If you’re exploring Internal Family Systems therapy, you may already have a sense that different “parts” of you react in different ways — even when you want something else. Perhaps one part feels anxious or critical, another shuts things down, while another carries pain you’ve never fully had space to understand.
Sessions are available in person in Vancouver, New Westminster, and Delta, with online options available across Greater Vancouver.
Before focusing on strategies or change, we begin by understanding you. Your experiences, relationships, and inner responses guide the work. In IFS therapy, we’re curious about how your internal system has adapted to stress, attachment, and overwhelm — and what those adaptations (parts) may have been protecting.
Our IFS therapists offer a relational, compassionate presence as we explore your inner world together. Whether you’re new to parts-based therapy or returning to therapy with a desire to go deeper, we move at a pace that respects your system’s wisdom to know where to go.
Internal Family Systems therapy is inherently collaborative, supporting you in feeling more grounded and resourced as you begin to understand the roles your inner parts have taken on.
Internal Family Systems therapy is a parts-based approach — often referred to as parts therapy. A part can be described in many ways such as: a response, reaction, defence, or habit. What is important about these parts is that they are repetitive, familiar and have an agenda to take care of something internal or external. These parts are not problems to be fixed — they are meaningful responses shaped by your life experiences.
IFS therapy helps you gently connect with these parts while also accessing a deeper sense of self that is calm, compassionate, and capable of guiding your internal system. Rather than pushing symptoms away, this approach creates space to understand why certain parts developed and what they’ve been protecting.
Unlike approaches that focus on suppressing or managing symptoms, IFS works by building relationships with your inner parts so they no longer need to work so hard to protect you.
Internal Family Systems therapy can support people navigating:
Our therapists often integrate IFS therapy with other trauma-informed approaches, allowing this work to unfold in a way that feels supportive, paced, and integrated rather than overwhelming.
Trauma doesn’t always announce itself loudly. For some people, it shows up as symptoms they can’t ignore. For others, it appears as subtle, repeating patterns that quietly shape everyday life.
You might notice:
When difficult experiences aren’t fully processed, the nervous system can stay locked in old survival responses. IFS therapy helps your system update—so you’re responding to today rather than reliving yesterday.
Our therapists offer IFS therapy throughout BC. Whether the wounds are recent or long-held, IFS can help you feel safer in your body, grounded in your relationships, and more present in your life.
If the idea that we are made up of many aspects, responses and reactions that we are struggling with or feel disconnected from, resonates, IFS therapy can provide a way to untangle the struggle and bring self-compassion to our inner world. IFS therapy is very adaptive to anyones ‘system’ and provides in-depth therapy to work through the burdens you are carrying from your life and those that have been past on through the generations.
Not everyone needs IFS therapy, and it doesn’t have to be the only approach used. Our role is to help you explore what feels most supportive — whether that’s IFS on its own or alongside other trauma therapies
Many people come to IFS therapy feeling frustrated with themselves — wondering why they react the way they do or why certain patterns keep repeating. From an IFS perspective, these responses are not signs that something is wrong with you. They are understandable ways your system learned to cope.
IFS therapy helps you understand why these parts exist and what they’ve been trying to protect. As trust and curiosity grow, these parts can begin to soften, allowing for greater balance, self-compassion, and choice.
This is the heart of Internal Family Systems therapy — not forcing change, but creating enough safety for change to happen naturally.
In offering IFS therapy, we focus on creating a therapeutic space that feels safe, collaborative, and paced to your needs. We believe healing unfolds most naturally when you feel supported rather than pushed.
Our approach is guided by these principles:
We offer IFS therapy clients can access in person across Greater Vancouver — including Vancouver, New Westminster, and Delta — as well as through online sessions. This flexibility allows you to choose the environment where you feel safest and most supported.
Our goal is to support a deeper sense of connection — to yourself, your body, and the relationships that matter to you.
Healing doesn’t require getting rid of parts of yourself — it begins with understanding them.
If you’re interested in exploring Internal Family Systems therapy, or if you’re unsure where to begin, we’re here to support you in taking the next step with care and clarity.
IFS therapy can be a meaningful stand-alone approach, or it can be integrated alongside other trauma therapies, such as EMDR, depending on what feels most supportive for you.
After reading our therapist’s bios, perhaps you are drawn to one or two, but you want to double-check. No problem!
You’re ready to get going and know who you want to work with.
IFS focuses on working with the different parts of your internal system, rather than working with you as one voice. IFS also has a concept of Self (an internal resource that can bring compassion and support to all these parts) From this perspective, IFS views the cabacity to heal as within you and works towards helping you develop this internal relationship. IFS begins by accepting and valuing all parts of you and the assumption they are taking care of you in some way.. Over time, as parts feel understood and supported, change tends to happen more naturally rather than trying to change a reaction or way of coping.
No. You don’t need to arrive with any understanding of parts, inner systems, or IFS concepts. Parts often show themselves naturally through emotions, body sensations, thoughts, or recurring patterns in relationships.
IFS therapy meets you where you are. Together, we pay attention to what emerges in the moment and move at a pace that feels safe and respectful. There’s no pressure to identify or label anything before you’re ready.
Yes. Internal Family Systems therapy is widely used in trauma work, including complex trauma. One reason it can be especially supportive is that it allows protective parts — such as those that avoid, numb, or stay hypervigilant — to remain present rather than being pushed aside.
IFS therapy focuses on building enough internal safety and trust before approaching deeper wounds. This can reduce the risk of overwhelm and help trauma-related work unfold in a way that feels more regulated and sustainable.
Yes. We offer IFS therapy in person across Greater Vancouver — including Vancouver, New Westminster, and Delta — as well as through secure online sessions for clients throughout the Lower Mainland.
We’ll work with you to find the format and location that feels most supportive, whether you prefer meeting in person or accessing therapy from the comfort of your own space.
Absolutely. Many people find that combining parts-based therapy with EMDR can be helpful, depending on their needs, goals, and readiness. IFS can support preparation and stabilization by helping protective parts feel understood, while EMDR may assist with processing specific traumatic experiences.
If combining approaches feels appropriate, we’ll move thoughtfully and collaboratively, always checking in to ensure the work feels safe and supportive for you.
Our EMDR therapist Ocean Prasuhn who see people in New Westminster and online combines EMDR and IFS.