Parts Work Therapy in California
Parts Work Therapy (In-person in San Francisco and Marin, and online throughout California)
I support clients using parts-based therapy, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), to heal from traumatic experiences, anxiety, PTSD, and stuck patterns following overwhelm. Many people come in feeling on edge, emotionally numb, triggered, or exhausted from carrying so much for so long. My approach is trauma informed and grounded in restoring safety and choice, drawing from parts work, psychodynamic therapy, and somatic regulation.
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Sessions are practical and supportive. We start by clarifying goals, building stabilization skills, and getting to know the parts of you that hold fear, protection, or pain. Together, we notice patterns that keep getting activated and gently work with them rather than pushing them away.
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Pacing is steady and compassionate. I am queer affirming and culturally responsive. The goal is real relief and the ability to feel more present in your life and relationships. I offer virtual therapy across California.
Parts Work Therapy in San Francisco, Marin and Online in California: How It Works, What It Treats, and the Healing Process
Parts work therapy, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), is a trauma informed approach that helps people heal from anxiety, PTSD, complex trauma (CPTSD), and long-standing emotional patterns. Parts work understands symptoms like hypervigilance, emotional numbness, people pleasing, or shutdown as protective responses developed in the context of overwhelming or unsafe experiences. This approach is commonly used for attachment trauma, childhood trauma, medical trauma, grief, and chronic stress, and it can also support healing from panic attacks, emotional flashbacks, and persistent shame. If you feel stuck in reactions that do not match the present moment, parts based therapy can help reduce symptoms and support long term healing. The goal is not to eliminate parts of you. The goal is to help all parts feel safer, less burdened, and more integrated so they no longer drive fear or avoidance.
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Parts work therapy focuses on understanding your internal system, including protective parts that manage control, perfectionism, avoidance, or caretaking, and younger parts that carry fear, pain, or unmet needs. Many trauma survivors develop internal beliefs such as “I am not safe,” “I am too much,” “I am broken,” or “it was my fault.” In parts work sessions, we identify the parts connected to these beliefs and explore how they show up through thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and relational patterns. By approaching these parts with curiosity and compassion, the nervous system can stay anchored in the present while old survival strategies soften. Over time, emotional intensity decreases, internal conflict reduces, and parts that once felt overwhelming begin to relax. Clients often report fewer PTSD symptoms, reduced anxiety and depression, improved self compassion, better sleep, and more capacity to stay grounded in relationships.
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People often search for parts work therapy in San Francisco or online parts based therapy in California when they want trauma therapy that creates real change without forcing them to relive the past. Parts work can be effective for complex PTSD, childhood trauma, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, chronic criticism, high conflict family dynamics, medical procedures, complicated grief, and unresolved traumatic experiences. Parts based therapy can also help when traditional talk therapy has increased insight, but the nervous system still reacts with panic, shutdown, fawning, people pleasing, or overwhelm. When reactions feel larger than the present moment, parts work helps identify the protective patterns underneath and address the original wounds driving the response.
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The parts work healing process is paced, collaborative, and trauma informed. Early sessions focus on safety, stabilization, and nervous system regulation so therapy feels manageable, especially for clients with complex trauma or dissociation. We clarify goals, map triggers, and identify the parts most connected to your current symptoms. As trust develops, we work more directly with vulnerable parts in a consent based and carefully paced way. You remain in control throughout therapy. Many clients experience relief as internal tension decreases, self blame softens, and beliefs shift toward “I survived,” “I’m safe now,” and “I can trust myself.” With steady support, parts work therapy can help you heal trauma, reduce anxiety and PTSD symptoms, and build a felt sense of safety, agency, and wholeness.
Parts Work Therapy for Trauma Recovery: Phases, Focus, and Healing
Parts work therapy for trauma recovery, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), is increasingly recognized as an effective trauma informed approach for PTSD, complex PTSD (CPTSD), anxiety, and distressing experiences that still feel “stuck.” Parts based therapy was developed to help people understand how their nervous system and inner parts adapted to overwhelming or unsafe experiences, and why symptoms show up as intrusive thoughts, emotional flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, shame, hypervigilance, and body based trauma responses. Many people seek parts work therapy in San Francisco or online parts based therapy in California because they want practical trauma treatment that goes beyond insight and helps symptoms actually shift. If you have a history of childhood trauma, medical trauma, assault, accidents, high conflict relationships, or chronic stress and overwhelm, parts work can support lasting healing by softening protective responses and transforming internal beliefs such as “I’m not safe,” “I’m powerless,” or “it was my fault.”
