Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
I offer Internal Family Systems Therapy / IFS Therapy in-person in Eagle Rock, Los Angeles and virtually across California.
Whether you’ve heard about IFS Therapy before or are hearing about IFS for the first time, Internal Family Systems Therapy is rooted in helping people feel: more connected to themselves, free from the roles they’ve been forced into, and more confident and capable in moments when difficult emotions such as stress, anxiety, and shame start to cause overwhelm and nervous system dysregulation. IFS is a trauma-informed treatment for anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
IFS therapy can help you understand your own internal world, increase a sense of self-compassion and self-trust, and helps you engage in practices that you can utilize outside of the therapy room to address issues, conflict, and overwhelm in real time.
You can read more about IFS Therapy below or read the summary on IFS Therapy in Los Angeles here.
About IFS Therapy
IFS is an experiential therapy. This means that in addition to talking about what’s happening in your life, you’ll be engaged in activities, techniques, and exercises in IFS Therapy that can help you process difficult emotions, heal trauma, and let go of the behaviors and beliefs that no longer serve you.
One of the foundational concepts of IFS is that we all have different sub-personalities or parts of ourselves that influence our emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and decision making. All of our different parts make up our internal system or internal family. Internal Family Systems Therapy emphasizes the transformation and healing that can occur when we feel more connected to and in relationship with all the different parts of ourselves.
Common things that you might have said yourself that are also heard regularly in IFS Therapy might include:
“There’s a part of me that wants to show up as my authentic self, but there’s a part of me that fears rejection.”
“When I visit family or old friends, it’s like a past version of myself shows up and is in the driver’s seat.”
“I feel like a completely different person when I’m stressed or have panic attacks. I don’t like that part of me.”
“I wish the part of me that felt more confident could show up more, but the part of me that feels small is always around.”
“Whenever a part of me wants to just stay in bed, there’s another part of me that criticizes me and calls me lazy.”
Through Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy, I provide a non-judgmental, compassionate, and curious space for you to understand and be in relationship with all the different parts of your internal system. Together we’ll explore the roles that each part has in your life and why, how that has helped you in the past and if it’s helping you now, and identifying what it would mean for different parts of you to heal and come into new roles.
Goals of IFS Therapy
Internal Family Systems Therapy is guided by four goals:
To liberate parts from roles they had to take on to survive, and shift into new roles that help you feel a sense of safety, confidence, compassion, and curiosity.
To build self-trust and self-compassion.
To achieve balance, harmony, and wholeness within yourself and with others.
To bring healing and transformation beyond the individual and into your relationships, your community, and the world.
Who can benefit from IFS Therapy?
You might benefit from IFS Therapy if you want to feel more connected to yourself and have a natural curiosity about the history of your emotions, coping skills, and how you show up in relationships. IFS can be beneficial if you desire a life free from internal conflict and self-criticism and want to shift your awareness to long-lasting healing and change. Ultimately, IFS can be beneficial for anyone who is open to building a relationship with themselves so that they can show up fully as themselves with others.
Some common themes I address in Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy are:
Parts of you that are on the edge of burnout and have compassion fatigue due to struggling balancing caring for yourself while caring for others
Feeling like your self-worth is dependent on how much you can give to and please others
How grief and loss due to the loss of a loved one, pet loss, or a life transition has changed you and makes you feel so disconnected from who you used to be
Your frustrations towards your anxiety due to how much it has disrupted your daily life
Carrying intergenerational trauma or the pain and burdens that your parents and ancestors have experienced with them following experiences with war, trauma, violence, and forced migration
Experiencing shame related to your sexuality, sexual orientation, or gender identity due to your experiences with religious trauma
My Approach as an IFS Therapist in Los Angeles
Hi! I’m Chris Datiles, a queer Filipino IFS therapist in Los Angeles. I began self studying and utilizing IFS Therapy in my work with clients in 2021, and completed the IFS Institute’s Level 1 training in 2024.
I enjoy IFS both as a client and as a therapist because it promotes being in relationship with all the different parts of ourselves, developing self-compassion alongside self-accountability, and living a life rooted in curiosity, creativity, and connection. I utilize Internal Family Systems when facilitating support groups and offering individual in-person IFS Therapy in Los Angeles and virtually across California.
As an IFS Therapist, I help you identify your strengths, work through internal conflict, and unburden pain from past traumas. I acknowledge that healing is unique to your own system and work with you to identify how IFS can be most helpful for you. This includes exploring what pace, activities, and exercises resonate the most with your own internal world.
My experiences and training with IFS include:
Lived experience as a client in IFS Therapy since 2022
8 Week Intro to IFS Training with Bonnie Weiss in 2022
6 Week IFS Learning Group for Asian American clinicians with Philip Chang in 2023
Completion of IFS Level 1 Training from the IFS Institute (April-September 2024)
Participation in the IFS Continuity Program since September 2024
Will serve as a Program Assistant for an IFS Level 1 Global Majority / BIPOC training in 2025
Summary of Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy and IFS Therapy in Los Angeles
IFS Therapy is a trauma-informed treatment for anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief, loss, shame, and guilt.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy is an experiential model that engages you in activities and exercises to heal trauma, change behaviors, and process difficult emotions in real time.
Goals of IFS Therapy include: helping you feel an increased sense of safety, self-trust, wholeness, and compassion within yourself and with others.
You might benefit from IFS therapy if you want to deepen your relationship with yourself and integrate lasting change.
Some common issues I address with IFS are: self-worth, burnout, intergenerational trauma, religious trauma, grief and loss, and shame.
As an IFS Therapist, I offer in-person IFS Support Groups and individual IFS Therapy in Los Angeles and virtually across California. I’m here to provide you with a non-judgmental, compassionate, and curious space to explore your own internal world.