While IFS therapy does not speak the same language as CBT, each has roots in the same underground spring of mindful awareness and similarly facilitates an experiential process of internal differentiation among the parts of a person that may have distorted or outdated views and feelings. This brings into power the actual Self in the present world, who sees things clearly.
I began calling my approach to IFS therapy for OCD by the nickname Self-led ERP which stands for “Self-led encountering and relating to parts.” My twist on “ERP” came naturally and serendipitously as I began to see the exquisite correlations between traditional exposure therapy and parts work.
Created to relieve the internal strife of OCD, this technique synthesizes the highly effective mechanisms of exposure therapy and the deep, experiential healing of IFS. Together, these powerful approaches build confidence, balance, and the ability to stay with difficult thoughts and feelings without reacting to them. Clients experience and encounter internal states with confidence, compassion, and curiosity so that transformation can happen and can stick.
While the technique of exposure is comparable to what we do in IFS when we get to know a part that is carrying difficult emotions, and we foster a clear space for Self to be present with the part and all that it carries, the term “exposure” sounds exceedingly harsh and involuntary. I find the term “encountering” captures the therapeutic experience better than “exposure.”
Similarly, the technique of response prevention is analogous to what we do in IFS when we ask a part to step back or pause, but “response prevention” has a coercive rather than collaborative ring to it and is therefore not received as the respectful internal request that IFS fosters and encourages. The phrase “relating to parts” is a better descriptor than “response prevention.”
I think of IFS therapy for OCD as Self-led, encountering and relating to parts. With Self-led ERP, I believe that I have united the two approaches so that their combined effect is quite beautiful.
