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PARTS WORK THERAPY

My passion is encouraging people to have the hard conversations with themselves—ALL parts of themselves.

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We are a collection of parts

So often when we feel stagnant in our lives, the challenges we face are due to internal conflicts. Despite our accomplishments, the negative parts of us are relentless: the constant narration of our inner critic, the worn-through internal tape recording of our parent demanding perfection, or the quiet whisper that says “You’re not enough.”

A sign that we’re ready for therapy is when we’re either so enmeshed with these parts of us that we cannot see past them, or we regard them with hatred (while simultaneously handing them power over us). Parts work therapy directs attention to the conflicts between parts by differentiating them from those in our lives who they mimic, untangling their (often misguided) motives, and learning to find empathy for them.

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Insight from our parts informs whole-person healing.

Our parts contain important information for us. A large part of my work involves slowing clients down so they have the opportunity to work on the true root of this conflict within them before blindly deciding on the next goalpost that’s meant to solve their woes. In parts work therapy, clients can increase their self-awareness past the self-critical blocks, and finally get unstuck. In our work together, I teach clients to identify and integrate all parts of themselves, particularly the parts they would rather “wish away.”

Although this is not a new way of thinking about ourselves, therapy that harnesses this understanding of us as multiple parts is not yet mainstream in psychological communities. Still, parts work therapy is incredibly powerful.

Benefits of Parts Work 

  • Increase respect for yourself and others 

  • Develop self-awareness rooted in compassion 

  • Improve communication skills 

  • Heal generational and childhood trauma 

  • Set healthy boundaries

  • Become more aware of your own needs 

  • Reduce stress and find inner balance

  • Liberate yourself from the leadership of more extreme parts

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  • How parts work is different from other counseling techniques

    Parts work therapy focuses on reprogramming the way we understand and relate to ourselves and the big emotions that color our world. Instead of solely relying on logic or facts to inform our emotional awareness, parts work is a gentle exploration of our emotional experience as an internal conversation instead of a problem to be solved.

    Using parts work, we will use compassion to unearth new insights and avoid villainizing the parts of us we struggle with most. Instead, we’ll build bridges of understanding to these disavowed parts to promote self-love, self-compassion, and self-forgiveness.

  • Why this might be the right therapeutic approach for you

    Parts work is right for anyone who needs support and guidance in navigating their relationship with themselves.


    If you struggle with anxiety, perfectionism, or imposter syndrome, parts work can help you to dive more deeply into understanding the parts of you that cause you pain. Seeing these parts of you as individual entities with their own motivations and goals can help you to understand why you react the way you do—and to find compassion as you decide how you want to act in the future.

How you think about yourself has power

The way you engage with your internal dialogue can impact the energy you carry throughout life.

If you give power to the thought that you are deserving of the pain or hurt you’re feeling, or that you are inadequate in your life, you will reinforce that thought and take away your own power. Sometimes we inadvertently give these parts power by engaging in the struggle with them rather than first listening to what they have to say.

What would happen if you were kind to yourself?

With parts work, we can disassemble these internal thoughts and feelings by separating them from our current experience to find the emotions and memories they’re attached to. You can look inward to scan your body and mind for the cues that correspond with this part. 

As you gather information about your internal system, parts work therapy with me can help you to understand why you use these thoughts, when you needed them, and how you can engage with them in a way that benefits you now.

For some people, it feels dangerous to be kind. We feel like we owe our success in some respects to the anxious or workaholic part and wonder who we would be without it.

Making a change feels like a risk you can’t afford so you never look too deeply into where this critical, insecure part originates. The possibility of good can feel just as risky as the possibility of something bad, so we choose to take the criticism and keep moving. But this is disempowering you. You aren’t serving your best self. Instead, you’re effectively cutting off your ability to engage creatively with your whole self.

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