How Many Personalities Do You Contain?
- Joseph Neidorf, MT-BC
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Does it ever feel like your mind is being pulled in two directions at once? Or have you made decisions that now seem unwise but at the time felt fully “true to yourself?”
What if the internal tensions we experience function similarly to relationships between family members? That suspicion led Richard Schwartz to develop a therapeutic model known as Internal Family Systems. He wanted to help his clients improve their mental health though conceiving of themselves as a “core Self” that manages relationships between distinct “parts.” These “parts” of us play roles within the internal family just like siblings can–one may be the worrier, one the rebel, one the leader, and so on.
In order to develop awareness of these internal personalities, therapists using this model may encourage clients to consider what motivates each part, what experiences each part was most shaped by, and even give their parts a name and age. A core philosophy of the model is to accept each part as equally valid, seeing their behaviors as well-intentioned no matter how potentially immature. The aim is to manage all our parts effectively (not ignoring some in favor of others), so that each part’s individual strengths can be aligned in service of our whole-person goals.
So how might a music therapist use the Internal Family Systems model? Here are a few examples of activities to develop this type of awareness:
Listen to a song you feel a visceral connection with. Which of your “parts” particularly resonates with this song? Is this due to certain qualities of the music, or specific lyrics?
Once you have some ideas of who some of your distinct parts may be, give them the opportunity to make music one at a time. For example, if your rebellious part is holding the drumsticks, how would that sound?
To practice effective management by your core Self, hand control of the drumsticks/microphone/playlist to a specific part, appreciate its choices, then try to tactfully take back control and hand it to a different part. Do these transitions create resistance, and where is it coming from?
As with any theoretical model, this way of thinking does not describe true reality, but even completely flawed models can be opportunities to explore what exactly you think they get wrong. Might this one help you achieve a more harmonious self-control? Either way, I’d love to hear why or why not!
