Healing the Inner System Through Compassionate Connection

Have you ever felt like part of you wants to move on, but another part feels stuck in the past? Or maybe you hear a critical inner voice while another part of you feels deeply ashamed or afraid. These are all parts of you—protective, wounded, reactive, and wise—and each of them has something important to share.

In my work as a trauma therapist, I use an approach called Parts Work, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy. This model helps you develop a relationship with your inner world—so that you can move from internal conflict to inner compassion, and from survival to integration.

I’m currently completing my Level 1 IFS training (2025) and regularly integrate Parts Work with EMDR, Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy, and somatic healing practices in my work with clients.

Parts Work is based on the understanding that our personality is made up of different “parts,” each with their own emotions, roles, and beliefs. Some parts protect us, others carry pain, and others manage our daily lives.

These parts often develop as adaptive responses to trauma—especially when you had to survive unsafe relationships, childhood abuse, narcissistic control, or cultural silencing.

IFS teaches us that there are no bad parts—only parts that have been pushed into extreme roles because of what you’ve been through.

Parts Work helps you:

• Understand why you react the way you do in certain situations

• Unblend from shame, fear, or anger without bypassing it

• Build safety within your own nervous system and internal world

• Heal wounded inner children and burdened protector parts

• Reconnect with your Self—the calm, curious, compassionate core of who you are

When parts feel seen and understood, they begin to soften. And as that happens, trauma loses its grip, and you regain access to your voice, your body, and your intuition.

In my integrative approach, I often combine Parts Work with:

• EMDR Therapy to help specific parts reprocess stuck trauma memories

• Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) to allow protectors and exiles to emerge in an expanded state, where they can be held with deeper compassion

• Somatic techniques to gently anchor your system and restore connection to your body

This layered approach is especially supportive for those who feel fragmented or disconnected from themselves after years of complex trauma, narcissistic abuse, or family roles that never allowed space for your true self.

• Struggle with a harsh inner critic or perfectionist part

• Feel like one part of you is ready to heal, while another resists

• Carry intense guilt, shame, or fear that doesn't match your present

• Disconnect emotionally or "check out" under stress

• Feel like your adult self is managing, but a younger part is still in pain

Parts Work is especially powerful for adult survivors of:

• Childhood sexual abuse (CSA)

• Narcissistic or emotional abuse

• Complex family systems and enmeshment

• Immigration and cultural identity trauma