Every part of you
developed for a reason.
Internal Family Systems therapy · IFS Level 1 Trained · Matthew Simpson, LMHC
What Internal Family Systems actually is
Internal Family Systems is a therapy model developed by Richard Schwartz in the 1980s. The basic premise: the mind isn't one unified system. It's a collection of parts — each with its own perspective, history, and protective logic. The part that procrastinates isn't laziness. It learned to use avoidance to manage something real: overwhelm, shame, the accumulated evidence that starting things doesn't end well.
IFS doesn't try to fix or suppress those parts. It gets curious about them. What is this part protecting? What is it afraid would happen if it stood down? What has it been carrying for years without relief?
That curiosity — from something Schwartz calls Self — is where the actual movement happens. Not insight about the pattern. Contact with the part underneath it.
Most people find it less like traditional talk therapy and more like learning to have a different relationship with yourself. The parts don't disappear. They get relief. That's a different outcome than understanding why they exist.
The Core Idea
No part of you is bad. Every protective strategy — procrastination, shutdown, people-pleasing, perfectionism — developed for real reasons. The goal isn't to eliminate those parts. It's to understand what they've been carrying and offer them something they haven't had: actual relief.
What Self Is
IFS holds that underneath the parts is a core Self — not damaged by experience, not defined by what happened to you. Calm, curious, clear. The goal of the work is to help you access that Self — so you're leading your own system rather than being run by the parts protecting it.
How It Differs from CBT
CBT works at the level of thoughts and behaviors. IFS works at the level of what's driving them. For people who've done the cognitive work and found the patterns didn't shift, IFS usually reaches what CBT can't — because the change happens inside the part, not around it.
Why this model works for ADHD and autistic adults specifically
Standard IFS wasn't built with neurodivergent nervous systems in mind. Applied without that context, it works partially. Here's what changes when it's integrated with ND-affirming care.
Masking has a parts architecture
Autistic and ADHD adults typically develop a specific layer of protective configuration over time: parts that suppress, compensate, and perform neurotypical competence when the environment requires it. Those parts worked. They held things together. And they're often running invisibly — because they became automatic before the person had language for what was happening. IFS can reach and work directly with that layer.
Shame doesn't respond to logic
Many ND adults carry years of evidence that something is wrong with them — built from chronic lateness, missed deadlines, relationship friction, the gap between capacity and output. That shame is held in parts of the system. Parts don't respond to better information or cognitive reframes. They respond to being understood. IFS creates the conditions for that.
Burnout is a parts problem
Autistic burnout from sustained masking isn't ordinary exhaustion. The protective parts that have been holding everything together eventually run out of resources. Rest doesn't fix it. What typically needs to happen is that the parts doing the work get actual relief — not just permission to stop temporarily. IFS is built for that kind of inner negotiation.
EF scaffolding holds better when the inner system is moving
External structure — calendars, body doubling, habit anchors — collapses when the parts underneath are working against it. A shame-carrying part that's already decided this isn't going to work will find ways to confirm itself. IFS handles that layer first, or alongside. That's what makes scaffolding Self-led rather than one more thing to feel bad about not using.
Diagnosis doesn't answer the inner question
Many ND adults come in post-diagnosis expecting relief — and find the pattern continues. Knowing the reason for the pattern doesn't change the parts maintaining it. The explanation lands in the thinking mind. The parts underneath are elsewhere. IFS addresses them directly, whether or not there's a formal diagnosis in the picture.
Self-led ND looks different from neurotypical goals
As masking parts gain trust and start to stand down, clients often become more recognizably themselves — more direct, more idiosyncratic, less calibrated to what the room expects. That's the direction of the work. Not symptom management. Not better performance of neurotypical competence. More genuine access to the actual Self underneath.
What IFS Level 1 trained actually means
IFS Level 1 is the foundational training program offered by the IFS Institute — the organization Richard Schwartz founded. It's a structured program of intensive training and consultation hours, not a weekend workshop or a self-study course.
A Level 1 trained therapist has worked through the model directly in their own system, applied it clinically, and received supervision on that work.
The distinction from "IFS-informed" is meaningful. Most therapists who say they use IFS have read Schwartz's books and attended an introduction. That's different from the formal training track. If IFS is central to the work you're looking for, it's worth asking whether the therapist has completed the training — not just read the literature.
I have ADHD and autistic traits myself. The model isn't abstract to me. I've worked through it in my own system, with my own parts — which is part of why it translates differently in this room than it might elsewhere.
