Internal Family Systems Therapy
A relational and trauma-informed approach to exploring your inner world and developing greater calm, compassion, and confidence.
In-person in Nanaimo, British Columbia · Online across Canada and Internationally
Internal Family Systems in My Practice
Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a compassionate approach to therapy that understands our inner experience as made up of different “parts.” These parts may show up as a critical voice, a desire to please others, an impulse to withdraw, a need to stay in control, or other familiar patterns of thinking, feeling, and responding.
Rather than seeing these parts as problems to eliminate, IFS invites us to become curious about them. Often, even the parts of ourselves that create difficulty developed for understandable reasons, as ways of protecting us, helping us adapt, or responding to earlier experiences.
IFS is a central framework within my work as a therapist. My approach is also shaped by relational, somatic, and humanistic perspectives, which means that our work is not limited to understanding parts intellectually. We also pay attention to emotion, the body, relationships, and what is happening between us in the present moment.
Over time, this work can support a more compassionate relationship with yourself, greater emotional steadiness, and more choice in how you respond to the experiences and relationships that matter to you.
When IFS May Be Helpful
You may understand yourself quite well and still find that certain patterns are difficult to change. Perhaps you become highly self-critical, withdraw when relationships feel uncertain, feel responsible for the needs of others, or experience emotional responses that seem larger than the situation in front of you.
At other times, the conflict may feel more internal. Part of you may want to make a change while another part feels afraid or resistant. You may know what you want intellectually while finding that something inside keeps pulling you in another direction.
IFS offers a way of slowing these experiences down and becoming curious about what is happening beneath them. Rather than trying to push difficult reactions aside, we can begin to understand what they are protecting and why they may have developed.
As these patterns become better understood, there can be more room for compassion, flexibility, and choice.
What Sessions Can Look Like
Therapy often begins by slowing down and paying attention to what is unfolding in the present moment. You might notice thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, images, or impulses arising as we explore something important to you. In IFS, these experiences can offer a way of getting to know different parts of your inner world.
Rather than pushing these experiences away or trying to change them quickly, we become curious about them. We may explore what a part is trying to communicate, what it is concerned might happen, or what role it has learned to play in your life.
Sometimes this work stays close to what is happening in the present. At other times, it may bring us toward earlier experiences and relationships that shaped the ways parts learned to protect you. We move at a pace that respects your history, your nervous system, and the natural rhythm of trust.
Over time, experiences that once felt confusing or frustrating can begin to make more sense. The aim is not to force parts to change, but to create the conditions for a different relationship with your inner world to emerge.
A Relational and Grounded Approach
My approach to therapy is calm, curious, and collaborative. I pay attention not only to the different parts of your experience, but also to what is happening between us and within the body as we talk. At times, this may mean slowing down, noticing a shift in emotion or sensation, or staying with something that feels important rather than moving quickly toward an explanation or solution.
I see therapy as something we create together. I bring compassion, honesty, and a steady presence to the work, without pressure or a predetermined agenda for where you should arrive. IFS provides an important framework, but the relationship we develop and what emerges within it are equally important parts of the process.
When This Work May Be a Good Fit
Many of the people I work with are thoughtful and reflective individuals who are curious about understanding themselves more deeply.
Some arrive during periods of transition in their lives. Others are navigating recurring patterns in relationships or emotional responses that feel difficult to shift despite insight or effort.
Often there is already a sense that something meaningful is happening internally, even if it is not yet fully understood.
This work tends to resonate with people who value curiosity, honesty, and a willingness to slow down and explore their inner experience with care.
About Simon
I am a Registered Psychotherapist and Canadian Certified Counsellor offering individual therapy in person in Nanaimo and online across Canada. Internal Family Systems is central to my practice, alongside relational, somatic, trauma-informed, and humanistic approaches.
I aim to offer a steady and thoughtful space where there is room for complexity, uncertainty, and the different parts of you that may emerge in the work.
Next Steps
If this approach resonates with you, the next step is to book a complimentary 20-minute discovery call.
This conversation offers an opportunity to ask questions, share what brings you here, and explore whether working together feels like a good fit.
Internal Family Systems therapy and relational counselling offered in Nanaimo, British Columbia and online across Canada and internationally.
© 2026 Simon Erlich Counselling & Psychotherapy