Internal Family Systems and healing from COVID-19
When using the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS) to explain how “we” can heal from COVID-19 at a micro, mezzo, and macro level it is necessary to examine the many parts of the system that have been created to protect the Self. These parts of a person’s psyche have been created to protect the Self which at times can be polarized and cause ongoing suffering, they are labeled as the Firefighter or Manager. The role of these parts is to protect the Self from the Exiles, which are the emotions often judged harshly by others and in turn by the Firefighter and/or Manager Parts. On a mass scale since individuals have their own internal systems then when dealing with family, community, country, and world the same will be true, they are all systems with their own roles playing out their narrative based on life experience.
Until the human is able to notice judgement towards Self they will not heed notice when judging others, it is innate. We must remember: We are human first; thereby we are fallible and thus cannot judge others. This is a statement that I said in a session once and it resonated with both my Self and the person in session. I knew in an instance the truth in these words needed to be shared because there will never be healing as a collective if we cannot focus on healing Self. And as a Society there are so many distractions allowing the human existence to avoid their personal healing (or mind growth) that the journey to get to a place of non-judgment seems impossible. So my quest is to start with Me and ripple outwards what I can do to help others see and own their potential.