Internal Family Systems Therapy
Healing begins when every part of you is welcome.
You deserve to define your own path towards healing.
At Empowered Spaces, we offer holistic, trauma-informed approaches that honor the wisdom of the body and the complexity of being human.
One of the ways we do this is through Internal Family Systems (IFS) — a compassionate, evidence-based approach that helps you reconnect with your inner world and return home to your authentic Self.
Image: Brea Youngblood
What is IFS therapy?
IFS, sometimes called parts work, helps you understand and heal the many different parts of yourself — the parts that protect, the parts that carry pain, and the parts that long to be seen and accepted.
We all have moments when it feels like there’s an inner tug-of-war happening:
A part of you wants to rest, another says you should keep going.
A part longs for connection, another fears getting hurt.
IFS helps you listen to these parts with compassion instead of judgment.
When each part is met with understanding, your system can soften, and deeper healing can unfold.
Image: Brea Youngblood
The Heart of the Work
IFS guides you to connect with your core Self — the calm, wise, compassionate essence that has been there all along. From this place, you can:
Understand why your parts feel and act as they do
Release old protective patterns rooted in pain
Build a more trusting, loving relationship with yourself
Experience a greater sense of calm, clarity, and wholeness
Anxiety, stress, or burnout
Inner criticism or perfectionism
Shame, self-doubt, or disconnection
Relationship struggles or people-pleasing patterns
Past trauma, loss, or attachment wounds
IFS Can Support You If You’re Navigating:
A Gentle Return Home
IFS invites you to meet every part of yourself with compassion — even the ones that feel difficult.
As you learn to be in relationship with your inner world, you begin to feel more grounded, more whole, and more at peace within yourself.
Every part of you has a story. Every part belongs.
This is the heart of IFS — and the heart of healing.
Meet The Therapists Trained in IFS
The therapists listed here are members of the Empowered Spaces Collective. Each therapist owns and operates their own independent private practice and leases space within our center. While we share values, community, and a trauma-informed approach, each therapist is solely responsible for their own services, policies, and clinical work.
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Kelly Caul, MSW, LCSW, SEP (she/her)
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Kelly McBride, MA, LPC (she/her)
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Specialist
Licensed Professional Counselor
Learn More About IFS
(for those who want the deeper dive — colleagues, practitioners, or curious clients)
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an integrative, trauma-informed, and non-pathologizing model of therapy developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. It’s based on the understanding that we all contain an internal family system — a community of “parts” that each hold their own feelings, beliefs, and roles, along with a core Self that is inherently whole, wise, and compassionate.
Understanding Your Parts
Protective Parts take on roles like the inner critic, the controller, the perfectionist, or the people-pleaser — all trying to keep you safe from pain.
Wounded Parts carry emotional burdens, memories, and beliefs formed in times of distress or trauma.
IFS helps you listen to these parts, understand their intentions, and unburden them so they no longer have to work so hard.
The Role of the Self
Your Self embodies qualities like calm, curiosity, clarity, and compassion.
From this Self-led place, healing naturally happens.
As parts learn to trust the Self’s leadership, inner harmony replaces inner conflict, and your system becomes more balanced and connected.
In sessions, we explore your inner world gently and collaboratively.
You’ll be guided to notice sensations, images, emotions, or beliefs that arise — and to connect with them through curiosity instead of fear or judgment.
This process supports nervous system regulation, deepens self-understanding, and nurtures embodied resilience.
How IFS Works in Therapy
IFS and Trauma Healing
Because IFS honors the body’s innate wisdom, it integrates beautifully with other somatic modalities such as Somatic Experiencing (SE) and EMDR.
Together, these approaches help you release what’s been held in the body, reestablish safety, and move toward wholeness..
