IFS Therapy in Los Angeles & Pasadena, CA
Internal Family Systems Therapy for Trauma, Anxiety, and the Parts of You That Feel Stuck
What Is Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy?
Internal Family Systems, often called IFS or "parts work," is an evidence-based model of psychotherapy developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. IFS is listed on SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices and has a growing body of research supporting its effectiveness for trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and chronic shame.
The core idea is simple, even if it sounds unusual at first: your mind isn't one unified voice. It's made up of many sub-personalities, or parts — each carrying its own memories, feelings, and protective strategies. IFS therapy helps you get to know these parts, understand what they're trying to do for you, and build a healing relationship with them from a grounded, compassionate internal Self.
The Parts IFS Recognizes
IFS organizes the inner world into a few recognizable types of parts. None of them are bad. None of them are the enemy. Each one developed for a reason, often a long time ago, and each one is still trying to help — even when the help no longer fits.
Have you ever noticed that one part of you wants to change, while another part sabotages every attempt? That one part shows up confident in a meeting, while another floods you with self-doubt the moment you get home? That's not a contradiction, and it's not a character flaw. It's how the mind actually works.
It’s a map, not a problem.
Protective Parts
Proactive Protectors or Managers
The parts working overtime to keep things under control. Managers are proactive — they plan, perfect, anticipate, and manage your image so that pain never has a chance to surface. They're often the parts that look the most "high-functioning" from the outside: the perfectionist, the people-pleaser, the one always two steps ahead. Underneath, they're exhausted.
Reactive Protectors or Firefighters
The parts that rush in when pain breaks through anyway. Where managers try to prevent the fire, firefighters put it out fast — through numbing, dissociation, scrolling, drinking, overworking, eating, or any of the dozens of ways a nervous system reaches for relief in a hurry. Firefighters often get labeled as "self-destructive." They're not. They're doing emergency work in the only way they know how.
Exiles
The parts carrying the original wounds — shame, grief, fear, the memories of times you felt fundamentally unlovable, unsafe, or alone. Managers and firefighters spend most of their energy keeping exiles out of awareness, because the pain they hold can feel unbearable to face directly. Healing in IFS happens when exiles are finally met by the Self with care, not pushed further away.
The Self
A core state of clarity, compassion, curiosity, and calm that exists in every person, regardless of what they've been through. The Self isn't something you have to build or earn — it's already there, often beneath the noise of the parts. The goal of IFS therapy isn't to eliminate any of your parts. It's to help them trust the Self enough to relax their extreme roles, lay down what they've been carrying, and finally rest.
What can IFS help with?
IFS is particularly effective for clients navigating:
Trauma and C-PTSD — especially for people who've found traditional talk therapy only goes so far
Shame and deeply held beliefs of unworthiness
Self-sabotage and internal conflict — the feeling of being at war with yourself
Anxiety and the inner critic
Depression and emotional numbness
Relationship patterns rooted in early attachment wounds
LGBTQ+ identity work — parts that learned to hide, perform, or suppress
Perfectionism and high-achiever burnout — common among professionals in entertainment, tech, law, and medicine
Clients who've tried CBT, traditional talk therapy, or medication and feel stuck
If you've ever said something like "I know what I should do, but I can't seem to do it," IFS is built for that exact experience.
What to Expect in an IFS Therapy Session
IFS sessions don't follow a rigid script. The work is experiential and relational — meaning it unfolds in real time as you turn your attention inward and get curious about the parts that show up. You might notice a part that lives as tightness in your chest before a difficult conversation. Another that floods you with self-criticism after a small mistake. Another that's kept a secret for decades because it believed no one could handle what it's been carrying.
With support, you learn to approach these parts with genuine curiosity instead of judgment — asking what they need, what they're afraid of, and what they've been working so hard to protect.
That shift, from fighting yourself to understanding yourself, is where real change begins.
Combining IFS and EMDR Therapy
As an EMDR-trained therapist, I often integrate IFS and EMDR when working with clients. This combination is often more effective than either approach alone.
IFS identifies and prepares the parts that hold traumatic experience(s), building trust and internal safety before any reprocessing begins.
This matters: traditional EMDR sometimes activates protective parts that shut the work down. IFS reduces that resistance.
EMDR then reprocesses the memories those parts have been carrying — with protectors on board and Self present to the experience — creating lasting change in how the brain stores and relates to traumatic memory and future activating experiences.
IFS Therapy for Los Angeles and Pasadena, CA Professionals
I work with adults across Los Angeles — including clients in Pasadena, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, Eagle Rock, Glendale, Highland Park, and the greater LA area — as well as telehealth clients throughout California.
Many of my clients are high-functioning professionals in the entertainment industry, creative fields, healthcare, law, and tech — people whose external success masks a deep internal struggle with perfectionism, burnout, identity, or unresolved trauma. IFS is particularly well-suited for clients who are introspective, self-aware, and ready to go deeper than symptom management.
I also offer specialized work in:
About Your IFS Therapist
I'm Thomas Blake, LMFT — a licensed psychotherapist with training in Internal Family Systems, EMDR, and somatic approaches to trauma. I've been in private practice since 2018 and my work is grounded in the belief that healing happens through relationship: with a therapist, and with the parts of yourself you've had to push away to survive.
Ready to Begin?
Currently accepting new clients.
In-person in Pasadena, CA
Telehealth throughout CA, NJ, MD, WY & ID
IFS Therapy FAQs
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IFS, or Internal Family Systems therapy, is a form of psychotherapy based on the idea that your mind is made up of many "parts" — each with its own feelings, memories, and purpose. IFS helps you build a healthy relationship with those parts from a grounded, compassionate core Self, rather than fighting or suppressing them.
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Yes. IFS is listed on SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices and has growing research support for treating PTSD, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. A 2025 scoping review in Clinical Psychologist identified IFS as a promising therapeutic approach with significant symptom reduction across multiple trials.
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Traditional talk therapy often focuses on insight — understanding why you feel what you feel. IFS is experiential: rather than just talking about your inner critic or anxious part, you actively turn inward and build a relationship with it in real time. Many clients describe IFS as going deeper, faster, than years of traditional therapy.
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It varies. Some clients experience meaningful shifts in 8–12 sessions; others engage in IFS therapy for a year or more, especially when working with complex trauma. In your free consultation, we can talk realistically about what timeline makes sense for what you're bringing in.
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EMDR is primarily a trauma reprocessing technique that uses bilateral stimulation to change how the brain stores traumatic memory. IFS is a broader therapeutic model that works with the full inner system — not just trauma. Many therapists (including me) combine them: IFS prepares parts for processing, EMDR does the reprocessing, and IFS helps integrate the shift afterward.
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Yes. IFS translates very well to telehealth — in fact, many clients find it easier to turn inward from a familiar, private space. I offer telehealth IFS therapy throughout California, New Jersey, Maryland, Wyoming, and Idaho.
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IFS tends to be a strong fit for people who are introspective, who feel "stuck" despite previous therapy, who notice internal conflict or self-sabotage, and who are willing to work experientially rather than purely cognitively. The best way to know is to schedule a free 15-minute consultation — we'll talk through what you're working on and whether IFS is the right approach.