Welcome To the Nautilus Center for Therapy Blog!

We’re so glad you’ve found your way here! Whether you're new to the world of Internal Family Systems (IFS) or a seasoned practitioner, this blog is designed to provide insights, support, and inspiration on your healing journey.

What is IFS Therapy?

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a powerful therapeutic model that helps individuals better understand the many parts of themselves. It’s based on the idea that our psyche is made up of different "parts" or sub-personalities, each with its own perspective, memories, and roles. These parts can include aspects of ourselves that are nurturing, critical, protective, or wounded. The goal of IFS therapy is to help you cultivate a harmonious internal system, allowing you to connect with your true Self—the compassionate, wise, and grounded center that can guide the healing of all parts. IFS is often called "Parts Work" or "Inner Child Work". 

Why IFS Therapy?

IFS offers a unique, transformative way of approaching psychological challenges. By recognizing and honoring each part of your inner world, IFS allows for deeper self-compassion and understanding. Over time, this therapy helps reduce inner conflict, manage overwhelming emotions, and heal past wounds that may be holding you back.

As an IFS therapist,  I’ve witnessed firsthand the profound changes that occur when clients reconnect with their inner wisdom and develop a nurturing relationship with all of their parts. It’s deeply fulfilling to help guide others on this path of self-discovery and transformation.

What You Can Expect from This Blog

In this space, we’ll explore a wide range of topics related to IFS therapy, including:

• Understanding the Parts: Insights into the different roles and functions of your parts, including Protectors, Exiles, and the Self.
• IFS in Action: Real-world examples of how IFS therapy works and how it can be applied to various life challenges.
• Self-Compassion & Healing: Tips and tools for cultivating self-compassion, managing emotional pain, and healing from past trauma.
• Therapist Reflections: Personal insights from my journey as an IFS therapist, including lessons learned and professional growth.
• Guest Posts & Interviews: Stories and perspectives from fellow therapists, clients, and thought leaders in the IFS community.

Who am I and who do I work with?

I have been an IFS therapist since 2021 and continue to deepen and expand my practice. Personally, IFS has changed my life. I too struggle with the human experience of feeling overwhelmed by stress and how distressing life can feel on the nervous system. And after years of living with anxiety, IFS allowed me to befriend it rather than push it away. IFS has given me and many clients I work with the ability to hold and love all the parts that make us who we are. And from that love, just like our bodies can heal from physical wounds, our bodies have an inner medicine and wisdom to heal emotional wounds as well. 

Clients tend to come to work with me due to the impacts of anxiety. While anxiety is such a helpful part to prevent bad things from happening, it can "get us in trouble" in ways ti does not intend; lack of presence and awareness, exhaustion and fatigue, and feeling a constant state of survival mode which, in all honesty, makes life less fun. I help clients understand the role their anxious parts play in their lives and from that understanding help the anxiety settle from the part and from the client with new options to handle stress and the unknown. 

Clients also come to work with me because there are relationships difficulties in their life that they want support navigating. Relationship difficulties include feeling disconnected, untrusting, anxious, and unfulfilled. There can also be conflict in the relationship that feels unresolved. And these can be relationships with family, friends, partners, co-workers or even our own children. In our work together, we understand what parts of us are getting activated when there is a challenging relational pattern or dynamic existing in our relationships. 

Together, we understand and uncover unmet needs and facilitate ways for your inner resource to meet that need. 

All parts are welcome and I am so glad you're here.

All my best,
Kristina Shimokawa, LMFT