No Bad Parts

I love this book because it actually changed my life. The book unpacks a worldview (made obvious by the title—that we are each made up of many parts and that none of them are bad), a psychological theory, and a set of personal practices.

It is the book my friends are most likely to tell me changed their lives as they tried out one of the practices and learned new things about themselves that freed them from self-judgment, self-doubt, or just a habit about themselves that was mysterious and unhelpful. There are very few books that have offered a methodology… show more.

Of the many, many self-help books I’ve read, this clearly written explanation of a therapeutic system invented by Dick Schwartz resonated in a deep way. It prompted me to find a therapist who trained with Schwartz and every session I have with her is transformative.

Apparently, during his sessions with trauma survivors, Dick Schwartz side-stepped a lot of the traditional psychotherapy training he’d received because many of the “tried and true methods” weren’t serving his patients. Instead, he devised a simple method which he refers to as Internal Family Systems (IFS).

It embraces even the conflicted, destructive parts of our… show more.