Couples therapy
Based on IFIO
IFIO stands for "Intimacy from the Inside Out" and is an IFS-based modality for couples therapy.
This approach invites you and your partner to explore the landscape of your inner selves together, fostering intimacy from the inside out. In a safe and nurturing environment, we explore ways to communicate and connect with more openness, curiosity and understanding.
How I Guide You
In couples therapy sessions grounded in the IFIO approach, I serve as a compassionate facilitator, guiding both of you through the process of understanding and empathizing with each other's internal parts. By creating a safe and non-judgmental space for both partners, I encourage open dialogue and deep listening, enabling you to explore the complexities of your own and your partner's inner worlds. Together, we'll navigate the intricate dance of your relationship, using the principles of IFS to foster a profound connection and understanding between you and your partner.
What You Can Expect
The IFIO approach invites you to notice how each partner's parts affect the relationship, especially in moments of conflict. Together, we explore ways to express vulnerable feelings and needs, listen to each other and understand recurring patterns. The aim is clearer communication and greater connection, at a pace that respects both partners.
Couples sessions are 120 minutes, online or in Stockholm, in English or Swedish. A free introductory online meeting is 20 minutes.
Contact me for prices and availability.
How You Will Relate to Your Partner
We explore your own and your partner's reactions and behaviours in a new light, recognizing the parts that emerge in moments of stress or conflict. By understanding these parts and how they interact with your own, the aim is to cultivate deeper empathy and patience for each other. With this approach we are encouraged to speak for our parts, instead of from parts - so that it becomes possible to listen to our partner from the heart and to understand the ways in which we are protecting the wounded parts of ourselves. The aim is to develop a shared language for your experiences and explore ways to navigate challenges with gentleness and understanding.
More about IFIO
IFIO stands for Intimacy from the Inside Out, and it is a couples therapy modality based on the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model developed by Dr. Richard Schwartz. IFIO focuses on applying the principles and practices of IFS to couples therapy to enhance intimacy, communication, and understanding within the relationship. It emphasizes the idea that each partner has their own internal system of parts, and relationship issues often arise from these parts interacting in protective or extreme ways.
In IFIO therapy, couples are guided to identify and understand their own parts, as well as their partner's, and learn how to access the Self—a place of compassion, curiosity, and calmness—to interact with their partner's parts in a more understanding and empathetic way. The aim is to support communication and a more compassionate understanding of each other.
IFIO offers a framework for exploring vulnerability, protective responses and relationship needs in a supportive setting. The work aims to help partners understand recurring patterns and practise new ways of communicating. Every relationship is different, and outcomes cannot be guaranteed.
Learn more about Intimacy from the Inside Out.