Interested in IFS Therapy? Watch the Inside Out Movies | IFS Therapy San Francisco
Like many therapists - and people all over the world - I loved the Pixar movie Inside Out and its sequel, and how they portray our inner emotional landscape through the mind of the movies’ protagonist, a young girl named Riley. Turns out, there’s a lot we can learn from Inside Out 2 through the lens of Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS).
As a therapist in San Francisco, I use IFS to help my clients navigate their struggles with anxiety, relationships, and self-esteem. IFS is a powerful therapeutic model based on the premise that our minds are composed of different “parts” that play important roles in our lives, creating an internal system that we can learn to caretake and collaborate with to produce more harmony in our lives and relationships.
The premise of Inside Out beautifully illustrates the concepts and principles of IFS therapy, and Inside Out 2 delves even further into those concepts through the “parts” of the main character, Riley, as her psyche continues to develop as she grows up.
What is IFS therapy?
In my last two blogs, I gave an overview of IFS using Richard Schwartz’s book No Bad Parts, and a further deep-dive into our parts and how they manifest in our lives. Today, I’m going to take a look at how Inside Out 2 captures the complexity of our minds and emotions - especially anxiety - through the framework of IFS.
Internal Family Systems, developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz, PhD., promotes the concept that we all have different “parts” of our personality and inner world: Exiles, the young and vulnerable parts of us that carry core beliefs, memories, and the burdens of extreme emotions; Managers, the parts of us who work to protect our Exiles by preventing any threats; and Firefighters, who respond to triggers when they happen by using any means to escape. Separate from our parts, we all have a core Self with inherent qualities (compassion, curiosity, clarity, creativity, calm, confidence, courage, and connectedness) that we can access to soothe and guide our parts.
The Inside Out movies capture the essence of IFS therapy
Inside Out and Inside Out 2 portray each of Riley’s inner “parts” as a distinct emotion. In the IFS framework, “parts” are often more complex than simply our basic emotions - they often manifest with a broad spectrum of internal experiences such as body sensations, memories, beliefs, impulses, and with a variety of emotions themselves - but Inside Out’s approach still provides a thoughtful illustration of the structure of our psyches and what IFS is all about and how we can apply it in our lives.
In the first movie, we are introduced to Riley’s five “core” emotions (“parts”), each embodied by a cast of lively characters with distinct personalities: Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, and Disgust. In Inside Out 2, Riley has grown into a 13-year-old teenager, and the personified emotions are busy at work developing Riley’s “Sense of Self”, where her emerging core beliefs reside. Joy hopes to maintain the equilibrium of Riley’s psyche by only accepting positive memories in her “Sense of Self”, but when puberty hits, a whole new host of “parts” enter Riley’s system - and Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui all have different plans on how to protect and motivate Riley for this new phase of her life.
The frenzied, stressed-out character of Anxiety perfectly illustrates an IFS Manager in action, and what happens when a “part” takes over the inner system in efforts to protect our vulnerability. Joy and the other core emotions are banished by Anxiety, who doesn’t trust that they’re able to handle the range of Riley’s new experiences and struggles as she braves the unforgiving landscape of puberty, school, and friendships.
Joy describes what it’s like to be an Exile in the inner system after she and the others are banished by Anxiety and cast aside into the deeper recesses of Riley’s mind, where Riley’s “Secrets” live. “Riley doesn’t need us as much as she needs them, and that hurts,” Joy says tearfully, and one of Riley’s Secrets says, “We were all banished here, deemed unfit, worthless.” These heartbreaking sentiments demonstrate the pain of our exiled parts and the burdens they carry, and how distrust among our “parts” can result in conflict in the inner system. Joy and the other core emotions are upset at the disruption caused by the newcomers, and as distrust within Riley’s internal family system grows, the more chaos ensues.
Once Joy and the others are exiled, Anxiety helms the “console” at the forefront of Riley’s psyche in attempts to control her behavior so she can fit in and succeed in the new environment of a hockey camp. But, as is often the case with our inner Protectors, their efforts can cause damage in periods of high stress. Anxiety desperately tries to mold Riley’s behavior to fit the perceived expectations of new friends and make the hockey team, but Anxiety’s attempts begin to backfire, and her “Sense of Self” is threatened by new core beliefs such as “I’m not good enough.” Anxiety’s frantic attempts to keep Riley safe by controlling her behavior is an example of the way our “parts” can hijack our system when we’re feeling afraid, overwhelmed, or triggered by external experiences.
Accept all the parts of yourself, even your anxiety
The goal of IFS therapy is for our core “Self” to establish trust with our parts and collaborate harmoniously with them by recognizing their value, embracing and accepting them, and liberating them from the burdens they carry. In Inside Out 2, we can see this process in action as the core emotions and new emotions struggle to relate to - and eventually understand - each other’s purpose.
The other “parts” perceive Anxiety as a villain, and Joy makes a heroic effort to prevent anything but positive memories from entering Riley’s core belief system. Anxiety protests by adding her own core beliefs to Riley’s “Sense of Self”, and the core emotions fear that Riley will fall prey to the self-defeating messaging. But while it appears that Anxiety is doing nothing but wreaking havoc on Riley’s life, Joy and the others begin to understand that Anxiety isn’t bad - she’s simply trying to protect Riley the best way she knows how.
This is the essence of Internal Family Systems: that no “part” of us is bad. That each of our parts are valuable in their own way, even the ones who cause damage in our lives. When Anxiety spirals out of control, resulting in Riley having a panic attack, Joy realizes that Anxiety cares about Riley just as much as she does and that all she wants is for Riley to feel accepted, just like Joy wants Riley to feel happy. She recognizes that compassion - not conquering - is what Riley’s Anxiety needs. Joy rescues Anxiety from the panic attack and welcomes her back to the group, where they finally reach a compromise for their approach to Riley’s “Sense of Self”.
As Riley’s “parts” accept each other and recognize each other’s value, they are able to build a new “Sense of Self” for Riley - one that isn’t trapped in the dichotomy of good or bad, but one that is able to balance and embrace the complexity of Riley’s developing psyche. All of Riley’s “parts” work together to help her navigate the next chapter of her life, allowing each part to exercise their strengths, be soothed when they’re hurt, and meet challenges with inner harmony rather than conflict.
Have compassion for your anxiety in how it tries to keep you safe
It’s easy for our “parts” to be misunderstood. When we struggle with anxiety, our instinct might be to attempt to fight and control it in order to prevent it from sabotaging our lives. But if we can understand that our anxiety is trying to protect us from vulnerable feelings such as insecurity or low self-esteem, we can, like Joy, engage in dialogue with that part and develop compassion for the ways it tries to keep us safe.
Inside Out 2 shows us what happens when we embrace and accept all parts of ourselves, and recognize each part’s unique strengths. At the end of the movie, Joy declares, “Every bit of Riley makes her who she is, and we love all of our girl. Every messy, beautiful piece of her.” And that is true for all of us - every messy, beautiful piece of you is valuable and worthy of acceptance.
A free therapy consultation in San Francisco
If you’re interested in IFS therapy in San Francisco to help you navigate issues like anxiety with the guidance of an IFS-informed therapist, feel welcome to call me at (415) 851-5125 for a free 15-minute phone consultation. My specialties include anxiety, self-esteem, and relationship issues.