Internal Family System Therapy
& Inner Child Healing
An embodied and skills-focusing approach to care for trauma & unresolved pain
and restore inner foundations of well-being
available via online telehealth and in-person meetings at Heart In Balance offices in Oakland
You…
You feel misunderstood and exhausted.
You feel like it's not okay to just be you.
You feel like you carry a lot "baggage" inside.
You struggle to feel like you can ask for what you want or say what you need to say.
Some times you don't even know youself. You feel so alone in the work you do to show up. You struggle with work and relationships (love, work, peers, friends…even with your pets).
It's hard for you feel appreciated, respected or loved.
You experiences conflicting voices inside yourself and don’t know how to go after what you want. Decision making feels so daunting.
Imagine...
You finally feel heard, seen, and validated. You get to look at what you’ve been though and know where it came from and finally feel like it made sense and someone else will see and understand that too.
With inner child work, you get to reparent yourself and change those inner dialogues that used to drag you down so that you feel free to take new actions in life.
As a result, your relationships transforms, you feel more connected, loved and supported. You feel more empowered in your career too. Maybe you release and old job and go fro your dream career. Maybe you accept people in your life that are actually YOU. Bring out the best in you.
But most importantly, you feel finanlly ok being in your own skin. Knowing that every choice you make, every steps you take, you accept yourself and your feelings. You stop beating yourself up for making mistakes. You give yourself permission to be the messy, imperfect amazing human being that you are and you love every part of this whole package.
Who is IFS therapy & inner child work for?
human beings who believe that they are "messed up"
human beings who has a lot of shame for being who they are
human beings who struggle with taking on burdens for other people and don't know how to let it go
human beings who are confused with who they are, what do they want, are they worthy of love and acceptance
human beings who had imperfect parenting growing up and still searching for a figure that can unconditionally love them, suppor them, or maybe fill an empty hole in them
What is IFS (Internal Family Systems) and how it might help me?
IFS (Internal Family Systems, or parts work) is an evidence-based psychotherapy approach created by Richard Schwartz that views individuals as containing various "parts" with distinct characteristics and emotion with the goal of befriending and helping all those parts. International experts including Bessel van der Kolk and Gabor Maté describe IFS as “the most effective psychotherapy for developmental trauma”.
Basically, IFS get to the bottom of things. It is not another talk therapy where you just vent and I listen and "emm-hmm" along, but provides strategic guidance and intervention to bring clarity, choice and courage to your inner stuggles.
But IFS also does it at a pace you can control. IFS allow every part of you to speak and be cared for, so that we don't bypass any part that is usually ignored, judged, or feel shame for what they need. That's why I love using IFS for folks that usually experience misunderstanding, not fitting in or being oppressed in their daily experience.
The truth is: if you experience it outside, you very likely do it to yourself inside. So we gotta start with the inside, which will shift the outside.
Why working with me?
As a level-2 trained IFS therapist, I have helped countless individuals with issues such as depression, anxiety, self-esteem, relational pain, boundary setting, shame, grief, and life transitions.
have done my own IFS inner child work so I personally know the transformation that can happen. I bring in a good dose of gentle and encouragement and directness so you get the guidance and safety to actually do the work.
my vibe: attuning to you and collaborate with you to create the right blend of
(compassionate love space-holding)
+ (Chinese-style grounding pragmaticsm and precise interventions)
+ (creative play medicine) for what you need
I also bring my years of experience working with minority and neurodivergent folks and people of different educational and professional backgrounds (as a facilitator, an educator, a software engineer, a reseracher, an artist, an immigrant, a bilingual person... Yes did I say I am an integrated therapist? ) to the table when we connect. My collections of trainings allow me to develop skills in somatic work, multicultural and system thinking, and intuitive arts therapy that all could be part of our work.
Our sessions will not be just talking about the problem, but actually helping you to release those negative thoughts, practice saying what you want, envision how you want to feel and embody who you want to be.