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Preparation and stabilization: Parts work therapy begins with building safety, trust, and nervous system regulation so the work feels manageable. This phase often includes grounding skills, resourcing, and support for anxiety, dissociation, shutdown, or overwhelm. You and your therapist clarify goals, identify current symptoms like PTSD, depression, sleep difficulties, or panic, and map the patterns and triggers that keep getting activated. Preparation is essential because trauma recovery is not about pushing through. It is about pacing, consent, and helping protective parts feel safe enough for deeper healing.
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Identifying parts and patterns: Next, parts work focuses on identifying the protective and vulnerable parts connected to your distress. Trauma symptoms are often linked to earlier experiences that shaped how your system learned to survive. In this phase, we explore the thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and beliefs carried by different parts, including younger parts that hold pain and protective parts that manage control, avoidance, or people pleasing. We also clarify what these parts fear would happen if they did not do their jobs. This creates a clear roadmap for healing and helps parts based therapy stay structured, attuned, and effective.
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Healing through relationship and awareness: In the core phase of parts work therapy, you build a compassionate, curious relationship with your internal system while staying grounded in the present. By approaching parts with understanding rather than judgment, the nervous system can update from survival mode to safety. Over time, many clients notice that trauma triggers lose intensity, internal conflict decreases, and reactions no longer feel overwhelming. Parts work can reduce PTSD symptoms, soften anxiety and depression, and support trauma recovery by helping the system shift from “still in danger” to “safe now.”
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Integration, somatic awareness, and closure: As parts feel less burdened, therapy focuses on integration and how changes are felt in the body. Somatic awareness is an important part of healing, because trauma lives in the nervous system as well as the mind. Sessions end with grounding and regulation so you leave feeling supported and contained. Trauma therapy should feel steady and respectful, not destabilizing.
Ongoing healing and future orientation: Parts work therapy is not only about the past. It also supports present day triggers and builds capacity for future situations that once led to panic, people pleasing, avoidance, or shutdown. Many clients experience increased self trust, clearer boundaries, less reactivity in relationships, and a greater sense of internal calm. Whether you are seeking parts work therapy for PTSD, CPTSD, anxiety, or childhood trauma, the goal is the same: meaningful relief, a more regulated nervous system, and a life where past experiences no longer control the present.
Parts Work Therapy and Relationships: Healing Trauma Patterns, Attachment Wounds, and Connection
Parts work therapy for relationships, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), focuses on how trauma shapes attachment, communication, and nervous system responses in romantic relationships, family relationships, and close friendships. Many people seek parts work therapy in San Francisco and online parts based therapy in California because relationship triggers can feel intense, confusing, and hard to control, especially with PTSD, complex PTSD (CPTSD), childhood trauma, emotional abuse, abandonment trauma, betrayal trauma, or a history of high conflict relationships. Trauma can shape anxious attachment, avoidant attachment, disorganized attachment, people pleasing, fawning, perfectionism, conflict avoidance, and fear of abandonment. Parts based therapy helps you understand how protective parts developed in response to past experiences and why they show up as anxiety, hypervigilance, jealousy, shutdown, emotional flashbacks, panic, and relationship insecurity. As parts feel safer and less burdened, many clients experience more emotional regulation, stronger boundaries, improved self esteem, and more secure attachment in relationships.
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Trauma patterns in relationships often show up as nervous system survival responses driven by different parts. You may feel activated by a delayed text, a change in tone, a partner needing space, criticism, disagreement, or uncertainty. Protective parts may respond with reassurance seeking, over explaining, apologizing, caretaking, or managing a partner’s emotions. Other parts may respond with emotional numbness, distance, withdrawal, shutdown, dissociation, or avoiding vulnerability. These responses often trace back to earlier attachment wounds, childhood trauma, emotionally unavailable caregivers, unsafe relationships, or experiences of betrayal, manipulation, or chronic criticism. Parts work therapy for relationship trauma focuses on understanding the parts that learned closeness was unsafe and helping the nervous system differentiate past danger from present day relationships.
