You Are a Bowl of Ramen

Internal Family Systems and Parts Work 

If you’ve ever had mixed emotions, then you can attest to the multiplicity of your internal self. The idea that the human self is made of multiple parts is certainly not new, whether in the spiritual concept of mind-body-spirit or the scientific understanding of a complex neurobiological system. In therapy, this concept is broadly referred to as “parts work”, which is involved in inner child work and addiction treatment, among other approaches—but the parallels stop there. 

Internal Family Systems is an approach to psychotherapy developed by Richard C. Schwartz in the 1980s that goes beyond the existence of multiple parts of self to claim that we are more than the sum of our parts. In fact, we are all those parts and then some. The best way I could think to explain this framework is that you are like a bowl of ramen. 

The bowl is like your body, containing the ramen. The ramen, however, is not so simple. The Chinese noodle dish popularized in Japan consists of wheat noodles, broth and additional toppings, which can vary, but can’t entirely be separated from the dish itself. The noodles and toppings are like the parts of you, which exist separately, but without the broth, there is no ramen. The broth is like your Self, an essence of you that contains the parts themselves and is often imbued with the flavors of the parts themselves. Most forms of parts work approaches involve differentiating between parts of yourself, but IFS uses mindfulness-based approaches to differentiate these parts from the concept of Self. 

Why is that Self significant? Well consider the movie, “Inside Out,” which popularized the concept of parts work to understand the way that different emotions operate within us. The Self, however, isn’t necessarily depicted in the film, but is more akin to the automatic operating system of the main character, which is occasionally overridden by parts that take manual control. In IFS, the Self is described as compassionate, creative, curious, confident, calm, connected and clear, which is reflected in the characteristics of presence, persistence, perspective, playfulness and patience. This is not only the natural leader of your system, but the agent through which your system can find healing and harmony. 

The IFS framework also integrates the psychology used to understand family systems to understand the inner system. Not only are the parts of yourself distinguished as managers, firefighters or exiles, but their relationships are further characterized as protective, polarized or allied. Managers are involved with your executive function, firefighters are involved in your trauma response and exiles hold the most sensitive parts of your trauma. The goal of this work is often to re-establish and maintain balance and harmony within this system, knowing that each of these parts is essential to your functioning. 

Of course, like all forms of therapy, this approach (and analogy) isn’t for everyone. If this resonated with you and you’re interested in learning whether this could be an effective approach to your mental health treatment, reach out for a consultation to learn more. If this just made you hungry, perhaps you’ll enjoy your next bowl of ramen with a little more perspective.