IFS Institute Credentialing
The IFS Institute was founded by Richard Schwartz and maintains the training standards for the model. Level 1 certification is the foundational track. There are three levels total; most IFS practitioners in clinical practice hold Level 1 or Level 2.
Matthew Simpson, LMHC · IFS Level 1 Trained · License #LH61238290
What IFS therapy actually looks like in sessions
IFS sessions aren't scripted. They start from what's real for you right now — not from a protocol or a predetermined sequence.
Noticing the parts
Early sessions often involve learning to notice which parts are active in a given moment — the one that's shutting down right now, the one that's critical, the one that wants to fix the problem immediately. Most people have been running these configurations so long they've stopped noticing them as distinct. That noticing is the starting point.
Getting curious instead of fighting
Once a part is visible, the question isn't "how do I stop this" — it's "what is this part protecting? What would happen if it stood down?" That shift from pushing against a part to getting curious about it is where the relationship with it starts to change. Parts respond to curiosity in a way they don't respond to willpower.
Unblending
A part is "blended" when you are it rather than with it — when the thought is your whole reality instead of a thought you're having. Unblending means creating enough space from a part to see it clearly. That space is where Self-led response becomes possible instead of just reaction.
Working with what parts carry
Protective parts often cover for deeper parts that carry pain, shame, or old conclusions about what you are or what you deserve. IFS calls those exiles. The protective work usually has to happen before that deeper layer can be reached — the protectors need to trust the process before they'll stand aside. That sequencing matters, and it's rarely fast.
Integration into daily life
IFS doesn't stay in the session. Small experiments between sessions — noticing which part is active before an email, pausing before a familiar reaction — are where the inner work starts to change outer patterns. Those experiments also reveal exactly where the system is still getting in the way. Both pieces of information are useful.
Tracking what's actually shifting
Progress in IFS isn't always linear or obvious. The early signs are often small: a reaction that didn't come, a pause that happened before it used to, a part that felt slightly less urgent. We track that carefully — because therapy that isn't moving is worth examining, not just enduring.
What people ask about IFS before starting
Parts work is a broader term. IFS is a specific, structured model of parts work developed by Richard Schwartz — with its own vocabulary, sequencing, and theory of Self. Other modalities (Gestalt, voice dialogue, some somatic approaches) also work with parts, but not the same way. When therapists say they do "parts work," it's worth asking what they mean specifically.
No. Some clients have read No Bad Parts and come in with context. Others have never heard of IFS. Neither matters — the work is experiential, not academic. You develop an understanding of the model through the sessions themselves, not from studying it in advance.
CBT and DBT work at the level of thoughts and behaviors — identifying patterns and replacing them with more functional alternatives. IFS works at the level of the parts underneath those patterns: what's driving the thought, what the part is protecting, what it's been carrying. For people who've done cognitive work and found the insight didn't produce lasting change, IFS often reaches what those approaches can't — because the work happens inside the part, not around it.
Particularly for the shame, burnout, and protective masking that often sit underneath ADHD and autistic presentations. IFS wasn't designed specifically for neurodivergent clients, but it reaches the parts-level issues that standard ND-affirming care and behavioral approaches tend to miss. The combination — IFS alongside understanding of how ND nervous systems actually work — addresses more than either alone.
It depends on what's being addressed and how much the system has been carrying. IFS isn't a brief intervention — it's a process. Most clients working on long-standing patterns, burnout, or complex relational history should expect six months to a year of consistent weekly work before significant shifts hold. Some things move faster. Some take longer. The pre-consultation is the right place to discuss timelines for your specific situation.
Therapy is licensed and regulated by state. This practice is currently Washington State only. If you're outside Washington and looking for IFS-informed support, High Signal Coaching offers IFS-as-operational-lens work globally — focused on executive function and execution, not therapy. For clinical IFS outside Washington, the IFS Institute practitioner directory is the right place to search.
Washington State residents only
Matt is licensed as an LMHC in Washington State (License #LH61238290). Therapy services are available only to residents of Washington State. This is a telehealth-only practice.
If you are outside Washington State and looking for an IFS therapist, the IFS Institute practitioner directory is a good place to search by location and specialty.
The work starts with a conversation.
A free 20-minute pre-consultation to talk about what's happening, what you're looking for, and whether this approach is the right fit. No paperwork, no commitment.