The Self-Led Internal Family Systems Workbook: Learn IFS Skills to Understand and Love All Your Parts

by Tanis Allen LMSW, ACSW, Cece Sykes LCSW, ACSW (Foreword by)

Overview

A self-guided workbook to lead yourself through the IFS process and create inner harmony and peace, as endorsed by Dr. Richard C. Schwartz, founder of Internal Family Systems

Transform the way you relate to yourself and your mental health struggles with this clear and structured guide to Internal Family Systems (IFS), an evidence-based approach to parts work therapy. The IFS model views every person as having an “internal family” of parts or subpersonalities, each with their own set of thoughts, feelings, and roles. Some parts hold pain from the past, while others work to prevent that pain from surfacing. When parts are understood and accepted, they can release this pain and heal.

Developed by a veteran IFS clinician who has lived, practiced, and trained others on the IFS model for more than 25 years, The Self-Led Internal Family Systems Workbook can help you connect to your true, authentic Self—which is always inside of you, ready to lead—so you can meet your internal family of parts, respond compassionately when they’re activated, and send them healing energy when they need it.

Key features of this workbook:

• Accessible Self-Paced Process. Move through the IFS practice at your own speed and comfort level using IFS skills that have been adapted for beginners.
• Clear and Structured Approach. Bring clarity and insight to your internal world by navigating it with step-by-step skills, exercises, and worksheets.
• Strategies for Common IFS Challenges. Learn to work with parts that keep you stuck in problematic cycles and offer compassion to deeply wounded parts.
• Transcripts of Self-Led IFS Sessions. See how an IFS clinician works with her own parts to address challenges like perfectionism, impulse control, and more.

“I am very grateful to my friend Tanis Allen for creating this clear, practical workbook for helping people access Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy on their own. Because she knows IFS so well, she not only offers very useful and easily followed exercises but also the important cautions and guidelines to make this powerful work safe. I enthusiastically endorse this book and see it as an important contribution to the big project of helping everyone change their inner relationships and become more Self-led.”
—Richard C. Schwartz, PhD, founder of the Internal Family Systems model of psychotherapy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593886403
Publisher:	Zeitgeist
Publication date:	01/28/2025
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.93(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Tanis Jo Allen, LMSW, ACSW, is a certified IFS psychotherapist in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has been practicing, training in, and teaching the IFS model for more than 25 years, having presented many workshops and trainings in the Midwest and Canada, and as a guest lecturer at the University of Michigan. She earned her Master of Social Work and her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Michigan. Her professional experience includes clinical social work in education, both mental and physical healthcare settings, and hospice care. Her clinical specializations include anxiety and depression, all forms of eating disorders, grief, loss and trauma issues, adjustment to physical illness, and relationship concerns. As an IFS clinical consultant, she also provides supervision and mentorship to psychotherapists learning the model. Tanis established and directs the IFS Great Lakes Retreat, which is held annually in Northern Michigan.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Tanis Allen has created a highly experiential guide that encourages both playful exploration and an embodied experience of connection with our parts in The Self-Led Internal Family Systems Workbook, in which readers are invited to enter and find a comfortable place to safely and compassionately go inside. This exceptional resource containing gentle prompts and valuable insights into the IFS approach is written for anyone wishing to establish and maintain an ongoing practice of deepening relationships with their parts with curiosity and respect.” —Shelly Johnson, LMSW, certified internal family systems therapist and author of The Parts Inside of Me

“Tanis Allen's The Self-Led Internal Family Systems Workbook explains the basics of both IFS and ply-vagal theory and offers a wide variety of creative, in-depth exercises that will orient you to your internal system, introduce you to your protective parts, and help clarify who ‘you’ are. If you're IFS-curious, this is a great place to start; if you're already IFS-engaged, it's a rich resource.” —Martha Sweezy, PhD, author of Internal Family Systems Therapy for Shame and Guilt

“As a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychopharmacologist whose life and practice have been profoundly affected by IFS, I've been looking for a jargon-free introduction to IFS that I can share with my clients and patients. Tanis Allen's The Self-Led Internal Family Systems Workbook is it!” —Dr. Charles H. Silberstein, MD, medical director, Island Counseling Center/Martha's Vineyard Community Services

“Tanis Allen’s workbook is a gem. Like Tanis herself, it brings deep wisdom and heart to the IFS process. Tanis has been around IFS a long time. She lives the work, and with this workbook, she helps us live it along with her.” —Kay Gardner, LCPC, IFS senior lead trainer and certified IFS therapist