No Bad Parts

Richard C. Schwartz is a systemic family therapist and creator of the revolutionary Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of therapy. He is currently in the faculty at Harvard Medical School and is the author of No Bad Parts, Introduction to Internal Family Systems and You Are the One You've Been Waiting For.

Richard Schwartz began his career as a family therapist and an academic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There he discovered that family therapy alone did not achieve full symptom relief and in asking patients why, he learned that they were plagued by what they called “parts.” These patients became his teachers as they described how their parts formed networks of inner relationships that resembled the families he had been working with. He also found that as they focused on and, thereby, separated from their parts, they would shift into a state characterized by qualities like curiosity, calm, confidence and compassion. He called this state the Self and was amazed to find it even in severely diagnosed and traumatized patients. From these explorations the Internal Family Systems model was born in the early 1980s. IFS now has a growing evidence base and has become a widely-used form of psychotherapy, particularly with trauma. It provides a non-pathologizing, optimistic, and empowering perspective and a practical and effective set of techniques for working with individuals, couples, families.

Richard is also the Founder of the IFS Institute that offers training for professionals. He is currently a Teaching Associate in Psychiatry, at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School teaching affiliate. Richard has authored or co-authored more than ten books on Internal Family Systems and related topics, including No Bad Parts and Internal Family Systems Therapy. Dick lives near Chicago with his wife Jeanne, Vice President of the IFS Institute, close to his three daughters and six grandchildren.

'Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy...has been one of the great advances in trauma therapy. IFS is one of the cornerstones of effective and lasting trauma therapy.' ― Bessel van der Kolk, author of THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE

'In this highly readable volume, Dr. Richard Schwartz articulates and deftly illustrates his Internal Family Systems model, one of the most innovative, intuitive, comprehensive, and transformational therapies to have emerged in the present century.' ― Dr Gabor Maté

'This may be the most transformational book you'll ever read.' ― Dr Lissa Rankin, author of MIND OVER MEDICINE

'An enormous gift - transformative, compassionate, and wise. These simple and brilliant teachings will open your mind and free your spirit and your heart.' ― Jack Kornfield, author of A PATH WITH HEART

'No Bad Parts is, I believe, Richard Schwartz's clearest, most comprehensive, and most inspiring manifesto. Anyone interested in IFS, indeed anyone interested in a happier, less conflicted life, should devour this life-changing, pioneering work.' ― Terry Real, author of THE NEW RULES OF MARRIAGE

'In this well-written book, Richard Schwartz offers the basics of IFS, a series of exercises to help you learn to relate in an open and compassionate way to all - even your most dreaded and extreme - inner parts, and the fascinating spiritual implications of IFS. This approach will change everything about how you relate to yourself and to others!' ― Diane Poole Heller, author of THE POWER OF ATTACHMENT