumatic emotions and shift from a fight, flight, freeze or fawn response into a state of self regulation and relief.

I have been using Somatic Experiencing with clients regularly since 2011 and I have found that SE often combines well with other types of Experiential Therapy, like AEDP, EMDR and Parts Work.

Getting Help With Somatic Experiencing

If you feel stuck with unresolved trauma, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who is also an SE practitioner.

Getting Help With Somatic Experiencing

Freeing yourself from unresolved trauma can allow you to live a more fulfilling life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I have over 25 years of experience helping individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles:

What Are the Therapeutic Benefits of Somatic Experiencing?  

What Does Processing Emotions Mean? 

How Are Emotions Processed in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)?  

How Are Emotions Processed in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy?  

How Are Emotions Processed in Parts Work (IFS and Ego States) Therapy? 

What is the Life Cycle of an Emotion?

How Are Emotions Processed in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)?

I have been writing about emotions lately (see links to the prior articles at the end of this article).

As I have written in prior articles, Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) was developed by Diana Fosha, an American psychologist based in New York City.

How Emotions Are Processed in AEDP

AEDP is one of several types of therapy that fall under the umbrella of Experiential Therapy (see my article: Why is Experiential Therapy More Effective Than Traditional Talk Therapy to Heal Trauma?).

The other therapy modalities that fall under this category of Experiential Therapy include:

• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

• Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy)

• Somatic Experiencing

If you haven't read my more detailed articles about AEDP, I recommend that you read these articles first:

What is AEDP? - Part 1 and Part 2

How Does AEDP Work?

How Are Emotions Processed in AEDP?

In AEDP emotions are processed by:

• Here-and-Now Focus: Focusing on the here-and-now of the therapeutic relationship

How Emotions Are Processed in AEDP

• Somatic Awareness: Focusing on bodily sensations or somatic awareness

• Developing Secure Attachment: Working through painful emotions actively in a secure and supportive environment with a deeply attuned therapist

An AEDP therapist helps clients to move from a state of defensiveness or emotional numbness to an experience of transformation.

Creating a "Safe Container" For the Client to Process Emotions: 

The foundation of AEDP is helping the client to experience a secure attachment in the therapeutic relationship:

• The Therapeutic Relationship: Developing a trusting and validating therapeutic relationship

• Undoing Aloneness: Helping the client to undo the feeling of aloneness

A Here-and-Now Experiential Focus 

The AEDP therapist has a here-and-now experiential focus including:

• Therapeutic Attunement: Attunement that tracks the client's moment-to-moment experience

• Slowing Down: An AEDP therapist will often ask a client to "slow down" to catch the subtle shifts in emotion that might otherwise be overlooked.

Processing Core Emotions

The AEDP therapist helps the client to process emotions by:

• Getting Past Defenses: The therapist asks the client to identify and soften defense mechanisms (e.g., anxiety, intellectualizing, rationalizing, denial, numbing) to reach the underlying core emotions.

How Emotions Are Processed in AEDP

• Accessing Core Emotions: Once defense mechanisms soften, the client can work through deep core emotions. like sadness, grief, fear, anger or shame, which allows the client to feel the full wave of emotions (see my article: Getting Out of Your Head With Experiential Therapy).

• Facilitating Transformational Affects: By fully experiencing emotions in a safe therapeutic environment, the client can move from feeling trapped or broken to a safe of relief, self compassion and emotional resilience (see my article: Riding the Waves of Transformation)

Metaprocessing (Reflecting on the Experience)

The AEDP therapist facilitates metaprocessing by:

• Discussing the Therapy Process: A key component of AEDP is metaprocessing where the client and therapist talk about what it's like to share these emotions in the room:
• "What was it like to share that with me?"

• Cementing the Change: Reflecting on the experience helps to solidify the healing, deepen self awareness and strengthen the client's capacity for emotional regulation.

A Corrective Emotional Experience

AEDP helps to bring about a corrective emotional experience by:

• Reorganizing the Brain: By having a new positive experience of being seen, heard and understood while being in emotional pain, the brains neural pathways are reorganized which promotes neuroplasticity.

AEDP and Neuroplasticity

• Shifting From Avoidance to Connection: The process transforms shame into self compassion and changes habitual avoidance of feelings into a capacity for emotional awareness.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I have over 25 years of experience helping individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles: 

Managing Emotions: What is the Life Cycle of Emotions?  

What's the Difference Between Emotional Regulation and Controlling Your Emotions?  

Coping With Alexithymia - Also Known as Emotional Blindness 

Emotional Regulation: How Do You Know What You Need When You're Distressed? 

What is Emotional Co-regulation? 

What's the Difference Between Emotional Co-regulation and Emotional Self Regulation? 

What is the Life Cycle of an Emotion?

Emotional Regulation: How Do You Know What You Need When You Feel Emotionally Dysregulated?

Many people who would like to be more emotionally regulated don't understand what they need when they feel upset (see my article: Developing Skills to Manage Your Emotions).

Emotional Regulation

This is understandable because when you are sufficiently upset, the part of your brain that allows you to reason (the prefrontal cortex) is often "off line". 

The more reactive part of your brain, the amygdala, gets into a fight or flight mode so that you  can't think your way into knowing what you need.

When you feel emotionally overwhelmed, here are some tips on what can be helpful:

• Pause and Slow Down: Whether you do this by using a breathing exercise, grounding exercise or a mindfulness meditation, pausing and slowing down helps you to calm down so you can think about what you need.