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Common examples of relationship trauma responses include responding immediately even when exhausted, prioritizing a partner’s needs over your own, scanning for rejection, replaying conversations, anticipating conflict, freezing during arguments, fawning to prevent abandonment, or feeling intense shame after normal relationship tension. These patterns are common with CPTSD, anxiety, depression, attachment trauma, and relational trauma. Parts work can reduce relationship anxiety by gently working with the parts that carry beliefs like “I’m too much,” “I’m not enough,” “I’m not safe,” “I can’t trust,” or “I’ll be left.” As internal relationships shift, many clients notice fewer emotional flashbacks, less reactivity, and more capacity to stay present, grounded, and connected.
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The parts work healing process for relationships is collaborative, trauma informed, and carefully paced. Early sessions focus on stabilization, grounding, and nervous system regulation so relationship stress feels more manageable. Therapy then focuses on building awareness and compassion toward protective and vulnerable parts while staying anchored in the present. As parts begin to trust the process, emotional intensity softens and triggers lose their grip. Over time, parts work therapy can support healthier communication, clearer boundary setting, improved self trust, and more secure attachment patterns. If you are seeking parts work therapy for relationship trauma, attachment wounds, CPTSD, anxiety in relationships, or childhood trauma, the goal is lasting change: emotional regulation, stronger boundaries, and relationships that feel safe, mutual, and authentic.
How Parts Work Interacts With EMDR, Somatic Therapy, and Trauma Recovery
Parts work and EMDR are trauma informed approaches that can work together to support healing not just through insight, but through meaningful change in the nervous system. Many people come to therapy feeling stuck in anxiety, overwhelm, emotional numbness, panic, shame, or intense relationship triggers. They may understand their history but still feel reactive in their body. When parts work and EMDR are integrated, therapy helps both the internal system and the nervous system process what happened so the past stops intruding on the present.
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Parts work, informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), focuses on understanding the different parts of you that developed in response to trauma, chronic stress, or unsafe relationships. Protective parts may show up as people pleasing, hypervigilance, shutdown, perfectionism, or emotional numbing, while younger parts often carry fear, shame, or unmet needs. EMDR can be used alongside parts work to target specific memories or themes that still feel charged, while staying attuned to protective parts that may have concerns about moving too fast. This integration helps the nervous system feel safe enough to process and reduces the risk of overwhelm.
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Somatic therapy plays an important role in supporting both parts work and EMDR by tracking what is happening in the body in real time. We notice sensations like tightness, numbness, shaking, warmth, or collapse, and practice regulation skills that help the body return to safety. When somatic awareness is included, EMDR reprocessing can feel more contained and parts work can happen with greater stability and consent. Together, these approaches support deeper integration and more lasting change.
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This combined approach can be especially helpful for healing narcissistic abuse and relational trauma. Narcissistic abuse often involves gaslighting, emotional manipulation, control, and chronic criticism, which can fragment the internal system and keep the nervous system on high alert. Parts work helps make sense of protective strategies like fawning, people pleasing, or emotional withdrawal, while EMDR helps process the experiences that shaped them. Over time, clients often report stronger boundaries, increased self trust, and less reactivity in relationships.
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Parts work, EMDR, and somatic therapy are all paced, consent based, and practical. You remain in control of the process, and therapy moves at a steady, supportive speed. When these approaches interact thoughtfully, many clients feel calmer, more grounded, and more able to engage in relationships with flexibility and choice rather than fear or survival patterns.
Parts Work Therapy FAQ (In-person in San Francisco and Marin, and online throughout California)
1) What is parts work therapy?
Parts work therapy is a trauma informed approach that helps you understand and heal the different parts of you shaped by life experiences, stress, and trauma. It is commonly used for PTSD, complex PTSD (CPTSD), trauma related anxiety, and attachment wounds.
2) What does “parts work” mean?
Parts work refers to working with different aspects of your internal system, such as protective parts that manage anxiety or avoidance and younger parts that carry pain, fear, or unmet needs.
3) How does parts work therapy work?
Parts work helps you notice how different parts show up through thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and behaviors. Therapy focuses on building awareness, compassion, and safety so parts can soften and heal rather than stay stuck in survival roles.
4) Is parts work evidence informed?
Yes. Parts based approaches are widely used in trauma therapy and are supported by research on trauma, attachment, and nervous system regulation. Many therapists draw from Internal Family Systems (IFS) and related models.
