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Explore a sample system

Walks ยท one sitting, about 16 min

Who else is here

Meet your parts as a small crowd: start from one part, wait for the next to come forward, then the next, and sketch who guards whom and who fights whom. Getting to know the whole group without fixing anything.

16 steps, drawn from 15 books on IFS.

A draft: every passage it quotes is in its book, but its own wording has not yet been checked against them.

Read every step first
  1. The crowd, not one part. Most walks here stay with one part. This one is about the crowd. You start with one part, see who turns up next, and who after that, and then look at how they get on. Think of drawing the seating plan at a wedding. Nothing gets fixed today. If someone young or hurting turns up, it goes on the map with a hello, and you leave it be.
  2. Somewhere to sit and scribble. Sit where you can stay for a while. Eyes open, since you will be writing along the way. If you like paper better, grab some and a pen, and use the boxes here for short notes. A slow breath or two, if that helps you land.
  3. Where to start. Pick a way in. A feeling that has been around today, a thought you keep having, an urge, a tightness somewhere. Something you have met before is fine.
  4. The first one. Find the part behind it. Where is it, on or inside your body? Keep it company until you could draw it. It need not be art. A knot, a grey cloud, a clenched fist, a word in capitals.
  5. Wait for the next. Go back to the last one, in its place in your body, and keep it company. Often, after a while, something shifts and another part comes forward: an opinion about this one, a reaction to it, a pull somewhere else. Wait and see.
  6. The second one. Turn to the new one. Where is it, on or inside your body? Keep it company until you could draw it: a shape, a scribble, a colour, a word. Write that down.
  7. And the next. Go back to the last one, in its place in your body, and keep it company. Often, after a while, something shifts and another part comes forward: an opinion about this one, a reaction to it, a pull somewhere else. Wait and see.
  8. The third one. Turn to the new one. Where is it, on or inside your body? Keep it company until you could draw it: a shape, a scribble, a colour, a word. Write that down.
  9. One more? Go back to the last one, in its place in your body, and keep it company. Often, after a while, something shifts and another part comes forward: an opinion about this one, a reaction to it, a pull somewhere else. Wait and see.
  10. The fourth one. Turn to the new one. Where is it, on or inside your body? Keep it company until you could draw it: a shape, a scribble, a colour, a word. Write that down.
  11. Hold it at arm's length. Look at the whole lot, as if the page were at arm's length. How do they get on? Does one guard another? Do two argue? Are any two in cahoots? Draw lines, or write it down.
  12. Your feeling toward each. Go round them, one by one, leaving any young one where it is, and notice what you feel toward each. If one gets a strong reaction out of you, the reaction is probably one more part, and it belongs on the map too.
  13. Ask the whole group. Ask the group, rather than any one of them: what does this little system need from you? Then wait. One word is plenty. Nothing coming is an answer too.
  14. A look round the table. Before you finish, give the whole crowd a moment of your attention at once, the way you might look round a table at the end of a long dinner. No questions. Only a sense that they have been seen, by you.
  15. The one to come back to. Which of them would you like to come back to first? Give it a name, if one comes. Name the part, not what it carries: 'the bouncer' rather than 'Dread'. Leave it blank if nothing fits.
  16. Before you go. Thank all of them for showing themselves, the young one too if it came. Tell them this was not the last time, but only if you mean it. Keep the map somewhere you can find it. Then return to the room: the chair, your feet, the nearest window.
  17. One more on the map. Add the one that reacted. What would you draw, and who is it reacting to? Then ask it to sit back with the rest for a minute, so you can ask the whole group something.
  18. On the map, with a hello. Put it on the map as it showed itself. Let it know you saw it and you will not forget it. You are not going to it today; today is about the ones around it. If it helps, note where you would like to return.