Meet Your Internal Family System (IFS)

This visual map brings the IFS model to life—helping you understand the different parts within you, and the healing power of your Core Self.

• Exiles are younger parts carrying the pain of past wounds and beliefs like “I’m not enough” or “I’m unlovable.” These parts hold deep emotions like shame, sadness, and loneliness.
• Managers are proactive protectors that work hard to keep you in control—often showing up as perfectionism, people-pleasing, anxiety, or inner criticism to prevent you from feeling the pain of the exiles.
• Firefighters are reactive protectors that spring into action when pain is triggered. Their job is to soothe or distract from the hurt—sometimes in ways that feel extreme, like numbing, bingeing, or shutting down.

At the center is your Core Self—the calm, compassionate, confident leader within you. Healing begins when you reconnect with this Self and build trusting relationships with your parts.

This chart is your invitation to begin that journey—with curiosity, not judgment.

Parts Mapping

A Visual Guide to Your Inner World

Parts Mapping is a creative, compassionate way to see your internal system more clearly. It’s like drawing a map of your inner world—so you can recognize when different parts are activated, what they need, and how they show up in your body and mind.

There’s no one “right” way to do this. Your map is yours, and it will evolve as your relationship with your parts deepens.

You might include:

• Emotions your parts carry
• Their jobs or protective roles
• What they look like (drawings, images, objects)
• Their relationships to other parts
• What they usually need from you
• Physical sensations they bring up

This is an ongoing project—not a finished product. As you get to know your parts with more curiosity and compassion, your map will shift and grow alongside you.

✨ Represent your parts in any way that feels true to them:
Drawings, magazine cutouts, clay, cards, colors, or simply words. Let it be creative. Let it be yours.

This is your invitation to gently turn toward your parts with love—and create a map that helps you come home to your Self.

8 Primary Emotions

Understanding Your Emotions: A Map Back to Self

This chart breaks down the 8 basic human emotions into their sub-emotions, gifts, and physical sensations—so you can begin to understand not just what you're feeling, but why it's showing up and how it's here to help.

Every emotion carries a message and a gift:

• Anger can offer strength.
• Sadness can bring healing.
• Fear protects what matters most.
• Joy, trust, anticipation, and more remind us what alignment feels like.

Use this as a gentle guide to check in with your parts, recognize emotional patterns, and deepen your connection to your inner world—one feeling at a time.

Feedback Loop

Communicate with Clarity & Compassion

Data:

When I heard you say…

Thought:

What I made up about that was…

What that brought up for me…

Feel: 

And about that I am feeling…

Need: (for couples or 1:1)

In the future I need…

This simple, powerful framework helps you share your truth without blame, shutdown, or reactivity. By moving through each step, you create space for honest communication rooted in self-awareness, emotional ownership, and constructive connection.

Use this when you feel misunderstood, hurt, or activated in a relationship—and want to express yourself in a way that invites repair, not more rupture.

Each prompt guides you to:

• Reflect on what you heard

• Notice the story your parts created

• Identify what got activated inside you

• Honor what you’re truly feeling

• Ask clearly for what you need moving forward

This isn’t about being perfect—it’s about being present. And creating space for connection that’s rooted in truth.