What is my Trauma-Type? Trauma Spirit?

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Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a form of talk therapy created by Richard Swartz (Swartz, 2001). In his work as a family therapist, he recognized that the family systems approach, which views change in terms of the interactions between family members, also had an internal psychological component, that each of us has sub-personalities that take on different roles, such as an inner critic. When situations elicit discordant feelings, IFS may be useful.

Exercise: Befriend a Part

• Recall a recent situation where you reacted stronger than the situation warranted.

• Try to visualize this reaction as a person sitting next to you. If you cannot see it, how does it feel in or around you?

• How old is this part, chronologically, how old does this part feel?

• What are its (her/his/their) fears and concerns? (Why did it react the way it did?)

• How are you feeling towards the part? (not about the part)

• What does it want you to know about it, or how it came to be?

• What role does it play in your life? How does it protect you?

• Now ask it if it would be ok to step back a little bit. If the answer is no, no problem, thank it for doing its job in protecting you and let it know you are doing some self-growth work so it does not have to take over so much anymore.

Brainspotting was developed by David Grand (Grand, 2013). Very simply, Grand found after much practice with EMDR and Somatic Experiencing, that where we look affects how we feel. We can either process something activating or resource something that is more positive based on where we look. Brainspotting is a sub-cortical process that is highly effective for Trauma Spirit. 

 Exercise-Self Spotting: 

• Find the eye position that helps you feel you can ask this part (in previous slide) to give you some space.  
• Look left, center and right on the horizon for at least 5 seconds each and see which spot feels the most connected to one self (more calm, grounded or neutral) and able to get some space from the part (discordant feeling).  
• Stay on the spot for as long as possible. Stay until you start to feel more grounded, centered, calm or neutral. ​
  Practice this every day. If possible, add on bilateral music while you are looking at the spot.  
• With practice, you can identify the spot that holds the activation, and then the most grounded/calm/neutral spot, and move back and forth between them. (Working with a Brainspotting clinician is recommended at this stage, especially to find reflex spots you may not be aware of).