IFS and Energy Work, a Dynamic Duo
You all know my thoughts and feelings on how helpful “talking” is. Is it important to vent? Yes. Does it create lasting change? No.
We can rationally understand exactly why we feel the way we do and something inside of us still can feel stuck.
Do I want you to get the most out of our time together? Yes.
Which is why I love IFS and especially why I love to combine IFS and Reiki energy work.
While they are different practices they both invite us into healing similarly, curiosity, compassion, and without forcing change.
What is IFS?
Internal Family Systems is based on the understanding that we all have different “parts” within us. They protect us in the best way they know how. Sometimes that’s by being critical, overthinking, numbing, striving, people pleasing - I think you get the picture.
IFS doesn’t ask us to get rid of these parts but instead wants us to become curious about them.
We may ask:
What are they protecting?
What are they afraid would happen if they stopped doing their job?
What might they need from us now?
Through this kind of approach we can learn to view ourselves as deserving of compassion and understanding versus needing to change or be better.
I go into more depth about IFS in another blog post titled “IFS therapy explained” if you’re curious to learn more.
Where Reiki Comes In
Reiki offers another doorway into this process. Reiki is a gentle, energy based healing practice intended to support relaxation, grounding, and connection with the body. Reiki doesn’t require you to explain, analyze, or make sense of everything you’re experiencing and sometimes that is exactly what we need.
For people who spend a lot of time thinking, processing, analyzing, or trying to understand themselves, Reiki can offer an opportunity to simply be, notice and receive. It also helps the body to become part of the conversation.
When Parts Don't Have Words
One of the things I find most meaningful about combining IFS and Reiki is that not every part of us communicates through language.
A part might show up as tightness in your chest, heaviness in your stomach, a lump in your throat...
Or simply a feeling that something is there.
IFS gives us a framework for approaching these experiences with curiosity, while Reiki can create a quiet, supportive space for staying present with them without needing to immediately understand them.
Instead of asking, How do I make this feeling go away?
We ask instead:
What is happening inside of me right now?
Is there a part of me here?
What happens if I don't ask it to change?
What might it be like to simply offer it some space?
Moving From Doing to Being
Many of the women I work with are incredibly capable. They are thoughtful, self-aware, responsible, and accustomed to figuring things out. They may have spent years striving, caring for others, anticipating what is needed, or trying to become the “best” version of themselves. Healing can quietly become another thing to accomplish.
IFS and Reiki offer something different. They invite us out of striving and into relationship. Rather than asking, How quickly can I heal this? we begin asking, Can I stay with myself here? We don’t need to push a protective part aside if we can become curious about why it arrived. This way there is less forcing and more listening, in my experience, parts like that a whole lot!
A Whole-Person Approach to Healing
For me, integrating IFS and Reiki is part of a larger belief that healing involves more than the mind alone. This is the crux of my practice and why I feel holistic offerings are so important.
Our experiences live within our nervous systems and bodies. Sometimes meaningful change happens through insight and conversation and sometimes it happens through noticing a sensation we have spent years disconnecting from. There is no single doorway into healing.
IFS can help us understand and compassionately connect with our internal world. Reiki can offer a gentle space for slowing down, reconnecting with the body, and experiencing something beyond intellectual understanding.
Together, they can create room for something I think many of us are longing for: the experience of being with ourselves rather than constantly working on ourselves.