Richard Schwartz
He found a calm, healing Self beneath our many parts.
Creator of Internal Family Systems, which sees the mind as sub-personalities led by a core Self, and heals rather than suppresses each part.
terms
techniques
There are no bad parts.
Who they were
Richard Schwartz is an American family therapist and the creator of the Internal Family Systems model. He earned his PhD in marriage and family therapy from Purdue and developed IFS in the 1980s after clients described experiencing internal "parts." He founded the IFS Institute, authored No Bad Parts, and is a teaching associate in psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance.
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their techniques
How the work was done
Their big idea
Internal Family Systems Theory
The mind is a system of parts led by the Self; healing means relating to parts with compassion.
The approach they founded
Internal Family Systems
Treats the mind as parts — and heals through Self-leadership and compassion toward each of them.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
Schwartz — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.