Michelle Glass is a Certified Level 3 IFS Practitioner, Oregon Licensed Psilocybin Facilitator, and Alternative Counselor with over 20 years of experience in Internal Family Systems (IFS). Having healed from complex PTSD using IFS, she developed the Daily Parts Meditation Practice® (DPMP®), a set of tools that deepen integration and self-awareness.
In this conversation with Mystic Mag, Michelle shares how IFS fosters deep healing, the role of DPMP® in her work with clients, and how she integrates psychedelic-assisted therapy into her holistic practice.
How has your personal healing journey influenced your approach to using the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model with clients?
With an ACES score of 9 coming from a childhood full of complex-PTSD, I never imagined that I would feel a sense of freedom from symptoms or be healed without medications. IFS has provided me with deep and complete healing from CPTSD. Knowing that healing is truly possible, I bring strong confidence and Self-energy to all clients. In IFS we call this a Hope Merchant: bringing hope to otherwise hopeless systems.
If I could heal, others can heal. Knowing my own inner landscape and family of parts intimately provides a powerful corollary when working with clients. My parts trust me (mySelf) to lead sessions with clients and are not activated by topics that once would have. Therefore, my clients feel acutely held by my calm, connected, compassionate, curious, clarity, confident, courageous, creative energy. The fluency with which I know parts and honor their personhood (each of their unique histories and experiences) builds trust and is profoundly felt by clients.
By attuning to each of their parts, in a similar way I did with my own, their own Self-energy begins to shine stronger as they go down their own healing paths. I’m honored to hold this sacred space.
Can you elaborate on how your Daily Parts Meditation Practice® integrates with IFS and supports both clients and therapists?
The Daily Parts Meditation Practice® (DPMP®) is entirely based on IFS and was born out of my own healing. The DPMP® is a set of six IFS-inspired integration tools. Parts Timelines are essentially the names of parts that come up in each session. These can be used to create Parts Maps, where relationships of parts are illuminated as one walks down the healing path of IFS. Parts Catalogue Cards (PCC) are a beautiful place to document the witnessing of each part, and then ultimately their unburdening/healing.
This is particularly useful for integration. Parts Biographies, are just what that sounds like – taking the information from the PCC to write a unique history or biography of each part. Dan Siegel, MD, talks about coherent narratives. Parts Biographies deepen the coherent narrative. Parts Externalizations are a creative way of expressing the personhood and history of each part. Finally, the DPMP® Meditation’s intention is to remain connected (Self-to-part) with our unburdened parts, deepening the integration by referring to the PCCs. Parts never go away and when they feel abandoned their old burdens may come back.
The DPMP provides an attuned inner consistency many of us never received growing up. The DPMP® has long been a valued resource supporting clients and therapists alike.
As a licensed Psilocybin Facilitator and certified in psychedelic-assisted therapy, how do you integrate these modalities with your holistic practice?
IFS is a natural model for psychedelic-assisted therapy and informs each phase of my work with clients. Assuring protector concerns are fully addressed so clients arrive to journey day with as much readiness as possible is essential. I bring a high level of Self-energy to support each client’s parts. If their protectors are going to relax into the experience, they need to know that me and my Self-energy are their “protectors” during the journey.
Returning to the parts involved in the journey during integration is where the IFS healing steps that may not have spontaneously happened in the journey can possibly be completed. My Meditations for Psychedelic Preparation and Integration Utilizing IFS, a series of 16 tracks, provide a layer of extra support for clients. I am currently working on a workbook: Psychedelic Preparation and Integration Utilizing the Daily Parts Meditation Practice®.
IFS provides safety at every step:
– Self is the grounding agent to accompany parts and to bring healing– BOTH for client and therapist
– Is consent-based in every moment (protectors are never by-passed)
– When the therapist / practitioner is Self-led there are less possibilities of re-traumatization from an external person during their healing journey (harm reduction)
Provides a roadmap:
– Knowing the distinct roles and functions of protectors versus exiles illuminates where we are on the path, where we are going, and how to do so safely
Provides for natural healing:
– Parts emerge spontaneously in approximately 80% of psychedelic journeys
– Provides for continuation of Self-to-part relationship along the process and for the future
– Provides for transformation of wounds (i.e., burdens) and roles
How does your experience as a “wounded healer” shape the way you connect with and guide clients on their healing journeys?
It is my Self-energy and the Self-energy of each of my parts that clients appreciate and find hopeful. They feel the impact of having healed my system and often comment on this. There is an enormous difference between “wounded healers” and “healed wounded healers.” The former can consciously and unconsciously injure clients, the latter is a safe forthright resource for the healing process.
Healing affords an opportunity to reparent ourselves—from our Self, rather than parts that have to effort—yielding a burden-free life. Clients feel this within me, giving them hope to do the same. Your last question ties back to your first question beautifully. By attuning to each of their parts, in a similar way I did with my own, their own Self-energy begins to shine stronger as they go down their own healing paths. Additionally, I completely trust the unique unfolding of each person’s system, in their own way and in their own timing. I’m honored to hold this sacred space.
BIO:
Michelle Glass is a Certified Level 3 IFS Practitioner, Oregon Licensed Psilocbyin Facilitator, and Alternative Counselor in Eugene, Oregon who has 20 years of IFS experience and has accumulated over 380 hours of direct study with Richard Schwartz, PhD, the founder of IFS. She used IFS to heal from a childhood of abuse and complex-PTSD. She developed and is the author of the Daily Parts Meditation Practice ® : A Journey of Embodied Integration for Clients and Therapists, which has become a valued method of deep embodiment of the IFS Model and healing integration. The DPMP ® was trademarked in Spring 2022 and contains six tools of integration which is now also available in both English and Spanish. These tools of integration can now be found within the IFS-inspired app called Sentur. She has given workshops on the DPMP ® online and across the globe. Her focus has shifted to IFS and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy. Michelle is currently writing a workbook for psychedelic preparation and integration using the DPMP ® tools. She offers a 22-Hour Comprehensive IFS Introductory for Psychedelic Facilitators course a few times a year as well as provides smaller workshops aimed to help IFS-trained professionals support their clients who are seeking out psychedelics outside of their services. Michelle received a Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy from Naropa Institute and Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 2022. In addition, she served as the Editor for OUTLOOK, the Foundation for Self Leadership’s magazine, for seven years.
More information can be found at https://thelistenerllc.com.
