IFS Handout Level 2 - A Deeper Exploration into our Parts.

2 days ago
2 min read

Step-by-step let's go deeper.

This worksheet is an invitation to slow down and spend some time with one part of you, with a little more care and curiosity than usual.

In Internal Family Systems (IFS), we understand that each of us is made up of many different parts — parts that feel, protect, react, hold memories, and try to keep us safe in their own ways. These parts are not problems to be solved or traits to be corrected.

They are responses that formed in the context of our lives, shaped by what we needed to survive, belong, and make sense of the world around us.

Some parts are easier to welcome.

Others may feel overwhelming, confusing, or even frustrating.

You might wish they would quiet down, change, or disappear. And yet, even these parts carry good intentions. They exist because, at some point, they believed they had to.

This Level 2 worksheet is designed to help you go a little deeper than simple noticing.

It invites you to gently explore a part’s role, its strengths, its burdens, and the needs it has been trying to meet.

Not from a place of fixing or forcing change, but from a place of understanding. When parts feel seen rather than managed, something often begins to soften on its own.

As you move through the questions, you may notice different feelings arise — curiosity, resistance, tenderness, confusion. All of this is welcome. There is no need to get it “right,” and no expectation that things should change quickly. This is not a performance or an evaluation. It is a conversation.

If at any point you feel overwhelmed, it’s okay to pause. You can take a breath, look around the room, or return to this worksheet another time. Working with parts is not about pushing through — it’s about learning how to stay in relationship with yourself in a way that feels safe enough.

Above all, remember this: there are no bad parts. Every part you meet here has a story, a purpose, and a reason for being. By approaching it with curiosity and compassion, you are already doing something deeply reparative.

Go slowly. Let this be gentle.

You are not here to fix yourself — you are here to listen :)

With kindness,

Hernping