Emotional Regulation

• Try the 5-4-3-2-1 Technique: Name 5 things you see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. This helps you to stop spiraling so you can get back to feeling like yourself again.

• Pick a Color: If the 5-4-3-2-1 technique feels like too much in the moment, you can choose a color, like the color blue and look around the room and name all the things you see that are blue. This is an even simpler way to calm yourself. It also helps to orient you to your environment.

• Try the Butterfly Tapping Technique: Another way to calm yourself is to use Butterfly Tapping:
• Sit comfortably, cross your arms over your chest and rest your hands on your upper arms or shoulders. 

• Give yourself alternating gentle taps on your upper arms or shoulder (right then left) in a slow rhythmic motion for 1-3 minutes or until you feel calmer.  This helps to reduce stress (see my article: Self Soothing with the Butterfly Hug).

• Tune Into Your Body and Ask Yourself: "What do I need?"
• What emotions are you feeling and where do you feel it in your body?

Emotional Regulation

• Are you angry?  If so, what are you angry about? What do you need to feel safe?

• Are you afraid? If so, what are you afraid about? What do you need to feel safe?

• Are you lonely? If so, who can you contact to make a meaningful connection? This can also be a connection with a pet.

• Practice Slowing Down With Low Stakes Situations: When you're learning to regulate yourself, practice slowing down with low stakes situations before you try to tackle more high stakes triggers.

Get Help in Therapy

Sometimes self help tips aren't enough and you might need professional help to learn to regulate yourself emotionally.

Get Help in Therapy

A licensed mental health professional can help you to get to the root of your problems so you can overcome the underlying problems that are triggering you.

Rather than struggling on your own, seek help from a licensed psychotherapist so you can live a more fulfilling life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Parts Work (IFS and Ego States Therapy), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

As a trauma therapist with over 25 years of experience, I have helped many individual adults and couples (see my article: What is a Trauma Therapist?).

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

 

How Does Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) Work?

In the past, I have described Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) in two prior articles:

What is Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy and How Does It Heal - Part 1

What is Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy and How Does It Heal - Part 2

How Does AEDP Work?

In the current article, I'm focusing on how AEDP works and going into more detail.

AEDP to Overcome Unresolved Trauma

AEDP is a therapeutic modality that focuses on helping clients to process and transform traumatic experiences in a safe and supportive environment (see my article: Why Experiential Therapy is More Effective to Overcome Trauma Than Regular Talk Therapy).

Here are some of the basics about how AEDP works:

• Building a Secure Therapeutic Relationship: An essential part of AEDP is developing a strong, trusting bond between the client and the therapist. The therapist becomes a secure base for emotional exploration and healing by providing empathy, validation and emotional support so that the client feels safe enough to share vulnerable feelings.

AEDP to Overcome Unresolved Trauma

• Helping Clients to Identify, Connect With and Process Core Emotions: Rather than just talking about emotions in an intellectual way, AEDP focuses on experiencing and processing emotions in the here-and-now with the therapist. This involves becoming aware and processing suppressed emotions related to traumatic experiences. 

• Working Through Defensive Mechanisms That No Longer Work: Clients learn to recognize, understand and modify defense mechanisms that might have served them as part of their survival strategy earlier in life but no longer work for them now.

AEDP to Overcome Unresolved Trauma

• Accessing Transformational Affects: AEDP helps clients to access positive emotions, like joy, love and compassion, which can empower clients to heal unresolved trauma and make positive changes (see my article: How Glimmers Give You a Sense of Ease, Safety and Joy).

• Metaprocessing: This involves reflecting on the therapeutic process including the client's emotional experiences in AEDP therapy, the therapist's interventions and the therapeutic alliance between the client and therapist. This helps clients to develop insight into their emotional patterns and how they apply them to other relationships.

What Experiential Techniques Does AEDP Use?

AEDP's experiential techniques include:

• Mind-Body Focused Techniques: An AEDP therapist helps the client to become aware of bodily sensations and how these sensations relate to their emotional experiences (see my article: The Mind-Body Connection: The Body Offers a Window Into the Unconscious Mind).

• Guided Imagery and Visualization: An AEDP therapist helps clients to process emotions with guided imagery and visualization exercises.

• Role Playing and Other Interactive Exercises: The therapist helps clients to practice new emotional responses and behaviors in a safe therapeutic environment.

How Does AEDP Help Clients to Have Transformational Experiences?

• Developing Greater Emotional Awareness and Emotional Regulation: Clients learn to identify, manage and regulate their emotions more effectively.

• Strengthening a Sense of Self and Building Resilience: When clients process difficult  emotions related to trauma, they develop a greater sense of self acceptance and capacity to cope with challenges.

• Creating More Fulfilling Relationships: By addressing attachment wounds and developing healthier emotional patterns, clients can develop secure and more fulfilling relationships.

Conclusion

Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) is a dynamic and experiential approach which facilitates deep emotional healing by creating a safe therapeutic space for clients to explore, process and transform unresolved trauma and current emotional challenges.

Getting Help in AEDP Therapy

If you have been struggling on your own to overcome unresolved trauma, you could benefit from working with an AEDP therapist.

Getting Help in AEDP Therapy

Rather than struggling on your own, seek help in AEDP therapy so you can live a more fulfilling life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Also See My Articles:

Riding the Waves From Trauma to Transformation

What's the Difference Between "Bottom Up" and "Top Down" Approaches to Trauma Therapy?