5) Is parts work the same as Internal Family Systems (IFS)?
Parts work is a broader category. IFS is one specific model within parts based therapy. Many therapists practice parts work influenced by IFS without using the full IFS model.
6) What does parts work feel like in a session?
It varies. Some people notice emotional shifts, body sensations, or new awareness quickly. Others experience change more gradually. Parts work should feel paced, collaborative, and respectful of your boundaries.
7) Do I have to relive my trauma in parts work therapy?
No. Parts work does not require reliving traumatic events. Therapy focuses on your present day experience and working with parts in a way that feels tolerable and safe.
8) What can parts work therapy help with?
Parts work can help with PTSD, complex trauma, childhood trauma, attachment wounds, anxiety, panic, grief, medical trauma, relational trauma, and recovery from emotional or narcissistic abuse.
9) Can parts work help with anxiety and panic attacks?
Yes. Parts work helps identify the protective parts underneath anxiety and panic and supports the nervous system in feeling safer and less reactive.
10) Can parts work help with depression?
It can. When depression is connected to trauma, chronic stress, or internalized shame, parts work can help reduce emotional burden and increase self compassion.
11) Can parts work help with complex PTSD (CPTSD)?
Yes. Parts work is commonly used for CPTSD and often includes careful pacing, stabilization, and nervous system regulation.
12) Can parts work help with childhood trauma and attachment wounds?
Yes. Parts work is especially helpful for early trauma and attachment wounds because it focuses on how those experiences shaped internal patterns and relationships.
13) Can parts work help with narcissistic abuse or emotional abuse?
Yes. Parts work can help heal the impact of gaslighting, emotional manipulation, chronic criticism, and relational trauma by strengthening self trust and boundaries.
14) Is parts work the same as somatic therapy?
They are different but complementary. Parts work focuses on the internal system. Somatic therapy focuses on body sensations and nervous system regulation. Many therapists integrate both.
15) What’s the difference between parts work and talk therapy?
Talk therapy supports insight and understanding. Parts work focuses on experiential change, especially when your body or emotions react even after you understand why.
16) How many sessions of parts work therapy will I need?
It depends on your goals, trauma history, and current stress level. Complex trauma usually involves longer term work with an emphasis on pacing and safety.
17) How long is a parts work therapy session?
Most sessions are 50 minutes. Session length and structure depend on pacing, capacity, and your needs.
18) Is parts work therapy safe?
Parts work is generally safe when done by a trauma informed therapist who prioritizes stabilization, consent, and nervous system regulation.
19) Can parts work make symptoms feel worse at first?
Some people notice temporary emotional shifts as awareness increases. A good parts work process includes grounding, containment, and support between sessions.
20) What if I dissociate or shut down during parts work therapy?
That is common with trauma. Therapy can be adjusted with more stabilization, somatic support, and slower pacing.
21) Do I have to visualize parts for parts work to help?
No. Parts can be experienced as emotions, thoughts, body sensations, or patterns. There is no “right” way to experience parts.
22) Can I do parts work therapy online in California?
Yes. Parts work therapy can be effective via telehealth and is offered online throughout California.
23) Is online parts work as effective as in person therapy?
Many people do very well with online parts work. Effectiveness depends on safety, privacy, pacing, and therapeutic fit.
24) What should I do after a parts work therapy session?
Plan for gentleness. Rest, hydrate, eat, and avoid over scheduling when possible. Grounding practices can help integrate the work.
25) How do I know if I’m ready for parts work therapy?
You may be ready if you can notice emotions and return to the present with support. If not, readiness can be built over time.
26) Can teens do parts work therapy?
Yes. Parts work can be adapted for teen therapy and can help with anxiety, trauma, family stress, bullying, and emotional overwhelm.
27) Can parts work help with relationship triggers and attachment anxiety?
Yes. Parts work can reduce reactions like fear of abandonment, people pleasing, jealousy, shutdown, or conflict avoidance in relationships.
28) How do I find a parts work therapist in San Francisco?
Look for a trauma informed therapist who uses parts based approaches and has experience with the concerns you want help with, such as CPTSD, attachment trauma, anxiety, or narcissistic abuse recovery. Therapeutic fit and pacing matter as much as the approach.
