What is IFS™-Informed Coaching?
A compassionate path to clarity, inner trust, and aligned change.

When we hit a moment of transition—career shifts, creative pivots, or life crossroads—it’s common to feel a tangle of competing thoughts and emotions. One part of us may crave change, while another part says, “I’m scared”. One part might push forward, while another slows everything down.

IFS-Informed Coaching offers a way to meet these inner voices not as obstacles, but as meaningful messengers and helpful advisors.

IFS stands for Internal Family Systems, a model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz that understands each of us as made up of many “parts”—protective, striving, cautious, tender, playful, skeptical, overwhelmed. These parts are not flaws; they’re aspects of us that have developed in response to life. At the core of the IFS model is something deeper: Self—a calm, curious, wise inner awareness that can lead us with clarity and compassion.

In IFS-Informed Coaching, we bring this framework into a coaching space—not to diagnose or treat, but to support your present-moment awareness and forward movement. As your coach, I support you in getting to know your internal system with gentleness and curiosity. Together, we explore what your parts are trying to protect, what they need from you, and what’s possible when they feel heard.

How I Use IFS™ in My Coaching

My role as an IFS-informed coach is not to interpret or analyze your parts, but to walk alongside you as you get to know them for yourself.

In a coaching session, we might gently notice which parts are present—maybe a striving part that wants to figure everything out, or a protective part that’s hesitant to trust the process. Rather than trying to fix or override them, I’ll invite you to slow down and turn inward with curiosity. What does that part want you to know? How long has it been doing this job? What might it need from you in this moment?

You don’t need to have any prior experience with IFS or even know what your “parts” are. I’ll guide you with simple, non-pathologizing questions that help you listen inward. We won’t try to force change—we’ll create space for insight to emerge organically from within.

Sometimes we’ll use imagery, metaphors, or even tactile tools like objects or drawings to help externalize and connect with parts. Other times, a few quiet moments of reflection might open the door to something meaningful.

Everything happens at your pace. You lead the way. I bring my presence, care, and deep trust that all parts are welcome—and that your Self already knows the path forward.

What clients often experience:

• A quieter mind and clearer connection to what really matters

• The ability to pause and listen inward rather than defaulting to autopilot

• A more trusting, respectful relationship with themselves

• Movement that feels aligned—not forced

• Permission to grow without abandoning the parts of them that are afraid

IFS-Informed Coaching is not therapy. We don’t go digging into the past or unpack trauma. Instead, we create a coaching container that honors your internal complexity while supporting meaningful change in your outer world.

This is about reclaiming your leadership from the inside out—so that your next step forward is one that truly belongs to you.

Want to learn more about IFS™?

Here are a few foundational books by Dr. Richard Schwartz:

• No Bad Parts – A powerful, reader-friendly exploration of how every part of us has value and how healing and change begin when we listen inward.

• You Are the One You’ve Been Waiting For – Focused on relationships, this book offers tools for applying IFS to deepen connection and intimacy without losing oneself.